Whether you’re a native speaker or you have a solid mastery of English as a second language, you may be looking to try out some new languages. From improved memory and brain function to simply taking on a personal challenge, there are a lot of reasons to learn a new language. Why take the hard road though?
At Remitly, we are dedicated to offering immigrants and travelers the information they need to thrive. In this article, we’ll dust off the language books and see which languages are easiest for English speakers to learn and share some tips for learning them (and other languages!).
Exploring the easiest languages to learn for English speakers
If you just want to learn a language as a personal exercise, you may not be too concerned about which one. Other people may be looking to move abroad to a place where they won’t need to struggle too much with integrating into the local culture. No matter why you’re looking to learn a new language, what is it about them that actually makes them “easy” or “hard”?
Factors that influence language learning difficulty
The main factor that makes a language easier or harder to learn is always going to be its similarity to your native tongue. Languages with similar vocabulary and grammar structures will always be simpler to wrap our heads around. It also helps when there is a degree of predictability in the differences between your language and the one you’re learning.
Understanding language families
As the first languages developed, people were slowly spreading across the world and taking that language with them. Each group then slowly changed their languages over time until we got distinct linguistic family trees. At the highest level, we see languages separated into regions like Niger-Congo in sub-Saharan Africa, Austronesian across the Pacific Islands, and Indo-European which covers an area that includes Northern India, the Caucasus, and Europe. This means that languages as different as Irish Gaelic, Estonian, Persian, and Hindi all share a common ancestor which likely existed around 7,000 years ago in the steppes between the Black and Caspian Seas.
Within the language families, sub-groups arose. The main subgroups that we’ll be looking at today are the Germanic and Romance groups. This is because these are the languages which share the most similarity with English. English is considered a Germanic language, but surveys of English vocabulary have shown that more than half of the words in English have a French or Latin origin.
As a learner, this means that languages with similar structures and grammar like Germanic languages or similar vocabularies like Romance languages will be the easiest to learn.
Top easiest languages for English speakers
If you want to learn a new language as quickly and easily as possible, Germanic languages are the ones to start with. Of the 1,626 most common words in English, over half have a Germanic origin, so getting started with these languages should feel straightforward.
Frisian: Our closest living linguistic relatives
The three closest relatives to English are the Frisian trio. These are West Frisian, spoken by 400,000 people in the Netherlands, North Frisian, spoken by 4,000-10,000 people in Germany near the Danish border, and East Frisian, a language in the German state of Lower Saxony with around 2,000 speakers.
West Frisian would be the easiest of these three to learn. As an official language in the province of Friesland, it has the institutional support for local Frisians to speak the language meaning that learners would also have more opportunities to speak it.
Admittedly, it’s not going to be the most useful language to learn given its geographic restriction. However, if your goal is to simply learn a language, Frisian definitely deserves its spot on any list of the easiest for English speakers.
Dutch: Familiar grammar and vocabulary
Continuing with another Germanic language, Dutch is just one step further away from English on the linguistic family tree, making it fairly easy to learn. English speakers will be happy to see that the grammar of Dutch is very similar to that of English in its simplicity. There are no grammatical cases like those in German, and while Dutch does maintain some gendering on nouns, the rules tend to be much simpler than those in other gendered languages.
English speakers will also be happy to see a lot of similar words in Dutch. This is due not only to the shared background of the languages, but also thanks to the proximity of the two cultures which means that words were easily borrowed between the two languages. The Dutch also borrowed some French and Latin words over the years which will be helpful to English speakers as well.
Learning Dutch as an English speaker will certainly prove more useful than Frisian. 24 million people live in countries where Dutch is an official language. This includes the Netherlands and Belgium with a combined 23.5 million speakers as well as some of the Dutch former colonies and overseas territories like Curacao, Aruba, St. Maarten, and Suriname.
Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish: Clear phonetics and similarity to English
On the other side of the North Sea, the descendants of Old Norse offer a tantalizing option for those looking to expand their linguistic capabilities without too much effort. All three of these languages offer a fairly straightforward grammar system and a lot of words that share similarities with their English counterparts.
These similarities are all thanks to the Vikings. The Anglo-Saxons, who migrated to Great Britain from the present-day Netherlands and northwest Germany in the 5th and 6th centuries, brought their West Germanic language with them. This language would eventually become Old English.
However, they were heavily influenced by the presence of Norse vikings from around 865 to the Norman conquest in 1066. This influence during the formative years of Old English left its mark and those Norse words still exist today. It’s the reason why we have some similar words within English like “sick” or “beer” from the West Germanic languages and “ill” or “ale” from the Norse languages.
While all three languages are considered easy for English speakers, Norwegian is often said to be the easiest, followed by Swedish, then Danish. The sounds in Norwegian are more similar to those in English. Swedish and Danish have more new vowels for English speakers than Norwegian, and Swedish also features a few consonant clusters that may prove difficult as well. Still, with a bit of practice, all three are very accessible for learners.
Romance languages that English speakers find manageable
While moving from Germanic languages to Romance languages may seem like it will be very difficult, many people will be surprised at how quickly they can make progress with Romance languages. In fact, the US Department of State has investigated language learning to help train its diplomats, and two of the languages we’ll see below are estimated to take the same amount of time to learn as the Germanic ones above.
Italian: Musicality and familiar sentence structures
One of the benefits of the Romance languages is that they tend to be very phonetically written. While you may need to learn a few different spelling conventions, these languages tend not to have so many exceptions to their own rules. Italian is definitely one of those languages. It also helps that the sounds needed to accurately pronounce Italian are all present in English. The rhythm of the language also means that speakers can pick up the accent a fair bit easier as well.
Romance grammar can be tougher than Germanic grammar as the verbs need to change to reflect both person and tense, but the sentence structure of Italian will feel very similar to English. Any other differences tend to be fairly minor and easily learned.
Aside from the grammar differences, English speakers will find that many of our borrowed Romance words have cognates in Italian, but beware the false cognates! If you’re considering learning Italian, there are also a lot of options for learning the language through Italy’s film and literature scenes.
Portuguese: Shared vocabulary with Spanish
Like Italian, Portuguese’s Latin roots make it a relatively easy language to pick up. Again, it’s a very phonetic language which makes reading it simple. Where things start to get a bit tricky is adding nasal vowels to the mix. Speakers and listeners need to be able to distinguish between vowels which are pronounced through the nose and those that aren’t. There are also subtle changes to some vowel pronunciations which will take a bit more time to master than the simpler Italian vowels.
If you happen to have a background in Spanish or a rudimentary knowledge of it, you’ll find Portuguese even easier to pick up. Much of the vocabulary is similar between the two languages. This doesn’t mean that the two are mutually intelligible, but knowing a few words in one can certainly help in the other.
One thing to keep in mind is that, while it is a fairly widespread language with over 200 million speakers, knowing one Portuguese may not mean that you’ll be ready to jump right in with another. When it comes to both vocabulary and pronunciation, Brazilian and European Portuguese are often treated as entirely separate languages. Bear this in mind when choosing which one you’d like to learn.
Spanish: Phonetic spelling and fairly simple grammar
The last Romance language on the list is Spanish. This is the language that is seen by the State Department as being a little bit harder than the other two, but have no fear; it’s still classified as a simple “Category I” language. Spanish is really good at sticking to simple phonetic spelling, though again, there are sounds like the notorious “rolled R” which may cause some issues for learners.
One of the other things that can make Spanish difficult to learn is just how widespread it is. 21 countries use Spanish as an official language meaning that there are many more dialects with different vocabulary and accents to learn. Though they aren’t all treated as separate languages like Brazilian and European Portuguese, this can still affect travelers who are trying to understand Spanish in different countries.
All of that said, Spanish is still fairly easy for English speakers to learn. As the second-most widely spoken native language and the fourth-most widely spoken language when learners are counted, Spanish also proves to be one of the most useful languages on our list.
Making an informed decision on learning a new language
When starting your language learning journey, ease of learning is only one part of the puzzle. There are other factors which may influence your decision on which language you want to devote your time and energy to learning.
Choosing a language based on practical use and interest
When choosing a language to learn, you can also look at the decision through a more practical or personal lens.
From a practical standpoint, you may consider which language is used by the people you’re most often around. This could be colleagues in your career field or if you would like to position yourself for a relocation to a certain part of the world through your current job (or one you’re hoping to get). Taking the time to learn a language is always going to show dedication and self-starting habits which employers will value beyond the skill of being able to speak the language.
From a personal standpoint, you may just find yourself interested in a country or culture. This may be through something you were exposed to online, through a hobby, or even a personal connection through ancestral ties to a country. Whether your motivations are more practical or personal, you can use them to fuel your motivation.
Prioritizing your language learning goals
No matter your motivations, consistency is key when it comes to learning languages. Set aside a bit of time each day to practice your budding language skills. This can be through more focused studies, consuming media like books or TV shows, or spending time with a teacher online or in person. One of my favorite tips is to watch game shows in your target language. It’s a great way to hear different dialects of the language without having to keep up with a complex plot line like in a movie or another show.
The more exposure you get, the faster you’ll learn, so ask your friends to hold you accountable and do what you can to celebrate the wins as they come. Even learning the easiest languages can still be difficult, so enjoy the process!
FAQs
What language can be learned in three months?
There are likely no languages that can be truly learned to fluency in three months. Depending on how similar your target language is to your native language and how much time you dedicate to studying, you can certainly make progress to the point of feeling confident in using the language in certain scenarios.
Is French or Spanish easier?
The US Department of State classifies French and Spanish as needing an equal amount of study to reach competency in the languages. However, learners may find Spanish to be slightly easier given its simpler spelling rules and its generally easier pronunciation.
What is the most useful language to learn after English?
Usefulness will depend on factors such as other languages present in your local area or the goals you have from learning the language. Judging by potential global usefulness, Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, and French are the world’s top most spoken languages after English, so those would be good places to start.