Learning a language is never easy, just some languages are easier to learn than others. But, when it comes to learning some languages reign supreme in terms of ease. But what are the easiest languages to learn?
10 easiest languages to learn
10. Esperanto
Whilst Esperanto may be a shock, there’s a reason for it being on this list. But Esperanto is rather strange on this list- it isn’t a natural language like Spanish, German or French but is man made.
Without getting too specific, in 1887, L L Zamenhof published his book on the language under the name Dr. Esperanto.
Just as Zamenhof hoped, it is an unofficial language of the world. Many global organisations and corporations use the language, such as the EU and Norda Stelo. When Zamenhof designed the language he took parts of Romance and Germanic languages.
When L L Zamenhof designed Esperanto, he used many words from many languages- including English! Through this, Esperanto has many English words, and is considered one of the easiest languages to learn!
That’s probably why Esperanto has 2 million native speakers!
9. Swedish
This may come as a shock, although Swedish is a Germanic language, it isn’t as close as, say, German or Dutch. Swedish is quite easy to learn due to the high number of cognates, and low number of ‘false friends’. For example, ‘printa ut’ is ‘print out’.
IKEA has also helped Swedish quite nicely- it has given it much exposure. Whilst people are shopping for new furniture or eating the famous meatballs, their subconscious is remembering the Swedish.
Next time they go, they remember more, and so on, so forth.
8. Norwegian
At first, this may surprise you, but when you think about it, it makes sense. Norwegians conquered and ruled England for hundreds of years, it’s only natural their language passed on too.
This is why much in English and Norwegian are similar- for instance, the word for winter is ‘vinter’. Word order is also the exact same, so you won’t have to worry about getting word order wrong!
With most languages, there’s only one way to pronounce it, with Norwegian this is different. There are many area of Norway- all with their own ways of pronouncing things.
This means that you can easily blend in as a native if your knowledge of Norwegian is good enough!
7. Spanish
Spanish has long been the go-to language for English speakers, it is widely used and is quite easy to master.
With Spanish, many words are direct cognates as Spanish is a romance language- somethng that has heavily influenced the English language.
For example, correct is ‘correcto’, delicious is ‘delicioso’ and so on.
Spanish pronunciation is relatively straight forward, as Spanish is a phonetic language. However, there are many tenses and exceptions to the rule which can get quite confusing after a while.
Over the past few years, more and more Spanish has entered popular culture. Songs, TV shows and more have been sang/spoken in Spanish- just think Narcos or Despacito.
6. Indonesian
This too may seem strange- after all, why is Indonesian easy? For one, it’s incredibly well spoken and it uses the Latin Alphabet that we are used to. Many other Asian languages do not use such an alphabet.
Indonesian is also quite easy as it’s a phonetic language- all words are pronounced as they appear on a page.
In Indonesian, there are no verb conjugations, no plurals (you only need to repeat the word twice), and no grammatical genders. For grammar freaks like myself- Indonesian is a heaven of a language.
5. Portuguese
Portuguese is much like Spanish- it is widely spoken and is quite similar to English. Indeed, Spanish is high in mutual intelligibility with Portuguese. Portuguese too has a high number of cognates. For example, alarm is ‘alarme’, or for example is ‘por exemplo’.
Whilst Portuguese may not be as well spoken or as famous as its neighbour, Spanish, it is still quite useful. Thanks to the Portuguese Empire, Portuguese is spoken as far away as Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Portugal and Macau.
Many linguists learning one, tend to learn the other as well, as it helps with understanding.
4. German
German is a Germanic language (that’s relatively self explanatory), it has many roots with Old English. Although word order may not always line up, it shares many grammatical similarities.
For example, to say ‘a red TV’ in German is ‘Ein roter Fernseher’, whereas in French, the word order is different. German has many cognates such as ‘blind’ and blind, and Eis and ice.
When I was learning German, my German teacher always had an issue with pronunciation. German is very deep and harsh- almost like you are ‘trying to kill someone’ as it has been said.
3. Dutch
Dutch is spoken throughout the Benelux countries and some parts of Germany. Dutch shares many similarities with English- word order is the same, much of the language is the same etc.
Pronunciation is generally the same, however, certain letter can make different sounds. For instance the word ‘rat’ is the same in both languages, however the Dutch pronunciation is more like ‘rot’ than ‘rat’.
Although limited, there are a few ‘false friends’, the Dutch word, wet, doesn’t mean ‘wet’ but in fact means ‘law’. However, Dutch ‘false friends’ are rather uncommon.
That’s probably why many say it’s one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers.
2. French
This one is relatively self-explanatory, French has had a huge impact on the English language. It’s speculated that 40-50% of English vocabulary is derived from French. This makes sense when you think of the Norman conquest.
English and French share many cognates- for example, the Fremch word for debate is ‘Débat’. However, in French, there are also many other ‘false friends’, such as ‘Je regrette’ meaning ‘I miss’, not ‘I regret’.
Thanks to the French Empire, French is also spoken throughout the world, in places are far reaching as France, Canada, Madagascar and Belgium.
We are also exposed to much French via the TV, many TV shows display French characters with French accents. Besides, a French accent isn’t as hard to replicate as you think. French is widely considered to be one of the easiest languages to learn!
1. Afrikaans
Afrikaans and Dutch are rather similar, Afrikaans is derived from Dutch. Like Dutch, Afrikaans is quite easy for an English speaker to pick up. Many phrases and words are the exact same.
Afrikaans is mainly spoken in South Africa as an alternative to English or the other national languages. Most people who speak Afrikaans are descendants of the original Dutch/Boer settlers.
Like Dutch, Afrikaans follows the same grammar and word order rules that English does. Afrikaans also has different pronunciation to Dutch- it’s more anglicised than you’d think.
That’s why many regard it as one of the easiest languages to learn- even more so than Dutch.