A language with the simplest grammar. The easiest language in the world to learn. What foreign language should a child learn?

Many who decide how to learn a language and are faced with a choice - a foreign language school or independent studies are wondering what the top easiest languages ​​in the world to learn look like? Similar questions are asked a lot ordinary people and specialists, both those who are going to take up learning a language and professional linguists.
In this article we will discuss a number of characteristics that usually determine how easy a language is to learn. It is worth noting right away that the most important thing in the process of learning a foreign language is the motivation of the learner and the fact whether you like speaking this new language for you. These factors determine which languages ​​are the easiest for you. Spanish, French, Esperanto or... Chinese. If you take up learning a language that is deeply uninteresting to you, then learning it may seem difficult and tedious to you, even if in fact it is not. Learning a foreign language, like everything else in learning, should include interest and pleasure, otherwise there will be little use. Of course, you can find additional factors that will make learning a non-native language easier for you. Read the material below, and then decide for yourself which languages ​​are the easiest for you.
According to the State Department, the easiest languages ​​for residents of English-speaking countries are those that require approximately six hundred hours of classroom instruction (we mean more or less proficiency in the language). Specifically, these are the languages ​​of Germanic and Latin language groups. However, directly on the German it takes more time, about seven hundred and fifty hours: the grammar of the German language is very complex.


English
The English language is considered quite simple: it has no cases, word agreement, or genders. English grammar is also quite simple. Also English language has the widest distribution, it is spoken almost everywhere. Words in English are short, verbs are inflected exclusively for the third person. Native speakers of this language are quite calm about the language mistakes of foreigners, since the number of people learning English as a second language is very large. Thanks to all this, English is one of the easiest languages ​​in the world to learn.

It is estimated that there are about 60 English-speaking countries in the world, i.e. Without knowledge of English today it is difficult to get a job, so it is gaining enormous popularity in preschool institutions. The main English-speaking countries today are the UK, the USA, Canada (without Quebec), Australia and New Zealand. English is also one of the two official languages ​​of India, and in addition it is spoken in most southern island states and African countries.

French
Not complicated either French. Many words in French are similar to English words. French is widely spoken throughout the world. It is not difficult to find opportunities to learn and speak French. Considering these factors, it can be argued that French is also one of the languages ​​that are easy to learn.
People who learn French are called francophones. There are 18 countries in the world where French is spoken. The main French-speaking countries are France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada (Quebec). In 14 African countries this language is the only one or one of two official languages.

Italian
The Italian language is also simple, it has no cases, its pronunciation is quite simple, the vocabulary has roots Latin language, in other words, will be familiar and close to those people who speak one of the languages ​​of the Indo-European group.
Learning Italian will be useful for those who at least know or have studied Latin, one of the two official languages ​​in the Vatican City State. Italian is the language of music. True, the Italophone world is not very large in its area: the language is widespread only in Europe and only in four countries: Italy, Vatican City, San Marino and Switzerland. Small Italian-speaking minorities outside Europe live in Argentina (Oriundi).


Spanish
The easiest language for a foreigner to learn is Spanish. Its vocabulary is similar to English, the spelling is very simple (the way it is written is the same way it is heard). Spanish is similar to Italian and is quite widely used. It has very simple grammar and pronunciation. Spanish ranks 3-4th in terms of prevalence, number of speakers and its use in speech after English, Chinese and Hindi; It is spoken by about 0.5 billion people, most of whom live overseas. The record holder for the number of Spanish speakers is not Spain, but Mexico! In Mexico, the number of Spanish speakers is 130 million. The largest Spanish-speaking countries are Spain (in Europe), and overseas Mexico (in North America) and Argentina (in South America).


Portuguese
Portuguese can also be considered an easy language. At least there is no one who would not watch Brazilian soap operas, which were once popular among our grandmothers. Pronunciation is almost the same as Spanish, except that Portuguese is a bit sibilant, unlike its East Pyrenean cousin; This is if we talk about the classic (European) version, which is widely used not only in Portugal itself, but also in African countries: Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome, Goa, Angola and Mozambique. In the world by popularity Portuguese ranks sixth, despite the fact that the population of this country is only about 10 million, which is even less than the population of Moscow. The Brazilian version differs significantly from the standard (for example, there is no sound "sh"). Although these languages ​​are similar to each other, the Spaniards do not always understand their neighbors, so the Portuguese sometimes have to write what they say.
Those who learn Portuguese are called Lusophones (from Lusitania; the ancient name of Portugal). There are about 1/4 billion native speakers of Portuguese (250 million native speakers)


Esperanto
You will probably be very surprised, but Esperanto holds the palm in terms of ease. In it, as in Spanish, “as it is heard, so is exactly how it is written.” This language is artificial, which is why it is so simple. But the bad thing about it is that it is still spoken by relatively few people (about 2-3 million worldwide) - compared to languages ​​such as Spanish, French or English. However, if you speak Esperanto, other Esperantists will be very friendly towards you.
Esperanto is NOT the official language of ANY STATE IN THE WORLD! That is why, knowing and studying it, you can find friends absolutely anywhere. Linguists have conducted studies that only a month is enough to master spoken language, and from 3 months to six months to know it perfectly, while you will have to spend at least a semester or a year on the basics of English. I will add that next year, at the end of July, this language will celebrate its anniversary - 130 years since its birth! Recently a petition appeared on one of the sites to make Esperanto official language European Union! Absolutely anyone can sign it, including you!


Summary
An additional set of conditions that can make the language easier for you personally:

1) Is it similar new language to your native? If the selected language is similar to yours and has similar vocabulary ( lexicon words) and grammar, then this language will be easier for you personally. For example, a person who speaks Arabic will learn Farsi more easily than Spanish, even though Farsi is considered a very difficult language.

2) Do you personally like to study? If the answer is yes, any language may turn out to be simple - or at least interesting. And this circumstance will help you learn the language faster.

3) Availability of additional resources. With their help, you can achieve more effective and faster results. Additional resources include books on vocabulary and grammar, audio, and the possibility of conversations with native speakers of this language and so on.

The material is based on an article by Frantisek Langer.

At school, many of us were faced with the fact that they were divided into groups of different foreign languages ​​according to completely incomprehensible criteria, calling some languages ​​simple and others complex, some children capable of learning English, and others German. We often hear from different people that this language is simple and this one is complex. But how can one really assess whether a language is complex or simple? Which language should I choose for my child to make it easier for him to learn? Which language should you teach yourself as a second or third language, to make it easier again? Which European language is more difficult for a Russian to learn, and which is easier? I myself used to often ask myself these questions, and this is what I think about it now.

What parameters are important when learning a foreign language?

Below you can see a summary comparative table of foreign languages, which summarizes data on the degree of difficulty of learning these languages ​​for a Russian person

Language	Pronunciation	Reading	Spelling	Vocabulary	Grammar
English	Difficult	Very difficult	Difficult	Very difficult	Just
German	Very simple	Very simple	Very simple	Very simple	Very difficult
French	Average	Average	Very difficult	Just	Difficult
Spanish	Just	Just	Just	Just	Just
Italian	Very simple	Just	Just	Just	Just

1. Pronunciation

The most important thing in pronunciation is the presence of special sounds that are not in the native language. These sounds are difficult to pronounce when you start learning a language, because when pronouncing different sounds different facial muscles are used and the tongue as a muscular organ is used differently. When we actively use only part of our facial muscles, the rest atrophy. Some of these atrophied muscles are very easy to “launch” and start using them, others are more difficult. It takes practice, it takes habit. It is for this reason that the faces of foreigners and people who have lived in another country for a long time are often very different from our compatriots, while some elusive similarity can be found in their faces. It arises precisely due to the fact that people speak the same language and actively use the same facial muscles.

German and Italian do not have any particularly difficult sounds for Russian people. In Italian, sounds simply need to be pronounced brighter and more emotional, but in German they are harsher and more specific. Of course, there are some pronunciation nuances. For example, in German there is a burr [r] and a muffled soft [x], but these sounds are familiar to Russian people and do not need to make any special efforts to master them.

The Spanish language has several special sounds:

• Interdental [s] (you need to put your tongue between your teeth and say [s], i.e. such a lisp [s]), but this sound is used only in European Spanish, in Latin America pronounced normal [s])
• Something between the sounds [b] and [v] (both of these sounds are very muffled and they sound very similar)

In the French language there are more special sounds and you “break your language” more strongly when you just start learning French. There are the following special sounds for a Russian person:

• Burry r
• Nasal sounds
• Unusual combination of vowels and consonants

English is the most difficult of this group of languages ​​for a Russian person to pronounce. It contains the following new sounds for us:

• Interdental s and z
• Nasal n
• Special sound r
• A wide variety of vowels that cannot even be expressed in Russian letters
• The presence of long and short sounds that influence the meaning of the word

Therefore, without an accent it is much easier for a Russian person to speak Spanish, Italian and German. But in French and especially in English it is much more difficult. But with practice anything is possible. Still, Russian people are lucky; our language has a lot of different sounds that allow us to train our facial muscles, and we are able to quickly start speaking other languages ​​without a strong accent. For example, the Spaniards cannot boast of this. It's very difficult for them Russian pronunciation, due to the fact that their language does not have such a variety of consonant sounds.

1. Reading

Reading in a foreign language is considered simple if there are few reading rules and there are practically no exceptions. Accordingly, it is considered complex if there are many reading rules and exceptions to them.

According to this rule, German couldn’t be simpler. You will always be able to correctly read any new unfamiliar word with almost one hundred percent probability.

But English is a complete disorder in this regard. You can almost never be sure how a new word is read. English is a mixture of several other languages ​​(it contains many French, Spanish and German words), so there are many rules for reading, and even more exceptions to them. Moreover, in English, even the context influences how to read the same combination of letters. For example, the phrases “I read” and “I read” are written the same way “Iread”, and in the first case they are read [ai read], and in the second [ai rad], and if you do not know the context of this phrase, then how to read it correctly completely unclear. In general, to read English correctly, you just need to know how each word is read. Therefore, English becomes easy to read only when you have a sufficiently large vocabulary.

Reading French is not very difficult, but it has its own peculiarities. Some letters are not readable at all, and some are read only in certain cases, and there is also such a thing as word concatenation, that is, a group of words in certain situations is read as one word. But if you know all these features, then it gradually turns out that reading French is not so difficult.

1. Spelling

Spelling refers to how difficult it is to spell a new word correctly by ear. In this regard, the Russian language itself is very complex, since we often say “a” and write “o”, or say “i” and write “e”, and there are a bunch of other rules. This is why few people achieve “excellent” grades in Russian at school. But not all languages ​​are like this.

It is generally difficult to make a mistake in German. It is possible to make a mistake in Spanish and Italian, but it is also very rare.

But writing in French and English is very difficult. In the French language there are a lot of letters that are not pronounced, but are written, and also one sound is conveyed by three or even four letters. A simple example, the word beaucoup (many) is read [sideways], and there are twice as many letters.

In English, the same sound can be conveyed by several different letter combinations, and the same letter can be read in different situations using as many as 7 different sound options.

To write correctly in French you just need to know a lot of rules, and in English you just need to know how to spell EVERY word, otherwise you have a lot of chances to make mistakes.

1. Vocabulary

Vocabulary is vocabulary. The complexity of vocabulary can be assessed by how easy it is to learn new words. It’s easy to learn new words if they are short, if they consist of several other words you already know, or if many other words can be formed from one root using different prefixes and endings.

In this regard, German is again a very simple language. There are few short words, but there are a lot of cognates or compound words. Therefore, vocabulary is gained very quickly, and even gradually you learn to come up with german words that have not been heard before.

You are unlikely to succeed in this in English. There are a lot of short words in the English language, especially those used in everyday speech, so starting to learn English words is very easy. But it is very difficult to gain vocabulary, since there are practically no words of the same root or compound words. Each word needs to be learned again, associations do not work. Moreover, due to the fact that English is a mixture of several languages, it has a lot of synonyms from different languages that you have to learn in order to simply understand your interlocutor. In order to speak, you can have fewer words in your active vocabulary.

1. Grammar

Knowledge of grammar is understood as the ability to correctly connect words together into meaningful phrases, not at the level of “mine is yours to understand.” It is not easy to assess the complexity of the grammar of any language at first glance; each has its own difficulties, and each of them, on the contrary, simplifies something. Therefore, it is better to compare them in several parameters. See the table below first.

	Word order	Verbs	Place-names	Nouns	Articles	Adjectives
	(statement, question)	(conjugations and tenses)	(gender, number, case)
English	Difficult	Just	Very simple
German	Very difficult	Difficult	Difficult
French	Average	Average	Average
Spanish	Very simple	Average	Just
Italian	Very simple	Average

Please note that I give this assessment only from the point of view of spoken language, that is, I consider only those grammatical structures that are regularly used in speech. For example, from 9 English tenses to real life only 3-5 are used. And in German and Spanish, verbs in the present tense can be used with the appropriate context to convey the future tense.

In English, only word order is relatively complicated, since the question is not asked by simply changing intonation, but also requires rearranging words, and sometimes adding auxiliary verbs. The conjugation of verbs in colloquial speech is very simple: only the ending in the 3rd person changes singular, and in the future and past tense, you can generally use the same construction for all persons and numbers (will + verb, verb + ed). The only difficulty English verbs, this is the presence of a relatively large number of irregular verbs that are not declined according to the rule, and their forms just need to be remembered, but these Irregular Verbs exists in all languages, and you can’t hide from them anywhere J Pronouns, articles, nouns and adjectives are generally not inflected by gender or case. Plural nouns are formed using the same ending -s. The form of adjectives never changes at all

In Spanish, Italian and French, all the grammar rules are very similar. Only the Spaniards and Italians are more relaxed about word order, there are practically no rules (only the place of the verb and adjectives play a role), and you can ask a question simply by changing your intonation. Although the French are increasingly beginning to simplify their speech in colloquial speech. Verbs in these languages ​​are conjugated by gender and number, their endings change, but to convey the future tense, you can use present tense forms and add only context, and the past tense is formed using the verbs to be/to have in the appropriate conjugation + the participial form of the semantic verb, that is, you only need to know the conjugation of the verbs to be and to have in the corresponding language. Pronouns, articles, nouns and adjectives are declined in a similar way in these languages, but there are more exceptions in French.

The German language does not please us with its grammar. There are many difficulties in it. But it all obeys clear rules, there are few exceptions. The word order is strict; intonation can't help much. Verbs, especially compound ones, have a special place in a sentence. The plural of nouns is formed according to several rules. Nouns, adjectives, articles and pronouns are declined according to gender, case and number, just like in the Russian language. But, for example, German does not have auxiliary verbs like English.

In general, every language has grammar that is simple or complex in its own way. But still, of these 5, the record holder for the rules that you need to know in order to speak correctly in a spoken language, German is ahead of the others. But in all other respects (reading, spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary) the German language is very simple.

At all simple languages can not be. Perhaps for Russians Belarusian or Ukrainian :) But you can choose for yourself those parameters that are easier for you and choose according to them foreign language for yourself or for your child if you are going to teach him.

In Russia, most people prefer English. This is due to the demand for this language in the world and its international status, but English is not the easiest language for Russian people to learn. Perhaps you also learned English, perhaps it was difficult for you, and this article helped you understand why. So maybe you and your children should choose another foreign language to study, and return to English later. A second foreign language is always much easier to learn than a first.

You may find other articles on this topic useful:

You can find even more information about each language here.

In the current age of globalization, you will no longer surprise anyone with a trip to different countries and work in international companies. Increasingly, people have to learn different foreign languages, but not all of them are mastered with equal ease. So which one is the best easy language in the world?

What affects the speed of language learning?

The ease of learning foreign languages ​​depends on many factors. Firstly, different people may have different ways of thinking, which is why some languages ​​will be easier for them, others more difficult. Secondly, a lot depends on age: it is always easier for children to learn a language than for adults, especially if the teaching takes place in a playful way.

Thirdly, it affects which language a person is native to, because related languages ​​are always easier to learn. Fourthly, for those who already know two or three languages, it will be easier to learn a new one. In addition, the speed of language acquisition is also influenced by the purpose for which this is done: the more serious it is, the more motivation, effort and, accordingly, success.

Language difficulty levels

Some philologists divide languages ​​into five groups according to the level of difficulty for a Russian-speaking person; the first group contains the easiest to learn, and the fifth the most difficult.

The first group includes the languages ​​of the Slavic peoples and the artificially created Esperanto. It is worth clarifying that to make learning Polish and Slovak easier, it is better to first master Czech.

The second group included Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and Latvian. The third includes those Romance languages ​​that did not fall into the second group, that is, French, English, Dutch, Yiddish and others. Surprisingly, English often comes easier after French, and not vice versa. Yiddish comes easier after German and Slavic languages ​​and does not seem so difficult.

The fourth group consists of the Germanic languages, Hebrew, Greek and Indo-Iranian languages. The fifth contains all the other languages ​​existing in the world. There is an opinion that Hebrew and Persian are easier after learning Arabic, and Chinese makes learning Japanese and Korean easier.

Study process

Not everyone agrees with this division; there are scientists and teachers who are convinced that any language can be mastered quite easily if you approach it correctly. First of all, it is recommended to study the alphabet and reading rules, then the basic words and phrases most often used in colloquial speech, and only after that begin to study grammar and develop vocabulary.

If you analyze data from several sources, you will notice that most often the easiest languages ​​in the world to learn are English, Italian, Spanish, French and German. Sometimes Finnish joins them.

Why is English easy to learn?

English is one of the five simplest languages ​​primarily due to its prevalence; after all, almost half of the world knows it. A lot of literature has been published in English, characters in many films speak it if you watch them in the original, a lot of technical documentation is written in English, and it also underlies most programming languages.

It can also be easy because it has few long words, and its formation was influenced by many other European languages, for example, Latin, French, Dutch, so it is intuitively close to many Europeans. The only difficulties are the tenses and irregular verbs.

A beautiful language is easy to learn

Italian can be even simpler than English, because it sounds beautiful and is easily recognized by the ear of a Russian speaker. It takes almost no effort to develop the correct pronunciation. It will also be close in that it has such a concept as gender, which is absent in many other languages, and there are no cases, which simplifies the development of grammar.

Those who have studied Spanish note that it can be even more melodious and cheerful than Italian, such is its pronunciation. Spaniards can be very emotional, and this sometimes helps to better understand their speech. Moreover, it does not have too complex grammar and spelling; for example, it is read the same way as it is written. It can also help in its study that it is one of the most widespread, which means there is a lot of literature, films, music and teaching materials, which can be used.

Popularity Factor in Language Learning

French can be intimidating with sounds that are exotic to the Russian ear, but don’t be afraid of them; when learning this language, it may not turn out to be so scary. Those who know English will find many familiar words in it, and you can even learn the rules of reading on your own. Beautiful French songs and the romance of France can help you understand the language; it’s not without reason that they say that French is the language of love; it expresses feelings perfectly.

German is one of the most logical languages; many languages ​​are spoken in it. business negotiations. Due to the fact that it is very common in Europe, there are many good techniques for quickly mastering it. German is good for people with a mathematical mind due to the precise order of words in sentences.

Suomi language

Finnish is the easiest language in the world to learn due to its free word order in sentences and easy pronunciation, which can be easily mastered by a Russian speaker. This opinion is not the most popular, however, since it exists, there is some truth in it.

To summarize, it can be noted that, in principle, it may be much easier for a Russian-speaking person to learn other languages ​​because Russian is considered one of the most difficult, and if so, then foreign grammar will no longer seem so overwhelming. And for each person the question - which is the easiest language in the world - is very individual.

How many people, so many opinions

Not everyone agrees with such a breakdown of the groups of foreign languages ​​that are easiest and most difficult for a Russian person. Thus, Anna Kravchenko, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Translation at Moscow State Linguistic University, is sure that there is no such thing as consistency and ease in learning foreign languages. According to her, each of us has our own abilities and mentality. However, she believes that after mastering three foreign languages, the fourth and subsequent ones are easier to master, since a person has his own system for studying them.
Head of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State University for the Humanities Sergei Gindin also notes that general rules in the sequence of mastering foreign languages, they are not accessible to a Russian-speaking person. Only relative ease is possible between two similar languages. For example, someone who has studied French will find it easier to learn Spanish, which also belongs to the Romance group.

Another specialist in foreign languages, simultaneous translator Dmitry Petrov, who has been hosting the popular “Polyglot” program on the Kultura TV channel for several years, believes that a certain complexity of the Russian language gives us, its native speakers, a big advantage when learning foreign languages. Whereas an Englishman has a much more difficult time in this regard.

However, for Russians there are languages ​​with categories that are not found in Russian. For this reason, it is not so easy for Russian-speaking students to master Finno-Ugric and Turkic languages, which have a different logic. But Dmitry Petrov emphasizes that the difficulty of any foreign language is mainly a myth and, if desired, you can master any. Moreover, it is quite acceptable to study two languages ​​at once. He also calls not to be afraid of an accent, since every person in the world, even in their native language, speaks with some kind of accent. For example, in the same Great Britain there is a classic version, the so-called Royal English, in which work time the announcers, some politicians and the queen say. Otherwise, there are dozens of absolutely incredible dialects and accents, including London.

However, many believe that when learning a foreign language you should be guided not by ease, but by its relevance. As you know, currently English is such a language, and a significant part of Russians study it. But the future is not his at all. Thus, Gennady Gladkov, who heads the department of language training and the Bologna process at MGIMO, is confident that in 50 years the most relevant language in the world will be Chinese, which will overtake English due to the growth of the population and economy of the PRC.
It is generally accepted that Chinese is one of the most difficult foreign languages ​​for Russian speakers. However, those who dared to master it claim that this is not so. In particular, it is not at all necessary to know more than 80 thousand characters; most Chinese do not know them. For example, to read, it will be enough to master only one thousand of them.

What is the easiest language to learn? This question is asked by many people, both those planning to study a language and professional linguists. Below we will discuss characteristics that can help determine how easy a language is to learn. It is worth noting that the most important thing when learning a language is your motivation and whether you enjoy speaking the language. It depends on which language is the easiest for you. Spanish, Esperanto or... Chinese. If you learn a language that you are not interested in, then learning will seem difficult, even if in theory it is not. Learning a language, like everything else, should involve fun and interest, otherwise there will be no point. You can find other factors that will make learning a language easy FOR YOU. Read the article and then decide which language is easiest for you. Below we present the TOP5 " the easiest languages ​​in the world».

The World's Easiest Languages ​​to Learn

According to the US Department of Foreign Affairs, the easiest languages ​​for English-speaking citizens are those that require about 600 hours of classroom instruction - we're talking more or less proficiency in the language. That is, these are languages ​​of the Latin and Germanic language groups. However, German itself requires more time, about 750 hours: the grammar is too complex. English is also considered simple: it has no genders, cases, word agreement, its grammar is quite simple. The language is widespread and spoken everywhere. The words in it are short, the verbs change only for the third person. Native speakers are calm about the mistakes of foreigners, because many people learn English as a second language. Thus, English is one of the easiest languages ​​to learn. Italian it is also simple, it has no cases, it has a simple pronunciation, the vocabulary has Latin roots, that is, it will be familiar to those who speak languages ​​of the Indo-European group. Spanish is the easiest language to learn. Its vocabulary is similar to English, its spelling is simple (it is both written and heard). It is similar to Italian, widely used, and has very simple pronunciation and grammar. French It’s also not complicated, many of its words are similar to English. It is also widely used and it is very easy to find opportunities to learn and speak it. Thus, French is also one of those languages ​​that is easy to learn. Esperanto very simple. In it, as in Spanish, “as it is heard, so it is written.” It's an artificial language, so it's really simple. But the bad thing about it is that relatively few people speak it - compared to languages ​​such as English, French or Spanish. But if you speak Esperanto, then other Esperantists will be very, very friendly to you.

Additional factors that can make the language easier for you:

- is the language similar to yours? native language? If the language is similar to you, has similar vocabulary and grammar, then it will be easier for you. For example, a person who speaks Farsi will learn Arabic more easily than Spanish, even though Arabic is considered difficult. - do you like studying? If so, then any language may seem simple - or at least interesting. And this, in turn, will allow you to learn the language faster. - additional resources. With their help you can achieve quick results. Additional resources include audio, grammar and vocabulary books, opportunities to communicate with native speakers, etc. From the site mylanguages.org Translation by Natalia Gavrilyastaya.