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Author Imogen McCawThe approach for language learning is quite similar to that for localizing a company’s customer experience: Don’t try to boil the ocean. What do we mean by that? Don’t aim for immediate fluency from the get-go — take it step by step and build solid foundations, as some lessons you’ve learned in one language may help you conquer another.
Much like localization, you’ll also want to approach language learning with an understanding of why you’re doing it. You might be learning a new language to help prepare for a new job, an international move, to connect with friends and family, or simply as a new hobby. Our clients at Unbabel localize their customer support, marketing campaigns, and other materials to meet the demands of their customers or to help them scale into new markets.
It’s a multilingual word, with only a quarter of online content in English. Understanding your drive can help you stay motivated when things get tough, or tongues get tangled.
What makes some languages easier to learn?
The similarity to your mother tongue: The more related a target language is to a speaker’s native language — roots, usages, and pronunciations — the easier it will be to learn. Hence, you’ll notice that many of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn come from different language families, while the easiest all come from the Indo-European family that is shared with English.
(Video) What Happens To Your Brain When You Learn a New Language | Understanding with UnbabelExposure: One of the reasons English is such a widely spoken language is due to the amount of exposure English learners have to it. English is dominant across so much media — from international news to TV and popular filmsand social media.
Ability to practice: Languages that are only spoken in their homeland can be harder to learn because you need to be in situ to practice. Languages that are more widely spread across the globe are easier to pick up because you’ll likely be able to find native speakers closer to home with whom to practice.
The US Foreign Service Institute has developed language learning timelines. Their scoring is based on the amount of time for native English speakers to reach “Professional Working Proficiency” in other languages. The timescale can, of course, be impacted by the language learner’s natural ability, prior linguistic experience, and time spent in the classroom.
Source: US Foreign Institute—View more
10 Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn
The following ten languages are most closely related to English, and are therefore the easiest for a native English speaker to learn:
1. Afrikaans
Like English, Afrikaans is in the West Germanic language family, once thought of as a Dutch dialect. Today, almost 9 million people globally speak Afrikaans, mainly in South Africa and Namibia.
It’s considered the easiest language for native English to learn, as it shares many Germanic-derived root words with English, which helps with pronunciation, and it has a logical and non-inflected structure, meaning most of its words don’t change based on gender, number, and tense.
Additionally, it only has three tenses: Past, present, and future, so learners don’t have to tackle cases like imperfect, pluperfect, and subjunctive.
Finally, Afrikaans doesn’t have verb conjugation. It’s a great language to learn for anyone wanting to dive deeper into South African media and entertainment, as it’s frequently used across these channels.
2. French
Ah, the language of love. French is a popular language to learn and ranks as the third most spoken language in Europe. Globally, it’s spoken by 300 million people, across France, Canada, Belgium, and Madagascar.
French speakers in France may use the same words as those in Quebec but words and phrases could have vastly different meanings or even no meaning at all. So it’s not a one-size-fits-all and text needs to be localized across these markets, generic machine tools aren’t always the right tool for the job.
As approximately one-thirdof the modern English language has been influenced by French, it’s considered familiar territory for a native English learner. English has more in common lexically with French than with any other Romance language, meaning an understanding of French vocabulary will come easier than others. This shared lexicon comes, in part, through the various wars and conquests between France and England, from which language was a symptomatic winner, or loser, depending on which side you were on. Words like à la carte, cliché, and déjà vu wormed their way into the English speakers’ vocabulary.
However, French learners should be vigilant for faux amis — false friends or false cognates — or words that look similar to English words but have different meanings: attendre (to wait for), journée (day), and préservatif (condom) are just a few.
Learn how physiotherapy association Physioswiss used Unbabel to adapt its French content across its markets in France and Switzerland.
3. Spanish
The prevalence of Spanish makes it a very popular language to learn: It’s the official language of 18 countries, across 500 million native speakers, makes up 8% of online content, and is used throughout several thousand TV shows.
Fortunately for learners, Spanish is a phonetic language, meaning words are pronounced as they are written. It also has fewer language irregularities (like the letter ñ) than other Romance languages.
Like other Romance languages, it derives from Latin — like many English words. So, there are many familiar cognates — words that are connected through the same linguistic derivation as each other. You should recognize correcto, delicioso, and ambulancia. (Slow brain day? They mean correct, delicious, and ambulance)
Despite the similarities, there are still some words that cannot be carried from Spanish to English, and require careful translation. For example:
Duende [du-en-day] (noun)It encompasses the force of a work of art or music to move us, to fill us with passion.
4. Dutch
23 million people globally speak Dutch, though primarily in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname. As mentioned above, it’s closely related to Afrikaans, and it’s possible for speakers to hold conversations in their native languages.
Another member of the West Germanic language family, Dutch mirrors English both structurally and syntactically. Due to shared vocabulary, Dutch sounds like a combination of German and English. Many words are spelled the same in Dutch and in English, even if they are pronounced differently. The two are similar with regards to vocabulary as well; groen is green, in English, and oude man is old man.
Furthermore, Dutch speakers often use English words, so much so the practice is called Dunglish. That said, there are still some words that don’t leap the language barrier, Uitwaaiendoesn’t have an equivalent in English. It means to relax in the countryside to clear one’s mind, a bit like the Danish term Hygge.
5. Norwegian
Norwegian or ‘Norsk’ is a language of the North Germanic family. Norwegian is losing its position as a key language for translation due to the fact that the language is only really spoken in Norway, plus the influx of Asian languages. But there’s still value in learning this relatively-easy language; for example, it’s handy if you want to dive deeper into Scandinavian literary culture and mythology.
Luckily for beginners, Norwegian has consistent pronunciation and easy-to-learn grammar. Verbs are straightforward, requiring no conjugation according to number or person. The rules of general conjugation are simple, requiring an ‘-e’ suffix for past tense and an ‘-s’ suffix for passive verbs. For the most part, the sentence structure is also quite comparable to English, which makes it an easy language for English native speakers.
6. Portuguese
Portuguese is the official language in nine countries, including Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, and Portugal, which makes it a handy language to hone. Yet, while Portuguese speakers in Brazil may use the same words as those in Portugal, they may have vastly different meanings.
Many English speakers have discovered that Portuguese shares many direct similarities with English. For example, a question is introduced by intonation instead of rearranging verb forms like it is in English. ‘We’re arriving now,’ becomes a question by inflecting up at the end of the sentence: ‘We’re arriving now?’
Another treat for Portuguese learners: Like many European languages, Portuguese is better than English for expressing matters of the heart. Portuguese speakers use Saudade to express the longing for someone or something they once loved, now gone forever.
7. Swedish
Swedish or ‘Svenska’ is spoken by 10 million people in Sweden, but it is also used in neighboring countries of Finland and Denmark. Because it is a Germanic language, Swedish shares cognates like midnatt (midnight), gräs (grass), and konferens (conference) with English.
Like Norwegian, Swedish also has reasonably simple grammar rules and Swedish syntax follows the English subject-verb-object structure.
Retail giant IKEA has also given its homeland’s mother tongue an exposure boost: English speakers globally will have picked up some handy household terms while navigating the IKEA store maze. For example, Lack tables are named after the Swedish word for varnish.
See how IKEA used language to its benefit when scaling abroad.
8. Italian
If French is the language of love, Italian must be the language of food. English speakers — and cooks in particular — will already be familiar with a whole host of Italian words. Often found lurking in kitchen cupboards, spaghetti, passata, and (in the freezer) gelato have been adopted into the English language.
Additionally, as Italian has a vocabulary rooted in Latin, there are many English-Italian cognates like calendario (calendar), lotteria (lottery), and foresta (forest).
Over 60 million people speak Italian as their first language, found globally from Italy and the Vatican City to Costa Rica and Libya. There are differences across Italian-speaking locales, as physiotherapy association Physioswiss knew when it chose Unbabel to adapt its Italian content across its markets in Italy and Switzerland.
Italian is highly readable, sporting a simple alphabet consisting of only 21 letters (English has 26), so learners can quickly absorb the letters — perhaps while finishing a chilled gelato.
Learn how Italians’ love of food set them apart in marketing personalization for Ooni Pizza Ovens.
9. Romanian
Roughly 22-26 million people speak Romanian as their native language. It’s a unique language: Romanian is the only Romance language developed in the Eastern part of Latin Europe. Romanian learners have found that these Latin roots make it similar to English. It shares some common words, like contemporanii (contemporaries), and week-end bun (good weekend).
It also shares similarities with other Romance languages:La revedere (goodbye) is similar to the Italian Arrivederci, and Scuză-mă (an apologetic ‘Excuse me’) is related to the French Excusez-moi.
Luckily for learners, Romanian is a phonetic language, so most words are spelled the same way they are pronounced.
10. 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. It’s also spoken in Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, and Nepal.
A slightly more difficult language to learn than the top nine, Hindi will take the average English learner slightly longer to master. That being said, the English language has words of Hindi origin and has adopted many loanwords from Hindi — words adopted from a foreign language with little or no modification — such as jungle, guru, and karma.
Hindi also uses lots of English words, which are read and pronounced as they are in English, even if they look different in the Hindi writing system. For example, डॉक्टर is pronounced doctor, स्टेशन is station, and अनुवाद is cricket.
From similar vocabularies to parallel structures, all of the above languages relate to English in some way. Indonesian and Swahili are easy languages that didn’t place in the Unbabel list, but still equally worth exploring. However, if you’re after a challenge, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Mandarin, Finnish, Hungarian, and Polish all make the list of the hardest languages to learn.
If this all feels like too much work, our Language Guides are a perfect stepping stone to getting into the culture of a new language — without the hours of work. Download your guide to the easiest language to learn.
FAQs
The 10 Easiest Languages to Learn, as Rated by Unbabel? ›
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 easiest language to learn ranked? ›- Spanish (3/30) Number of native speakers: 480 million. ...
- Dutch (3/30) Number of native speakers: 24 million. ...
- German (6/30) Number of native speakers: 95 million. ...
- Italian (7/30) ...
- Afrikaans (7/30) ...
- Esperanto (7/30) ...
- Portuguese (9/30) ...
- French (9/30)
- English.
- German.
- Norwegian.
- Spanish.
- Italian.
- Portuguese.
- French.
- Mandarin.
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 top 3 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.
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 is the most useful language to learn after English? ›- 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.
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 hardest language to learn for non Americans? ›- Arabic. The prime language of every Islamic country, at least 2 people speak Arabic out of 100 on average. ...
- Russian. ...
- Mandarin. ...
- German. ...
- Dutch. ...
- Swahili. ...
- Spanish. ...
- FRENCH.
Current data states that there are only 7 remaining speakers of the language. Written records are available, such as a dictionary and several books that show the grammar and syntax of the Dumi language. Dumi is the world's least spoken language and one of the rarest.
What is the rarest language in the world? ›
Kawishana is the rarest language in the world.
What is the very first language? ›What is the first language? Sumerian can be considered the first language in the world, according to Mondly. The oldest proof of written Sumerian was found on the Kish tablet in today's Iraq, dating back to approximately 3500 BC.
What is the 5 hardest language? ›- Mandarin.
- Japanese.
- Arabic.
- Xhosa.
- Russian.
As mentioned before, Mandarin is unanimously considered the most difficult language to master in the world! Spoken by over a billion people in the world, the language can be extremely difficult for people whose native languages use the Latin writing system.
Which language has hardest grammar? ›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.
- Frisian. ...
- Dutch. ...
- Norwegian. ...
- Spanish. ...
- Portuguese. ...
- Italian. ...
- French. ...
- Swedish.
The language features grammatical rules that are often broken, an alphabet that can confuse people who are used to a character-based system, and spelling and pronunciation irregularities that perplex even native speakers.
What is the hardest language to learn for non English speakers? ›– Mandarin Chinese is considered the most difficult language to learn for non-English speakers. – The language has over 50,000 characters and a complex writing system. – Mandarin Chinese has four tones, which can change the meaning of a word completely.
Is Russian or Korean harder? ›
The Russian language is easier when you look at their writing style. On the basis of Sounds: There are more sounds in the Korean language as compared to the Russian language.
What language did Jesus speak? ›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 other country speaks the most English? ›- United States — 332,915,073.
- United Kingdom — 68,207,116.
- Canada (except for Quebec) — 38,067,903.
- Australia — 25,788,215.
- Liberia — 5,180,203.
- Ireland — 4,982,907.
- New Zealand — 4,860,643.
- Jamaica — 2,973,463.
What two languages are the most similar? Spanish and Portuguese are the most mutually understandable pair. In certain circumstances, television stations do not even translate between the two languages, presuming that Spanish-speaking viewers will understand Portuguese and vice versa.
What language is least similar to English? ›The least similar language to English is also the least similar to every other language. Basque language has about a half dozen dialects and is a language isolate. It belongs to no language family. The English language is part of the Germanic language branch of the Indo-European languages.
What is the most popular non English language spoken in us? ›English – 245 million (78.5%) Spanish – 41.3 million (13.2%) Chinese (including Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and all other varieties) – 3.40 million (1.1%) Tagalog (including Filipino) – 1.72 million (0.5%)
What is the most spoken non English language? ›- Chinese — 1.3 Billion Native Speakers. ...
- Spanish — 485 Million Native Speakers. ...
- English — 373 Million Native Speakers. ...
- Arabic — 362 Million Native Speakers. ...
- Hindi — 344 Million Native Speakers. ...
- Bengali — 234 Million Native Speakers. ...
- Portuguese — 232 Million Native Speakers.
The least spoken language in the world is Zàpara
These tend to be very ancient languages that have survived in isolated communities. Around 19 languages have become extinct in Cambodia since the beginning of the twentieth century due to the political and cultural invasion of the Khmer Rouge.
Latin, Ancient Greek, Old Viking runes and Egyptian hieroglyphs call to you and you feel it's time to answer. These are dead languages – those that no longer have a native speaking community.
What language is not used anymore? ›
Date | Language | Region |
---|---|---|
by 2011 | Anserma | Antioquia Department, Colombia |
24 October 2010 | Pazeh | Taiwan |
20 August 2010 | Cochin Indo-Portuguese Creole | Southern India |
26 January 2010 | Aka-Bo | Andaman Islands, India |
Unless you're speaking Esperanto, it's best to cover your ears. It's been suggested people can't swear in Japanese or Finnish, but the rumours are wrong in both cases - the only languages in which one cannot swear are 'artificial' ones such as Esperanto.
What is the 1st most beautiful language? ›FRENCH – MOST BEAUTIFUL SPOKEN LANGUAGE
With its unpronounceable “r”, its nasal vowel sounds “en”, “in”, “un” and melodious intonation, it sounds extremely musical to the non-native ear. And let's not forget the strong cultural context which lends French the status of the most beautiful spoken language in the world.
The archaeological proof we have today allows us to state that the oldest dead language in the world is the Sumerian language. Dating back to at least 3500 BC, the oldest proof of written Sumerian was found in today's Iraq on an artifact known as the Kish Tablet.
Will the world ever have 1 language? ›It's unlikely that we'll see a world that speaks one language any time soon. Protecting each individual countries' cultures is a huge barrier, but an important one to ensure our world is as beautifully diverse as it's always been.
What language did Adam and Eve speak? ›The Adamic language, according to Jewish tradition (as recorded in the midrashim) and some Christians, is the language spoken by Adam (and possibly Eve) in the Garden of Eden.
What was the youngest language in the world? ›The world's youngest language, coming in at only 100 years old (officially), is the South African language of Afrikaans. Surprised? Afrikaans, the natively spoken language of 7 million South Africans, was born from the white Dutch, French, and German colonizers in South Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries.
What is the 15 hardest language to learn? ›- Mandarin Chinese. There are over 900 million speakers of Mandarin, making it one of the most widely spoken native languages around the world. ...
- Arabic. ...
- Korean. ...
- Navajo. ...
- Icelandic. ...
- Turkish. ...
- 7. Japanese. ...
- Persian.
- Spanish. Incredibly fast and fluid, Spanish never fails to make you weak at the knees.
- Italian. Completely beautiful, any word in Italian sounds sexy.
- French. The language of love is a consistent winner when it comes to appeal.
- Brazilian Portuguese. ...
- Arabic. ...
- Norwegian. ...
- Hungarian. ...
- Thai.
Finally, the “Big Four.” According to the US Department of State, the four most difficult languages to learn are Arabic, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. To become conversational in one of these languages, you'll probably need 1.69 years, spending 2,200 hours in class!
Is Spanish or English grammar harder? ›
GENERAL GRAMMAR: SPANISH VS. ENGLISH. In terms of general grammar rules, English rules seem harder explain or “make sense of.” Spanish rules are more formulaic but still may take a long time to master.
What are Level 5 languages? ›5 – Native / Bilingual Proficiency
Someone at this language proficiency level was either raised speaking the language as their native tongue or has been speaking it so long that they are completely fluent. They have little or no accent.
Category I languages are the easiest for English speakers, who can reach reading and speaking proficiency within about half a year of intense study. There is a mix Romance and Germanic languages in this classification, including Dutch, Swedish, French, Spanish, and Italian.
Which one is easier French or Spanish? ›Babbel actually ranked the easiest languages for English speakers to learn though, and technically, Spanish is higher on that list than French (Spanish came in third, versus eighth for French). This is mostly thanks to Spanish's easier pronunciation.
What is the richest language? ›A major uniqueness of Arabic language lies in its richness. While English, French, and Russian languages have around 500,000 words, 150,000 words, and 130,000 words in its vocabulary respectively, Arabic language has 12,3 million words in its own, making it the richest language in vocabulary, by far.
What is harder Chinese or Japanese? ›Chinese and Japanese are two of the most popular languages to learn, Japanese is generally seen as being harder than Chinese due to its writing system and complex grammar structures.
What level of English is fluent? ›C1 English (Advanced)
Level C1 corresponds to users who can express themselves fluently and spontaneously. They can use language flexibly and effectively for all purposes.
The Japanese language is considered one of the most difficult to learn by many English speakers. With three separate writing systems, an opposite sentence structure to English, and a complicated hierarchy of politeness, it's decidedly complex.
What is the most useful language to learn? ›- 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.
Spanish. This pick should come as no surprise. Spanish has always been a go-to language for English speakers to learn due to its practicality and wide reach. Well, it's also one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers.
Which is the closest language to English? ›
- Closest Language: Scots. The closest language to English is arguably Scots. ...
- Closest (Definitely Distinct) Language: Frisian. ...
- Closest Major Language: Dutch. ...
- Close Language: German. ...
- Close Language: Norwegian. ...
- Close Language: French.
Do Colleges Care Which Foreign Language You Take? Nope! College admissions officers do not view certain languages as harder or more impressive than others because all foreign languages require time and dedication to learn and all provide benefits.
Who speaks faster Spanish or French? ›Rank (Popularity) | Language | Words Per Minute (wpm) |
---|---|---|
1st | English | 200 |
2nd | Spanish | 218 |
3rd | Chinese | 158 |
4th | French | 195 |
Kawishana is the rarest language in the world.
What is the most dying language? ›- 1: Resígaro, Peru. Sunrise in the Peruvian Amazon (Dreamstime) ...
- 2: Ainu, Japan. Ainu village in Hokkaido (Dreamstime) ...
- 3: Dunser, Papua New Guinea. ...
- 4: Vod, Estonia/Russia. ...
- 5: Pawnee, USA. ...
- 6: Chulym, Russia. ...
- 7: Mudburra, Australia. ...
- 8: Machaj Juyay, Bolivia.
In formal language theory within theoretical computer science, an infinite word is an infinite-length sequence (specifically, an ω-length sequence) of symbols, and an ω-language is a set of infinite words.