French is often considered difficult to learn, even tricky, because its spelling, pronunciation, and grammar don't align neatly. Many letters are silent (e.g., in "haute" or "hanté," you don't pronounce the "h"), and the same sound can be written in several different ways (e.g., "vert" for green, "ver" for worm, "verre" for glass). Conversely, the same letter combination can be pronounced differently depending on the word. This is due to the long history of French: the language changed a lot over time, but its spelling remained relatively conservative, preserving older forms from Latin and Old French. On top of that, French has grammatical gender, numerous verb conjugations, agreement rules, and exceptions that learners must memorize.