15 of the Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn (2023)

Learning a new language can open up a whole world of exciting new experiences and opportunities, from connecting with a variety of people and cultures to advancing your career to studying and working abroad.

But with so many different languages to choose from, how do you decide which one to spend your time mastering?

Although every foreign language comes with its own unique set of challenges, the reality is that some languages will simply be easier for fluent English speakers to become proficient in.

Why? Languages that are more closely related to English share certain qualities and characteristics that make them easier for English speakers to pick up. This includes things like sentence structure, vocabulary, tones and sounds, and writing system.

So, how easy or difficult a language might be for you to learn will depend not only on the language itself, but also on which languages you’re already fluent in, or at least familiar with.Remember, how long it will take you to learn a language is influenced by many different factors.

Want to know which languages you have the best chance of mastering quickly?

Here are 15 of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. However, you can use this as ageneral guide. We’ve used data from the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) to rank them from the easier to the somewhat more challenging.

1. Frisian

Frisian is thought to be one of the languages most closely related to English, and therefore also the easiest for English-speakers to pick up. Frisian was once the primary language of what during the Middle Ages was known as Frisia. Although Frisia no longer exists, Frisian, which actually consists of three main dialects, is still in use in parts of the Netherlands and Germany.

English and Frisian share many similarities in terms of sentence structure and vocabulary. For instance, “Good morning,” translates to “Goeie moarn” in the West Frisian dialect.

Unfortunately, since Frisian is only spoken and understood by about 500,000 people, there’s little reason to learn it, unless you intend to relocate to the Dutch province of Friesland or Germany’s Saterland or North Frisia regions.

2. Dutch

15 of the Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn (1)

Dutch, like Frisian, is closely related to English. It shares many similarities with English, especially when it comes to vocabulary. For instance, words like “plastic,” “water” and “lamp” are identical in both Dutch and English. The most challenging aspect of this language for English speakers will likely be the pronunciation.

In Belgium, Flemish, which is the dialect spoken in the Flanders region, is actually identical to Dutch. Although there are differences when it comes to pronunciation, vocabulary and idioms, Dutch speakers can quite easily understand Flemish, and vice-versa.

Dutch is spoken by around 24 million people worldwide, and is worth learning if you have plans to live and work in the Netherlands, or one of the other countries where it’s an official language, such as Suriname, Aruba or the Dutch Antilles.

3. Norwegian

Like English, Norwegian or “Norsk” is a Germanic language, which makes it easier for English-speakers to learn. It shares quite a bit of vocabulary with English, and unlike some Germanic languages, the pronunciation of most Norwegian words is fairly straightforward.

For the most part, the sentence structure is also quite comparable to English, although not identical. For instance, “He comes from Norway” translates to “Han kommer fra Norge.”

Norwegian is spoken by around 5 million people, primarily in Norway. With its roots in Old Norse, it can be a fascinating language to study, and fluency in Norwegian will give you greater access to the country’s rich literary culture and mythology.

4. Spanish

15 of the Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn (2)

Although Spanish is a Romance language rather than a Germanic language, it’s fairly easy for English speakers to learn because many English words stem from Latin. Spanish also uses the same alphabet as English, and many of the words are pronounced just as they are spelled.

Another benefit of Spanish for English speakers is that the sentence structure is not only similar to English, but it’s also not as strict as it is in English, which means there are often multiple ways a sentence can be put together.

If you’re looking to learn a language that will enhance your travel experiences and boost your employability, learning Spanish online is a great choice. It’s one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with around 534 million speakers scattered all around the globe. Download our freeSpanish essentials eBook to help you get started.

5. Portuguese

Portuguese is spoken by around 234 million people around the world. It’s the official language of both Portugal and Brazil, as well as six African countries, including Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique, making it an extremely useful second language to have under your belt.

Like Spanish, Portuguese stems from Latin and uses the same alphabet as the English language, which gives English speakers a slight advantage when learning it.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are some distinct differences between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. In fact, everything from the pronunciation to the vocabulary may vary, depending on which type of Portuguese you are learning. Which one you should focus on, of course, depends on where and how you intend to use it.

6. Italian

15 of the Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn (3)

Italian is another Romance language that English-speakers can pick up without too much difficulty. In fact, Italian vocabulary is widely used in English, and you’re probably already familiar with more Italian words than you may realise, from those relating to food, such as “gelato” and “panini” to others like “diva,” “solo,” “finale” or “fiasco.”

Italian and English use a similar sentence structure in most cases, and fortunately, the pronunciation is quite logical. This means you’ll be able to read and pronounce most words correctly once you have learned a few ground rules. Download our easy, visualItalian essentials eBook and get a head start.

Italian is the primary language for around 64 million people, and although it’s not as widely used as Spanish or Portuguese, it’s still spoken in many countries outside of Italy, including in Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia, and even Argentina.

7. French

French is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with around 77 million first-language speakers and 203 million second-language speakers. It’s also an official language of 29 countries, including Switzerland, Luxembourg, Seychelles and Rwanda.

Due to its somewhat tricky pronunciation, French can be slightly more challenging to learn than other Romance languages like Spanish and Italian. For instance, “Et tois?” (And you?) is pronounced as “Ay twah” and “Pouvez-vous?” (Can you?) is pronounced as “Poo vay voo”.

Even so, French does share many similarities with English, especially when it comes to the vocabulary. This means that once English speakers have had a chance to learn some basic rules, they’re usually able to pick it up quite quickly. Download our free French essentials eBook to accompany your studies.

8. Swedish

15 of the Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn (4)

Swedish is spoken by somewhere around 10 million people, and while most of them live in Sweden, a small minority can be found in Finland, where Swedish is also a national language.

Swedish is on the easier side for English speakers to learn, because again, it’s a Germanic language. Although the pronunciation may take some time to master, Swedish grammar rules and sentence structure are not overly complicated.

There are, of course, a few trickier aspects to learning this Scandinavian language, such as getting used to its three extra vowels. You’ll also need to familiarise yourself with unfamiliar compound words like “jordnötter,” which means peanuts, but translates to “dirt nuts,” or “kofångare,” which means bumper, but translates to “cow catcher.”

9. Romanian

Romanian is a language you might not have expected to see on this list. But although the country is surrounded by Slavic-speaking countries, Romanian is actually a Romance language and uses much of the same vocabulary as Italian, Spanish and French.

For example,”La revedere,” which is used for saying goodbye, is similar to the Italian “Arrividerci,” and the apology “Scuză-mă” is similar to the French “Excusez-moi.” It’s also a phonetic language, which means most words are spelled the same way they are pronounced.

Of course, there are a few trickier aspects to this language, including grammatical differences and letters with “diacritics.” But, overall, Romanian, which is spoken by around 30 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova, is a surprisingly easy language to learn.

10. Danish

15 of the Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn (5)

Danish is a Germanic language spoken by around 6 million people, most of whom live in Denmark. Like Norwegian and Swedish, it has fairly straightforward grammar rules and a lot of vocabulary that will be familiar to English speakers.

For example, “Gode tidende” sounds a lot like “Good tidings,” and the word “dyre,” which means “expensive,” is similar to the word “dear,” which is used in English when something is considered too pricey. Because of its more challenging pronunciation, however, Danish isn’t the easiest Scandinavian language to learn.

Even so, if you plan to stay in Denmark for a longer period of time, learning the local language is simply the best way to fully immerse yourself in the country’s unique culture and form deeper connections.

11. German

German is, as the name suggests, a Germanic language. It shares many similarities with English, including a common alphabet, comparable sentence structure and familiar vocabulary. For example, everyday German words like “Wasser,” (water) “Apfel,” (apple) and “Fisch” (fish) are very similar to their English equivalents. Download our free German essentials eBook to see the similarities.

One aspect of German that English-speakers do tend to struggle with is the pronunciation, especially when it comes to longer compound words like “Fremdschämen” (cringe) or ““Verschlimmbessern” (to worsen or exacerbate).

But while German might not be quite as easy for English-speakers to grasp as Dutch or Norwegian, it is an extremely useful language to learn, as it’s spoken by more than 100 million people throughout Central Europe, including in Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

12. Indonesian

15 of the Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn (6)

Indonesian is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with over 40 million native speakers and more than 150 million non-native speakers. As an Austronesian language, Indonesian does differ quite a bit from the Germanic and Romance languages on this list, but it’s actually surprisingly straightforward for English-speakers to learn.

This is partly down to the fact that Indonesian is a phonetic language, which means words are spelled as they sound. Indonesian sentence structure is also similar to English and its grammatical rules are fairly simple.

For instance, to change a singular word to plural, all you have to do is repeat the word or add an extra one. So “child” is “anak” and “children” is “anak-anak.” Easy right?

13. Malay

Malay is spoken by more than 200 million people throughout Southeast Asia. Like Indonesian, it’s an Austronesian language. In fact, it shares many similarities with Indonesian due to the fact that a similar variety of the language is used in Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore.

But, although Malay and Indonesian speakers can generally understand each other, there are some differences in terms of spelling, pronunciation, and vocabulary, with Malay based more on loanwords from English, and Indonesian having more loanwords from Dutch.

Malay is widely considered to be one of the easiest Asian languages to learn, because its grammatical rules are simple and it’s easy to pronounce. Of course, as with any language, there will be lots of new vocabulary to learn, but if you need to spend any amount of time in Southeast Asia, it’s an excellent second language to have under your belt.

14. Swahili

15 of the Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn (7)

Swahili is a Bantu language and another very useful second language to have, as it’s widely used in East Africa, including in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. Although estimates vary greatly, Swahili is thought to be spoken as a native language by around 16 million people, and as a second language by up to 80 million people.

In fact, if you’ve watched the Disney classic “The Lion King” you’ll already be familiar with a number of Swahili words such as “rafiki” (friend) and “simba” (lion). “The pronunciation of most Swahili words is fairly easy, and many are very similar to their English equivalent. For instance, “polisi” is “police” and “baiskeli” is “bicycle.”

There are also some key differences, of course, but if you’re looking to gain fluency in one or more African languages, Swahili is an excellent one to start with.

15. Filipino Tagalog

Filipino Tagalog is one of the official languages of the Philippines and another Austronesian language. On one hand, it’s not an overly complicated language to learn, as the pronunciation isn’t difficult, and much of its vocabulary is borrowed from other languages, including English, Spanish and Malay.

On the other hand, the sentence structure and verb focus of Tagalog is quite different to that of English, which makes it the most challenging language on this list. But, as with many foreign languages, it’s often simply a matter of getting some practice in.

With Tagalog spoken as a native language by around 45 million people, learning it or at least some of the basics, will make your stay in the Philippines a lot easier.

So there you have it, the 15 easiest languages for English speakers to learn. If you’re thinking of investing some time into learning a new language, why not take a look at some of the language courses offered by Berlitz?

Too easy for you and looking for something more challenging? Don't worry, we've got you covered with our top 15 hardest languages to learn for English speakers.

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FAQs

What is the easiest language for an English speaker to learn? ›

5 Easy Languages for English Speakers to Learn. Norwegian tops the list for many reasons. Like English, it's a Germanic language, and that's not all the two have in common. Norwegian is full of cognates, and its word order is very similar to that of English.

What is the easiest language to learn if you speak English and Spanish? ›

One of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers, Dutch is also fairly simple to learn if you know Spanish. Even though it's from a different language family, the Germanic languages, Dutch has plenty of rules that will make a Spanish speaker feel right at home.

What is the most difficult language to learn for English speakers? ›

1. Mandarin Chinese. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world.

What is the most useful language to learn after English? ›

The 10 Best Languages to Learn in 2023 (and where to learn them)
  1. Chinese. Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world—spoken in some form by 1.2 billion people—so it only makes sense to include it on this list. ...
  2. Spanish. ...
  3. Korean. ...
  4. French. ...
  5. German. ...
  6. 6. Japanese. ...
  7. Italian. ...
  8. Portuguese.
Nov 23, 2022

What 3rd language should I learn? ›

If you want to learn a language that is widely spoken throughout the world, you may want to opt for English, French, or Spanish, which are spoken on all continents.

What is the closest language to English? ›

The closest language to English is one called Frisian, which is a Germanic language spoken by a small population of about 480,000 people. There are three separate dialects of the language, and it's only spoken at the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.

What is the 7 hardest language to learn? ›

Which is the most difficult language for English Speakers?
  • 1 – Chinese (Mandarin)
  • 2 – Arabic.
  • 3 – Japanese.
  • 4 – Korean.
  • 5 – Hungarian.
  • 6 – Finnish.
  • 7 – Xhosa.
Feb 7, 2020

What is the 2nd hardest language to learn? ›

2. Arabic. Arabic is the queen of poetic languages, the 6th official language of the UN and second on our list of toughest languages to learn.

What is the 5 hardest language to learn? ›

5 of the most hardest languages to learn in the world
  • Mandarin.
  • Japanese.
  • Arabic.
  • Xhosa.
  • Russian.
Apr 13, 2022

What are the top 3 easiest languages? ›

5 easy languages to learn
  • English. It's the most widely spoken language in the world, making practice possible. ...
  • Spanish. It's heavily influenced by Latin and Arabic, spoken as it's written and has fewer irregularities than other romance languages. ...
  • Italian. ...
  • Swahili.

What are 20 the easiest languages to learn? ›

The Easiest Languages to Learn for Native English Speakers
  1. Spanish (3/30) Number of native speakers: 480 million. ...
  2. Dutch (3/30) Number of native speakers: 24 million. ...
  3. German (6/30) Number of native speakers: 95 million. ...
  4. Italian (7/30) ...
  5. Afrikaans (7/30) ...
  6. Esperanto (7/30) ...
  7. Portuguese (9/30) ...
  8. French (9/30)

What are the 7 easiest languages to learn? ›

And The Easiest Language To Learn Is…
  1. Norwegian. This may come as a surprise, but we have ranked Norwegian as the easiest language to learn for English speakers. ...
  2. Swedish. ...
  3. Spanish. ...
  4. Dutch. ...
  5. Portuguese. ...
  6. Indonesian. ...
  7. Italian. ...
  8. French.
Nov 9, 2021

What is the 20 hardest language to learn? ›

25 Hardest Languages to Learn, Ranked
  1. Mandarin. No. of speakers: 1.3 billion.
  2. Arabic. No. of speakers: 274 million. ...
  3. Japanese. No. of speakers: 126 million. ...
  4. Korean. No. of speakers: 80 million. ...
  5. Thai. No. of speakers: 60 million. ...
  6. Vietnamese. No. of speakers: 77 million. ...
  7. Hindi. No. of speakers: 615 million. ...
  8. Icelandic. No. ...
Jan 25, 2023

What is the simplest language ever? ›

While the Oxford English Dictionary contains a quarter of a million entries, and even Koko the gorilla communicates with over 1,000 gestures in American Sign Language, the total vocabulary of Toki Pona is a mere 123 words.

Can you learn 2 languages at once? ›

Answer: Thankfully, your brain can definitely handle learning two (or more!) languages at once! (Two down, 6,998 to go.) But there are also some ways you can make this linguistic task easier on yourself.

What language has the hardest grammar? ›

Hungarian grammar seems like the road to death for an English speaker. Because Hungarian grammar rules are the most difficult to learn, this language has 26 different cases. The suffixes dictate the tense and possession and not the word order.

Can you learn a language while sleeping? ›

Not a lot, unfortunately. As Jennifer Ackerman notes in her splendid 2007 book Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream, learning a language while sleeping “is probably impossible, [and] attempts to teach slumbering adult subjects vocabulary of foreign languages or lists of items have failed miserably.”

Which foreign language is worth learning? ›

French. The French language is also one of the best foreign language to learn for jobs. It is also one of the romance languages of the Indo-European family. French is the official language in 29 countries.

Which foreign language is in high demand? ›

Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese is consistently ranked as the foreign language that is most in demand among employers.

What is the best language to learn for the future? ›

Russian is one of the best languages to learn because of it's widely spoken across Eurasia and is the #2 internet language today. With so much website content in Russian, it's surely transitioning to a modern future. Likewise, Russian has a strong economy and is predicted to maintain this status into 2050.

What language will be most spoken in 2050? ›

Mandarin. Mandarin is likely to be the most spoken language in 2050 because of its vast number of speakers. The economic influence of China will also prove vital for the continued use and spread of Chinese languages around the world.

What language did Jesus speak? ›

Most religious scholars and historians agree with Pope Francis that the historical Jesus principally spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic. Through trade, invasions and conquest, the Aramaic language had spread far afield by the 7th century B.C., and would become the lingua franca in much of the Middle East.

What alphabet is closest to English? ›

Latin alphabet, also called Roman alphabet, the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and the languages of most of Europe and those areas settled by Europeans.

Is English the mother of all languages? ›

He said: “... In the beginning, Sanskrit stood as mother of all languages and encouraged all languages and was the reason for their growth and prosperity. One may note that most of the works in Sanskrit have been translated into other Indian languages.”

What is the oldest language in the world? ›

The oldest living language, still in use to date, might be Tamil. This fact is widely debated across linguistic communities. Tamil is proposed to be first attested somewhere between 5320 BC and 8th century CE. The Dravidian language has speakers in Southern India and Sri Lanka.

What is the most least used language? ›

Ongota. Also known as Shanqilla, Birelle, Birale and Ifa, Ongota is a language spoken in southwestern Ethiopia. The 2012 report of UNESCO said that there are only 12 individuals who speak the language.

What is the hardest grammar to learn? ›

Hungarian

The grammar of Hungarian is significantly different from that of Indo-European languages such as English. The language has no grammatical gender and it uses suffixes instead of prepositions which makes Hungarian one of the most difficult languages in the world.

What is the least difficult language to learn? ›

Of these, Spanish and Italian are the easiest for native English speakers to learn, followed by Portuguese and finally French.

What is the hardest language to learn if you are not English? ›

Spoken by over a billion people, Mandarin Chinese is unanimously considered to be the most difficult language in the world to master, especially for those whose native languages use the Latin writing system, like English, Spanish, French, German, and all other European languages.

What is the hardest second language to learn for non English speakers? ›

The Japanese language is universally considered one of the hardest languages to learn. With three different alphabets and hard pronunciations, the Japanese language deserves its own language group.

Which language has the most words? ›

The English language is believed to have more words than any other language in the world. But this isn't easy to prove. Since some languages, such as Chinese, are non-alphabetic, evaluating the number of words is difficult.

Which is the hardest alphabet to learn? ›

First off, the script used to write Hindi, Devanagari, is considered particularly hard to get a hang of. The script is also what's called an abugida, meaning that the individual characters represent a consonant and vowel combination, rather than a single vowel or consonant.

Is it too late to learn a language? ›

It does not matter how old you are, it is never too late to start learning a foreign language. Many language learners are put off by their advancing years; they believe age is a barrier to learning an entirely new language. However, this is not the case.

What is the 3 most common language? ›

The 4 Most Common Languages Spoken Around the World
  1. English. While only about 360 million people are native English speakers, 1.5 billion people worldwide can speak English. ...
  2. Mandarin Chinese. Over 1.1 billion people speak Mandarin, but Chinese is not a single language. ...
  3. Hindustani. ...
  4. Spanish.
Jun 19, 2019

What country spoke English first? ›

English originated in England and is the dominant language of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and various island nations in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

What is the top 10 most spoken language in the world? ›

Currently, these are the 10 most spoken languages in the world in 2023, sorted by number of mother language speakers: Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Yue chinese, Vietnamese.

Can a person learn 15 languages? ›

Some people can speak more than five languages, and they are known as polyglots. They are less than one percent of the population. Hyperpolyglots are fluent in more than 12 languages, and they are sporadic to find. It means that there are people who speak more than 12 languages in the world.

What are 5 Less Commonly Taught languages? ›

Less Commonly Taught Languages
  • Arabic - Fall Courses.
  • Arabic - Spring Courses.
  • Hindi - Fall Courses.
  • Hindi - Spring Courses.
  • Persian - Fall Courses.
  • Persian - Spring Courses.
  • Swahili - Fall Courses.
  • Swahili - Spring Courses.

What is the 2 hardest language? ›

2. Arabic. Arabic is the queen of poetic languages, the 6th official language of the UN and second on our list of toughest languages to learn.

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