The easiest language to learn is the one which meets many criterias that we will discuss below. But most importantly a language which you feel most motivated to and enjoy speaking. To try to learn a language which you are not interested in, will make it look hard even if it's not. Learning a language just like anything else involves enjoyment and passion in order to excel. You need to consider other factors as well that might make a language especially easy for YOU. After reading through this article, make your choice of what's the easiest language to learn. You can also comment. Don't forget to bookmark this page!
According to the U.S. State Department who groups languages for the diplomatic service, the "easiest" languages for English speakers, are the ones usually requiring 600 hours of classwork for minimal proficiency. In this case they’re the Latin and Germanic languages group. However, German itself requires more time, 750 hours to be exact, because of its complex grammar.
English is also considered easy because it has no cases, no gender, no word agreement, and arguably has a simple grammar. The language is everywhere and can be heard, absorbed and used anywhere. It has short words, and verbs change only in the third person. Native speakers are very forgiving of mistakes as so many people speak it as a second language. This makes English one of the easiest foreign language to learn.
Italian is easy to learn as well since it has no cases, with easy clear pronunciation, its vocabulary is derived from Latin; therefore the vocabulary has congruencies throughout the Indo-European Latin influenced world.
Spanish is one of the easiest foreign languages to learn. Much of its vocabulary is similar to English, and written Spanish is almost completely phonetic. It is closely similar to Italian, and therefore is also easy because its grammar and pronunciation are relatively easy, also ubiquitous, everywhere.
French is not difficult to acquire since most of its words are also in the English vocabulary. The availability to use and study French also make it seem an easy language to learn.
Esperanto is also easy. It is written phonetically, as in Spanish. It is a constructed or invented language and therefore has an advantage over natural languages when it comes to ease of learning. One disadvantage to Esperanto is the small number of speakers compared to natural languages like English, French, and Spanish. One advantage is the friendliness that people show when they find you know a language that is special to them.
Factors to be considered: other factors can make a language easier for you personally to learn and therefore you should consider them to help you decide, here they're:
You can also check our other articles about the Most Difficult Language to Learn and the Best Language to Learn, or other important resources in many languages here: Learn Languages. Don't forget to bookmark this page.