Learning a new language opens up a world of opportunities, whether for studying abroad, volunteering, or simply enriching your travel experiences during a gap year. While the journey of language acquisition demands dedication, patience, and consistent practice, some languages present a gentler learning curve for native English speakers.
If you’re eager to broaden your communication skills and deepen your immersion in different cultures, exploring languages that are easier to grasp for English speakers is a great starting point. We’ve compiled a list of languages that you might find surprisingly accessible.
1. Afrikaans
Approximate time to learn: 24 weeks (600 hours)
Number of speakers: 6 million
Countries to visit: South Africa
Afrikaans, spoken natively in South Africa, stands out as a West Germanic language with notable similarities to English and others on this list. Rooted primarily in Dutch, it also carries influences from Portuguese, Malay, and French. With a community of 6 million speakers, Afrikaans subtly permeates South African English in everyday conversation.
✅ Pros:
- Germanic Roots: A significant 90% of Afrikaans vocabulary stems from Dutch, placing it within the Germanic language family, just like English! This shared heritage translates into recognizable vocabulary and pronunciation patterns. For instance, “color” in English is “kleur” in Afrikaans, and “door” becomes “duer.”
🟨 Cons:
- Limited Global Reach: Compared to languages like Spanish or French, Afrikaans has a geographically concentrated speaker base. However, its Dutch origins can be advantageous if you plan to travel to the Netherlands, where communication might be facilitated by the linguistic connection.
- The Trilled “R”: Mastering the Afrikaans pronunciation of the letter “r,” often trilled, can pose a challenge for English speakers.
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2. Dutch
Approximate time to learn: 24 weeks (575-600 hours)
Number of speakers: 23 million
Countries to visit: Netherlands, Aruba, Northern Belgium
Dutch, another Germanic language, boasts around 23 million native speakers and an additional 4 million who speak it as a second language. Its close relationship with English firmly places it high on the list of easiest languages for English speakers. Dutch influence extends beyond the Netherlands, evident in Afrikaans, Flemish (Belgium), and Frisian (Friesland).
✅ Pros:
- Familiar Vocabulary: English speakers will find Dutch vocabulary surprisingly accessible. Many words share identical or very similar spellings and meanings with their English counterparts. “Water” is the same in both languages, and words like “boek” and “appel” closely resemble “book” and “apple.”
- Simplified Grammar: Dutch grammar echoes English structure and simplifies verb tenses, featuring only two past tense conjugations, which streamlines the learning process.
🟨 Cons:
- Pronunciation Pitfalls: While some Dutch words may appear intuitively pronounceable to English speakers due to visual similarity, pronunciation can be deceptive. Stress patterns and sounds may differ from English expectations.
Read more: Should You Learn a Language in the Classroom or Through Immersion?
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3. Norwegian
Approximate time to learn: 23-24 weeks (575-600 hours)
Number of speakers: 4.4 million
Countries to visit: Norway, Denmark, Sweden
Norwegian might initially seem daunting, but its linguistic proximity to English makes it surprisingly easy for English speakers to learn. While its global reach is not as extensive as some other languages, Norwegian provides a gateway to communication within Scandinavia, extending to Sweden and Denmark, where mutual intelligibility is relatively high.
✅ Pros:
- Shared Linguistic Roots: Norwegian mirrors English in vocabulary and sentence structure, even incorporating borrowed English words. Test your intuition: can you guess the English equivalents of oransje, fantastisk, ankel? (Answers: orange, fantastic, ankle!)
- Straightforward Pronunciation: For the most part, Norwegian pronunciation is quite direct and predictable for English speakers.
🟨 Cons:
- Unique Characters and Sounds: Norwegian utilizes special characters and presents occasional pronunciation challenges unique to the language.
- Gendered Nouns: The grammatical concept of gendered nouns in Norwegian can be a new hurdle for English speakers.
Read more: 5 Tips to Overcome Language Barriers
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4. Spanish
Approximate time to learn: 24 weeks (600 hours)
Number of speakers: 595 million total speakers
Countries to visit: Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica
Spanish, a widely spoken Romance language, ranks as the second most spoken language globally. With over half a billion speakers, it’s a popular choice for English natives due to its practicality, media presence, and vast reach across continents. Regional dialects vary, but the core language remains consistent.
✅ Pros:
- Latin Connection: Spanish is considered easier for English speakers than many languages, primarily due to its Latin origins. English and Spanish share numerous cognates – words with common roots – such as “attention” and atención, or “camera” and cámara.
- Phonetic Pronunciation: Spanish is largely phonetic, meaning pronunciation directly corresponds to spelling. Mastering the accent rules unlocks accurate pronunciation and reading comprehension.
🟨 Cons:
- Grammatical Differences: Spanish grammar can present challenges, particularly verb tenses and structures that diverge from English grammar. The inclination to directly translate English grammatical patterns can sometimes lead to errors in Spanish.
Read more: 10 Best Places to Learn Spanish Abroad
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5. Italian
Approximate time to learn: 23-24 weeks (575-600 hours)
Number of speakers: 63 million
Countries to visit: Italy, Switzerland, parts of Croatia and Slovenia
Italian, another prominent Romance language, shares the stage with Spanish and French in popularity. Although geographically concentrated in Europe, Italian holds the 20th position as the most spoken language globally, with 63 million native speakers and an additional 3 million second-language speakers. Global influence in food and pop culture means some Italian words and phrases might already be familiar: panini, gelato, la dolce vita?
✅ Pros:
- Latin Heritage: Like Spanish and English, Italian traces its roots to Latin. This shared origin often makes it possible to grasp Italian words intuitively, even without explicit study, as seen with generosità (generosity).
- Direct Pronunciation: Italian pronunciation and spelling are remarkably consistent, with few exceptions or silent letters.
🟨 Cons:
- Verb Conjugation and Plurals: Italian verb conjugation can be intricate, with endings changing significantly based on tense and subject, following specific grammatical rules. Similarly, plural formation deviates from the simple English “-s” ending, requiring different suffix changes.
Read more: What to Know Before Learning Italian in Italy
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6. Portuguese
Approximate time to learn: 23-24 weeks (575-600 hours)
Number of speakers: 260 million
Countries to visit: Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Macau, Mozambique
Portuguese, the official language of both Brazil and Portugal, extends its reach across continents, including parts of Africa. As the world’s third most spoken Romance language, with over 250 million speakers, Portuguese offers a solid foundation for learning other Romance languages like Spanish or French.
✅ Pros:
- Latin Alphabet: Portuguese utilizes the same Latin alphabet as English, simplifying reading and writing from the outset.
- Intonation and Pronunciation Similarities: English speakers may recognize some parallels in intonation and general pronunciation patterns in Portuguese.
🟨 Cons:
- Dialectal Variations: Significant pronunciation and vocabulary differences exist between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. Long-term immersion in a specific region necessitates focusing on the corresponding dialect.
- False Friends with Spanish: While vocabulary overlaps with Spanish, leading to potential intuitive understanding, pronunciation and nuanced meanings differ. For example, biscoito is “cookie” in Portuguese, while bizcocho can mean “cake” in some Spanish regions – both sweets, but distinct items.
Read more: The 6 Best Places to Learn Portuguese Abroad
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7. French
Approximate time to learn: 24 weeks (575-600 hours)
Number of speakers: 320 million total speakers
Countries to visit: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Ivory Coast, Morocco, and Canada
French holds official language status in 29 countries across Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Africa, securing its position as a popular language to learn for its global reach. Ranking fifth globally in speaker numbers, French offers numerous advantages, especially for careers in international affairs or humanitarian organizations like the United Nations, UNESCO, and The International Red Cross, where French serves as an official or working language.
✅ Pros:
- Latin Roots and Shared Vocabulary: French, with its Latin origins, shares a substantial vocabulary pool with English. Many words are either identical or closely related.
- Cultural Familiarity: French influence on cuisine, culture, and media means English speakers often unconsciously know French words and phrases like à la carte or c’est la vie.
🟨 Cons:
- Pronunciation Complexity: French pronunciation is considered more intricate than other Romance languages, where pronunciation often directly follows spelling. Mastering French pronunciation rules and applying them consistently requires dedicated practice.
Read more: The Top 6 Countries to Learn French Abroad on a Budget
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8. Romanian
Approximate time to learn: 24 weeks (575-600 hours)
Number of speakers: 28 million total speakers
Countries to visit: Romania and Moldova
Many are surprised to learn that Romanian is also a Romance language, sharing vocabulary with French, Italian, and Spanish. While it has a smaller global footprint compared to these, with over 15 million native speakers and 28 million total speakers, Romanian still offers valuable linguistic connections.
✅ Pros:
- Phonetic Nature: Romanian, like Spanish, is a phonetic language. Words are generally pronounced as they are spelled, simplifying pronunciation for learners.
- Latin-Based Vocabulary: Due to its Latin roots, Romanian shares structural similarities with English, making it possible to infer the meaning of many words intuitively.
🟨 Cons:
- Grammatical Complexity: Romanian grammar presents challenges, particularly noun declension, where noun forms change based on their grammatical function in a sentence. This feature, while present in other Romance languages, is more pronounced and resembles Slavic languages like Russian and Polish.
- Slavic Influences: Romania’s geographical location surrounded by Slavic-speaking countries like Bulgaria has led to the incorporation of Slavic words into local Romanian dialects.
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9. Swahili
Approximate time to learn: 36 weeks (900 hours)
Number of speakers: 80 million total speakers
Countries to visit: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique
Swahili serves as an official language in four countries, including Kenya and Tanzania, and is widely spoken across East Africa, reaching approximately 80 million speakers. Swahili draws influences from Arabic, German, French, and English.
✅ Pros:
- Pronunciation Simplicity: Swahili pronunciation is generally straightforward for English speakers, lacking silent letters or complex accent rules. Some vocabulary even echoes English words, such as hoteli for “hotel.”
- Pop Culture Familiarity: Thanks to popular culture, particularly Disney’s “The Lion King,” many English speakers might already recognize Swahili words. Simba (lion), Rafiki (friend), Pumbaa (silly), and the famous Hakuna Matata (no worries) are examples.
🟨 Cons:
- Sentence Structure and Word Formation: Swahili sentence structure and the use of prefixes and suffixes, especially verb participles at the beginning of words, can be a learning curve for English speakers.
Read more: A Guide to Navigating the Stages of Language Learning
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10. Tagalog
Approximate time to learn: 44 weeks (1100 hours)
Number of speakers: 45 million
Countries to visit: Philippines
Rounding out our list of easier languages for English speakers is Tagalog, part of the Austronesian language family, alongside Malay and Sudanese. As one of the official languages of the Philippines, it’s spoken as a first language by 28% of the population. Taglish, a blend of Tagalog and English, is also widely used throughout the Philippines, though not officially recognized.
✅ Pros:
- Pronunciation and Vocabulary Bridges: Tagalog pronunciation is relatively simple, and its vocabulary shows influences from English, Spanish, and Malay.
- Borrowed English Words: Many English words have been adopted into Tagalog with slight spelling modifications. “Doctor” becomes doktor, and “computer” transforms into kompyuter.
🟨 Cons:
- Sentence Structure and Verb Conjugation: The primary challenge in learning Tagalog lies in its sentence structure and verb conjugation, which differ significantly from English and lack direct English equivalents in some cases.
Read more: The 10 Best Languages to Learn (and where to learn them)
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Start Your Language Learning Journey
The most effective way to learn any language is through consistent practice. Don’t be discouraged by mistakes! Regular practice and immersion are key to developing your language skills and building confidence in your speaking abilities.
