Why do so many Americans have problems with adverbs?
968559
It's just a difference of dialect really, no big deal, and not a "problem". What difference does it make?
1111130
A lot of people think that English is the only acceptable language of the US.  So when people translate it, they get angry.  Some people are just really ignorant.
20448
English doesn't make sense, that's why.
159586
For some it is because English is a second language. For others it is because our school systems have failed to teach people how to read  and spell properly.
772578
Oh gods, yes. And yes, part of that is just a general reluctance to embrace change, which is a natural part of all of us; but a larger part is bitter experience. Ever since the advent of spelling checkers, we've had to endure people who can't tell "too" from "to", let alone "accent" from "assent" and the like. I dread the day (and I know it's coming) when I'll get a business memo that uses "ur" and "pls" and "b4".\n\nFor those that argue that these sorts of things increase the flexibility of the English language, I think that's an incorrect conclusion. Borrowing words, or inventing new ones by mashing together parts of existing words, has a long tradition in English, and is the main reason our language has such a large and nuanced vocabulary. Textspeak and other entropic practices do the opposite: people end up using fewer words, and worse, using the few words they know incorrectly. \n\nThere's flexibility, and then there's sloppiness. Let's try not to confuse the two.
248682
Because the gods of grammar conjugation say so.\n\nIt is an irregular verb.  You just have to memorize it.
1177511
Nobody is able to understand American English all of the time. Least of all other Americans!
113265
Depending on how you mean this question there are two problems.  The first is in learning English: English has stolen from many other languages over the years including a lot from romantic languages (which are very different from our germanic language).  The language has further been abused by a large variety of slang that has become incorporated (due to the large number and the geograpic spread of speakers).  This makes our language riddled with exceptions and filled with more words than any other language, many of which break even our most fundamental rules (i before e except after c, rules for past tense...) not to mention the large degree of slang phrases (why do you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?)  This makes teaching a standardized form of English difficult.\n\nTesting for standardized English is also difficult.  Looking at the reasons cited above it is obvious that a "standardized" form of our language doesn't exist.  Which would you choose, the language spoken in England, Australia, Jamaica, West coast America, East coast, Louisianna?  The reason that standardized spanish exists and is easy to teach is that the language is officially controlled by Spain.  English has no such driving factor, what's more it isn't even the "official" language of the United States.  This is why millions are spent each year providing official documents in multiple languages and providing translators for any language in courts.\n\nI know this ended up being more of a rant but I hope it has helped a bit.  Teaching or Learning, English can be difficult.
1131085
Sometimes people feel awkward with the proper terms because they are unfamiliar., or they don't know how to pronounce them. Also, society as a whole has a fairly small vocabulary, and wouldn't even KNOW the word if someone used it!
240872
Well it is true that the amount of errors and shorthand in the American's language is increasing with every generation.  However, it is the American language, it's just a form of English now.  It happens over time languages change and branch apart, I wouldn't be surprised that over the next few hundred years the language spoken in England and America would be so different you would have to take classes in one to understand other.
687065
I take it that you have a problem with the English?
762311
Yes, it's the upward inflection at the end of sentences especially amongst younger people. Drives you mad !
300678
I am a native english speaker and have no problem, but i have learned french 10 years ago and speak french every day, and i still have problems with this kind of thing in french. I constantly translate the english preposition etc into french where it doesn't work the same.  maybe you get stuck with your native language's way of doing things.
556763
its the english language. they try to make it as complicated as possible, so just get used to it.
27513
If you have access to American television shows, watch a lot of them. We don't speak the king's (British) English, which is what is taught in most foreign countries. \nWe use a lot of slang and contractions, among other things. And we also spell and pronounce a lot of words differently.\nReading books by American authors would help somewhat, but you still would not know how we pronounce things, or how we like to run words together.
387010
English is a tough language.
453910
Actually they don't all say that.  And anyway it's not true.  Language is in a constant state of flux anyway.  Let's take 'Fall' (US) v 'Autumn' (UK).  'Fall' was in widespread use in the West of England (where most of the early US settlers came from).  It changed in UK but remained the same in US.  So, the change happened in UK, NOT the US.  This is true for a number of other word/phrase pairs.\n\nIf you assume - as all linguists know - that languages change over time, then it is obvious that in the 400 years or so that English speaking people have lived in America, that their language would diverge from that of the UK.  The same happened in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and, under slightly different pressures, in India, Singapore etc.\n\nEnglish in, say, Georgia and English as spoken in New York have diverged in the same period.  As a Brit, I had real difficulty understanding some of the rural residents of Georgia I met on a recent visit.\n\nThe reason many Brits use the word 'bastardised' to describe American English (yes, with an 's'!) is not so much to do with the language butmore to do with their feeling that America is insular, arrogant and full of itself.  (A view which is only partially justified, I feel).  The assumption by some Americans (as perceived by many Brits) - and largely the assumption of the US Government - that the whole world should aspire to become more like the US, that the US system of doing everything is best, that the US can and should bully other nations leads to a groundswell of feeling of alienation from America.  As we all know, it is traditional in the UK to mock people because of the way they speak!\n\nWinston Churchill (I think) said of Britain and America that we are 'two great nations divided by a common language'.  In general (unfortunately) I think he was about right.