However, we are not going to cover all of them, as some are not spoken by many people. Learning Spanish is popular in a lot of schools and In addition, their writing sys… French is not hard to learn, especially when compared to English! American high school students often chose Spanish to fulfill a foreign language requirement, sometimes under the premise that Spanish is the more useful language, and other times because it seems the easiest to learn. Download a free copy of our newsletter and see the details inside! There is just one caveat — The grammar and vocabulary are quite immense. It also shares some verbs and the way it constructs nouns are similar as well. Because of this, it is essential to have all verb conjugations memorized in order to recognize and to express which subject is performing the action. If you’re frustrated with choking on the qāf in Arabic or disgracing the Chinese script with your poor penmanship, maybe it’s time to try one of these lesser-studied but relatively easy foreign languages for English speakers. Word order is not strict. English is a Germanic language with huge numbers of Romance loanwords, most of them from French. Why is Italian easy to learn? American high school students often chose Spanish to fulfill a foreign language requirement, sometimes under the premise that Spanish is the more useful language, and other times because it seems the easiest to learn. If you already speak Spanish or French, picking up Italian is quick and easy — and gives you a valuable skill in the global business arena. However, I am still improving significantly faster than in my non-romance languages. There are sounds in both languages that can be very difficult for English speakers: French has the infamous "R" pronunciation, nasal vowels, and the subtle (to untrained ears) differences between tu/tous and parlai/parlais. While talking about learning new languages, one might think “is English the easiest language to learn?” But we will not talk about English on this list, as it is obvious you already know English well enough since you are reading this article. There are about 70 million native speakers of French in the world and around 50 million non-native speakers. That creates a lot of verb conjugations in the Spanish language.Then, there is the subjunctive conjugation. Another selling point for Norwegian: the grammar is pretty straightforward, with only one form of each verb per tense. Well, it is safe to assume that you already know English well enough and you are now looking to expand your horizons a little bit by learning even more languages. This may confuse people who learned Spanish first because it doesn’t have much of these. On top of that, French has a lot of … Spanish isn’t just hard to learn. Buena suerte, boa sorte, bon chance! Once you take into consideration several other factors such as syntax and grammar, the idea that one language is inherently more complicated than the other loses all validity. Choosing between French and Spanish? The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) has created a list to show the approximate time you need to learn a specific language as an English speaker. So in theory, it would take the most effort for a native Spanish speaker to learn Romanian among all the other languages that share similarities with Spanish. Such learners have already gotten over the shock of verb conjugations, noun gender, adjectives after nouns, and other … In a sentence, the Spanish subject pronoun is usually omitted. Only 11 are used in daily French. Fortunately, not every language learning attempt spells disaster for English speakers. In Spanish, the rolled "R", the "J" (similar to the French R), and the "B/V" are the trickiest sounds.Nouns in both languages have a gender and require gender and number agreement for adjectives, articles, and certain types of pronouns.The use of prepositions in both languages can be also difficult, as there is often little correlation between them and their English counterparts.Confusing pairs abound in both: Both French and Spanish have reflexive verbs, numerous false cognates with English that can trip up non-native speakers of either language and potentially confusing word order due to the positions of adjectives and object pronouns. This map will show you a visual representation of linguistic distance of all major language branches. French has a total of 15 verb tenses/moods, four of which are literary and rarely used. French is in the first tier of languages as well.) In fact, listening to Italian is easier, we may write down almost everything they are saying, but understanding what it means is much more complicated. Spanish is arguably somewhat easier for the first year or so of learning, in large part because beginners may struggle less with pronunciation than their French-studying colleagues. Over 480 million of these are native Spanish speakers and Spanish is the official language or official co-language of over 20 countries, including Argentina, El Salvador, Venezuela and, of course: Spain. Spanish is not only one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn, but also one of the most spoken languages. Although consonants may have two or more, there are very specific rules regarding their usage, depending on where the letter is in the word and what letters are around it. While the subjunctive mood is difficult in both languages, it is more difficult and much more common in Spanish. Looking at French and Spanish, we see that they are part of the RomanceLanguage, which has a direct link from Latin and shares a common vocabulary. In the end, though, it should still prove to be an easy learning experience because of the origins of both the French language and the Spanish la… The order of words in Russian sentences is much freer than in English. It is also considered the easiest language for someone who only knows English to learn. We also put Google’s trusty search engine through its paces for additional information as well. If you are wondering what lexical distance is, don’t worry, we’ll get to that too. In French, the subject pronoun is always stated, which means that verb conjugations, while still important, are not as vital to comprehension. Note: This is a guest post by Andrea Reisenauer. Opinions about the levels of difficulty of French vs. Spanish are usually a matter of personal learning and speaking preferences; for students that have studied both languages, some might find Spanish easier than French, and others might find French easier than Spanish. Romanian is the most distant language from Spanish in the Romance branch of languages. How Did I Do this? In French, accentuation goes by the sentence rather than the word. Spanish is spoken by over 570 million people across the world. All text and design is copyright ©2020 Koala Guide LLC. We were told Spanish would offer countless opportunities, while French would offer none. … Enjoy a free trial of the Spanish, Portuguese, French, or one of a dozen other languages and learn how fun and easy it can be to learn a language. The Three Easiest Languages to Learn for English Speakers: 1. What is a bit of a trouble is the occassional frustration that my speaking is so much more limited, compared to my Spanish or French, or to my passive comprehension of Italian. Languages like French, Italian and Spanish use articles that have to agree in gender and number with the nouns they introduce. However, there are languages out there which share similarities with Spanish, when it comes to vocabulary and grammar. However, difficulty does not only depend on Linguistic distance alone, as there are a lot of other variables at play here, like the person’s level of skill and prior exposure to other languages. Besides, there are many varieties of Spanish dialects due to the widespread Hispanic population in 20 Spanish-speaking countries. How to Conjugate "Retourner" (To Return) in French, How to Conjugate "Lancer" (to Throw) in French, The Ten Most Common Intermediate French Mistakes, Simple Conjugations for "Quitter" (to Leave), How to Conjugate "Cueillir" (to Gather, Pick Up), How to Conjugate "Monter" (to Climb) in French, How to Conjugate 'Compléter,' to Complete, The Simple Conjugates of "Paraître" (to Seem), How to Conjugate "Demander" (to Ask) in French, Learn Simple Conjugations for "Réunir" (to Reunite), How to Conjugate "Gagner" (to Win, to Earn) in French, How to Conjugate "Inviter" (to Invite) in French, A Step-By-Steo Conjugation of "Maintenir" (To Maintain), Si j'avais eu plus de temps j'y serais allé, There are two different sets of conjugations for the Spanish. Italian isn’t as widely spoken as its closest relatives on this list--Spanish and French--but its vocabulary is still largely recognizable to many English speakers because of its Latin origins. spanish speakers aren't beginners in french Your role as a teacher is to show them that because Spanish and French are related languages, they automatically already know something from French. There are some trick letters, like the silent "H" and the identically-pronounced "B" and "V", but all in all Spanish pronunciation and spelling are pretty straightforward. Each Spanish vowel has a single pronunciation. In other words, teach them to make the most of the linguistic capital they already possess. 11 Easiest Second Languages to Learn For English Speakers7 Easiest Languages to Learn for Spanish SpeakersBest languages for Spanish speakerdifference between spanish and italian languageeasiest language to learn for english speakerseasiest language to learn for hindi speakerseasiest language to learn for non-english speakerseasiest language to learn in the worldEasiest languages of the romance branchEasiest languages to learnfrench vs spanish difficultyhardest language in the worldhow easy is portuguese to learn for a spanish speakerhow hard is it to learn romanianIs Catalan easy to learn for a spanish speakeris english easy to learnis english the easiest language to learnis french easy to learn for spanish speakersIs French easy?is italian easy to learnis italian easy to learn for a spanish speakeris Provençal easy to learn for a spanish speakeris romanian easy to learn for spanish speakersIs Romanian easy?italian and spanish similar wordsLanguages of the romance branchlearn french or spanish firstlearning catalan after spanishlearning Galician after spanishlearning spanish and portuguese at the same timeList XFinanceportuguese for spanish speakers bookportuguese vs spanishSlideshowSpanish native speakersSpanish speakingtime to learn portuguese after spanishWhat is the language of Romania? By definition, linguistic or lexical distance refers to how different or similar one language is from another. This will make it somewhat easy to understand French even if you’re new to it. Speaking, Grammar, Writing: Easy And the word order closely mimics English. There are plenty of Spanish speakers … Italian speakers around the world: 67 million native speakers. To be honest, there isn’t the easiest language to learn in the world. But, for the purposes of this article we will stick to linguistic distance alone. This can be comfortable when learning Afrikaans. Still, it is more likely that both of these languages have challenges of their own than that one is objectively actually easier than the other. In comparison, French has many silent letters and multiple rules with plenty of exceptions, as well as liaisons and enchaînement, which add additional difficulties to pronunciation and aural comprehension.There are precise rules for the accentuation of Spanish words and accents to let you know when those rules are overridden. The pretérito is a single word, while the passé composé has two parts (the auxiliary verb and the past participle). In comparison to French, Spanish pronunciation and spelling seem less daunting to the average learner, but there is more to a language than just its phonetics. It is as a result of being linguistically similar to your native language. Besides that, however, Hindi has some challenging differences in terms of grammar, pronunciation and writing. Plus, all that grammar that gives first-time French students nightmares? So basically we ranked the easiest languages to learn for Spanish speakers based on its linguistic distance from Spanish. And once you learn French, you’ll … Well, to be honest, the only viable way we can rank how easy it is for a native speaker of Spanish to learn other languages is through lexical distance or linguistic distance. I’m Not A Language Genius, Nor A Natural with Languages. There is a common myth among English speakers in the United States that Spanish is much easier to learn than French. Speech pattern… Many of these vowels are new for an English speaker and mastering the pronunciation may take some time. So no need to struggle to memorize them or to learn how to use them. Well, to be honest, the only viable way we can rank how easy it is for a native speaker of Spanish to learn other languages is through lexical distance or linguistic distance. As the name suggests, it is primarily spoken in South Africa and Namibia. In today’s article, we’ll talk about some of the reasons why this might be true. Once you learn what the accents mean, it is fairly easy to pronounce or read Spanish words. We often hear that Spanish is the easiest language for English speakers to learn. Without further ado, let’s get the list of easiest languages to learn for Spanish speakers started. 10 Insanely Easy Languages to Learn For English Speakers . It would be much easier for you to learn Spanish because there are similarities in structure of Spanish to French and many words look familiar. The true French equivalent of the pretérito, the passé simple, is a literary tense that French students are usually expected to recognize but not to use. We were also told Spanish was far easier.While Spanish is a wonderful language and learning it comes with many benefits, none of the above is inherently true. While it is difficult to say for sure that one language is easier to learn than another, it does seem to be the case that English speakers pick up Spanish fairly quickly. Later on, Spanish grammar becomes more complicated, and some aspects are certainly more difficult than French. Spanish is the third-most spoken language on Earth, and it is likely to be the foreign language that, as an English speaker, you’re most familiar with. And then, there is, … … 6 reasons to learn French instead of Spanish In the United States, we hear a lot that Spanish is everywhere, and that you should learn Spanish. One of the primary forces that spur people to select and learn a language is because it is easier to understand and speak. Spanish compound verbs are much simpler. Because it began in Germany, the vocabulary and grammar are quite similar to English. This may come as a surprise, but we have ranked Norwegian as the easiest language for English speakers to pick up. The closer one language is to Spanish, the easier it will be for a native Spanish speaker to learn that language. Spanish is one of the most popular languages in the world, and it’s the official language of 20 countries. 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