While challenges are enjoyable, it can occasionally be comforting to know that the task at hand will be simple. Exists a language that is the simplest to learn in terms of language acquisition? What language is the simplest to learn, English? Here are the top 7 easiest languages for total beginners to learn, along with instructions for starting right away. Please keep reading.
Is English The Simplest Language To Learn?
Despite these challenges, learning English is actually the simplest of all languages. You might think I’m crazy for saying this but bear with me while I explain.
English does not have cases, gender, or word agreement, and it may have a straightforward grammar structure compared to other languages. Because they are not used to gendered words, English speakers occasionally struggle to learn Portuguese.
The reason why English is the easiest language to learn is because of the vast selection of English resources to learn from, including TV shows, movies, music, podcasts, books, and websites.
Since English is the foreign language that is studied the most abroad, there are a ton of tools that can be used to teach English to speakers of different languages.
You can learn English as a foreign language from any number of books—thousands, perhaps even millions—that have been written on the subject. There are also a ton of excellent English language learning blogs available online.
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What Makes A Language Easy To Learn
Your Native Language
Many languages are interconnected. They will share more characteristics the closer they are related. It all helps if the grammar, vocabulary, syntax, and pronunciation are similar. As a result, learning a language with Germanic or Latin roots will be simpler if English is your native tongue, for example, because English has both.
It won’t all match, and there may be instances where the grammar is similar but the pronunciation is different, but generally speaking, the closer your target language is to your native tongue, the simpler it will be to learn.
Your Other Languages
You have a significant advantage if you are bilingual. You will discover more parallels between languages the more you are conversant in them. You will also have a better understanding of how language functions if you learned those languages as an adult.
As a child, you basically just absorb your native language and begin speaking it without much thought. You acquire a natural sense of the language and don’t need to learn any grammar or memorize any vocabulary in order to know how to construct a sentence. However, as you get older, it stops working that way.
Your Motivation
Since it cannot be studied or categorized, most people undervalue it; however, without it, you can forget about successfully learning a new language.
Any goal can be accomplished with the right motivation. If you are faced with a theoretically easy language and a theoretically difficult one but have plenty of motivation for the latter, I can guarantee that the latter will be much simpler for you to learn and you will enjoy it much more.
Your Access To The Target Language
You may have a strong desire to learn the Polynesian language that your grandfather picked up while traveling, but unless you relocate there, you might as well give up on it.
It cannot be disputed that speaking a language well requires practice. You need to be exposed to it in some way or another. Be it books, youtube videos, friends, native speakers, music songs, or whatever you’re into, you need something.
The Internet is a virtual resourceless sea, but the more obscure and small the language, the more difficult it will be to locate helpful materials.
Your Strengths As A Language Learner
Grammar is something that some people love and others detest. You might have a knack for memorization or be able to start a conversation with a group of people without feeling intimidated. Use it to your advantage and stay away from the parts that give you nightmares.
Avoid learning Spanish or French if you have a problem with grammar and despise the idea of verb conjugations. Choose a language with a similar sound system if you enjoy speaking so that you can start speaking as soon as possible.
What Is The Easiest Language To Learn
Spanish
Overall, Spanish has a shallow orthographic depth – meaning that most words are written as pronounced. This indicates that it is simple to read and write in Spanish.
With just ten vowel and diphthong sounds, and no strange phonemes other than the entertaining letter ntilde. This makes learning Spanish the simplest of the bunch and might provide the best return on your time and money since 37% of employers rated Spanish as a crucial language to know for employment.
Italian
Italian is the romance language’s most “romantic” language. Luckily its Latin-rooted vocabulary translates into many similar Italian/English cognates, such as foresta (forest), calendario (calendar), and ambizioso (ambitious).
Many words in Italian are written exactly as they are spoken, similar to Spanish. Additionally, with the majority of words ending in vowels, the Italian sentence structure is very rhythmic.
French
Linguists believe that French has influenced up to a third of the modern English language, despite how different it may initially appear to be.
This may also be the reason why English speakers are familiar with much of French vocabulary due to its Latin roots (edifice, royal, village, etc.). Additional verb tenses are also available.
Portuguese
Given that Brazil’s economy is currently ranked sixth in the world, learning Portuguese can be extremely useful. One wonderful feature of the language is that interrogatives can be easily expressed through intonation as long as you know how to ask in Portuguese. Additionally, there is a universal question tag format in Brazilian Portuguese: não é.
German
The ability to describe things well in German is well known. They combine the noun with the current action, which is a good example of how they use it.
Example: das Fernsehen – the television, combines the words fern, far, andsehen, watching, lit. far-watching.
In contrast, German can be enjoyable to learn and is thought to have logical grammar. There are also many English words that are used in German that are similar. You may be interested in Is German Hard To Learn For English Speakers? No!
Hindi
Despite appearances, there are numerous words in English that are either Hindi-derived or have Hindi roots. For instance, guru, jungle, karma, yoga, bungalow, cheetah, looting, thug, and avatar.
Similarly, English words are frequently used in Hindi. Despite being written in Hindi, they are read and pronounced in English. The words doctor and station, for instance, are both pronounced differently.
Mandarin
While language learners won’t struggle as much with grammar, mastering the tones can be very difficult. Mandarin is a tonal language, which means that the pitch or intonation in which a sound is spoken affects its meaning.
For example, tang with a high tone means soup, but tang with a rising tone means sugar.
Read More: Is Russian Difficult To Learn For English Speakers?
Conclusions
Due to their simpler grammar than English, some languages are simpler to learn. Or perhaps it’s because you already speak a language with a large vocabulary. Which languages do you believe are the simplest to learn? Do not forget that learning a language requires motivation.