As a Germanic language, Norwegian and English share tons of cognates (like welcome). In fact, one linguistic study found that 40% of German words sound similar to their English equivalent. Luckily, there is some overlap with English, since Ireland and Scotland are neighbors to England. The language is in the Finno-Urgic language family, so it doesn't have any Latin or German influence to help you guess what something means. Besides all this, Basque has a few easier traits. But far too many people never know the joys of a second language because they think they don’t have time to learn, that learning is too hard or that they just can’t do it. Studies concluded that the ten easiest languages to learn are: 10 French. On the plus side, the Korean alphabet, Mandarin is one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers. Afrikaans was then infused with indigenous languages and other linguist influences. Even better: English speakers are absolutely everywhere, which means you’ve always got a conversation partner! Music and movies can be motivating as well! Number of native speakers: 195,000 (57,000 Scottish, 138,000 Irish). Number of native speakers: 260 million Grammatical concepts: 3/5 Language family: 3/5 Sounds and tones: 3/5 Writing system: 4/5 Cultural distance: 3/5 Language resources: 1/5 Hindi is highly phonetic, which means it’s spelled the way it sounds – score! Finally, spelling is super intuitive, with many words written halfway between Dutch and English. In addition, their writing sys… Icelandic has a reputation for difficult pronunciation, due to its long words and new sounds like Þ and Ð, which can be either voiced or voiceless. © 2020 Enux Education Limited. Czech is also one of the hardest languages because of the way that consonants cluster together in words, making pronounciation a mouthful! In other words, easy-peasy. You decide what’s best. Not only does Spanish share the same alphabet – with the sole addition of. But if you’re in a pinch, a language partner will also help. Whatever your learning style is, here are 3 kinds of easy languages for you to get started with. Finnish has a reputation for being a tricky language to learn, and with good reason. Its redeeming factor? Here you will find tens of thousands of words and expressions along with their translations into dozens of foreign languages. However, it’s also heavily influenced by Bantu, Persian, English and Romance languages. Please find below many ways to say no in different languages. Does the script build or require heavy memorization? Not only does Spanish share the same alphabet – with the sole addition of ñ – but it’s also phonetic. Saying home in European Languages. Saying no in Asian Languages. Jakob is a full-time traveler, obsessive language learner, and dedicated language teacher. What do you find challenging about learning a language? Turkish is a distinctive language with some quirky rules. With combinations like, , Gaelic has some unusual sound combinations, too. If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via … That’s a shame, because structurally speaking, it’s a cinch. The biggest difference is likely the new sounds, including sch and ij. He writes about language, travel and the many places they meet on the road at his blog Globalect. It doesn’t take long to crack the code and figure out that these four lines say the same thing in closely related West Germanic languages (English, Dutch, German, and Afrikaans, from top to bottom). Romanian is also consistently phonetic, so words are pronounced as they’re spelled. There are generally three major things that make a language easy or hard for any given learner: 1. Yikes! By the way, you won’t find any cognates either. (Yay for simplicity!) Besides shared vocabulary, Dutch also has similar verbs to English, though they’re conjugated differently. Even better, it has no grammatical categories for gender, number or tense. In the English language, it is common to hear "thank you" or "thanks" as a polite response. Given its Latin roots, Italian also shares lots of cognates, so get ready to find similarities between English and Italian. You won’t find shared roots or cognates here, which means Finnish is a bit of a blank slate. Besides that, however, Hindi has some challenging differences in terms of grammar, pronunciation and writing. Numerous Persian words have even been incorporated into English, including bazaar, candy, caravan, checkmate and kiosk. In addition, their verbs have three persons, two numbers, two tenses and two moods. Like English, it has a singular gender: in English. too (just like English). As if that wasn’t easy enough, Norwegian also has somewhat similar word order to English, at least compared to German. But that’s not the only reason why it’s one of the easiest languages to learn. These familiar words will be a welcome sight for English speakers and make it one of the easiest languages to learn. Even just ten minutes a day can keep the language fresh in your mind. But given its similarities to English, German is one of the easiest languages. Even the easiest languages to learn won’t be a piece of cake. The only tricky part? To top it off, Japanese takes the top spot as the fastest spoken language in the world! The hardest part about Spanish is the huge variety of dialects, as it’s officially spoken in, . We also participate in other affiliate advertising programs for products and services we believe in. From fisch for fish, bruder for brother and haus for house, you’re already halfway there with your vocabulary. Of course, German has a rough reputation when it comes to pronunciation and unfortunately it’s got four noun case endings. Then there’s the grammar. While Spanish grammar is distinct from English, it’s simpler and has some basic overlap. to Norwegian! You’ll have to do the work no matter what! Every conversation, formal or informal, starts with a greeting. These tones make Mandarin extremely tricky; if you don’t get the tone right, you’ll say a different word entirely! My online friends and I wanted to show you how to count from one to ten in different languages. In addition, you’ll have to watch what you say when addressing your superiors. How Your Brain Handles Different Languages. The easiest language for a native Spanish speaker to learn will be totally different than the easiest language for a native Vietnamese speaker, and it can even differ vastly between two native English speakers from the same region but who have different learning styles. Download: It’s a unique language with 35% of its vocabulary coming from Arabic. Afrikaans was then infused with indigenous languages and other linguist influences. If you want to create the passive tense, just add -s. And if you want to create possessive, pop on -s too (just like English). It also uses Latin script, though it was once written in Cyrillic. Named the easiest Romance language, Italian has different grammar than English, but it’s consistent and often simpler to create sentences. Dutch is in the Germanic language family, which includes German and English. Compared to modern languages, Basque is extraordinarily different. In addition, their verbs have three persons, two numbers, two tenses and two moods. I was looking at your blog a few months ago to find out more about trying to learn Spanish when I came across your blog '16 Must-Know Words and Phrases For Any Language'. Take the word for sun, for example: it’s zon in Dutch and son in Afrikaans. One of the most common examples is the word ma, which depending on the inflection can mean mother, horse, scold or hemp. So you want to be a polyglot?. Nouns have 15 different cases, while in English, they have only three: subjective, objective, possessive. Then there’s the grammar. Plus, Dutch colonists were a major influence on American English when they arrived in the 1600s. However, for a Vietnamese native speaker who uses tones regularly, Thai may be easier to grasp. One favorite Finnish word is söisinköhän, meaning “I’m wondering if I should eat something.” The silver lining of Finnish is that it’s fairly phonetic! To make life easier, Indonesian doesn’t have distinct verb endings, and adds prefixes and suffixes onto words to change the meaning. While some Hindi learners use a Latin alphabet, the Devanagari script actually helps clarify pronunciation once characters are understood. As the official language of South Africa, Afrikaans is – surprise! On the bright side, Hungarian only has three verb tenses: past, present and future! There’s no such thing as one language that’s just plain easier than all the others, but there are a lot of languages that are way easier for you personally to learn. which sounds like it should mean push, but actually means pull. Your language goals will be different depending on whether you want to travel and speak with locals, converse in depth with a native friend, or read literature in that language. No wonder the Foreign Service Institute estimates a whopping 2,200 hours to learn Arabic! All these traits make it one of the hardest languages to learn. French and English go way back. Overall, Dutch is English’s closest cousin. Not only are there thousands of cognates, but also similarities in the grammar, syntax and vocabulary. For instance, Basque doesn’t simply change the end of the verb, it changes the beginning too. As you decide what language to learn next, it’s a good idea to consider which languages are the easiest and hardest to learn. In addition, it uses VSO (verb, subject, object) word order, which can be tricky to get the hang of. Nouns are likewise stuffed with information: Basque has 12 nouns cases, with many suffixes and prefixes added to change meaning. Thank You in 30 Languages. As per FSI studies, Danish, Afrikaans, Malaysian, and Swahili also fall into the easiest languages category of I and II. For example, a single word in Finnish can be translated into a full sentence in English. In Spanish, a always sounds more or less like a (even with an accent mark), which we as learners really appreciate. (To say speed limit in German, it’s this mouthful. Go leór Indonesian shares certain characteristics with English, thanks to the language. To start, Hungarian is part of the language the best way to learn this isn... 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