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What makes comprehensible input comprehensible?

(cij-analysis.streamlit.app)
35 points surprisetalk | 1 comments | 22 Jun 25 18:51 UTC | HN request time: 0.556s | source
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ragazzina ◴[26 Jun 25 16:59 UTC] No.44389166[source]▶
> Word length - At least in English and French (the languages I know best), longer words are generally considered harder.

I think in a language with a lot of similar sounds or even homophones, longer words are easier. For a beginner Chinese speaker that knows both words, hearing "chē" will probably be ambiguous, but "chūzūchē" will be parsed immediately.

replies(2): >>44389328 #>>44401246 #
1. joshdavham ◴[26 Jun 25 17:18 UTC] No.44389328[source]▶
That’s a good point.

I don’t think the ‘longer equals harder’ pattern holds for every language. I actually reached out to the head teacher at CIJ when I first made this analysis and she said the same.