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I mean in terms of grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary?
I have learned all five of them (some only a little of course) and English is not my first language.
Firstly, English pronunciation is by far the hardest and least logical. "A" in English can be pronounced in 5 or 6 ways while it is always the same in all these four languages (maybe 2 in German). "ough" in English has 6 different ways to pronounce as well, if native speakers didn't realize, and there are many many very irregular pronunciations that simply don't make sense
Italian and Spanish are most consistent in terms of spelling-sound consistency. French is next but much much better than English. At least you can't make a mistake in reading a word knowing how it is written. Not so much for English. (tough/cough, head/seat, food/flood)
In terms of grammar, English is probably easier due to the less conjugation. German is the hardest. The other three Romance languages are similar.
English has by far the largest vocabulary among these languages which makes it an extremely frustrating language. French probably has the smallest commonly used vocabulary.
What about the sound of them?
I like the sound of French most - crisp and elegant (you seldom need to open your mouth very wide). The nasal vowels give it some charm too.
Italian sounds very melodic, and I especially like the intonation, which makes it one of the most distinguishable language in the world.
Spanish is many way is similar to Italian in that it contains so many vowels, but sounds less nice.
English is a bit harsh for me. I like the standard British accent. American accent, not so much. It just doesn't sound as serious. Did you notice that in most Hollywood history movies, people try to hide their typical American accent and prefer a more UK-like accent, although the story does really happen in the UK?
German, well, I don't even want to get to that
I speak English natively, and Spanish and Portuguese fluently. I've studied French and Arabic and am somewhat operational in Catalan, just for context.
By far, I had the easiest time with Spanish. The pronunciation is consistent, for the most part, and the grammatical rules are more uniform than the rest, in my experience. Portuguese would be considered as much as Spanish, for me, except for the sharp differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese, which, in my opinion, are far greater than European and Latin American Spanish.
I only speak American English fluently, but I've lived in Germany and traveled around Europe a lot - and therefore had to learn how to get around in different European countries.
I find that German is the most like English (not that that's necessarily a good thing!) and therefore it was fairly easy for me to pick up on - and pretty easy to read (easier to read than to converse in!).
Spanish is the easiest of the Romantic languages, in my opinion.
I never could make heads or tails out of French.
The Eastern European Slavic languages are a real trip. I hit a mind block when I can't even READ something! LOL All those backwards Rs!
For a native English speaker, I believe the Germanic languages will be easiest to learn - German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian.. Speaking both English and Swedish, I find that once you learn a few basic rules, the rest is frighteningly easy to pick up.
For people who have a native language other than English- Spanish would probably be the easiest, as it seems to be the most straightforward. There are exceptions, but the romance languages tend to share this trait.
I would say English and Spanish, but that depends a lot on what your native language is. For a Japanese it might be easier to learn Korean and for someone from Hungary Finnish might be easier than Spanish or English.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali BassMan
Us Americans have butchering the Queens english for several hundred years.....
Actually, American English is closer to the English spoken several hundred years ago than British English.
I have learnt both French and Italian and speak both fairly well, I have also tried to learn Spanish.
I'd say Italian is much easier. The spelling is phonetic, the grammar is simpler and more logical, and the Italians are more forgiving of grammar errors than the stickler French - who's first instance is to correct you when you get something wrong, which knocks your confidence.
Spanish is also IMO easier than French but it does have a few really tricky issues, such as por/para or ser/estar which Italian lacks as well as the unfamiliar Arabic-derived vocabulary.
I like the sound of French most - crisp and elegant (you seldom need to open your mouth very wide). The nasal vowels give it some charm too.
Italian sounds very melodic, and I especially like the intonation, which makes it one of the most distinguishable language in the world.
Spanish is many way is similar to Italian in that it contains so many vowels, but sounds less nice.
English is a bit harsh for me. I like the standard British accent. American accent, not so much. It just doesn't sound as serious. Did you notice that in most Hollywood history movies, people try to hide their typical American accent and prefer a more UK-like accent, although the story does really happen in the UK?
German, well, I don't even want to get to that
I genuinely beleive there are very few languages that are unattractive to listen to.
I personally like the sound of German, I think only if it is barked in WWII movie style can it be ugly - I also love hearing people speak Irish, Welsh, Swedish or Portuguese - even Arabic at times - even though many think them ugly.
The only one I struggle with is Dutch - though I have not heard it spoken that much as all the Dutch seem to speak such good English.
US English can be ugly if spoken in that annoying female midwestern nasal whine. But often it can be sexy - particularly deep South accents :-)
For a native English speaker, I believe the Germanic languages will be easiest to learn - German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian.. Speaking both English and Swedish, I find that once you learn a few basic rules, the rest is frighteningly easy to pick up.
For people who have a native language other than English- Spanish would probably be the easiest, as it seems to be the most straightforward. There are exceptions, but the romance languages tend to share this trait.
I am not sure about German - German has a lot of grammar rules, English has almost none. Then the word order, word conjugation, vocabulary, numerical system, definite and indefinite articles. Adjectives are even worse.
But there is one thing that in German is easier: pronunciation. There is no guessing: you read what you see, German is just very phonetic. Few extra letters - Umlauts are usually not a big deal.
German can sometimes have very long compound nouns. The first letter of all nouns is capitalized, but I is written in lower case.
Both languages have many similarities, but he more languages you speak, the easier is to learn the next one.
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