Simple languages to learn. The most difficult and easiest languages to learn. Italian is easy to learn

There are some indicators that determine the degree of difficulty of learning a foreign language. The priority in this matter is personal motivation; it is very important to understand why you need to learn a particular language and how much you like speaking it. This determines which language is the easiest to learn for you. If you master a language that is not very interesting to you, then learning will be very difficult. Even if everyone around you says the opposite.

official rating

There is also an official list of the easiest languages in the world on the Internet, published by the US Department of Foreign Affairs; it looks like this:

. English is probably included in the ranking because it is spoken by an extremely large number of people. One of its advantages is its brevity, the words are mostly short, the absence of cases and genders, that is, it is easy to operate with nouns, and verbs are inflected only for the third person.
. There are many reviews about this language, which give a general idea that it is quite simple. His grammar is not too pretentious, his pronunciation is adequate to his writing, and exceptions are rare. That is, reading Spanish is quite easy.
. This language is a little more complicated than the above, but the pronunciation here is not difficult. Experts say that Italian is slightly similar to Spanish. Therefore, if your goal is to become a polyglot, it makes sense to start by studying “relative” languages.
. At first glance, this language seems difficult, because pronunciation is really difficult. Problem solving is a common practice.
Esperanto. It’s no wonder that this language is one of the easiest languages to learn. It is believed to be as simple as possible. The only disadvantage of Esperanto is that this language was created artificially, so there are not many experts on it.

Additional factors that can make the language easier for you

- Is the language similar to your native one? If the language is similar to yours, has similar vocabulary and grammar, then it will be easier for you. For example, a person who speaks Farsi will learn Arabic more easily than Spanish, even though Arabic is considered difficult.

- do you like studying? If so, then any language may seem simple - or at least interesting. And this, in turn, will allow you to learn the language faster.

- additional resources. With their help you can achieve quick results. Additional resources include audio, grammar and vocabulary books, opportunities to communicate with native speakers, etc.

let's sum it up

The easiest languages in the world are a subjective concept. If you follow book grammar, it is possible to learn any language, but with some effort. Those who have studied several languages agree on one thing: you need to devote more time to practice and then any language, even a complex one, will succumb to your efforts!

Perhaps everyone in the modern world will agree that learning a foreign language is a necessary and useful thing. Foreign languages not only broaden your horizons, but also change your way of thinking. Only a small percentage of Americans and Brits speak a language other than their native one, and so we don't think it's worth trying to learn anything new.

However, this is absolutely not true. Any language, be it the most difficult one, such as Japanese or Chinese, can be learned in one intensive summer course. Do you want to experience other cultures? We present to you the 10 easiest foreign languages to learn.

1 Spanish is a beautiful foreign language to learn
2 Portuguese language
3 French
4 Italian language
5 Swedish

6 Norwegian language
7 Esperanto
8 Afrikaans
9 Frisian language
10 And the easiest...Dutch language

Spanish is a beautiful foreign language to learn

Spanish is one of the main languages in the world. If world languages were schoolchildren, then Spanish would be the popular child that other children want to communicate with. Much of Central and South America speaks Spanish, as well as Equatorial Guinea in Africa and, in fact, Spain. Simply put, by learning Spanish, you open up a large part of the world.

So why is Spanish easy for us? In Spanish, many words are of Latin origin, and the grammar is quite simple. Although there are some differences that can make our heads spin, for example, we would say "the car is red" instead of "the red car". You can also practice it easily. People living in the United States have access to Spanish-language television, making it easier for them to improve their vocabulary.

Portuguese

Compared to other colonial powers, Portugal did not leave much of a legacy (sorry, Macau and Angola). However, its influence spread to one of the largest countries in the Americas. Brazil occupies about half of South America in area and has a population of about 200 million.

Similar to schoolchildren, Portuguese is Spanish's shy but friendly cousin. The Portuguese language is closely related to Spanish, with all the advantages that it can have. The downside is that knowing Spanish makes learning Portuguese more difficult. This is because the two languages are filled with “false friends,” words that sound identical but have very different meanings. So in perfect Spanish you can order at a restaurant, while in Portuguese you can suggest a dirty evening with the waiter's wife.

French

We'll tell you a secret. If the language belongs to the Romance group, then it will be easy for you to learn. French is the hottest, most sophisticated girl in school or the cute guy who knows he's the coolest guy in class. This language was once perhaps the most important on Earth. Although those days are gone, he still plays a big role. Do you want to travel to Morocco, Algeria, Congo, Belgium, Switzerland or Haiti? Learn French. Do you want to impress your girlfriend (your boyfriend)? Learn French. We are not sure how much clearer it is possible to express this. Knowing French is really cool.

French includes many Latin words. It also has a strong connection with the English language. In 1066, William the Conqueror made medieval French the language of the ruling classes of England. In total, more than 10,000 words in the English language are borrowed from French.

Italian

Italy never had the global influence of its cousins. Today, learning Italian greatly narrows the geography of your travels. Luckily, Italy is one of the most historically important and beautiful countries on Earth.

Italy is the reason why you can learn Spanish, Portuguese and French with such ease. It was the Romans who spread Latin to these countries, leaving their mark everywhere from modern Britain, to Libya, to Syria, to Germany. Spanish is essentially a descendant of "Vulgar Latin", the language spoken by the "grunts" and soldiers of the Empire. This means that there are many similarities between these two modern languages, especially noticeable if you happen to recognize Argentine Spanish, which has a rhythm better suited to the streets of Naples than the sidewalks of Madrid.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of learning Italian is the amazing amount of culture you will be exposed to - from Dante's Divine Comedy and the films of Federico Fellini to a variety of world masterpieces.

Swedish

Let's move away from the sunny climates of southern Europe. Sweden is the complete opposite of the southern countries. A cold, snowy country in the bleak reaches of northern Europe, it is as far from our previous languages as icy slopes and hot beaches are from each other. However, there are still similarities. If you look closely, English has not only Latin roots, but also Germanic ones. The Swedish language, in turn, is a striking example of the Germanic group.

German and Swedish have similar grammar, which means that learning Swedish is essentially about memorizing a lot of vocabulary. As a bonus, the verbs barely change. Thus, while an Englishman will say: “I speak English, he speaks English,” a Swede will say: “I speak Swedish, he speaks Swedish.”

So what are the benefits of learning Swedish? Not much if you're hoping to travel the world. Swedish is spoken by only 10 million people, and almost all of them live in Sweden.

Norwegian

Norwegian is the closest language to what we call a "Viking language". This in itself should be reason enough to study it. But if you're put off by manly beards or fearsome horned helmets, there's at least one mitigating factor. Norwegian is easy to learn for native English speakers.

Norwegian is another Germanic language that has absorbed all the advantages of Swedish, being much simpler. The grammar is close to English, while the verbs are easy to learn (there are slight variations depending on the context). Again, there are many closely related words and the rhythm and accent are quite similar. In a wide-ranging study conducted at the turn of the 21st century, the Federal Government declared Norwegian one of the easiest languages for Americans to learn.

There is a downside to all this. Norway has a population of 6 million people, approximately 95% of whom speak excellent English. The language is taught at all levels of school education. The chances of meeting a Norwegian who doesn't speak English are about the same as meeting an American who speaks Norwegian fluently.

Esperanto

Esperanto is the most widely spoken artificial language in the world. Yes, even Klingon and Elvish are less popular. It was invented in 1887 by L. Zamenhof, with the goal of making the language so simple that learning it would seem like “just a game.”

To do this, he took various pieces from many European languages, mixed them all together, simplified them, and called the whole thing a language. The result is a language that sounds strangely familiar, as if you've encountered it before. Watch the video of how they speak Esperanto. Most likely, you will be able to recognize its components.

Esperanto is spoken by about 2 million people, and experts estimate that up to 1,000 families consider it their “native language.” For comparison, this number is significantly greater than the number of speakers of the current Cornish language.

Afrikaans

A language spoken by the descendants of Dutch farmers in South Africa and Namibia, Afrikaans has a long and turbulent history. For some Boers it is an integral part of their identity and culture, which has changed greatly over the past 20 years. This African language is closest to English.

Afrikaans exists somewhere between Dutch and English, but at the same time it is simpler. The grammar is logical and consistent, there are no exceptions like in English.

Unfortunately, Afrikaans doesn't give you much choice when it comes to traveling. You're pretty much limited to just two countries in southern Africa. On the other hand, if you ever wanted to understand Boer culture or spend an extended period of time in South Africa, you'd have to be crazy not to learn Afrikaans.

Frisian

Raise your hands if you've ever heard of the Frisian language. We'd estimate that about 90 percent of you just sat there, shook your heads, and muttered something like, "Freak - what language?" Don't worry, this is normal, because this is a rather rare language. As simple as possible: Frisian is the native language of Friesland, part of the Netherlands. It is spoken by half a million people and is probably the closest language in the world to English.

Seriously, Frisian and English were the same language until relatively recently. Both languages began to develop independently of each other 1200 years ago, which is a long time according to historians, but nothing at all from the point of view of linguists.

If you are a native (or good "speaker") of English, learning Frisian will be a walk in the park. The written form of speech is similar to Dutch, the spoken form is almost identical to English - vocabulary, sentence structure and pronunciation. Without any lessons, you are probably already fluent in it.

And the easiest...Dutch language

Linguists consider Dutch to be the easiest language to learn for audiences who know English (Frisian is easier, but not as widespread). It is spoken in the Netherlands itself, Belgium, Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles, with a total of about 23 million speakers worldwide. It has so many similarities with the English language that you can learn it with almost no free time.

This is the result of a happy historical accident. While most languages closely related to English have either Latin or Germanic roots, Dutch has both. This means that most Dutch words are very similar to English, with the added bonus that the structure is also similar. The grammar is consistent and logical, but the pronunciation is quite intuitive, and there are vowel sounds that seem strange at first glance.

The only downside to the Dutch language is that almost everyone in the Netherlands and Belgium is fluent in English, which means your chances of showing off your knowledge of the local dialect are extremely slim.

We told you about the easiest languages to learn. So, if you want to get your brain moving and get closer to the status of a polyglot, we advise you to immediately enroll in courses in one of the above languages, mastering which should not pose any particular difficulties.

Learning foreign languages can bring you enormous benefits, including:

Enhance analytical skills, learning ability and memory.
Expanding personal horizons, getting to know new cultures, getting rid of prejudices.
Increasing personal competitiveness and demand in the labor market.
Improved communication skills by gaining a deeper understanding of the language.
Improving problem solving skills and abstract thinking.
Exciting travel and the opportunity to feel confident in an unfamiliar city.

The only problem with learning a foreign language is that it requires a lot of time, self-improvement and diligence. Tens, hundreds, thousands of hours of training and exercise can pass before you feel that you can communicate and write fluently in another language. And yet, research by linguists has shown that some languages are still easier to learn than others. Why is this so?

What makes some languages easy to learn?

Firstly, it will be really easy to learn a language that is similar to your native one. For example, Spanish and Italian languages have a lot of similarities, both in sound and grammatical rules. If you know Spanish, you can easily master Italian and vice versa.

All languages that will be listed in this article are derived from Latin. If you already know English - the recognized language of international communication - then it will be easier for you to notice that all languages rooted in Latin are extremely similar. This is why European languages can be difficult for residents of Asian and Arab countries.

Grammatical features

Another factor that determines whether a language is easy to understand or not is its grammatical complexity. The rules in some languages are well structured and easy to understand, in such languages there are no outdated forms, and the rules have practically no exceptions (by the way, the English language is a whole sea of exceptions).

A study by the Overseas Service Institute in the United States has identified languages that can be learned by anyone who speaks English comfortably.

The Swedish language has many similarities with English, including syntax and lexical forms. Thus, the word “telephone” sounds and is written almost identically in these two languages:

English - Telephone
Swedish - Telefon

The Swedish language is no-frills, it is as functional as the overall Scandinavian way of life, in which everything serves a purpose and has a rational basis.

And besides, Swedish is also a very rhythmic, sonorous language, so it becomes even easier to learn by listening to songs and watching video clips.

Italian is another easy language for English speakers. It is probably even simpler than Swedish and may be more useful to you since more people speak it (but of course it all depends on the purpose of learning). In its rhythm, this language is close to English; if you look in the dictionary, you will also find many similarities, for example:

music - musica
family - familiar

Simple and perhaps the most useful and in demand of all of these, Spanish can be shared with you by another 400 million people around the world. Spanish is second only to Chinese in number of speakers! The spelling of this language is incredibly similar to Italian, the words are written and read very similarly. There is so much passion and music in the tonality of Spanish that it is simply impossible not to fall in love with the language!

Lexically, the French language has many similarities with English; the centuries-old history of the difficult but very interesting relations between these two nations may have created so many “points of contact” between two different worlds. French is conventionally divided into different levels of proficiency. Thus, advanced French in its grammatical rules is much more complex than English, but to master the remaining “stages” of this language you do not need to have a special talent for learning languages.

In terms of sound, the German language never ceases to be a subject of debate, and indeed, in its melody it is unlike any other European language. And yet, German is recognized by many language institutes as the first easiest language to learn after English. In addition, its grammatical structure is much simpler than English, although pronunciation may be difficult for some people.

Conclusion.

Learning a foreign language should be fun! Experts are confident that learning requires immersion in the culture and environment of a new language. But for this it is not at all necessary to leave the borders of your country. Watch films, get inspired by songs in a foreign language, clearly define for yourself why you are taking up learning a foreign language, and go! Of course, it takes effort and motivation, but change doesn't just happen. In order to make language learning even more effective, create a learning plan, set and complete daily, monthly and annual goals, track your own success, and if it’s difficult to control your progress yourself, find yourself a partner who wants to learn the language with you.

What is the easiest language to learn? This question is asked by many people, both those planning to study a language and professional linguists. Below we will discuss characteristics that can help determine how easy a language is to learn. It is worth noting that the most important thing when learning a language is your motivation and whether you enjoy speaking the language. It depends on which language is the easiest for you.

Spanish, Esperanto or... Chinese. If you learn a language that you are not interested in, then learning will seem difficult, even if in theory it is not. Learning a language, like everything else, should involve fun and interest, otherwise there will be no point. You can find other factors that will make learning a language easy FOR YOU. Read the article and then decide which language is easiest for you. Below we present the TOP5 " the easiest languages in the world».

The World's Easiest Languages to Learn

According to the US Department of Foreign Affairs, the easiest languages for English-speaking citizens are those that require about 600 hours of classroom instruction—we're talking more or less proficient in the language. That is, these are languages of the Latin and Germanic language groups. However, German itself requires more time, about 750 hours: the grammar is too complex.

English is also considered simple: it has no genders, cases, word agreement, its grammar is quite simple. The language is widespread and spoken everywhere. The words in it are short, the verbs change only for the third person. Native speakers are calm about the mistakes of foreigners, because many people learn English as a second language. Thus, English is one of the easiest languages to learn.

Italian it is also simple, it has no cases, it has simple pronunciation, the vocabulary has Latin roots, that is, it will be familiar to those who speak languages of the Indo-European group.

Spanish is the easiest language to learn. Its vocabulary is similar to English, its spelling is simple (it is both written and heard). It is similar to Italian, widely used, and has very simple pronunciation and grammar.

French It’s also not complicated, many of its words are similar to English. It is also widely used and it is very easy to find opportunities to learn and speak it. Thus, French is also one of those languages that is easy to learn.

Esperanto very simple. In it, as in Spanish, “as it is heard, so it is written.” It's an artificial language, so it's really simple. But the bad thing about it is that relatively few people speak it, compared to languages like English, French or Spanish.

But if you speak Esperanto, then other Esperantists will be very, very friendly to you.

Additional factors that can make the language easier for you:

— is the language similar to your native language? If the language is similar to you, has similar vocabulary and grammar, then it will be easier for you. For example, a person who speaks Farsi will learn Arabic more easily than Spanish, even though Arabic is considered difficult.

— do you like studying? If so, then any language may seem simple - or at least interesting. And this, in turn, will allow you to learn the language faster.

— additional resources.

From mylanguages.org
Translation by Natalia Gavrilyastaya.

TOP 5 easiest languages

official rating

There is also an official list of the easiest languages in the world on the Internet, published by the US Department of Foreign Affairs; it looks like this:

English. English is probably included in the ranking because it is spoken by an extremely large number of people. One of its advantages is its brevity, the words are mostly short, the absence of cases and genders, that is, it is easy to operate with nouns, and verbs are inflected only for the third person.
Spanish.

There are many reviews about this language, which give a general idea that it is quite simple. His grammar is not too pretentious, his pronunciation is adequate to his writing, and exceptions are rare. That is, reading Spanish is quite easy.
Italian. This language is a little more complicated than the above, but the pronunciation here is not difficult. Experts say that Italian is slightly similar to Spanish. Therefore, if your goal is to become a polyglot, it makes sense to start by studying “relative” languages.
French. At first glance, this language seems difficult, because pronunciation is really difficult. Problem solving is a common practice.
Esperanto. It’s no wonder that this language is one of the easiest languages to learn. It is believed to be as simple as possible. The only disadvantage of Esperanto is that this language was created artificially, so there are not many experts on it.

Additional factors that can make the language easier for you

- do you like studying? If so, then any language may seem simple - or at least interesting. And this, in turn, will allow you to learn the language faster.

- additional resources. With their help you can achieve quick results. Additional resources include audio, grammar and vocabulary books, opportunities to communicate with native speakers, etc.

let's sum it up

The most interesting languages of the world

While we don't all travel all the time, we all understand how amazing and diverse the world is. And the best illustration of this is the diversity of languages.

At the dawn of human history, different languages began to appear in the world. We are all accustomed to languages such as English, Spanish, Italian, but there are thousands of “big” and “small” languages spoken in the world.

Let's see what interesting languages there are in the world and why they are interesting.

Chinese (Mandarin)

Mandarin is a group of dialects spoken in northern and southwestern China.

That is, it is not a separate language, but rather many dialects that form a language group. The most interesting thing about Mandarin is not how many people speak it, but rather how it is written. Mandarin is the only language that uses only hieroglyphs.

Greenlandic

It is spoken by about 60,000 people - the population of Greenland. This is an amazing language that arose from a combination of Greenlandic and Eskimo dialects. The language belongs to the Eskimo-Aleut languages, it is a close relative of the Inuit languages spoken by the indigenous population of Canada. It is interesting in that it does not have a voiceless-voiced opposition; instead, fricative and stop sounds are contrasted.

Pirahan

The only living Murano language. It is spoken by the Pirahã tribe living in Brazil (about 300 people). The language is unique in that it has very few sounds (phonemes), there are only 13 of them. In addition, the language does not have the concept of number.

Lao language

The official language of Laos, it is also spoken in northeastern Thailand. There are several facts that make the language especially interesting. Firstly, the language does not have an officially accepted literary norm, that is, each region of the country uses its own version of the language. In addition, the language uses the Abugida script, in which words are not separated by spaces.

Indonesian

A language with the simplest grammar. Perhaps the reason for this is that it was used as a means of communication between people for whom it was not native. A famous example: “ayam makan” (chicken eats) can mean “I eat chicken”, “the chicken eats”, “I ate chicken”, “when the chicken ate”, “when the chicken was eaten”, “this chicken eats”, etc. d. And yet people speak this language and understand each other perfectly. Surely this language is easy to learn.

Tsez language

A language common in Dagestan. It is spoken by 12,467 people (according to the 2010 census).

The language has very complex grammar and unusual throat and nasal sounds. It has 64 cases!

Khoisan languages

Languages of the Khoisan peoples of South Africa. These languages have clicking sounds that resemble the clopping of a horse. Moreover, there are different types of clicking sounds in the language, and the meaning depends on the correct pronunciation of them. Some linguists believe that the Khoisan languages may be one of the very first languages in the world, because the process of abandoning clicking sounds is quite simple, but the appearance of such sounds in an existing language is difficult to imagine.

Pityantyatyara

An Australian language spoken by Aboriginal people in central Australia.

The name of the language means “having the word pityantya.”

Tok Pisin

Tok Pisin is a version of English spoken in Papua New Guinea. It retains only two prepositions: “bilong” and “long”. The first gives us the genitive case, and the second is responsible for all other prepositions.

The fastest language in the world

Pronunciation speed

How to determine and measure pronunciation speed? Which language is the fastest? You can refer to the Guinness Book of Records and see in which language the most words were read per minute. Here the record belongs to a schoolgirl from Moscow Svetlana Arkhipova and is 60,000 characters per minute. Yes, it’s hard to imagine, but at this speed, “War and Peace” can be read in about twenty-five minutes and half the time will be spent turning the pages. But reading speed depends on training, the complexity of the text, and the record belongs to just one person, and we are interested in the average value for everyone.

How to determine tongue speed? To do this, you need to know how many sounds per minute the average native speaker makes when speaking. Here we come to the conclusion that records are in no way an indicator of pronunciation speed for all representatives of a given language group, and this is precisely what interests us.

Three leaders in speed

The fastest languages in the world are representatives of the Romance group of languages: French, Spanish and Italian.

At the same time, the fastest language among the three leaders should be recognized as Spanish, which, due to the large number of vowels, is a very “fast language”. The average native speaker of Spanish speaks very, very quickly; all you need to do is walk along the streets of Spanish cities.

The Italian language is not too far behind the leader, the pronunciation speed of which is also very high. The speed of languages is determined not only by the ease of pronunciation, but also by the emotionality of its speakers. It is known that representatives of Southern Europe are very emotional people who often tend to get into a state of heightened excitement, accompanied by rapid speech.

By the way, Finnish is considered the easiest language in the world, and the most difficult language is the language of the North American Chippewa Indians.

Sooner or later, many people are faced with the need to learn a foreign language. And if there is no choice at school or other educational institution, then adults can already give preference to a specific language at their own discretion.

But which one? I really wouldn’t want to be disappointed and fail my first attempt at learning a foreign language. This means you should start with the simplest. How to define it?

It should be borne in mind that there cannot be “absolutely” simple languages. Each of them is simpler in some respects, but more difficult in others. For those who already speak, at least at a minimal level, some language, it will be simpler and easier to master languages similar to it.

In general, Italian is the easiest to learn, followed by (in order of difficulty) Spanish, German, French, and English, which is the most difficult.

The main difficulty in pronunciation is caused by sounds that are not present in the original language. Practicing their speaking starts out quite difficult, as various facial muscles need to be developed. Without high-quality and long training, this will not be achieved.

The sounds of German and Italian are not too difficult for residents of Russia. Almost the entire difference lies in the fact that the sounds of Italian speech are pronounced more emotionally, while German ones are pronounced briefly and harshly. In Spanish, the interdental “s” can cause difficulties (but if you are sure that you are learning the language for use outside Europe, you can not be particularly distracted by it). And also something similar at the same time to muted b and v.

The French language is distinguished by a large number of specific sounds - burry r, nasal pronunciation in many cases, and an unusual combination of vowels and consonants. But English is even cooler - the sound r is unlike anything else, there are many vowels that cannot be expressed in Cyrillic, long and short pronunciations of sounds change the meaning of many words. But don't worry: practice and diligence will successfully solve all problems.

If you are not studying a language for speaking (or it is not a priority), then it is best to start with German, in which reading is very simple. But English for those who don’t know how to read this or that word is a real nightmare, and even the context affects the pronunciation. What can I advise here? Increase your vocabulary as much as possible, and this problem will no longer be so acute. Reading French texts is simpler, but with “peculiarities”. Some letters are not readable, others are readable in some cases, individual words are linked and read together.

Well, what about writing texts? German is also most convenient here, Italian and Spanish are a little more difficult. Difficulties will arise when mastering English and French writing. In the first case, you need to thoroughly know the correct spelling of EVERY word, and in the second, you need to master a lot of rules.