Phonetically speaking, once youve learned how to pronounce the letters of the alphabet youre pretty much set when pronouncing words. This is where, to keep the sounds in harmony, suffixes are added to words. Download our easy, visualItalian essentials eBook and get a head start. In order to put this list together, we took into account the numerous factors which should be considered when deciding whether or not a language is difficult, or easy to learn. Many of their words feature many consonants, as well as beginning with two consonants which can be jarring for a native English speaker. But if youre new to language learning and youre looking for a relatively easy language to learn, any of the languages on this list would be great to start with. There are some challenging aspects of learning French though. You can listen to Italian music, watch Italian movies, prepare Italian recipes There are so many ways to make your language learning a fun and engaging process, especially if youre learning a beautiful and artistic language like Italian. Here, the native name of the language is known as Farsi. For average native Turkish speakers, is it less difficult to learn/pronounce other non-Turkic agglutinative languages like Korean and Japanese or the languages of the neighbors with whom the Oghuz Turks have historically interacted frequently, like Armenian, Arabic, Farsi, Bulgarian, and Greek For example, the language register used by the speaker depends on who he or she is speaking to. Of course, you also have the masses of Italian words that the English language has borrowed, such as pizza, pizzeria, stiletto, umbrella, and even words like dilemma and ditto! Learn about the best language resources that I've personally test-driven. So, although it might seem tricky at first, mastering French pronunciation shouldnt be a big problem. Though Persia does not exist as a nation today, per-say, it does live on in the Middle Eastern countries that were created because of it. For lessons based on Persian script and how to write the Perso-Arabic alphabet, Learn Persian Alphabets by Drawing is a great app for all ages, and it is free. This means you will have to work hard to memorize the way words are written. Members of this language family tend to have complicated grammatical rules and more than double the amount of vowels that the English language uses. 10 Hardest Languages to Learn for English Speakers. The language of ancient Persia has gone through many changes to become the modern day language were now familiar with. The word order format here follows a particular pattern of subject-object-verb, with prepositional phrases nestled between the subject and object. One important concept that can affect whether a language is learned easily by a native English speaker is the grammatical framework. German is, as the name suggests, a Germanic language. This was the empire of Cyrus the Great, of Darius and Xerxes, and of the elite forces who fought the 300 Spartans within the pass of Thermopylae during the Greco-Persian Wars. Learning a new language can be made much easier when immersed completely, so opting for an on-site language school is a great option. Yes, that is systems, plural. #1. Furthermore, Portuguese and English have a lot of shared words. This truly simplifies the entire language, as every subject is referred to with the same pronoun , pronounced ou or . For conversation and community-based lessons, opt for Mondlys courses that help you get fluent quickly and easily! The 5 Hardest Languages to Learn For Spanish Speakers (or Not?) Rosetta Stone is a well-established course but isnt suitable for everybody. Persian and Farsi: Whats the difference? You could even hire a teacher or tutor for yourself, or attend language classes to help you along with your journey. Feel free to get in touch about anything. You can learn Persian from basics to advance level. That being said, we do have the Persian language to thank for many words that we use in English such as kiosk and bazaar, so you may well find some similarities within this beautiful language! Its one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with around 534 million speakers scattered all around the globe. YouTube is a great resource for free lessons and video clips that will help you master perfect pronunciation and retention for the Farsi vocabulary that you compile through other lessons. The letters can be learned and memorized, as can pronunciations, but the tone can take a little while for native English speakers to get right, especially if you have no native Mandarin speakers around to hear your tone and correct you if needed. But all the languages we mentioned today do have certain things in common. Swahili is perhaps not as easy as other languages on this list, but its arguably the easiest African language to learn. With a good teacher or reliable Italian online lessons, youll learn how to order pizza in Italian in no time. Esperanto was designed with you in mind: Minimal grammar, easy rules and as a bonus, lots of things that resemble many other world languages. And another 17 percent can speak more than two languages. The most important thing that we want you to take away from this article is that even though some languages may be easier for a native English speaker to learn than others, it does not mean the harder languages are out of your reach. Dutch 2. Advertisements. Here are nine of the easiest languages to learn for Spanish speakers: 1. Nowadays, Latin script is used, which is why native English speakers find it a little easier. You could even try changing the language on your cell phone! You know what Italian words like panini, latte, and gelato mean. Because it is a part of the Indo-European language tree, such influence is common, but not everyone knows the origins of certain words. The last language on our list is Japanese. This includes literature, history, traditions, and food, as well as the language. More than 40 percent of the world is bilingual, meaning people can speak two languages fluently. Spanish 6. On the bright side, it is phonetic, which means it is spelled how it is said and vice-versa. Yes, I would like to be contacted about special events, newsletters and program information. Enter Spanish. Why? It has 47 different characters that must all be learned before you can fully get to grips with the language. German 2. For starters, Indonesian spoken natively by nearly 23 million people is one of the few Asian languages that uses the Latin alphabet. Unlike most European languages, which belong to the Indo-European language family, Hungarian is a Uralic language. 28 Easiest Languages to Learn for English Speakers Both Thai and Chinese are tonal languages. This can be difficult for a learner to get used to, especially if it is not something that they have ever come across before. That is what makes it so wonderful. As an Austronesian language, Indonesian does differ quite a bit from the Germanic and Romance languages on this list, but its actually surprisingly straightforward for English-speakers to learn. We have history to thank for this. Therefore, it is relatively easy for all speakers to learn, regardless of their native language. The sounds they use are also very different from English and can leave you feeling tongue-tied. Nevertheless, Georgian is a beautiful language, particularly when listening to the music of the country. With the languages on this list, you should be able to get started identifying your low-hanging linguistic fruits. The grammar is similar to English, and many vocabulary words will sound familiar, like samme (same), ham (him) and op (up). Looking for a language thats not going to require three-hour evening classes Monday through Friday for the next 10 years? We will cover the basics of the Persian language, its origins and cultural history, and some of the best ways to approach learning it for the first time, including great resources that are available now. For example, the English word ruthless has just two syllables, but the Polish word for ruthless has a whole five different syllable sounds and an astounding number of hard consonants Bezwzgldny. However, some languages are generally considered less demanding for English speakers. However, a welcome difference between Polish and other Slavic languages is the fact that it uses an alphabet that you will be more familiar with: the Latin script. The Middle Persian language was also inflectional, but started showing changes towards a simpler manner of denoting relationships between vocabulary. Therefore, you should be able to master the basics and learn how to speak French in no time. However, something that may soothe the pain of all these complex grammar rules is the fact that in Hungarian there are only three verb tenses to learn: the past, the present, and the future. There are three writing systems, kanji, katakana, and hiragana. Less than 22 percent of the U.S. population speaks a language other than . They often descend from the same common parental or ancestral language and can branch off to form many other unique languages. As we highlighted in our introduction (remember that, it seems like ages ago, so you can skip back to the beginning of the article for a refresher if you wish) there are many reasons why a person may want to learn a new language. You need to find a good teacher or quality online language lessons. Cudoo also offers 3 levels of Farsi (at $12.99 each) which is a helpful starting point. Languages that are more closely related to English share certain qualities and characteristics that make them easier for English speakers to pick up. Dont worry according to FSIs language difficulty ranking, Portuguese is also in Category 1. Chinese is a very difficult language to learn (whether Mandarin or Cantonese) due to the use of tone and of course the unfamiliar script. Finnish is an interesting language to feature on this list because most people may assume that it would belong to the Indo-European family. This is a rough estimate, whether you are learning in the classroom or learning from home. Like the Persian language, Hindi has no capital letters, which in itself is very unfamiliar to native English speakers. Which one you should focus on, of course, depends on where and how you intend to use it., Italian is another Romance language that English-speakers can pick up without too much difficulty. Learning a new language takes time, regardless of its difficulty. Some of them are phonetic, which means that reading and pronunciation shouldnt be a problem for you. For example, the word order in Swedish is also SVO. These two words look almost identical, but notice the very small differences of the and the . Whether its their sentence structure or vocabulary, they are simply easier to master than some other languages. This means that once English speakers have had a chance to learn some basic rules, theyre usually able to pick it up quite quickly. For instance, words like plastic, water and lamp are identical in both Dutch and English. Tigrinya. Italian 3. Finally, its time to take a brief look at the complexities of the Persian language and what makes it work, in terms of grammar, syntax, and pronunciation. Services such as Custom Writings can also help with these learning these methods, as well as provide assistance with college or university assignments. Read on to start your journey into the beautiful and intriguing world of the Persian language, and good luck! The Spanish language is phonetic (meaning the spelling tells you the pronunciation of the word). But although the country is surrounded by Slavic-speaking countries, Romanian is actually a Romance language and uses much of the same vocabulary as Italian, Spanish and French., For example,La revedere, which is used for saying goodbye, is similar to the Italian Arrividerci, and the apology Scuz-m is similar to the French Excusez-moi. Its also a phonetic language, which means most words are spelled the same way they are pronounced., Of course, there are a few trickier aspects to this language, including grammatical differences and letters with diacritics. But, overall, Romanian, which is spoken by around 30 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova, is a surprisingly easy language to learn., Danish is a Germanic language spoken by around 6 million people, most of whom live in Denmark. The grammar is ridiculously simple, and there are only about 120 to 130 words. The rhythm of Italian when you are in a conversation also makes it a little easier to grasp for beginners. The 10 Easiest Languages to Learn for English Speakers Once the fundamentals are down, you should be more than ready for basic conversations and childrens books. So, if youve ever taken German lessons, youll find it relatively easy. For example, if you are learning Korean, find yourself some Korean movies or TV shows to watch. Many popular world languages have very different grammatical structures to English. These new letters and the fact that Polish words also have more consonants than English words can mean that pronunciations are very difficult to grasp for a beginner, and can make spelling difficult. Portuguese is spoken by around 234 million people around the world. SHOW ME HOW! Regardless of what you choose, youre probably going to have a smooth learning process without too many difficulties. For instance, to change a singular word to plural, all you have to do is repeat the word or add an extra one. Lastly, brush up on your Colloquial Persian with Abdi Rafiees 3rd edition copy of this classic conversational sourcebook. 5 Easy Languages To Learn If You Speak Arabic 1. The tones and sounds of a language can have a direct impact on how difficult you find it to learn. That being said, it is more than doable and there are a wealth of resources out there if you choose to learn this beautiful, song-like language. But its simplicity warrants an inclusion. However, if you are looking for a modest challenge then Swahili is a great language choice for you. For instance, He comes from Norway translates to Han kommer fra Norge., Norwegian is spoken by around 5 million people, primarily in Norway. Though it might seem like a complex and daunting language to delve into, particularly with the different alphabet that it uses and the right-to-left reading and writing method employed, if you take some time, it can be a rewarding and surprisingly simple process! There are a few unique and fascinating grammar rules that the language follows, which are worth mentioning here, relating primarily to Persian morphology. Or, easier than other languages, to be more precise. Welsh is a reasonably difficult language to get to grips with for native English speakers, even those English speakers who have lived in Wales for their whole life! Easiest Languages for English Speakers - Rocket Languages And unlike most African languages, Swahili is not a tonal language, so you dont have to pay attention to the pitch of a word. Dutch is another language that is generally considered easy to learn for English native speakers. English, for example, has many similarities to other Germanic languages (think German and Dutch). They also read and write right to left, which is unfamiliar for most native English speakers. Many people are put off learning new languages that require a different alphabet, such as Greek or Arabic. As a bonus, if you know Danish, you can read the next two languagesNorwegian and Swedishpretty easily. Here are some of the best apps for learning Farsi or Persian. Georgian is a language that is very unique as it has its own script. The Complete Modern Persian (Farsi) Beginner to Intermediate Course by Narguess Farzad is a go-to resource for learning the language from a book. For instance, polisi is police and baiskeli is bicycle., There are also some key differences, of course, but if youre looking to gain fluency in one or more African languages, Swahili is an excellent one to start with.. Indonesian sentence structure is also similar to English and its grammatical rules are fairly simple. resources out there to help you learn French. 2023 Enux Education Limited. FluentU is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. However, you can use this as ageneral guide. If you want to expand your language vocabulary, you should definitely give it a try. For example, several common borrowed words in English that come originally from Farsi words include the following: Overall, Farsi and the Persian language are spoken by millions of people, both within Middle Eastern countries and across the globe. Swahili has little resemblance to English, but it has a ton of loan words, which makes learning Swahili vocabulary quite simple too. Other languages may have unique and new sounds, compared with the sounds you know from your own language and alphabet. Above all, have fun. For instance, Good morning, translates to Goeie moarn in the West Frisian dialect., Unfortunately, since Frisian is only spoken and understood by about 500,000 people, theres little reason to learn it, unless you intend to relocate to the Dutch province of Friesland or Germanys Saterland or North Frisia regions., Dutch, like Frisian, is closely related to English. Dutch 7. can take anywhere. After the Empire of Persia was conquered by Alexander the Great and subsequently split up, the re-emergence of the language took over 500 years to come about. Before delving any deeper into this fascinating language, its important to talk about the difference between Persian and Farsi, as we will be encountering both words as we continue. The Spanish language is phonetic (meaning the spelling tells you the pronunciation of the word). The Best Language For A Writer To Learn - ilovelanguages.com