Which Languages Are Easiest To Learn?

So you’ve decided to learn a new language? Well done! A great first step is to select the language you’d like to begin speaking. You may be wondering which languages are easiest to learn and today we’re going to share with you our top 9! The languages on our list are considered the easiest languages to learn universally. They might not be the easiest ones for you, so before we begin, take a look at what makes a language easy to learn. 

 

What makes a language easy to learn?

• Your native language - With your mother tongue as a reference point, you’ll find it easier to learn a new language that shares similarities. It’s no surprise that English speakers find French easy to learn. This is because there are 10,000 English words that closely resemble French words. 
• Foreign languages you’ve been exposed to - Exposure might mean you have grandparents who speak Italian or that you watch Korean shows on Netflix with the subtitles on. When the choice is between learning a foreign language from scratch or building on what you already know, we recommend learning one based on what you already know. 
• How you thrive as a language learner - Some of us love memorising vocabulary while others grasp grammar quite quickly. Identify your strengths so you can select the language that allows you to lean into your natural language abilities. 
• Your pronunciation - A big part of learning a new language is the speaking element. By choosing a language that uses similar sounds to the ones you're already familiar with, you've set yourself up for success.
• How motivated you are - Ultimately, by wanting to learn a new language, you will enjoy the process and find it ‘easy’. Learning a new language will take time and effort, so the easiest language for you to learn might be the one you have the most motivation to pursue. 

How to determine the difficulty of learning a new language

What makes a language easy or difficult to learn is determined by how many hours it takes to master a level of professional proficiency. A language is considered easy for English speakers to learn if they can gain professional proficiency in 600 hours. These are the languages we will include in today’s post!

 

The languages that will require more time and effort are those that are considered very difficult to learn. Languages like Cantonese, Arabic, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin, for example, take approximately 2200 hours to gain professional proficiency. 

 

You will know you’ve achieved professional proficiency when you can do the following:

• You can understand almost everything people are saying when they speak at a normal speed. 
• You are able to speak comfortably in most situations. 
• You can communicate using a broad vocabulary and rarely pause to search for words. 

So, which languages are easiest to learn?

Take a look at our list of the top 9 languages that are easiest for English speakers to learn, in no particular order. 

 

Norwegian

Like English, Norwegian is a Germanic language. Because of this, the languages share a lot of vocabulary, like “busstasjon” (bus station) and “politistasjon” (police station). 

 

Something else we love about Norwegian: the grammar has only one verb per tense and the word order is close to English. The sentence “Can you help me?” translates to “Kan du hjelpe meg?” - the words are in the same order in both languages, making sentence structure easy to grasp. 

 

The final reason to consider learning Norwegian: your pronunciation doesn’t have to be perfect. In Norway, there are several different accents and more than one “correct way” to pronounce Norwegian words. 

 

Swedish

Swedish is another member of the Germanic family of languages and what makes it easy to learn is the number of cognates the two languages share. Cognates are words in different languages that stem from the same ancestral language and therefore look or sound similar to each other. The word “grass” is “gräs” in Swedish. 

 

We love that Swedish has simple grammar rules and similar word order to English, making it easy to pick up. Don’t be put off by unfamiliar words like “jordnötter” (it means “peanuts” but is translated as “dirt nuts”) or “kofångare” (it means “bumper” but translates as “cow catcher”). 

 

Spanish

Thanks to its practicality and wide reach, Spanish has always been a good choice for English speakers to learn. In fact, it’s the second most spoken language in the world, with over 450 million native speakers.

 

Spanish is one of the Romance languages and many of its words are derived from Latin. “Correcto” means “correct”, “delicioso” means “delicious” and “pizza” is “pizza”, to name a few. 

 

The pronunciation in Spanish is quite straightforward, due to its phonetic nature. The words are usually pronounced the way they are spelled. We love that the sentence structure is not only similar to English, but it’s also not nearly as strict as it is in English. This means there are several ways a sentence can be put together. 

 

Dutch

Spoken by 24 million people around the world, Dutch is the third most spoken Germanic language, after German and English. Because of the shared vocabulary, Dutch sounds like a combination of German and English words. 

 

Something we love about Dutch is that many of the words are spelled exactly like they are in English (words like “plastic”, “water” and “lamp”). What may confuse new Dutch speakers is the pronunciation, despite the mirrored spelling. For example, the word “rat” has the same spelling in both English and Dutch, but in Dutch, the pronunciation is like the English word “rot”. If you’re able to stay attentive, Dutch could still be easy for you to learn. 

 

Portuguese

Portuguese is a member of the Romance language family and it’s spoken in Portugal, Brazil and six African countries. Similarly to Spanish, Portuguese is easy to pick up because of the variety of shared vocabulary words. Just keep an eye out for false cognates! The Portuguese word “pasta” actually means “folder”. 

 

Another bonus for learning Portuguese is the exposure! There is an abundance of opportunities to enhance your learning, due to Brazilian Portuguese food, drinks, music and films featuring in pop culture. 

 

Indonesian

Indonesian may be a surprising addition to the list, but it is astonishingly popular, with over 40 million native speakers and more than 150 million non-native speakers. It’s also one of the few Asian languages that use the Latin alphabet. 

 

Something we love about Indonesian: it’s phonetic! It’s made up of words that are pronounced the same way they are spelled. Watch out for the Indonesian grammar structures, but don’t be put off. There are very few rules, which make learning grammar much easier. You won’t need to worry about verb conjugations, plurals (you just say the word twice), or grammatical genders. 

 

Italian

This Romance language isn’t spoken as widely as Spanish or Portuguese, but it does have around 64 million native speakers! Thanks to its Latin roots, there are a number of cognates that English speakers will find familiar. “Futuro” means “future”, “lotteria” means “lottery”, and “controllare” means “control”, to name a few. 

 

The best way to learn Italian is through food! Italian cuisine is a staple in many Western countries, making Italian words recognisable. When you think about “penne all’arrabbiata”, “gelato” and “panini”, learning Italian sounds pretty “delizioso”, doesn’t it?

 

French

French, another Romance language, is a popular language to learn! It’s not as easy as the other Romance languages, mostly because of its dialects. However, it is spoken by 77 million first-language speakers and 203 million second-language speakers in several parts of the world, like Switzerland, Luxembourg, Seychelles and Rwanda.

 

What we love most about learning French is the abundance of shared vocabulary. Did you know that during the many wars and conquests between England and France, key language was passed between these countries? French vocabulary was added to the English language, such as “avant-garde” and “à la carte”, as well as English words used in French, like the word “weekend”. 

 

Swahili

The final language on our list is Swahili. It’s widely spoken across Africa in countries like Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, amongst others, usually as a common language adopted among native speakers of different languages. 

We love that Swahili words often sound exactly the way they are spelled and the pronunciation isn’t difficult to pick up. You might recognise words like “penseli” (pencil) and “mashine” (machine). If you’ve watched the Disney classic, “The Lion King”, you will be familiar with Swahili words like “rafiki” (friend) and “simba” (lion). The grammar in Swahili is also quite straightforward to learn.

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