Hey everyone! This is Lizzie from MosaLingua!
So, you want to learn a new language, and want to know which languages are the easiest?
I get it! It's only natural to want to start with the easiest ones...
That way we tend to learn quicker, right?
That's why today I'm sharing with you the 5 easiest languages for English speakers to learn.
Stick around to find out which languages we’ve included.
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Now, back to the topic at hand…
Let me start by telling you the criteria I've used to determine which language will be easiest,
if you're a native English speaker.
Firstly, I looked at the lexical similarity.
This is how similar the language is to English, in terms of vocabulary.
Secondly, I looked at the ease of grammar.
And, then, I looked at the ease of pronunciation.
And finally I considered the access to learning resources.
So, how easily accessible the language was,
how many learning tools were available, online or in general, to learn the language.
These criteria helped me come up with an overall score and enabled me to rank the languages.
So, let’s get started…
We're going to start with the “least easy” language out of the five I will be discussing today.
In final place we have German, which shares many similarities with English.
The most difficult aspect is the grammar, which is quite different from English.
The nouns have three different genders: masculine, feminine, and neutral.
Also, the word order can be a bit tricky, as there are no hard and fast rules,
making it difficult to get this correct when you begin learning the language.
How about pronunciation?
At the beginning, German pronunciation could seem quite intimidating to an English learner
but it's actually quite easy to master.
Once you start studying German, you will find that the pronunciation is consistent and phonetic.
After learning the alphabet, you’ll be able to pronounce almost any word in German.
German is very close to English in terms of vocabulary.
Just look at the following words. I bet you can guess their meanings in English.
In addition, the German language uses many common English words.
So it will be quite easy and quick to memorize German words and phrases.
In addition, German is a very accessible language, with many online courses and learning resources available,
so you’ll have a lot of options!
So, why learn German?
German has 95 million native speakers and 210 million speakers worldwide.
It's also the fourth most used language online.
From a business standpoint, German can be a very useful language to learn.
Many German businesses are front-runners in their respective industries.
Let’s not forget that German is a language of literature, music, art, and philosophy.
If you enjoy the music of Beethoven or Wagner, or the works of Goethe,
then learning German will truly allow you to enjoy and appreciate these works in their native language.
Next up is Norwegian.
English and Norwegian are both Germanic languages and therefore share many similar words.
If we look at the vocabulary in English and Norwegian, we can see many similar words.
Take a look at these ones, for example.
Norwegian pronunciation might seem a little tricky at first
as it contains many vowel sounds that English speakers are not used to pronouncing.
However, there are so many different Norwegian accents and dialects,
so there's no “one correct way” of pronouncing anything, and this can be considered an advantage.
The situation is different when you need to write, as there 2 official forms of Norwegian.
These are Bokmål, which is "book tongue" and Nynorsk, which is "new Norwegian."
They are both widely used, but Bokmål is more common in written publication.
If we look at the grammar, it is pretty straightforward.
There's only one form of each verb tense and you don’t need to conjugate the verbs based on the subject.
Look at the verb "to have," for example. Here you can see it's relatively simple to conjugate.
In terms of accessibility, Norwegian is not a particularly widely spoken language.
You won’t really come across it outside of Norway.
However, you can still find a decent amount of online learning resources.
In addition, Norwegian people are known for being very friendly and helpful.
I'm sure they’d be happy to help you learn their language when visiting the country.
Many people consider Norwegian to be the easiest Scandinavian language to learn,
as it is somewhere between Danish and Swedish.
It is easier to understand than Danish and its vocabulary is closer to English than Swedish.
So it is also a good starting point if you want to learn all three Scandinavian languages.
Coming in at number 3 is Dutch.
Dutch is considered one of the easiest languages to learn due to the similarities it shares with English in terms of vocabulary.
Just take a look at the following words
and see if you can guess their meaning in English.
Dutch has also borrowed many words from other languages, including English.
Take this sentence, for example, it means “I am having a bad hair day.”
Or this sentence... it means “You need to think outside the box.”
So, what difficulties might an English speaker face when trying to learn Dutch?
Dutch grammar is quite similar to that of English, making it relatively straightforward.
However, the word order can be tricky at times.
Sometimes, verbs are placed at the end of a sentence. But sometimes, they aren’t.
The rules aren’t very consistent, which may take some time to get used to.
If your native language is English, Dutch pronunciation won’t be too difficult
as many of the consonant sounds are the same as in English.
The most difficult sounds will be the guttural ‘g’ sounds. However, if you are Scottish (like me),
you might not find this as difficult, as this sound is present in some Scottish words.
For example, the word "loch."
In terms of accessibility, there are enough resources online
for English speakers to begin learning Dutch from the comfort of their own home.
There are 23 million native speakers of Dutch, found mostly in the Netherlands, Belgium, and the Caribbean.
So, learning Dutch would be beneficial if you plan to travel to these places ...and I highly recommend you do.
Dutch shares many similarities with Afrikaans, which we discuss in more detail in our blog post.
So, learning Dutch would make learning Afrikaans much easier.
So, you’re kind of learning two languages at once!
In second place is Spanish.
One of the easiest things about Spanish is the pronunciation.
The words are pronounced as they are written.
The main difficulty English speakers come across with Spanish pronunciation is the rolling ‘r’ sound.
It can take a lot of practice, as we don’t have this sound in English.
For example, in these words:
carro = car
perro = dog
barra = bar
Even for me it's pretty difficult, and I cannot always pronounce these words correctly!
But my colleague Mirari recorded a video specifically to teach you to pronounce this sound.
If you want to improve your Spanish pronunciation, be sure to check that one next!
I'm definitely going to...
Spanish contains many similar words to English. Look at these, for example.
In fact, there are around 10-15 thousand Spanish-English ‘cognates’, or similar words.
We are exposed to Spanish a lot in our everyday lives, in music, TV, film.
Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world, so not only is it easy to access it to learn it,
it's also a very useful language to learn.
So, what makes Spanish difficult?
Spanish grammar rules could be a bit tricky at the beginning.
They take time to learn and get used to, particularly if you've never studied another language before.
There are many verb conjugations and many learners get confused with the past tenses in Spanish.
The nouns are also gendered and while you can sometimes guess
whether the noun is masculine or feminine by looking at the end of the word
(so if it ends in ‘o’, it tends to be masculine, if it ends in 'a', it tends to be feminine),
this isn’t always accurate and can trip you up.
For example: the following words, which end in 'o', are feminine...
and the ones which end in 'a' are actually masculine.
So, it's clear that the grammar is the trickiest thing when it comes to learning Spanish.
But Spanish is a very enjoyable language to learn and speak.
I have found Spanish to be very useful when I’ve traveled.
I used it in different countries in South America and Spain itself,
but also in countries where Spanish is not the native language, as it is spoken so widely all over the world.
If you learn Spanish, you’ll find it much easier to make friends with people all over the world, wherever you are.
Can you guess which language is in first place?
In first place, the easiest language to learn is…
Italian!
Now, Italian is a Romance language, therefore it's not from the same language family as English.
However, due to it being derived from Latin, it contains many similar words to English.
Just look at the following, for example...
Although it's not as widely spoken as Spanish, we are exposed to Italian a lot.
Just think of all the different food names you know in Italian: ...pizza, gelatto, mozzarella, spaghetti.
Italian music is very popular all over the world, too, in particular classical, opera, and disco.
You can find many resources to learn Italian, making it a very accessible language to study.
Italian pronunciation is quite logical.
Like Spanish, many of the words are pronounced as they are written
and after learning the alphabet and some basic rules, it becomes quite easy to master the pronunciation.
One thing you might find difficult is the melody, or "intonation,"
and Italian also contains that tricky rolling ‘r’ sound, like in Spanish.
So, what’s difficult about learning Italian?
Italian grammar may cause some problems for English speakers due to the different articles and prepositions.
Italian also has the confusing subjunctive tense,
which even some Italian native speakers make mistakes with!
However, it’s important to note that Italian grammar isn’t more difficult than Spanish or French grammar.
Italian is a beneficial language to learn for the business world.
And if you want a career in music, art and design, or fashion... Italian is a useful language to know.
Also, it's considered by many as one of the most beautiful languages in the world!
Another language I’d like to mention in this video is Esperanto.
Esperanto was created with the intention of becoming a universal language for communication.
Although it never became as popular as it was intended to be, it is still spoken by many people throughout the world.
Many people consider Esperanto as one of the easiest languages to learn for the following reasons:
The grammar is straightforward
(there are no irregular verbs or verb tenses and verb conjugation is relatively easy).
In fact, there are only 16 rules to learn to master Esperanto grammar.
In terms of pronunciation, Esperanto is similar to Italian and Spanish.
It is phonetic, so words are generally pronounced as they are written.
Many words in Esperanto have been selected,
so they are easily recognizable for anyone who speaks a European language.
For this reason, Esperanto could be a great language to learn as a "stepping-stone" for learning other languages.
However, it is a very interesting language to learn
and many people who speak Esperanto are very proud of their language and want to share it with others.
So, there you have it.
The 5 easiest languages to learn,
according to our ranking.
If you’d like to find out more,
make sure you check out our blog,
where we discuss this topic in more detail
and mention some other languages that are easy for English speakers to learn.
I have to say it was not easy to choose which languages to include in the top 5,
so if you are surprised not to see Danish or Afrikaans in this video,
it’s because we took into account many criteria and these languages actually ranked 6th and 7th place!
That’s all I have for you today! I hope you enjoyed this video.
Let me know in the comments if there are other languages that you think are easy for English speakers.
Take care and happy learning!
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