What is the best language to learn as an English speaker?

Easiest (about 600 hours of study)
Of these, Spanish and Italian are the easiest for native English speakers to learn, followed by Portuguese and finally French.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on cnn.com


What is the easiest language for English speakers to learn?

15 of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers - ranked
  • Frisian. 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. ...
  • Dutch. ...
  • Norwegian. ...
  • Spanish. ...
  • Portuguese. ...
  • Italian. ...
  • French. ...
  • Swedish.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on berlitz.com


What is the hardest language for English speakers to learn?

The Hardest Languages To Learn For English Speakers
  1. Mandarin Chinese. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. ...
  2. Arabic. ...
  3. Polish. ...
  4. Russian. ...
  5. Turkish. ...
  6. Danish.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on babbel.com


What is the easiest language to learn for non English speakers?

German. German is rooted as a West Germanic language, like English, and those who are somewhat proficient in English, Dutch, Yiddish, or more will have a much easier time learning. For example, notice the similarities in German and Dutch in the example below: "What came first: the chicken or the egg?"
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on jumpspeak.com


What is the most useful language to learn?

8 Useful Languages to Learn
  • English. You might be surprised that English isn't the most commonly spoken language in the world. ...
  • Chinese. With more than 1 billion native speakers, Chinese dominates Asia and the world as the most frequently spoken language. ...
  • Spanish. ...
  • Arabic. ...
  • French. ...
  • German. ...
  • Portuguese. ...
  • Russian.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on rosettastone.co.uk


Top 5 Easiest Languages To Learn For English Speakers



What is the best second language to learn after English?

The 3 best languages to learn (after English) are: Spanish, French, and Chinese. Naturally, if you're going to work in a specific country, you don't need to think twice about what language to learn next.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on mosalingua.com


Which foreign language is most in demand?

The top 10 languages in higher demand for business
  1. ENGLISH. English is the lingua franca of business and academia. ...
  2. CHINESE. ...
  3. SPANISH. ...
  4. ARABIC. ...
  5. GERMAN. ...
  6. PORTUGUESE. ...
  7. RUSSIAN. ...
  8. FRENCH.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on blog.acolad.com


What language is closest 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.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on rosettastone.com


What is the simplest language?

'” That metaphorical process is at the heart of Toki Pona, the world's smallest language. While the Oxford English Dictionary contains a quarter of a million entries, and even Koko the gorilla communicates with over 1,000 gestures in American Sign Language, the total vocabulary of Toki Pona is a mere 123 words.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on theatlantic.com


What is the hardest language to learn if you do not speak English?

If you don't speak English, the hardest language to learn would be Spanish. Spanish is a Romance language that is spoken in many parts of the world. It is also one of the most difficult languages to learn because it has many sounds and grammar rules that are different from English.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on learnenglish100.com


What is the 2nd hardest language to learn?

2. Arabic. Arabic is the queen of poetic languages, the 6th official language of the UN and second on our list of toughest languages to learn.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on leverageedu.com


Is Spanish or English harder to learn?

Spanish. Social media informalIy tells me there's an overwhelming consensus: English is WAY harder for Spanish-speakers to learn.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on spanishmama.com


Is German easy for English speakers?

German might not be as familiar to English speakers as Spanish, but it's still one of the easiest languages to learn. Like Spanish, it's also a phonetic language, which makes pronunciation easy to figure out.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on europelanguagejobs.com


Is Spanish easy for English speakers?

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.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on babbel.com


Is French or Spanish easier to learn for English speakers?

Spanish is simpler to pronounce and most English speakers will find it easier to learn speaking fluently Spanish than to learn speakinf fluently in French. In terms of vocabulary, French and English are very close due to their shared history.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on global-exam.com


Is Italian or Spanish easier to learn for English speakers?

Though arguably for Spanish may be a tad easier. Italian has far more irregular verbs to memorise, and the symbols you see on Spanish words actually tell you how a word is pronounced, whereas Italian pronunciation can be more of a guessing game.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on blog.busuu.com


What language has the hardest grammar?

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.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on thelanguagedoctors.org


What is the shortest word in English language?

The shortest word is a. Some might wonder about the word I since it consists of one letter, too. In sound, a is shorter because it is a monophthong (consists of one vowel), while I is a diphthong. Both do consist of one letter in the English writing system, and in most fonts I is the narrowest letter.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on web.mnstate.edu


Is English closer to German or French?

By linguist criteria English is more similar to German, both belong in the West Germanic languages and its vocabulary has been influenced by other Germanic languages as well.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on mylanguagebreak.com


Why does the US mostly speak English?

The use of English in the United States is a result of British colonization of the Americas. The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America during the early 17th century, followed by further migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on en.wikipedia.org


Is Swedish easy for English speakers?

Swedish is one of the easier languages for an English native speaker to learn, with a lot of vocabulary and grammar in common.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on babbel.com


What language should I learn 2022?

Mandarin Chinese

It has over one billion native speakers and lies on the top of the list of useful languages to learn in 2021 or 2022.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on nordictrans.com


Is Spanish or French more useful?

If you live in the United States or plan to travel throughout Latin America, Spanish is probably going to be much more useful to you. However, if you're in Canada, or planning to travel or do business there, knowing French is going to be more helpful — it's an official language of the country, after all.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on lingopie.com


Is it OK to learn 2 languages at once?

Answer: Thankfully, your brain can definitely handle learning two (or more!) languages at once! (Two down, 6,998 to go.) But there are also some ways you can make this linguistic task easier on yourself.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on blog.duolingo.com


Is French or German more useful?

At a global level, many more people speak French than German. I've read many articles and posts that claim German is more widely spoken than French. This is true in Europe, but not globally. In Europe there are about 100 million native German speakers and ~80 million French speakers.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on thefrenchobjective.com