Chinese does not have an alphabet but uses a logographic system for its written language. In logographic systems symbols represent the words themselves - words are not made up of various letters as in alphabetic systems. Because of this fundamental difference, Chinese learners may have great difficulty reading English texts and spelling words correctly.
Chinese learners find it difficult to hear the difference between l and r, and so may mispronounce rake and rice as lake and lice. Southern Chinese speakers have a similiar difficulty in distinguishing l and n.
English has a number of short verbs that very commonly combine with particles (adverbs or prepositions) to form what are known as phrasal verbs; for example: take on, give in, make do with, look up to. This kind of lexical feature does not exist in Chinese. Chinese learners, therefore, may experience serious difficulty in comprehending texts containing such verbs and avoid attempting to use them themselves
