So you’ve decided to learn a language. Your next task, if you’re up for it: Choosing among many options. Should you go for a more widely spoken language like Spanish or Mandarin, a politically relevant one like Russian, or one you can use on your next vacation? These are all valid motivations, but here’s another: You’re busy. We all are. Why not tackle a language that will be relatively easy to learn? Here are ten easiest languages to learn this year, courtesy of online pokies Australia for real money players.
- Afrikaans
Like English, Afrikaans is in the West Germanic language family. It shares many Germanic-derived root words with English and has a logical and non-inflective structure, making it straightforward to speak. Additionally, Afrikaans has neither verb conjugation nor word gender – less for a learner to worry about. This makes it one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers.
- French
Approximately a third of the modern English language has been influenced by French, making it familiar territory for a native English learner. English has more in common lexically with French than with any other romance language, meaning an understanding of French vocabulary will come easily.
- Spanish
Fortunately for learners, most words in Spanish are written as pronounced–straightforward pronunciation means straightforward writing and speaking. In general, Spanish has fewer language irregularities (like the letter ñ) than other romance languages.
- Dutch
Another member of the West Germanic language family, Dutch mirrors English both structurally and syntactically. The two are similar with regards to vocabulary as well; groen is “green,” in English, oude man is “old man,” in English.
- Norwegian
A language of the North Germanic family, Norwegian has consistent pronunciation and easy-to-learn grammar. Verbs are straightforward, requiring no conjugation according to number or person. The rules of general conjugation are simple, requiring an “-e” suffix for past tense and an “-s” suffix for passive verbs.
- Portuguese
Portuguese shares many direct similarities with English. For example, a question is introduced by intonation instead of rearranging verb forms like it is in English. “We’re arriving now,” becomes a question by inflecting up at the end of the sentence: “We’re arriving now?”
- Swedish
Because it is a Germanic language, Swedish shares cognates like “midnatt” (midnight), and “konferens” (conference) with English. In addition, Swedish syntax follows the English subject-verb-object structure. Swedish is quite popular as many online platforms like https://www.rivernilecasino.com/ has the option feature.
- Italian
Italian has a vocabulary rooted in Latin, creating many English-Italian cognates like “calendario” (calendar), and “foresta” (forest). Italian is highly readable, sporting a simple alphabet consisting of only 21 letters (English has 26).
- Romanian
Romanian is a unique language. It is the only romance language developed in the Eastern part of Latin Europe–it still has Latin roots, however, making it similar to English. It shares some common words with English, like “contemporanii” (contemporaries), and “week-end bun” (good weekend).
- Hindi
A slightly more difficult language to learn than the top nine, Hindi will take the average English learner slightly longer to master. That being said, however, many words in English are either Hindi or of Hindi origin, such as jungle, guru, and karma.
