If you decide to study a language and you can’t choose the right one, think about which one will be more interesting for you to learn. It is important to listen to speech, feel the melody of unfamiliar words, in order to want to learn how to express yourself using this language. That is, it is important to have an incentive that will help you learn any language. Although most people who want to dive into the world of unfamiliar speech want to find out which language is the easiest?

Of course, it is difficult to give an unequivocal and categorical answer. The ease of language is determined by its proximity to mother tongue student and his individual susceptibility to the foundations of science. Similarly, the most difficult languages ​​to learn are determined. However, there are only five languages ​​that, according to the US Department of Foreign Affairs, are the easiest languages ​​in the world.

• Spanish. There are many reviews about this language that give general idea about how simple it is. Its grammar is not too pretentious, the pronunciation is adequate to the spelling, exceptions are rare. That is, it is quite easy to read in Spanish.
• Italian. This language is a little more complicated than the above, but the pronunciation here is also simple. Experts say that Italian is a bit similar to Spanish. Therefore, if your goal is to become a polyglot, it makes sense to start by learning the languages ​​\u200b\u200bof “relatives”.
• French. This language at first glance seems difficult, because the pronunciation in it is really difficult. The solution to the problem is communication. It is very effective to study it among the French.
• Esperanto. No wonder this language is one of the easiest languages ​​to learn. It is believed that it is as simple as it is generally possible. The only disadvantage of Esperanto is that this language was created artificially, so there are not so many experts in it.
• English. English is probably in the ranking because it is spoken by an extremely large number of people. Conciseness is considered one of its advantages, most of the words are short, but the grammar in it occupies an average place in terms of complexity. On the one hand, in English there are no cases, genders, that is, it is easy to operate with nouns. But the verbs and their tenses will require considerable attention.

The easiest languages ​​in the world are a subjective concept, and there is no guarantee that they will not constitute a persistent obstacle for you. If you follow book grammar, it is possible to learn any language, but with some effort. Those who have studied several languages ​​agree on one thing: you need to devote more time to practice. This means more than just learning to decline and say common phrases out loud. It is necessary to speak it, preferably with a native speaker. But in order to start speaking, you will need to go through a couple of steps that will help you master at least the basics of speech. And then any language, even a complex one, will succumb to your efforts.

Language is a sign system consisting of sounds, words and sentences. The sign system of each nation is unique due to its grammatical, morphological, phonetic and linguistic features. Simple languages ​​do not exist, since each of them has its own difficulties that are discovered in the course of study.

Below are the most difficult languages ​​​​of the world, the rating of which consists of 10 sign systems.

- This is one of the most difficult in terms of pronunciation. Also, the sign system is considered one of the most ancient languages. It contains linguistic units used only by native speakers. One of the biggest challenges in learning Icelandic is its phonetics, which only native speakers can accurately convey.

Finnish language

Finnish language deservedly ranked among one of the most complex sign systems in the world. It has 15 cases, as well as several hundred personal verb forms and conjugations. In it, graphic signs fully convey the sound form of the word (both spelled and pronounced), which simplifies the language. The grammar contains several past forms, but no future tenses.

Navajo

Navajo- the language of the Indians, a feature of which is considered to be verb forms that are formed and changed by faces with the help of prefixes. It is the verbs that carry the main semantic information. Navajos were used by the US military during World War II to transmit encrypted information.

In addition to vowels and consonants, there are 4 tones in the language, which are referred to as ascending - descending; high Low. At the moment, the fate of the Navajo is in jeopardy, as linguistic dictionaries absent, and the younger generation of Indians is switching exclusively to English language.

One of the ten most difficult languages ​​to learn. It has 35 case forms and is replete with vowel sounds that are quite difficult to pronounce due to longitude. The sign system has a rather complex grammar, in which there are an uncountable number of suffixes, as well as set expressions that are characteristic only for this language. A feature of the dictionary system is the presence of only 2 tense forms of the verb: present and past.

Eskimo

Eskimo and is considered one of the most complex in the world due to the numerous temporary forms, of which there are up to 63 only in the present tense. The case form of words has more than 200 inflections (word changes with the help of endings, prefixes, suffixes). Eskimo is a language of images. For example, the meaning of the word "Internet" among the Eskimos will sound like "travel through the layers." The Eskimo sign system is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the most difficult.

One of the few languages ​​listed in the Book because of its complexity. Its peculiarity lies in numerous cases, of which there are 46. This is one of state languages residents of Dagestan, in which there are no prepositions. Postpositions are used instead. There are three types of dialects in the language, and each of them combines a certain group of dialects. The sign system has many borrowings from different languages: Persian, Azerbaijani, Arabic, Russian and others.

One of the oldest in Europe. It is owned by some residents of Southern France and Northern Spain. Basque contains 24 case forms and does not belong to any branch language families. Dictionaries contain about half a million words, including dialects. Prefixes and suffixes are used to form new linguistic units.

The connection of words in a sentence can be traced through changes in endings. The tense of the verb is displayed by changing the endings and the beginning of the word. Due to the low prevalence of the language, it was used during the Second World War by the US military to transmit classified information. Basque is considered to be one of the most difficult languages ​​to learn.

Russian

Russian one of the three most difficult languages ​​in the world. The main difficulty of the "great and mighty" is free stress. For example, in French, the stress is always placed on the last syllable of a word. In Russian, a strong position can be anywhere: both in the first and last syllable, or in the middle of a word. The meaning of many lexical units is determined by the place of stress, for example: flour - flour; organ - Organ. Also, the meaning of polysemantic words that are spelled and pronounced the same is determined only in the context of the sentence.

Other linguistic units may differ in writing, but are pronounced the same and have a completely different meaning, for example: meadow - onion, etc. Our language is one of the richest in synonyms: one word can have up to a dozen linguistic units close in meaning. Punctuation also carries a great semantic load: the absence of one comma completely changes the meaning of the phrase. Remember the hackneyed phrase from the school bench: “You can’t pardon the execution”?

Arabic

Arabic- one of the most complex sign systems in the world. One letter has up to 4 different spellings: it all depends on the location of the character in the word. There are no lowercase letters in the Arabic dictionary system, word breaks for hyphenation are prohibited, and vowel characters are not displayed in writing. One of individual characteristics language lies in the way words are written - from right to left.

In Arabic, instead of two numbers, which are familiar to the Russian language, there are three numbers: singular, plural and dual. It is impossible to find equally pronounced words here, since each sound has 4 different tones, which will depend on its location.

Chinese

Chinese is an incredibly complex language. The first difficulty, if you want to study it, is the total number of hieroglyphs in the language. The modern Chinese dictionary has about 87 thousand characters. The difficulty lies not only in the sign system of the language, but also in the correct spelling. The only incorrectly depicted feature in one hieroglyph completely distorts the meaning of the word.

One Chinese "letter" can mean a whole word or even a sentence. The graphic symbol does not reflect the phonetic essence of the word - a person who does not know all the intricacies of this language will not be able to understand how the written word is pronounced correctly. Phonetics is quite complex: it has numerous homophones and contains 4 tones in the system. learn Chinese- is one of the most difficult task, which can be put in front of a foreigner.

Perhaps everyone in modern world agrees that learning a foreign language is a necessary and useful thing.

Foreign languages ​​not only expand the horizons, but also change the way of thinking. Only a small percentage of Americans and Britons speak a language other than their mother tongue, and therefore it seems to us that it is not worth trying to learn something new.

However, this is absolutely not the case. Any language, whether it be the most difficult one, such as Japanese or Chinese, can be learned in one intensive summer course. Do you want to touch other cultures? We present you the 10 easiest to learn foreign languages.

• 1 Spanish is a beautiful foreign language to learn
• 2 Portuguese
• 3 French
• 4 Italian language
• 5 Swedish

• 6 Norwegian
• 7 Esperanto
• 8 Afrikaans
• 9 Frisian
• 10 And the easiest...Dutch

Spanish is a beautiful foreign language to learn

Spanish is one of the main languages ​​in the world. If the world's languages ​​were school kids, then Spanish would be the popular kid that other kids want to hang out with. Most of the Central and South America speaks Spanish, as well as Equatorial Guinea in Africa and, in fact, Spain. In other words, learning Spanish, you discover a large part of the world.

So why is Spanish easy for us? In Spanish, a lot of words are of Latin origin, and the grammar is quite simple. Although there are some differences that may make us dizzy, for example, we would say "car red" instead of "car red". Also, you can easily practice it. People living in the US have access to Spanish-language TV, so it's easier for them to improve their vocabulary.

Portuguese

Compared to other colonial powers, Portugal did not leave much of a legacy (sorry, Macau and Angola). However, its influence extended to one of the largest countries in North and South America. Brazil covers about half of South America in area and has a population of around 200 million.

In a school analogy, Portuguese is the shy but friendly cousin of Spanish. The Portuguese language is closely related to Spanish, with all the advantages that can be. The downside is that knowing Spanish makes it difficult to learn Portuguese. This is because the two languages ​​are full of "false friends", words that sound identical but have very different meanings. Thus, in perfect Spanish, you can order in a restaurant, while in Portuguese, you can suggest having a dirty evening with the waiter's wife.

French

We will tell you a secret. If the language belongs to the Romance group, then it will be easy for you to learn. French is the prettiest, most sophisticated girl in school, or the cutest guy who knows he's the coolest in class. This language was once perhaps the most important on Earth. Although those days are gone, he still plays a big role. Want to travel to Morocco, Algeria, Congo, Belgium, Switzerland or Haiti? Learn French. Want to impress your girlfriend (your boyfriend)? Learn French. We are not sure how much more clearly this can be expressed. Knowing French is really cool.

French includes a lot Latin words. It also has a strong connection with the English language. In 1066 William the Conqueror made a medieval French ruling classes in England at that time. In total, over 10,000 words in English are borrowed from French.

Italian language

Italy has never had such a global influence as its cousins. Today, learning Italian pretty much narrows down the geography of your travels. Fortunately, Italy is one of the most historically important and beautiful countries on Earth.

Italy is the reason why you can learn Spanish, Portuguese and French with such ease. It was the Romans who spread Latin to these countries, leaving their mark everywhere from modern Britain, to Libya, to Syria, to Germany. Spanish is essentially a descendant of "Vulgar Latin", the language spoken by the "grouches" and soldiers of the Empire. This means that there are many similarities between the two. modern languages, especially if you happen to recognize Argentine Spanish, which is more rhythmically suited to the streets of Naples than the sidewalks of Madrid.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of learning Italian in how amazing a layer of culture you will discover - from the Divine Comedy of Dante and the films of Federico Fellini to various world masterpieces.

Swedish language

Let's move away from the sunny climates of southern Europe. Sweden is the complete opposite. southern countries. A cold, snow-covered country in the dark corners of Northern Europe, it is as far removed from our previous languages ​​as icy slopes and hot beaches are. However, there are still similarities. If you look closely, English has not only Latin roots, but also Germanic ones. The Swedish language, in turn, is a vivid example of the Germanic group.

German and Swedish have similar grammar, which means that learning Swedish is essentially about memorizing a lot of vocabulary. As a bonus, the verbs hardly change. Thus, while an Englishman will say "I speak English, he speaks English", a Swede will say "I speak Swedish, he speaks Swedish".

So what are the benefits of learning Swedish? Not much if you're hoping to travel the world. Swedish is spoken by only 10 million people, and almost all of them live in Sweden.

Norwegian

Norwegian is the closest language to what we call the "Viking language". This in itself should be reason enough to study it. But if manly beards or intimidating horned helmets put you off, there is at least one extenuating circumstance. Norwegian is easy to learn for native English speakers.

Norwegian, another Germanic language, has absorbed all the advantages of Swedish, being much simpler. The grammar is close to English, while the verbs are easy to learn (there are slight changes depending on the context). Again, there are many closely related words and the rhythm and accent are quite similar. In a broad survey conducted at the turn of the 21st century, the Federal Government declared Norwegian one of the most simple languages to be studied by Americans.

Exists back side all this. The population of Norway is 6 million people, approximately 95% of them speak perfect English. Language is taught at all levels school education. The chances of meeting a Norwegian who doesn't speak English are about the same as meeting an American who speaks Norwegian fluently.

Esperanto

Esperanto is the most widely spoken artificial language in the world. Yes, even Klingon and Elvish are less popular. It was invented in 1887 by L. Zamenhof, with the aim of making the language so simple that it would seem "just a game" to learn it.

For this he took various pieces from many European languages, mixed them all together, simplified them, and called it all a language. The result is a language that sounds oddly familiar, like you've come across it before. Watch the video to see how Esperanto is spoken. Most likely, you will be able to recognize its constituent parts.

Esperanto is spoken by about 2 million people, and, according to experts, up to 1,000 families consider it "native". For comparison, this number is much larger than the speakers of the current Cornish language.

Afrikaans

Spoken by the descendants of Dutch farmers in South Africa and Namibia, Afrikaans has a long and turbulent history. For some Boers, it is an integral part of their identity and culture, which has changed a lot over the past 20 years. This African language is closest to English.

Afrikaans exists somewhere between Dutch and English, but at the same time it is simpler. The grammar is logical and consistent, there are no exceptions like in English.

Unfortunately, Afrikaans does not provide you big choice for travel. You are pretty much limited to just two countries in southern Africa. On the other hand, if you've ever wanted to understand Boer culture or spend long time in South Africa, you have to be crazy not to learn Afrikaans.

Frisian

Raise your hands if you have ever heard of the Frisian language. According to our estimates, approximately 90 percent of you just sat there, shook your heads and muttered something like “Freak what language?” Do not worry, this is normal, because before you is a rather rare language. As simple as possible: Frisian is the native language of Friesland, part of the Netherlands. It is spoken by half a million people and is probably the closest language to English in the world.

Seriously, Frisian and English were the same language until relatively recently. Both languages ​​began to develop independently of each other 1200 years ago, which is a long time according to historians, but nothing from the point of view of linguists.

If you are a native (or good "owner") of English, learning Frisian will be a walk in the park for you. The written form of speech is similar to Dutch, the oral form is almost identical to English - vocabulary, sentence structure and pronunciation. Without any lessons, you probably already speak it fluently.

And the easiest...Dutch

Linguists consider Dutch the easiest language to learn for an audience that knows English (Frisian is easier, but not as common). It is spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles, with about 23 million speakers worldwide. It has so many similarities with English that you can learn it with almost no free time.

This is the result of a happy historical accident. While most English-related languages ​​have either Latin or Germanic roots, Dutch has both. This means that most Dutch words are very similar to English, with the added bonus that the structure is also similar. The grammar is consistent and logical, the pronunciation is quite intuitive, there are strange, at first glance, vowel sounds.

The only downside to Dutch is that almost everyone in the Netherlands and Belgium is fluent in English, which means your chances of showing off your knowledge of the local language are slim to none.

We told you about the easiest languages ​​to learn. So, if you want to make your brains move and get closer to the status of a polyglot, we advise you to immediately sign up for courses in one of the above languages, which should not cause any particular difficulties in mastering.

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In the current age of globalization, you will no longer surprise anyone with a journey through different countries and work in international companies. Increasingly, people have to learn different foreign languages, but not all of them are mastered with the same ease. So what is the easiest language in the world?

What affects the speed of language learning?

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

Thirdly, it affects what 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 affected by the purpose for which this is done: the more serious it is, the more motivation, effort and, accordingly, success.

Difficulty levels of languages

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 artificially created Esperanto. It is worth clarifying that for more easy learning Polish and Slovak, it is better to master Czech first.

The second group included Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and Latvian. In the third - those Romance languages ​​that did not fall into the second group, that is, French, English, Dutch, Yiddish and others. Surprisingly, English is often easier after French, and not vice versa. Yiddish comes easier after German and Slavic languages and it doesn't seem all that complicated.

The fourth group consists of Germanic languages, Hebrew, Greek and Indo-Iranian languages. In the fifth, all other languages ​​\u200b\u200bthat exist in the world remained. It is believed that Hebrew and Persian are easier after learning Arabic, and Chinese makes it easier to learn Japanese and Korean.

Learning process

Not everyone agrees with such a 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 main words and phrases most often used in colloquial speech, and only after that take up grammar and vocabulary development.

If we analyze data from several sources, we can see that most often the easiest language in the world to learn is English, Italian, Spanish, French and German. Sometimes they are joined by Finnish.

Why is English easy to learn?

English entered the top five of the easiest languages ​​primarily due to its prevalence, yet almost half of the world knows it. A lot of literature has been published in English, the characters of many films speak it, if you watch them in the original, a lot of technical documentation is written in English, and it is the basis of most programming languages.

It can also be easy because there are few long words in it, and besides, many other European languages ​​​​influenced its formation, for example, Latin, French, Dutch, so it is intuitively close to many Europeans. Only tenses and irregular verbs are difficult.

Beautiful language easy to learn

Italian can be even simpler than English, because it sounds beautiful and is easily recognized by the ear of a Russian-speaking person. Virtually no effort is required to develop correct pronunciation. It will also be close in that it has such a concept as gender, which is absent in many other languages, and at the same time 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 are very emotional, and this sometimes helps to better understand their speech. In addition, it does not have too complicated grammar and spelling, for example, it reads the same way it is written. It can also help in studying it that it is one of the most common, which means that there is a lot of literature, films, music and teaching materials which can be used.

Popularity Factor in Language Learning

French can scare away sounds that are exotic for the Russian ear, but you should not be afraid of them, when learning this language, it may not be so scary. Those who know English will find many familiar words in it, and you can even master the rules of reading on your own. Beautiful French songs and the romance of France can help to understand the language, it is not for nothing that they say that French is the language for love, it perfectly expresses feelings.

German is one of the most logical languages ​​and is used in many business negotiations. Due to the fact that it is very common in Europe, there are many good practices for its rapid development. German is well given to people with a mathematical mindset due to the verified word order in sentences.

Suomi language

Finnish is the easiest language in the world to learn thanks to its free word order and easy pronunciation that a Russian speaker can easily master. This opinion is not the most popular, however, since it exists, there is some truth in it.

Summing up, it can be noted that, in principle, it can 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 someone else's grammar will no longer seem so unbearable. And for each person the question is what is the easiest language in the world is very individual.

It is difficult to answer this question, because everything depends only on individual characteristics.

The easiest languages ​​will broaden your horizons and help you communicate with foreigners.

According to research, the easiest languages ​​to learn are those that take no more than 600 study hours to master. These include:

• French. The French language is beautiful, logical and has a bright emotional richness. To learn to speak this language, you need to remember how some combinations of letters are pronounced, understand grammar, master verb conjugation and be able to express feelings in a conversation.
• Italian. It is considered one of the easiest to pronounce and does not depend on cases. The Italian language has Latin roots, so it will be close and understandable to those who speak any language from the Indo-European group.
• Spanish. The vocabulary of the language is in many ways similar to English, and the spelling is simple - words are pronounced the same way they are written. The easiest way to learn Spanish is for those who have a basic knowledge of English or Italian.
• Portuguese. The language is well perceived by ear, and the word order in sentences is almost like in Russian. The Portuguese language is very similar to Spanish and French, so it is not difficult to learn it, knowing the basic terms and rules of these languages.
• English. One of the most important international languages is also considered easy to learn. It is concise, contains short understandable words, has no cases and genders, and most importantly, it is ubiquitous.