What is the Easiest Language to Learn?

[vbestic]

1) Spanish: It is one of the romance languages, covering 22 countries with a minimum of four hundred million speakers worldwide. By many standards, it is very easy to learn as the vocabulary is simple and straightforward. It is also easy to write, as it is entirely based on phonetics, meaning that words are written exactly as they are pronounced. It is as popular as the English language.

2) English: It is admittedly a very easy language, spoken by millions of people worldwide. The fact that it is readily available everywhere you go has helped in making it one of the most sought after languages. There are at least 600 million people who speak English as a first language and many more who speak it as a second language. It has generally straightforward and forgiving syntax, although phonemes may be difficult to master, creating some spelling speaking and spelling difficulty.

3) French: You really don’t have to live in France to speak French, as there are many countries that use French as a first language. If you are one who travels a lot, this is a language worth learning. At least seventy five million people speak French natively, and an additional fifty million who use it in communicating.


I want to hear your toughs. What are 3 easiest language to learn in your opinion?

[zuma022]

I don't think it can be generalized as such. It depends a lot on your native tongue for one and on your previous experience. If your first language is Mandarin, I doubt Spanish is super easy. If you're fluent in one Romance language it's probably easier to pick up another. I also think the first foreign language is the hardest, it gets easier with practice. But in my opinion no language is easy and they all take a lot of practice and dedication.

[Premium]

I think the list focuses on the native English speakers. Otherwise it'd be wrong for others.

[Ree-Ford]

To be honest if I was to try and learn French I'd probably find it as easy/difficult as Spanish. It depends on the person trying to learn it I think. Someone more organised and less of a daydreamer than me (haha) will probably find it easier, but someone with less determination than me will probably find it harder.

[elmonorojo]

Having studied English grammar for 24+ years, I would have to say that I have found learning the grammar rules in other languages to be much more straight forward. I have heard that English is one of the harder languages to learn because everything is so irregular in terms of grammar and pronunciation.

For anglophones, I would say that German is probably the easiest language to learn, because it is so incredibly similar to English. I studied it for awhile and I still remember just about everything I learned. German and English are from the same family of languages, if I am not mistaken.

Ich lerne ein bissen di deutsche, und ich kann sprach, aber nicht so gut.
I learn a little of German and I can Speak, but not so good.

Right now I am also studying Russian. I am just in the infancy stages in learning the language. While it is a tough language, I am finding the grammar to be (thankfully) not too difficult to grasp conceptually. The hard part for me currently is getting the case of the noun correct...

I have never even tried to learn Arabic or Mandarin, but I would imagine those would be incredibly difficult for an Anglophone or hispanoparlante.

[IgnisDiv]

There is a massive wealth of media easily available in english. I remember my first videogame was in english, the first movie I saw was in english, and when I was young, the only TV shows we had were in english with subtitles. You can't dismiss something as important as this when considering the difficulty of languages.
Beyond that, of course, it's all about language families. As a native Romance language speaker, I can understand a little of any other Romance language if it is spoken slowly and clearly enunciated, and if it is written, I'd say confidently that I'd easily be able to understand a third of the words, specially if given context. I was very happy to find out that even Romanian is somewhat understandable.
I have heard that this also applies to the proto-germanic language family, with native speakers of languages such as German and Dutch being able to understand a few words between them. It'd be nice to hear if anyone has had such experiences with their native language.

[Premium]

Originally Posted by IgnisDiv

I have heard that this also applies to the proto-germanic language family, with native speakers of languages such as German and Dutch being able to understand a few words between them. It'd be nice to hear if anyone has had such experiences with their native language.

Most of the old instruction manuals of electronic products weren't translated in German, only in Dutch English, French etc. My English wasn't as good by then so I had to read it in Dutch, which was oddly very easy to understand.
My aunt in-law is Slovakian but I can't understand a word she's saying in her native tongue, although she has a good friend who is also Slovakian but I can pretty much figure it out by the context what she says. And vice versa they understand Serbian almost perfectly, just like Czech and Polish.

[Felino]

Originally Posted by Premium

Most of the old instruction manuals of electronic products weren't translated into German, only into Dutch English, French etc. My English wasn't as good by then so I had to read it in Dutch, which was oddly very easy to understand.
My aunt in-law is Slovakian but I can't understand a word she's saying in her native tongue, although she has a good friend who is also Slovakian but I can pretty much figure it out by the context what she says. And vice versa they understand Serbian almost perfectly, just like Czech and Polish.

I heard that German-speaking can learn Dutch within a few weeks because grammar and vocabulary are so similar.

Originally Posted by elmonorojo

Ich lerne ein bissen di deutsche, und ich kann sprach, aber nicht so gut.

You're great!

[vbestic]

Originally Posted by Felino

I heard that German-speaking can learn Dutch within a few weeks because grammar and vocabulary are so similar.

[difinturGM]

With all the slang terms and differences in the English language I would argue that it would be one of the most difficult for a foreigner. I mean the grammar itself will give you a headache.

[poli]

Grammar in any language will give you a headache, but it will help you communicate better in your own language. If you learn it well and apply what you learn to how you speak and write, you will sound smart. In fact, using grammar well may be a sign of intelligence. Grammar knowlege is even more important to know when you learn a second language.

Simple English is easy to learn. Most verbs are regular, and the pronoun lets you know the person. If you dig deeper, it becomes increasingly difficult.

[Premium]

Originally Posted by difinturGM

With all the slang terms and differences in the English language I would argue that it would be one of the most difficult for a foreigner. I mean the grammar itself will give you a headache.

English is my first foreign language that I've learned. I didn't find it difficult, of course every beginning is hard but it's much easier than Spanish for me.

Originally Posted by poli

Simple English is easy to learn. Most verbs are regular, and the pronoun lets you know the person. If you dig deeper, it becomes increasingly difficult.

The amount of vocabulary drives me nuts.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by vbestic

1) Spanish: It is one of the romance languages, covering 22 countries with a minimum of four hundred million speakers worldwide. By many standards, it is very easy to learn as the vocabulary is simple and straightforward. It is also easy to write, as it is entirely based on phonetics, meaning that words are written exactly as they are pronounced. It is as popular as the English language.

2) English: It is admittedly a very easy language, spoken by millions of people worldwide. The fact that it is readily available everywhere you go has helped in making it one of the most sought after languages. There are at least 600 million people who speak English as a first language and many more who speak it as a second language. It has generally straightforward and forgiving syntax, although phonemes may be difficult to master, creating some spelling speaking and spelling difficulty.

3) French: You really don’t have to live in France to speak French, as there are many countries that use French as a first language. If you are one who travels a lot, this is a language worth learning. At least seventy five million people speak French natively, and an additional fifty million who use it in communicating.


I want to hear your toughs. What are 3 easiest language to learn in your opinion?

Spanish is much easier to spell than say Russian or Japanese because Spanish uses the familiar Roman alphabet. The fact that a language like Russian uses an unfamiliar alphabet causes the average language-learner to place it automatically in the category of a difficult language. Perhaps Russian is really more difficult for English speakers to learn than Spanish, but this writing difference is only a superficial and temporary obstacle, having little to do with the real difficulties.

[Awaken]

I would think simple English would be the easiest. Easier conjugation of verbs, no gender, etc... However, English is VERY nuanced with tons of words that all mean similar things with slight tweaks.

I personally find Spanish easier than French, so I would vote Spanish as the 2nd. I actually found Italian to not be too bad either, but still found Spanish as the easiest of the 3, but I was biased since French and Italian came later in life.

[Judith]

1. German
It's great you don't even have to think about it.
2. Italian
I had classes before in Latin, Spanish and French, thus it's like learning the differences rather than the actual language. But nevertheless to understand so much so quickly is just rewarding and encouraging.
3. Latin
No talking involved. Purely textual work. Loved it!

The most difficult language of all (my limited) times is Portuguese.
While travelling through the vast echoes of its authors from around the world, its pronunciation is killing me. I don't understand a word been said and my tongue is incapable of producing any.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by Awaken

I would think simple English would be the easiest. Easier conjugation of verbs, no gender, etc... However, English is VERY nuanced with tons of words that all mean similar things with slight tweaks.

I personally find Spanish easier than French, so I would vote Spanish as the 2nd. I actually found Italian to not be too bad either, but still found Spanish as the easiest of the 3, but I was biased since French and Italian came later in life.

Spanish has less complicated grammar than Italian.
Spanish for just one example has only two contractions
al and del. a+el=al, de+el=del.

Now look at all the contractions in Italian.

il lo l' la i gli le

a at, to al allo all' alla ai agli alle

da from, by dal dallo dall' dalla dai dagli dalle

di of del dello dell' della dei degli delle

in in nel nello nell' nella nei negli nelle

su on sul sullo sull' sulla sui sugli sulle

con with col collo coll' colla coi cogli colle

Note: The only contractions for con that are still used nowadays are col and coi. But even these contractions are optional.

[tetsuo]

Depends on the language you know (mother tongue) and those who are in use - foreign languages - you know.

If you know English very well you should find languages with the same roots as English. Or very high similarity in words like Spanish. Possible, posible, impossible, imposible,... From that you can start learning every romanic language you'd like because they are similarities in French, Portuguese (Brazilian and Portugal), Italian, Romanic, Latinamerican Spanish. If you're German and know English you could start with Dutch (both languages influenced the Dutch language), but also start learning Romanic languages as well.

I am just curious and I really don't know if I'll ever manage to learn all the language but I'd like to learn (at least the basic) with maybe a A2 level (European framework for languages) in:
Spanish / latinamerican, too
Portuguese / Brazilian
French
Italian

Just for the fun of it and to keep my brain working I'd like to check in at:
Polish
Russian
Japanese (I already checked but it was weird... a weird and hard time for me, too... will check later again...)

For people with good English knowledge I'd recommend the app Duolingo, which is completely free and awesome. You can learn German, Spanish, French, Italian,... more languages are coming sooner or later.

[Premium]

Originally Posted by tetsuo

Just for the fun of it and to keep my brain working I'd like to check in at:
Japanese (I already checked but it was weird... a weird and hard time for me, too... will check later again...)

http://www.enemieslist.net/japanese/

[tetsuo]

Haha, awesome, but wrong.
With the right technique every language could be easier to learn. Which means not easy at all, but easier than with the wrong techniques. ;-) Get the right technique attached to your brain, then be ready to learn. :-D

[Premium]

German humour?
It's a satire and therefore not to be taken seriously. Of course some or more things are not true but that's not the meaning of this.
To be honest I don't believe there's the "best" technique to learn a language. You just have to look for the technique that works best for you.