Wondering what are some easy languages to learn as an English speaker?
Certain languages come easier than others. When you often hear stories of new language learners who managed to reach proficiency in a matter of months, there's a reason. They chose one of the easy languages to learn.
Think about it this way. Imagine if you had a twenty-year career in fashion, and you have this desire to start your own business now. Do you think it'll be easier to start a new business in the fashion industry or... a construction industry?
The obvious answer is: fashion.
You already have the foundational knowledge, connections, and expertise required to increase your chances and speed of success. We can approach easy languages to learn the same way if you're an English speaker.
What are the foundational knowledge, grammar rules, and structures that are the most similar to English?
What are easy languages to learn for English Speakers?
There are 3 major factors that we'll discuss today to determine how easy a language is to learn.
Similarity to English structure
Each language that we speak today, including English, has its own origin. Just like we do as humans.
When you track back to the roots of the English language, it began from the Proto-Indo-European language family. Refer to the image below, and you can see languages that are similar to one another. English, for example, is quite similar to German, Afrikaans, Dutch, French, Spanish, etc.
That means these languages are easier to learn as an English speaker, versus Mandarin or Korean (which come from a different language origin).
Opportunities to practice
Now, just because you decide to learn a similar language to English, it doesn't mean it'll be easy. Many of us probably know a friend or family member who has a ton of innate talent they were born with. But they didn't put in the effort, time, and energy to pursue their talents to the next level.
Work ethic will beat talent every single time. When it comes to language learning, you have to practice your skills in order to get better. If you live in the United States, practicing your Spanish skills will come much easier versus being able to practice your Swedish skills. Unless you decide to learn a language online.
How useful the language is
Motivation is another factor that's critical. It's what pushes us to put the time and effort in the first place. If you're learning a language to apply for an exciting job abroad, you'll be more motivated than if you're learning a random language without any purpose.
The point is: pick an easy language to learn that will bring you a reward for you at the end. Will you be able to be more confident, get a better job, travel the world, connect with a family member? Take your pick.
We also recommend checking out our post on 8 Science-Backed Benefits of Learning a New Language
9 Insanely Easy Languages to Learn For English Speakers
1. Spanish
Similarity to English: 7/10
Practicing opportunities: 9/10
Usefulness: 9/10
Overall easiness: 9/10
Spanish is one of the most popular languages in the world, and it's the official language of 20 countries. While it's not in the same immediate family as English, the usefulness, practicing opportunities, and similarities make it an easy language to learn.
Today, there's a massive economic and population rise of Hispanic communities. From Spanish movies and TV shows to business opportunities, this language is taking the world by a storm.
Learn Spanish using Jumpspeak for free.
2. Italian
Similarity to English: 7/10
Practicing opportunities: 8/10
Usefulness: 8/10
Overall easiness: 8.5/10
Italian is another Latin language that fits into a similar box as Spanish. However, there are fewer opportunities to practice given that there are fewer people that are native speakers available.
Don't worry though, you still have over 65M+ people that you can speak with from around the world. A fun and fulfilling way to learn Italian is through food. With Italy's cuisine becoming a staple food in our cultures, you can find new opportunities to use the language nearly every day!
3. Portuguese
Similarity to English: 7/10
Practicing opportunities: 7/10
Usefulness: 7/10
Overall easiness: 8/10
Portuguese has become an increasingly important language to learn with the rise of Brazil's economy. Jobs and new opportunities are flocking to this country of South America, along with Portuguese learners.
If you know a little bit of Spanish, Portuguese is one of the easiest languages to pick up. They're so similar that native Portuguese speakers can often understand Spanish speakers without having learned Spanish at all.
4. French
Similarity to English: 7/10
Practicing opportunities: 8/10
Usefulness: 8/10
Overall easiness: 7.5/10
Oh, the language of love. French is in the Romance language family, but it's not as easy as Spanish or Italian. There are 17 verb forms, compared to the 12 that English has, and gendered nouns. It also gets trickier when you throw silent pronunciation and accents to the table.
With that said, French culture is abundant wherever you go around the world. You can watch popular French movies and TV shows online, find native French speakers, and plenty of job opportunities in France.
5. Romanian
Similarity to English: 7/10
Practicing opportunities: 6/10
Usefulness: 7/10
Overall easiness: 7.5/10
Believe it or not, Romanian is also a Romance language. Fewer people know this because Romania as a country is not as widely known as Spain, Brazil, or France.
This means you gain the advantage of similar grammar structures and rules as an English speaker. But the issue may be that you'll face a lack of practicing opportunities in your everyday life, unless you were to work with a private teacher.
6. Swedish
Similarity to English: 8/10
Practicing opportunities: 7/10
Usefulness: 7/10
Overall easiness: 7.5/10
The country that brought us the best meatballs in the world and IKEA!
What makes Swedish one of the easy languages to learn is the number of cognates it shares with English. Cognates are words that come from the same family and sound very similar to one another. That means from day one, you already have hundreds, if not thousands of words in your vocabulary!
7. German
Similarity to English: 9/10
Practicing opportunities: 8/10
Usefulness: 8/10
Overall easiness: 7/10
German, like French, is not the easiest language to learn. But the benefits of learning German outweigh its difficulties, especially if you live in Europe. As the economic powerhouse of western Europe, German has shown to offer the greatest financial reward.
With the importance of this language rising, there are also more resources online to learn German. You'll find plenty of options to choose from, even if it may take slightly longer to learn.
8. Indonesian
Similarity to English: 5/10
Practicing opportunities: 7/10
Usefulness: 7/10
Overall easiness: 7/10
You're probably wondering: how is an Asian language similar to English? Indonesian is in fact, a rare language that uses the Latin alphabet. While other Asian languages, like Mandarin, use unfamiliar written characters, this doesn't apply to Indonesian.
In addition, Indonesian words are pronounced exactly as it sounds. That means no silent vowels, complicated accents, or any other hidden confusions that exist in other easy languages we've listed.
9. Afrikaans
Similarity to English: 5/10
Practicing opportunities: 6/10
Usefulness: 6.5/10
Overall easiness: 7/10
Afrikaans, most widely spoken in South Africa, shares the same origins as English, the West Germanic family. That means that pronunciation is quite simple for English speakers to pick up relatively fast.
There's also no verb conjugation, gender, or pronouns that you have to learn for Afrikaans. This is heavenly words for people that detest learning grammar.
What's the Easiest Language to Learn For English Speakers?
Based on the facts we presented, Spanish would be the winner here.
When you take into factor the opportunities to practice the language, how useful it is to learn, and its similarities to the English language, it's a no-brainer.
It doesn't always mean you should choose the easiest route though. The other nine languages we shared with you are also quite easy languages to learn if you speak English, so take your pick!
Try Jumpspeak to start speaking Spanish in real-life conversations, powered by AI.
FAQs
9 Super Easy Languages to Learn For English Speakers? ›
Riau Indonesian is different from most other languages in how simple it is. There are no endings of any substance, no tones, no articles, and no word order. There is only a little bit of indicating things in time.
What are the top 10 easiest languages for English speakers? ›- Spanish. ...
- Dutch. ...
- Norwegian. ...
- Portuguese. ...
- Swedish. ...
- Italian. ...
- Romanian. ...
- Hindi. Hindi is an official language of India, where at the last count more than 500 million people (over 50% of the population) spoke Hindi as either their first or second language.
- Spanish. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language after Mandarin, and not a surprise at the top of languages to learn. ...
- German. ...
- Arabic. ...
- Mandarin. ...
- Portuguese. ...
- Russian. ...
- French.
Riau Indonesian is different from most other languages in how simple it is. There are no endings of any substance, no tones, no articles, and no word order. There is only a little bit of indicating things in time.
What is the closest language to English? ›The closest language to English is one called Frisian, which is a Germanic language spoken by a small population of about 480,000 people. There are three separate dialects of the language, and it's only spoken at the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.
What is the number 1 easiest language? ›1. Norwegian. This may come as a surprise, but we have ranked Norwegian as the easiest language to learn for English speakers. Norwegian is a member of the Germanic family of languages — just like English!
What is the top 10 hardest language to learn? ›- Mandarin. Mandarin is spoken by 70% of the Chinese population, and is the most spoken language in the world. ...
- Arabic. ...
- Japanese. ...
- Hungarian. ...
- Korean. ...
- Finnish. ...
- Basque. ...
- Navajo.
Aramaic is best known as the language Jesus spoke. It is a Semitic language originating in the middle Euphrates. In 800-600 BC it spread from there to Syria and Mesopotamia. The oldest preserved inscriptions are from this period and written in Old Aramaic.
What is the best language for an American to learn? ›If we consider the number of speakers, location, career possibilities and ease of learning, the overall three best languages for Americans to learn are (drum roll, please): Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese.
What is the sweetest language in the world? ›If a message circulating on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook is to be believed, Bengali has been voted the sweetest language in the world. Conducted by Unesco, the vote ranks Spanish and Dutch as the second and third sweetest tongues respectively.
Which language has no word for please? ›
Iceland's language makes British manners impossible to impart – there is no word for please. Icelandic does offer 45 different ways to say the word green, however.
What is the shortest language ever? ›Toki Pona, the world's smallest language.
What is the least used language ever? ›Ongota. Also known as Shanqilla, Birelle, Birale and Ifa, Ongota is a language spoken in southwestern Ethiopia. The 2012 report of UNESCO said that there are only 12 individuals who speak the language.
What language looks most like English? ›Closest Major Language: Dutch
Like Frisian and English, Dutch is another West Germanic language that developed from Proto-Germanic. Because of this, Dutch possesses many words and phrases similar to English and has a similar grammatical structure.
Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.
What language is Russian most similar to? ›From the point of view of spoken language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn, the other three languages in the East Slavic branch.
What is the #1 used language? ›1. English (1,452 million speakers) According to Ethnologue, English is the most-spoken language in the world including native and non-native speakers.
What are the top 5 easiest languages in the world? ›- English. It's the most widely spoken language in the world, making practice possible. ...
- French. French has over 100 million native speakers and is – as the official language in 28 countries – spoken on almost every continent. ...
- Spanish. ...
- Italian. ...
- Swahili.
- Frisian. ...
- Dutch. ...
- Norwegian. ...
- Spanish. ...
- Portuguese. ...
- Italian. ...
- French. ...
- Swedish.
Hungarian grammar seems like the road to death for an English speaker. Because Hungarian grammar rules are the most difficult to learn, this language has 26 different cases. The suffixes dictate the tense and possession and not the word order. That's is how most of the European languages deal with this problem.
What is the 7 hardest language to learn? ›
- 1 – Chinese (Mandarin)
- 2 – Arabic.
- 3 – Japanese.
- 4 – Korean.
- 5 – Hungarian.
- 6 – Finnish.
- 7 – Xhosa.
The easiest languages for English speakers to learn are: Danish, Dutch, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, and French. The US State Department lists these languages as Category I languages. This means they are similar to English culturally and/or linguistically.
What is one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers? ›Of these, Spanish and Italian are the easiest for native English speakers to learn, followed by Portuguese and finally French.