Which language is the most difficult and which is the easiest to learn? Which language is the easiest to learn?

Learning languages ​​has long ceased to be a fashionable trend and has become a necessity - today a highly paid job will be given to the applicant who can speak two, three or even four foreign languages. Therefore, one of the pressing questions among students and ordinary people is which ones to study.

What is the difference between an easy language and a difficult one?

It is almost impossible to say which languages ​​are the easiest to learn, because speakers of languages ​​of the same group can easily learn each other's language, since they have similar vocabulary and grammar. And, conversely, it will be more difficult for them to learn the language of another group, since it will have many differences. But there are a number of characteristics that allow you to distinguish an easy language from a difficult one:

in complex languages ​​and in easy ones - short;

the more rules a language has, the easier it is to learn and, conversely, the fewer, the more difficult it is;

the more homonyms a language has, the more difficult it is;

languages ​​with Latin or Cyrillic alphabet are easier to learn than those that have their own alphabet;

it is easier to learn the spelling of a language in which all words are written as they are heard;

The fewer dialects a language has, the easier it is to learn.

Thus, the easiest languages ​​to learn are those based on the Cyrillic or Latin alphabet with the most rules and the fewest homonyms.

Language difficulty levels

Both ordinary people and professional linguists wonder what is the easiest language to learn. Research has led to the fact that all the languages ​​of the world were divided into three groups based on complexity parameters.

The easiest foreign language to learn is any language from the Latin and Germanic groups; learning will require from 600 to 750 hours.

Languages ​​of average complexity are Indo-European, Turkic and the study of which will take from 900 to 1100 hours.

The most complex foreign language is any language that has its own alphabet and vocabulary - Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Georgian and other languages. The training will require at least 2200 hours.

Top 6 easy to learn languages

What is the easiest language to learn? As the US State Department notes, this is a language that will require no more than 600 hours to learn. This is exactly how long it will take to speak an unknown language tolerably. Thus, the easiest languages ​​to learn in are the following Indo-European languages:

English - due to the lack of gender, cases, and word agreement. In addition, his grammar is simple, verbs change only in the third person, and the words are short. A nice bonus is that native speakers easily perceive the speech of those learning their language and are tolerant of language errors, since today many people are learning English. In the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and some African countries it is official.

French - Some words of this language are similar to English and it is easy to learn as it is one of the most popular languages ​​in the world. In France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and some African countries it is the official language.

Italian has simple pronunciation, no cases, and its vocabulary is rooted in Latin. The area of ​​Italian-speaking countries is small - Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Switzerland and Argentina.

Spanish has simple grammar and spelling, and vocabulary is similar to Italian and English. In terms of the number of speakers, it is not far behind the most popular languages ​​- only 4th place after English, Chinese and Hindi. Distribution area: Spain, Mexico and Argentina.

Portuguese is similar to Spanish, but it is not easy for their speakers to understand each other due to the fact that the first language is a sibilant. The distribution area is African countries, Brazil and Portugal itself.

Esperanto is the easiest language, as you can master it in a month. In terms of similarity, it is close to Spanish. Esperanto is not official in any country, but it may be recognized as official in the European Union.

Which language is suitable for Russian speakers to learn?

It is suitable for a person to study a language that is in the same language group as his native one. For example, it is easy for an Italian to learn Spanish or Portuguese. What is the easiest language to learn for Russians? Since Russian is one of them, it will be easiest to learn Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Czech or any other Slavic language. Of the European ones, the easiest to learn are those whose culture and sound are closest to the student - for example, expressive Italian or Spanish is suitable for temperamental people, and French for romantics. The same applies to languages ​​of the 3rd complexity group. This is explained by the lack of similarity with the native language, so learning them will require the same amount of time and effort.

Today, knowledge of foreign languages ​​is not so much a human advantage as a necessity. Foreign languages ​​will help you not only in school and at work, but also when traveling around the world.

If you're looking to learn a new language, you'll have a wide range of choices. Some languages ​​are good for business communication, others will be useful to you in any part of the world, and others just sound beautiful!

In this article we will talk about the most popular foreign languages, which are really worth devoting time and effort to learning.

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Popular languages

Which languages ​​are especially widely used around the world?

Chinese- 955 million people

Spanish- 405 million people

English- 360 million people

Hindi- 310 million people

Bengal- 300 million people

If, according to statistics, a foreign language is widely used in the world, this does not mean that many people are studying it. It is enough that it is native to the inhabitants of one or more large countries. For example, Chinese is spoken by 37% of the world's population, but the language is considered official in only 3 countries of the world.

However, many people choose a language to learn based on these statistics. A number of experts believe that in the future languages ​​such as Chinese and Hindi will replace the “world” English language. And although this is not expected in the near future (English is much easier to learn!), for many this prospect is a great incentive to learn a new language.

Languages ​​for career development

What languages ​​are useful in the business community?

English, Chinese, Japanese, German, French

The opportunity to use a foreign language at work is one of the main reasons that forces even adults to sit down with textbooks again. The ranking of “business languages” is determined by the economic and business potential of countries around the world.

In first place in the ranking is the English language, which any modern business person must know. English competes with Asian languages ​​- Chinese and Japanese, which were included in the ranking due to the rapid development of the economy and industry of these countries.

German and French may also be useful for business communication. There are many branches of large corporations in Germany, France and the UK around the world, so the languages ​​of these countries can help in building an international career.

Languages ​​that are easy to learn

What world languages ​​are the easiest to learn?

Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, Dutch, Swedish, Afrikaans, Norwegian

It is believed that each subsequent foreign language is easier to learn than the previous one. After learning 2-3 languages, a person develops his own strategy for memorizing vocabulary and language rules, which speeds up the process of further learning. In addition, many languages ​​are similar to each other.

Thus, the above languages, according to experts, are quite easy to learn if you already know English. If you want to become a real polyglot, start learning languages ​​that belong to the same group, or are simply similar to each other.

The most beautiful languages

Which languages ​​sound more beautiful and romantic than others?

French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian

Of course, as many people as there are, so many tastes. However, some languages ​​are generally considered the most beautiful and “musical” - these are, in particular, the mentioned Romance languages.

People at all ages begin to learn French and Italian simply for themselves, because of the beauty and melodiousness of these languages. Indeed, what could be more beautiful than declaring your love to a loved one in French?

In addition, Romance languages ​​are a real treasure for lovers of music, literature and culture in general. Knowledge of Spanish, French and other languages ​​will give you the opportunity to read classics in the original and learn wonderful foreign songs!

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

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 first start learning a language because different sounds use different facial muscles and use the tongue differently as a muscular organ. 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 lisping [s]), but this sound is used only in European Spanish; in Latin America they pronounce the usual [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. Russian pronunciation is very difficult for them, 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, you gain vocabulary very quickly, and even gradually you yourself learn to come up with German words that you have not 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.

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, out of 9 English tenses, only 3-5 are used in real life. 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 singular changes, 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 with English verbs 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 exist in all languages, and you can’t hide from them anywhere J Pronouns, articles, nouns and adjectives They generally do not decline according to gender and cases. The plural of a noun is 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.

There are no completely simple languages. Perhaps for Russians Belarusian or Ukrainian :) But you can choose for yourself those parameters that are easier for you and use them to choose a 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.

Knowledge of two or more languages ​​today is one of the main conditions for developing a good career, but learning all languages ​​is not enough in life. Which languages ​​can you learn faster than others? We help beginning polyglots.

Study order

Much depends on how many languages ​​you already know, what language group, whether the grammatical structure is similar, etc. It also matters for what purpose you need this or that language: hobby, work, etc. Today we will look at this aspect, how a Russian person learns foreign languages, we find out what comes easiest to him.

Senior lecturer and methodologist at the Institute of Philology and History of the Russian State University for the Humanities, Candidate of Philological Sciences Nikita Petrov believes that for a Russian-speaking person, foreign languages ​​are divided into five groups, the last of which includes the most difficult to understand.

According to Petrov, who developed a mnemonic technique that helps in learning languages, the easiest way for a Russian person to master the Slavic languages ​​and Esperanto. At the same time, the specialist clarifies that Slovak and Polish are easier to master after mastering Czech. Petrov included Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian in the second group of foreign languages, and also added Latvian. The third section includes English, Dutch, Lithuanian, Yiddish, French and other Romance languages ​​not included in the second group. It is noteworthy that, according to the author of the mnemonics, English is easier to learn after French, and Dutch is better with prior mastery of English. Whereas Petrov recommends mastering Yiddish after German and Slavic languages.

In the fourth group, according to the degree of ease, he included German and other Germanic languages, Hebrew, Greek, Altai and Indo-Iranian languages. The fifth group includes all other languages ​​of the world. There is also a caveat here: Nikita Petrov advises starting to study Persian and Hebrew after Arabic, and Korean and Japanese after Chinese.

In addition, in his opinion, when mastering any foreign language, you first need to master the alphabet, reading rules, and several dozen of the most common words and expressions. Then turn to basic grammar and vocabulary on basic everyday topics. Afterwards you can start reading the adapted texts and discussing them. When completing a grammar course, Petrov recommends choosing additional lexical topics taking into account profession, interests, etc. And the crown of studying a foreign language should be reading works of fiction in the original and easy communication with native speakers.

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.
The head of the department of theoretical and applied linguistics at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State University for the Humanities, Sergei Gindin, also notes that there are no general rules in the sequence of mastering foreign languages ​​and their accessibility for Russian-speaking people. 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 Great Britain there is a classic version, the so-called Royal English, which is spoken by announcers, some politicians and the Queen during working hours. 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.

At school my foreign language was French. At the same time, the majority studied English as a foreign language. In our class, 5 people were chosen and assigned French. And I was extremely lucky with my first French teacher. Then I had the same luck with a teacher at the lyceum. And already at the university, while taking a language exam, I often talked about foreign languages ​​with students from the Faculty of Linguistics. And he often argued about which language was easiest to learn.

Which language is the easiest to learn?

There are a lot of languages, more or less popular in the world - about 40. It is clear that it is unrealistic to compare 40 languages, so I will try to compare the very best, namely:

• English.
• French.
• Spanish.
• Italian.
• German.
• Chinese.

Chinese is the most popular language in the world; there are approximately 2.5 times more native speakers of this language than native English speakers. I remember turning over the Chinese explanatory dictionary in my hands, so I didn’t even understand how to use it. Definitely the most difficult one on my list. German has always seemed like a very difficult language, and this opinion was confirmed by some of my friends who moved to Germany for permanent residence.

But, at the same time, as statistics say, Germany is popular for Russian-speaking emigrants, and all of them, in general, despite the grumbling, successfully master German. And, in addition, students from the Faculty of Linguistics, whose major was German language, they assured me that it was not as difficult a language as it seems at first glance, and that it is not at all difficult for a Russian-speaking person to learn it.

There are many people who believe that the easiest way for a Russian person to learn Italian. Because Italian pronunciation will have the least problems. Well, the language is beautiful. I have never learned this language, but if you consider that, say, our football players (and football players are not chess players after all - I think, you know what I mean) master Italian much faster than German, I can believe that it is not so difficult.

Learning English is, at least morally, easier than others; after all, it is the language of international communication; you immediately understand all the advantages of speaking English. French is considered difficult by many. In French, unlike English, words are declined, plus very often at the end of words many letters are not readable. Based on my experience and communication with people who have studied foreign languages, I think that Italian is the easiest to learn. German, English and Spanish are a little more difficult. French is even more difficult.