Why You Understand English but Struggle to Speak: 3 Common Questions Answered
Have you ever wondered why you can understand English quite well but struggle to speak it? Or why, despite knowing hundreds or even thousands of English words, you can’t seem to find the right ones when you need them? Perhaps you’ve also noticed that you keep forgetting words you’ve already learned, sometimes even after looking them up several times.
These are some of the most common frustrations English learners experience, and they’re more closely connected than you might think. We often assume that if we’ve studied a language for years, learned its grammar and memorised plenty of vocabulary, we should naturally be able to speak it. But language learning doesn’t quite work that way.
As a non-native English speaker who has worked her way up to a C2 level, I know these difficulties firsthand. I’ve experienced them while learning other languages, and as an English teacher, I’ve seen many students struggle with exactly the same problems. In this article, I’d like to explore three questions English learners frequently ask, explain why these difficulties occur and share some practical advice based on my own experience.
Why Can I Understand English but Can’t Speak It?
The answer is that understanding and speaking a language are two different skills, and becoming good at one doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be equally good at the other.
I know this from my own experience with Ukrainian. I studied the language in depth, wrote my thesis in Ukrainian and prepared all my work documents in it. I could read practically anything and understand it without difficulty. However, none of that meant I could speak Ukrainian just as well. In fact, speaking was always much harder for me because I had very little opportunity to practise it. Although I had developed a high level of comprehension and could express complex ideas in writing, I hadn’t trained my speaking skills to the same extent. This experience made me realise just how different understanding a language and actually producing it can be.
When you read or listen to English, you don’t necessarily need to know every single word to understand the message. Sometimes you recognise a word because it looks or sounds similar to a word in your native language. Other times, you work out its meaning from the surrounding context, even if you’ve never encountered it before. In other words, comprehension allows you to rely on clues that help you understand what’s being communicated. Speaking, however, requires a different set of abilities. You have to retrieve the words you want to use, know how to combine them with other words and put everything together into a meaningful sentence, often within a matter of seconds. And while you might have plenty of time to think when you’re writing, conversations usually don’t give you that luxury.
This is why I believe that simply reading books, watching films or listening to podcasts, although extremely useful, isn’t enough to develop confident speaking skills. You also need to practise producing the language yourself. One thing I always recommend is developing what I like to call “mouth memory.” By this, I mean getting your mouth used to producing English words, expressions and sentence patterns through repetition. Instead of reading new vocabulary silently, try saying it out loud. Repeat useful phrases, imitate the way they’re pronounced and practise saying whole sentences until they begin to feel more natural. This kind of practice helps you become more comfortable with the physical act of speaking, although spontaneous conversation also requires you to retrieve and organise language independently.
Another important element is what I call active exposure to English. When you read an article or watch a video, don’t focus exclusively on understanding the message. Pay deliberate attention to how the language is put together. Notice which words are commonly used together, what grammatical patterns they follow and how particular expressions are used in different contexts. For example, instead of simply learning the word decision, pay attention to expressions such as make a decision, come to a decision, make an informed decision or a difficult decision to make. Then try using these expressions in your own sentences and conversations. This way, you’re not just learning what individual words mean; you’re gradually developing the ability to use them naturally.
So, if you understand English but struggle to speak it, don’t automatically assume that you need to learn more grammar or memorise more vocabulary. Very often, what you really need is more practice producing the English you already know.
Why Do I Know a Lot of Words but Don’t Use Them When I Speak?
Think about all the vocabulary you’ve studied over the years. Perhaps you spent hours memorising lists of words for school tests, learning their translations and trying to remember as many as possible before an exam. You might have passed those tests successfully, but what happened to all those words afterwards? If you rarely used them in conversations or writing, many of them probably remained part of your passive vocabulary. You may still recognise them when you read a text or hear someone else use them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can retrieve them quickly when you need to speak.
One of the reasons this happens is that speaking can be stressful, especially if you don’t have many opportunities to practise. Imagine that you’ve been studying English for years, but you rarely have conversations in it. Then, suddenly, you find yourself in a situation where you have to speak English. You might feel nervous because you’re afraid of making mistakes, sounding unnatural or being judged by other people. Perhaps you’re worried that your English isn’t good enough, even though you actually know quite a lot. This emotional pressure can make retrieving words even more difficult. You start searching for the right expression, become frustrated when it doesn’t come to mind and, as a result, find it even harder to express yourself.
But stress isn’t the only reason. Another important factor is simply a lack of retrieval practice. When you rarely use a particular word, accessing it quickly can become difficult, even if you recognise it perfectly well. Think about trying to remember the name of a celebrity. You’ve heard the name dozens of times, you know exactly who the person is and you can even picture their face, but the name is on the tip of your tongue and just won’t come to you. Something similar happens with vocabulary. You know the word, but you can’t retrieve it at the moment you need it.
I’ve seen this happen countless times with my students. They try desperately to remember a word, pause, search their memory and eventually become frustrated because they can’t find it. They often say, “But I know this word!” And they’re right. They do know it, at least well enough to recognise or understand it. What they haven’t developed yet is the ability to retrieve it quickly and effortlessly during spontaneous speech. And that’s a skill that needs practice, just like any other aspect of language learning.
The good news is that the more often you retrieve and use a word, the easier it generally becomes to access it again. Instead of constantly trying to expand your vocabulary, spend more time activating the words you already know. Bring them into regular conversations, use them to describe your experiences, express your opinions or talk about things that genuinely interest you. If you don’t have someone to practise with, you can still create opportunities to speak. Describe what you’ve done during the day, explain your thoughts on something you’ve read or watched, or simply talk to yourself about your plans for the weekend. The important thing is to make an effort to retrieve words from memory rather than always relying on recognition.
Over time, you’ll probably notice that words you once struggled to remember begin to pop into your head much more quickly and naturally. This doesn’t mean you’ll never forget a word again, but regular use can make a significant difference to how easily you access your vocabulary when speaking.
Why Do I Keep Forgetting English Words?
First of all, everyone forgets words, including me. There are words I’ve probably looked up ten times, only to forget them again after a while. And yes, it can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you feel you’ve already spent so much time learning them. You might even start questioning your memory or wondering whether you’re simply not good at languages. But forgetting is a natural part of learning, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re doing something wrong.
One of the problems is that we often confuse understanding a word with actually learning it. Imagine you’re reading an article and come across an unfamiliar expression. You check its translation or read its definition in English, and everything suddenly makes sense. You think, “Great, now I know this word!” But do you really? You may have understood its meaning in that particular context, but you haven’t necessarily processed how the word is used. You might not know which words it typically goes with, what grammatical patterns it follows or in which situations it sounds natural. In other words, you’ve understood the word, but you haven’t yet developed a sufficiently strong grasp of it to use it confidently yourself.
To remember vocabulary over time, we need repeated encounters and opportunities to retrieve what we’ve learned. Research into second-language vocabulary acquisition has shown that encountering words repeatedly in different contexts can contribute significantly to learning. However, there isn’t a magic number of encounters that guarantees you’ll remember a word. Some studies have observed substantial vocabulary gains after around eight to ten encounters, but the number varies depending on the learner, the word, the type of exposure and what we mean by knowing a word. Recognising its meaning is one thing; being able to use it spontaneously and appropriately is another.
In my own experience, learning a new word is usually a gradual process that involves several encounters before the word finally becomes part of my active vocabulary. It often begins when I come across an unfamiliar word while reading or listening to something. I look it up, read the definition and understand what it means. Everything seems perfectly clear, but after some time, I forget it. Later, I come across the same word in another article, book or video, and I have to look it up again. By the third encounter, the word usually starts looking familiar. I might think, “I’ve definitely seen this before,” but I still can’t remember its exact meaning, so I check the definition once more.
Perhaps by the fourth encounter, I can vaguely remember what the word means, although I’m still not entirely sure. After a few more encounters, I reach the point where I recognise it immediately and understand it without having to look it up. However, there’s still a considerable difference between recognising a word and being able to use it myself. Even when I understand a word perfectly well, I might not feel confident enough to include it in my own speech because I’m unsure about its usage or the words it naturally combines with.
Then, at some point, something changes. I come across a situation where I feel I could use that particular word, so I decide to give it a try. I might use it in a conversation or a sentence, but I’m still a little uncertain. Sometimes I even check immediately afterwards to make sure I’ve used it correctly. The next time I use it, I feel slightly more confident, although I might still have some doubts. Eventually, after using it several times in different contexts, the word begins to feel natural. I no longer have to stop and think about whether I’m using it correctly. It has become part of my active vocabulary. It has finally become my word.
Of course, this isn’t a fixed sequence that every word follows. Some words are easier to remember because they’re similar to words in languages we already know, while others take much longer to learn. The process also depends on how frequently we encounter a word, how meaningful it is to us and how actively we engage with it. Nevertheless, my experience illustrates an important point: learning a word isn’t a single event. It’s a process that develops over time.
This is why I don’t think we should expect ourselves to remember every new word after looking it up once or twice. Instead, we need to give ourselves opportunities to encounter it again, notice how it’s used and practise retrieving it. When you come across a useful expression, don’t just check its meaning and move on. Pay attention to the whole sentence, notice the words surrounding it and think about situations in which you could use it yourself. Then try making your own sentences with it or bringing it into a conversation. Revisiting vocabulary after increasing intervals can also help strengthen long-term retention.
And if you forget a word you’ve already studied three, five or even ten times, don’t immediately assume that your memory is letting you down. It may simply mean that you need more encounters with that word or more opportunities to retrieve and use it. Every meaningful encounter gives you another chance to strengthen your knowledge of it.
Final Thoughts: Knowing English Isn’t the Same as Using It
Although these three questions might seem different at first, they’re all connected by one important idea: knowing a language and being able to use it are not exactly the same thing. You can understand English very well without being able to speak it fluently. You can recognise hundreds of words without being able to retrieve them quickly during a conversation. And you can understand the meaning of a new word perfectly well without remembering it a few days later.
Developing the ability to use English naturally takes time, repeated exposure and, most importantly, active practice. Reading, listening and studying vocabulary are all valuable activities, but they become even more useful when you deliberately pay attention to how language works and make an effort to use what you’ve learned. Instead of constantly focusing on how many new words you can memorise, try paying more attention to how many words and expressions you can actually retrieve and use in meaningful communication.
So the next time you struggle to find the right word, forget an expression you’ve already learned or realise that your speaking skills haven’t caught up with your comprehension, remember that these difficulties are a normal part of language learning. They don’t necessarily mean that you lack knowledge or ability. More often, they show that some aspects of your language skills need more practice than others.
And perhaps the most important thing to remember is this: the goal of learning English isn’t simply to know more and more words. It’s to make the language you already know increasingly accessible, natural and useful in your everyday communication.
What About You?
Which of these three problems do you struggle with most? Do you understand English better than you speak it? Do you find it difficult to retrieve words during conversations? Or do you keep forgetting vocabulary you’ve already learned?
And what’s your biggest WHY question about learning English?
Share your experience in the comments. Your question might become the topic of my next video!
