Hungarian is a language with a reputation for being notoriously difficult to learn. For this reason, it is considered a macro language because its reach is vast and extensive. The word order, syntax, and structure of Portuguese when writing and speaking are similar to English and other Romance languages. It is thought that the language may begin to rise in popularity, though, since it is featured on the popular language immersion app, Duolingo. This means that in order to learn Arabic you have to learn a whole new bunch of letters and characters. You would not be alone in assuming that it would be a Slavic language given its proximity to Russia and other Slavic countries. And another 17 percent can speak more than two languages. In addition, Swahili, Farsi (Persian), Pashto and Kurdish are languages that an Arabic speaker can get the hang of without much effort. There will be times where you feel like giving up, but keep persevering. The pronunciation of most Swahili words is fairly easy, and many are very similar to their English equivalent. Many of their words feature many consonants, as well as beginning with two consonants which can be jarring for a native English speaker. Alternatively, Persian Language Online offers a variety of free lessons that cover everything from grammar to tenses, vowels to intonation. So you've decided to learn a language. The grammar is similar to English, and many vocabulary words will sound familiar, like samme (same), ham (him) and op (up). It has no cognates or loan words, and you are highly unlikely to draw similarities between Finnish and English. 2023 Enux Education Limited. For instance, He comes from Norway translates to Han kommer fra Norge., Norwegian is spoken by around 5 million people, primarily in Norway. In our search for the most agreed upon easiest languages to learn, we visited 10 "expert" sites and looked for the most recommended languages. A large part of learning a language is learning how to write it. Although estimates vary greatly, Swahili is thought to be spoken as a native language by around 16 million people, and as a second language by up to 80 million people., In fact, if youve watched the Disney classic The Lion King youll already be familiar with a number of Swahili words such as rafiki (friend) and simba (lion). This is because you have less chance of being able to interact with other speakers as you go about your daily life, and also because the language may incorporate cultural concepts that you are not familiar with. You shouldnt have unrealistic goals though. There is also a welcome lack of verb conjugation, which is great news for learners, especially since this means that the sentence structure stays simple and short. The rhythm of Italian when you are in a conversation also makes it a little easier to grasp for beginners. Romanian 8. The letters can be learned and memorized, as can pronunciations, but the tone can take a little while for native English speakers to get right, especially if you have no native Mandarin speakers around to hear your tone and correct you if needed. Like the Persian language, Hindi has no capital letters, which in itself is very unfamiliar to native English speakers. It is a beautiful language from a country steeped in history and, as such, many of the traditional ways of speaking still stand. An example of this is musique. Continue with Recommended Cookies. You say what you see. To get started, subscribe to Farsi Wizard, a channel that helps people get started with the basics. First and foremost, it is a Romance language, but you cannot deny its Slavic influences, especially when you consider that Romanian once used the Cyrillic script. He writes about language, travel, and the many places they meet on the road at his blog. is pronounced as Ay twah and Pouvez-vous? (Can you?) As one of the intonational languages of the world, Persian vocabulary changes meaning depending on the rise and fall of your voice. This has meant that Italian culture and the language have stayed very much alive in these places. So if youre curious about the easiest languages to learn, Ive got 10 great suggestions to help you out. Arabic is a Semitic language and is thus in no way similar to Persian. This app And others might be easier to learn because youre exposed to them in one way or another. 28 Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn, Ranked. We have history to thank for this. In South Africa its ek is (I am), jy is (you are), sy is (she is). However, some languages are generally considered less demanding for English speakers. Less than 22 percent of the U.S. population speaks a language other than . Download our easy, visualItalian essentials eBook and get a head start. Of these, Spanish and Italian are the easiest for native English speakers to learn, followed by Portuguese and finally French. However, this doesnt mean learning one language will make you able to speak the other. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates. YouTube is a great resource for free lessons and video clips that will help you master perfect pronunciation and retention for the Farsi vocabulary that you compile through other lessons. I have read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, Online English self-study + private lessons, Online Spanish self-study + private lessons, 15 of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers - ranked. Like Norwegian, it shares many different cognates with the English language, and pronunciation can be guessed relatively easily when you look at the spelling of certain words. Some of the easiest languages for Americans to learn include Spanish, French, and Italian. You wont have to spend a lot of time developing reading skills. Name: Easiest Languages To Learn For English Speakers, According To Experts: Top 10 Being able to speak another language can actually. The sounds created in the language are challenging for beginners as it is so culturally distanced from what you may be used to. Although the lack of grammar rules might sound appealing, it can be a bit confusing, but its not hard to get used to. Its also an official language of 29 countries, including Switzerland, Luxembourg, Seychelles and Rwanda.. That is, Farsi is Persian, particularly the type that is spoken within Iran and parts of Afghanistan, and the term Farsi is not used for dialects in other countries of the Middle East. Check out our article on the best way to learn a new language here. Now, its time to go over some of the best resources that are available to anyone who wants to begin learning to speak Persian. Here, the native name of the language is known as Farsi. Today, there are many versions of the Persian language, depending on where you are in the world. Because of its Latin roots, Romanian does share some cognates with the English language, and because of its phonetic form, pronunciations are easier to get to grips with. To do so, its time to journey back in time to the roots of many countries in the Middle East Persia itself, and the Persian Empire. A person of authority will have a different word ending to a normal person when someone is addressing them. They often descend from the same common parental or ancestral language and can branch off to form many other unique languages. Dutch 7. For example, the noun system is different from most other languages you may have heard of since it has three genders and two numbers. Lastly, brush up on your Colloquial Persian with Abdi Rafiee's 3rd edition copy of this classic conversational sourcebook. This means you will have to work hard to memorize the way words are written. The Spanish language is phonetic (meaning the spelling tells you the pronunciation of the word). We hope our list of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers inspired you to start with your language lessons. While many beginner courses or introductory lessons to the language ignore Persian script, its important to supplement your learning with understanding the alphabet of your target language, to encourage reading and writing Farsi in the original written form. But, Persian has an enormous amount of Arabic influence, which makes it easier for Iranians to speak and understand Arabic. What is the easiest language to learn for French speakers? Click here to get a copy. The most challenging aspect of this language for English speakers will likely be the pronunciation., In Belgium, Flemish, which is the dialect spoken in the Flanders region, is actually identical to Dutch. On top of that its verbs, nouns and adjectives are in fact easier than in English. So, how easy or difficult a language might be for you to learn will depend not only on the language itself, but also on which languages youre already fluent in, or at least familiar with.Remember, how long it will take you to learn a language is influenced by many different factors. The family they belong to are the Goidelic languages which, in turn, makes them a part of the Brittonic language family, like Welsh. Persian is most likely known to you under one of the names of its dialects. 11 Of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers. Recommended: 7 Easiest Language To Learn For Spanish Speakers Advertisements #1. On one hand, its not an overly complicated language to learn, as the pronunciation isnt difficult, and much of its vocabulary is borrowed from other languages, including English, Spanish and Malay. Malay is spoken in Malaysia and Indonesian in Indonesia. The only barrier you need to overcome is yourself. Cognates are when a similar-sounding word has an identical meaning. Spanish pronunciation is another advantage. . In Afghanistan, it is called Dari, and in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, it is known as Tajik. Cudoo also offers 3 levels of Farsi (at $12.99 each) which is a helpful starting point. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. This is because there may be similar cognates and some loan words that you will recognize. The EasyPersian site offers lessons based on the alphabet and script. This will help you to work out whether a particular language is right for you or whether you may want to start with the one that is more similar to your native language. As you are getting to grips with the writing of the language, you will also need to familiarize yourself with the cultural aspects of the language. French features a few tricky components for native English-speaking learners, like gendered nouns, inconsistently pronounced letters, and lots of tricky silent letters. There are over 30 varieties of Arabic worldwide. What will help you to persevere even when it starts to get difficult? Its also gaining global popularity, and more and more people are looking for online Swahili lessons. For starters, Indonesian spoken natively by nearly 23 million people is one of the few Asian languages that uses the Latin alphabet. Resources for learning Spanish are also very easy to come by, since it is so widely spoken all over the world. The most challenging part of learning Dutch is pronunciation, but thats nothing you cant master, especially if you have some experience in learning other languages. Its one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with around 534 million speakers scattered all around the globe. This is because of the complex writing systems in Japan. For example, the word frolic meaning to play and move around cheerfully (e.g. Or, if you want structured lessons on all things Farsi that will help you start speaking it in 30 days, check out Reza Nazaris channel to achieve your fluency goals! If you are learning Spanish, get some Spanish music on or tune into a Spanish soap opera. This beautiful language shares many similarities with English in terms of cognates and sentence structure. There are some false cognates you should be careful about though. This is partly because Swedish and English are Germanic languages, so they have similar sentence structures and even some shared vocabulary. So if that is not enough motivation to learn we dont know what is! More job opportunities, including a higher income with being bilingual or multilingual. Feel free to get in touch about anything. According to a study by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Even so, French does share many similarities with English, especially when it comes to the vocabulary. As we highlighted in our introduction (remember that, it seems like ages ago, so you can skip back to the beginning of the article for a refresher if you wish) there are many reasons why a person may want to learn a new language. Nevertheless the language is a beautiful one, steeped in history. The original Persia is most commonly associated with the area of the Middle East and Gulf countries now known as Iran, though its ancient influence did extend beyond those constraints. Persian is one of the Iranian languages, having been spoken in Iran for hundreds of years. The reason it is so simple to pick up is because of the similarities it shares with English. It is important to note that the Farsi and Persian languages are the same things, with Farsi simply being an endonym, or the languages name according to native speakers. Or, for a more step-based lesson book, try Learn Persian (Farsi) Step by Step: Level One Beginner (Steps 1 to 10) by Fruzan Seifi, available in both kindle formats and physical copies. Simplest Tongues To Master be quite good for your brain. use. In addition, there are many English words in French vocabulary . Surprisingly, another relatively easy language for native English speakers to get to grips with is that of Romanian. For example, tonal languages can be difficult for someone who has no prior experience of tonal languages (for example, most of us English speakers). . For this reason, they have had a lot of influence on English, particularly American English. Spanish 2. The very easiest for you to learn, though, is the one you're most excited to learn. Unlike most European languages, which belong to the Indo-European language family, Hungarian is a Uralic language. As with the Vikings English got lots of Scandinavian words and are also Germanic languages like English sharing the same core words. There are also fewer singular and noun genders to learn than other languages, which makes it easier to learn. Creole, for example, both Haitian and Louisianan are derived from the French language. For all its challenges, though, it is a worthwhile language to learn with some interesting conventions. Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn, so it's logical why it is the second-largest language worldwide.. There is a lot of overlap between Portuguese and English as they share many of the same cognates. There are hundreds of French cognates in English. (Download). Furthermore, Portuguese and English have a lot of shared words. It has Dutch at its core but it is also intertwined with other dialects and indigenous languages from Africa. And to rule the vastness of the Empire, Persia needed kings. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. But there are also many cognates that are not food-related futuro (future), controllare (control), concerto (concert), and so on. According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), Spanish belongs to category I by difficulty. When you're differentiating between some of the easiest and hardest languages to learn, you will likely stumble upon the Danish language. They do use Latin script, but there are many grammatical cases that can make it much more complex to get to grips with than English. Start with PersianPod101 for basic lessons and vocabulary, Lingua Boost Persian for experience in real life conversations, and Persian PodGap for culture, literature, and interviews. Weve used data from the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) to rank them from the easier to the somewhat more challenging., Frisian is thought to be one of the languages most closely related to English, and therefore also the easiest for English-speakers to pick up. For example, improving listening skills should be. Dutch 2. As one of the Romance languages, Portuguese is certainly very beautiful. is pronounced as Poo vay voo. And the same goes for Italian grammar. Learners need to learn a whole new alphabet and character system to understand Russian. Spanish is a close relative of French. From online lessons to books, here is a full discussion of where to look for help when you want to learn this new language. SHOW ME HOW! The first of the two means a lock whereas the second means a castle. One important concept that can affect whether a language is learned easily by a native English speaker is the grammatical framework. There are also no capital letters in Persian writing, making it difficult to decipher as an English speaker. This location of spoken Persian in Iran is where another term is used for the language. 1) Danish. ), using the Cyrillic, Arabic, or Kana System (among many others) instead. 1. Indonesian is another language that is modestly easy for a willing learner who speaks English natively to pick up. According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), linguists, and learners, all the languages we mentioned today are fairly easy to learn. This is partly down to the fact that Indonesian is a phonetic language, which means words are spelled as they sound. This is just one of many cognates that the two languages share. But compared to the languages with different writing systems and strange grammar concepts, learning basic Swedish is a piece of cake. Tones are very important in some languages and are used to alter the meaning of the same sound. For example, the word order in Swedish is also SVO. Many popular world languages have very different grammatical structures to English. independence high school football; fadi sattouf vivant; what animal is like a flying squirrel; james justin injury news; Though Persian expansion arrived at a standstill after a failed attempt to colonize Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars following the Ionian Revolt of 499 BC, the Persian defeat at Marathon, and Dariuss death, his successor was still determined to continue the legacy of previous kings. Persian and Farsi: Whats the difference? It shares quite a bit of vocabulary with English, and unlike some Germanic languages, the pronunciation of most Norwegian words is fairly straightforward. Looking for a language thats not going to require three-hour evening classes Monday through Friday for the next 10 years? Afrikaans 9. After Cyrus the Great transformed the groups of nomadic tribesmen into Persians and unified the lands under the name of an Empire, nearby Middle Eastern kingdoms like Media, Babylon, and Lydia soon fell under his rule to create the first superpower of the ancient world: the connection of Mesopotamia, the Nile, and the Indus Valley. YOU CAN NOW LEARN A LANGUAGE FAST BY WATCHING TV SHOWS AND MOVIES! For this reason, many native English speakers may find that these languages are a little easier to learn than a language such as Chinese Mandarin or Arabic. They also read and write right to left, which is unfamiliar for most native English speakers. Dutch is practically Englishs first cousin. It is the former two that are most commonly used. So many languages are arguably easier to pick up than others for English speakers. Of course, you also have the masses of Italian words that the English language has borrowed, such as pizza, pizzeria, stiletto, umbrella, and even words like dilemma and ditto! What better excuse to go to Paris and brush up on your French skills whilst you sip coffee and eat croissants? We have mentioned Arabic many times already as the Arabic script is used in many different languages. However, this pattern repeats itself in all writing and speaking, so once you get used to it, it becomes fairly simple! These differences include word order differences, tenses, and even the inclusion of gender into language. Some of them are phonetic, which means that reading and pronunciation shouldnt be a problem for you. Secondly, Indonesian is a phonetic language, so most words are pronounced the same way theyre spelled. However, it could not be further from English. Services such as Custom Writings can also help with these learning these methods, as well as provide assistance with college or university assignments. Lastly, brush up on your Colloquial Persian with Abdi Rafiees 3rd edition copy of this classic conversational sourcebook. Afrikaans is the native language of South Africa and is widely spoken all over the country. The Hindi language is a relatively challenging one and takes hours to perfect to even an intermediate level. Therefore, from a linguistic perspective, Norwegian and English have quite a lot in common. In this section, we are going to be exploring some of the main reasons why you may find a certain language easy to learn, or indeed very difficult. In Spanish, a always sounds more or less like a (even with an accent mark), which we as learners appreciate. Table of Contents 7 Easiest Languages To Learn 1. Therefore, it is relatively easy for all speakers to learn, regardless of their native language. Learn more at www.rosettastone.com and start your first lesson today! Danish is mostly spoken in Denmark, although its also a protected minority language in Germany. All Rights Reserved. Although it can be a bit daunting, Swahili grammar is actually very straightforward. What is Valenciano & Where is the Language spoken? One of the best ways that you can learn a language is to fully immerse yourself in all aspects of it, including different types of media in that particular language. Ahead of getting into the details of the language, including the Persian alphabet, syntax, and sound system, we should first create a firm understanding of where the entire language came from, and the country that spawned such a dynamic vernacular. You may assume that the Welsh language is Germanic due to being on the border of England and so close to the other countries with a Germanic language. You need to find a good teacher or quality online language lessons. You just need to get used to it. The multi-state system set up by Cyrus continued, including tax districts, infrastructure, communications, and transportation, all important to sustain such a massive expanse. We find evidence of this languages changes in many inscriptions as it changed throughout three primary eras: Old, Middle, and New, between 525 BC and modern times. Another member of the Germanic family of languages that is considered easy to learn is Swedish. 6. Sure, learning grammar rules and acquiring vocabulary takes time, but the learning process should be very smooth. One of the best ways to connect with native speaker audio and a Persian teacher is by listening to podcasts, which can really help your understanding of pronunciation. Dutch is full of English cognatesdrinken (to drink), kat (cat), week (week), licht (light) and hundreds more. It is full of mutations and consonants that are unfamiliar to an English speaker, but with some memorization and an eagerness to learn, it is certainly possible. This means youll be able to read and pronounce most words correctly once you have learned a few ground rules. Once again, similarities in vocabulary make things a whole lot easier. There are dialects of French even here in the States and of course, in Canada. Russian is the largest of all of the languages in the Slavic family and is spoken widely in the country and around the world. In this post, we have put together a full and comprehensive list of the 28 easiest and hardest languages to learn for English speakers. Learning a language becomes fun and easy when you learn with movie trailers, music videos, news and inspiring talks. So, why is Indonesian easy to learn? You and your buddy will be able to help each other. Italian 3. As a native English speaker, you will likely get on well with a language that uses the same alphabet as you. However, it is a Brittonic language of Celtic origin. For instance, Good morning, translates to Goeie moarn in the West Frisian dialect., Unfortunately, since Frisian is only spoken and understood by about 500,000 people, theres little reason to learn it, unless you intend to relocate to the Dutch province of Friesland or Germanys Saterland or North Frisia regions., Dutch, like Frisian, is closely related to English. Esperanto was designed with you in mind: Minimal grammar, easy rules and as a bonus, lots of things that resemble many other world languages. Listen to samples from a couple of languages you've been interested in. This languages alphabet utilizes six different vowel sounds (, a, e, i, o, u) and two diphthongs (ey, ow), but the diacritics that denote them, such as the alef do not have a specific sound. and the grammar, pronunciation and spelling is simpler than in many other languages. The most important thing that we want you to take away from this article is that even though some languages may be easier for a native English speaker to learn than others, it does not mean the harder languages are out of your reach. Since they share roots, theyre mutually intelligible to some extentsome sources say 60-70% in daily conversations. Swahili is perhaps not as easy as other languages on this list, but its arguably the easiest African language to learn. There are some shared cognates such as ' ja ' which means ' yes ' and ' veld ' which means ' field '. However, this is not a hard and fast rule, and there are also many other contributing factors. You can't get much easier than this. There are a whole 35 different cases in this language; they also follow the unfamiliar concept of vowel harmonies. It is easy, there is many derivatives to the words. In terms of learning hours, it is thought that it takes you around 575 to 600 hours to learn Spanish to an intermediate level (this is more than enough to converse fluently in the language). And with the right resources, you can learn these easy languages even faster. In fact, you probably already know how to order so much more. These new letters and the fact that Polish words also have more consonants than English words can mean that pronunciations are very difficult to grasp for a beginner, and can make spelling difficult. The grammar is fairly straightforward, without inflection, agreements between nouns and adjectives, and even no genders of words to memorize. This is because the Dutch were some of the first colonizers of the States. From this period, we primarily have the remains of religious Pahlavi or Zarathushti texts that described Persias new religion, Zoroastrianism. That's because it's the closest language to English today, both in words and structure. Pronunciation and spelling are, on the whole, much simpler to learn, and there are also many shared cognates such as mutter which is mother, and kaffee which is coffee. As well as looking and sounding similar, there are masses of resources out there to help you learn French, and it is spoken widely around the world. Read up on the cultures associated with the languages to see which sound most fun to learn about. Its also an easier language to learn for English speakers than, for example, Russian or Chinese, which take much longer to learn and reach fluency. Other Middle Eastern languages that use similar dialects are Basseri in Southern Iran, Darwazi in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, Hazaragi in Pakistan, and the specific meanings that the Tehrani accent brings to the language. Just like Norwegian, Swedish, and English, Dutch is a Germanic language. One aspect of German that English-speakers do tend to struggle with is the pronunciation, especially when it comes to longer compound words like Fremdschmen (cringe) or Verschlimmbessern (to worsen or exacerbate)., But while German might not be quite as easy for English-speakers to grasp as Dutch or Norwegian, it is an extremely useful language to learn, as its spoken by more than 100 million people throughout Central Europe, including in Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg.. If you speak English, youll be very comfortable with the grammatical structure of Norwegian, so you can focus on learning vocabulary. We also participate in other affiliate advertising programs for products and services we believe in. Romanian 3 Moderate languages to Learn 1. In order to put this list together, we took into account the numerous factors which should be considered when deciding whether or not a language is difficult, or easy to learn. Many languages are similar to other languages. Thai has five tones while Chinese has four. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you In addition to Farsi speakers in the Middle East, there is evidence of linguistic transmission all the way to the Western world. Ask yourself some questions: Why is it important to you that you embark on this learning journey? It has Dutch at its core but it is also intertwined with other dialects and indigenous languages from Africa. Spellings are also relatively simple, with many words being pronounced how they are spelled. With the wide range of smartphone applications available for every purpose under the sun, its no wonder you can find language learning there too! But according to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), French is a category 1 language.