Easiest Language to Learn for English Speakers

The contemporary world is highly multi-lingual, emphasizing the importance of connections. As communication barriers dissolve, learning a new language becomes essential. 

Students with some free time to spare must utilize it to learn a new language. It has social and cultural benefits. It also enhances memory retention and improves multi-tasking capabilities and academic performance. 

With so much to gain, the next question is, “What is the easiest language to learn for English speakers?” Given below is an extensive list. 

French 

The easiest language to learn would be the one that acts as the parent language for other dialects and creoles. French is precisely one of those languages. 

It is believed that this language gave birth to a third of the world’s modern languages. It is among the most commonly spoken languages in countries like Madagascar, Europe, and Canada. On the surface, French might seem challenging, but many English words are borrowed from this language – village, royal, avant-garde, edifice, etc. 

Interestingly, this language is easy to retain, even for beginners. The only issue most students initially face is pronunciation, which improves with practice. 

Dutch 

It may be shocking to have Dutch on the list, but it is unlike its challenging cousin, German. It is used throughout Belgium and the Netherlands and is easy to understand and learn because many of its words are spelt like in English, with a different pronunciation. 

For instance, the word rat in English is spelt the same but is pronounced as rot. Even from a semantic front, Dutch rules are pretty straightforward. 

Some of the most common English words of Dutch origin include boss (bass), mannequin (Manneken), Santa Claus (Sinterklaas), and frolic (vrolijk). 

Spanish 

Most students and linguists admit that Spanish is among the easiest language in the world. This is mainly because Spanish shares its origin with English, as it originated from Latin. Plenty of words are common in both languages. These include correct (correcto), engineer (ingenerio), delicious (delicioso), etc. 

Another reason why Spanish is so easy to learn because it is a phonetic language, meaning the words are pronounced exactly the way they are spelt. Even non-native or English speakers can easily pick it up. 

Hola, or Spanish for hello and Buenos dias or good morning, are some salutations that even English speakers playfully use to greet each other. Moreover, learning this language has a significant advantage because it is among the most widely spoken tongues.

Portuguese

Among the Roman languages, Portuguese is easy to grasp for English speakers. Like Spanish and French, this language also shares its vocabulary with English. Some common examples are words like origin (origem), principle (o principio), macaw (macau), and jaguar (jaguarete). 

Another good aspect of this language is that its interrogatives, like Que (what), Qual (which), Como (how), etc., are pretty straightforward and expressed using intonations only. The one thing to remain careful about is avoiding false cognates or words that might sound similar. 

For instance, the English word balcony means veranda, but the Portuguese word balcao suggests ‘to counter.’ Similarly, the English word costume means a disguise worn for special parties or events. In Portuguese, costume means tradition or custom. 

Italian 

Not only is Italian among the easiest language to learn, but it is also highly romantic and lyrical. What makes this language easy to learn for English speakers is the fact that it shares its origin with English. 

Some such words include lottery (lotteria), forest (forresta), fiasco (fiasco), volcano (volcano), etc. Again, this language is much like Spanish in terms of its orthographic depth – it is highly phonetic. The words are also rhythmic, so they're easy to pick up. 

Standard Italian greetings like Ciao (Hello) and Arrivederci (Goodbye) are again playfully used by native English speakers. Italian is the ideal language for those who love romance, music, and food.  

Mandarin Chinese is considered to be hard, but with hard work and practice even hard things become easy.

Mandarin Chinese is considered to be hard, but with hard work and practice even hard things become easy.

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The Bottom Line 

Even learning simple intricacies like the formal or informal tone of voice becomes intriguing for a new language learner. The same should not be a hassle if one has chosen the easiest language to learn. 

Learning a new language is not only fun but is also a gateway to a plethora of opportunities worldwide. Students are encouraged to go ahead and deepen their understanding of a whole new culture!