OK. This really makes me want to scream. I've gotten the impression that many, many people who are only educated a little bit in both or one of the languages get the impression that French is way harder than Spanish.
As someone who has academically had to learn both and is now fluent (in both), I just want to say that this is completely false! As a preface to the rest of this argument, I just want to say that I am not commenting on the merit or beauty of the languages because both are very beautiful and worth equal amounts, in different ways of course.
Foregoing all arguments about pronunciation (in which French is more difficult), prepositions and adverbs (where probably both are equally difficult), and pronouns (where French may have the slightest more difficulty mainly due to y and en), I mainly want to focus on verbs.
Spanish verb conjugation is harder than French. There I said it.
It really is, though. French may start off harder at first, especially with orthography being a problem, however the difficulty beings to level off fairly quickly (once you get past the passe simple, or written past, and the some of the compound subjunctive constructions like the imperfect subjunctive). Again, I'm not arguing vocabulary, orthography, or any other aspects.
Here is a basic rundown of why Spanish verbs are more difficult:
1) There are two verbs for to be: ser and estar. French has one, etre (I'm typing fast so sorry for mising the circumflex and other diacritical marks coming up).
While not extremely complicated, this can cause more confusion and difficulties in Spanish (dealing with temporary vs. permanent conditions, and idioms such as 'Estoy muerto' rather than 'Soy muerto')... not to mention more conjugations for the two verbs ser and estar (and both are irregular).
2) Even though the spoken french past (passe compose) is a compound tense, and deciding between etre and avoir can cause the beginner trouble, the preterito in Spanish is still harder IMO. It has way more irregulars than the passe compose and Spanish still has the past perfect tenses and the imperfect just like French. The written past can be trouble in French, but you mainly just need to recognize it, not know the conjugations by heart.
3) Probably the biggest reason of all: the Subjunctive. First of all, conjugation of the subjunctive is SLIGHTLY more rigorous in Spanish than French. In fact, the French subjunctive is fairly easy provided you know your present tense well. I'm not exactly sure about the number of irregulars in each, but they are at least the same, if not, Spanish has more.
Even more important, however, is that the subjunctive is used in more obscure places in Spanish than in French. Both use it quite extensively, but Spanish even more so. Sometimes you don't even need a 'que' in Spanish and it will still be triggered (a word that's usually necessary in both languages). In French, it is rare (perhaps impossible... can someone correct me on this?) to do a subjunctive without a 'que'. There are also more exceptions, more nuanced situations, and more colloquialisms that use the subjunctive in Spanish rather than French.
4) Commands. French commands are relatively easy. There are three irregular ones. Spanish commands have four times as many irregulars and verbs are more rigorous when switching between negative and positive commands. Also, even though pronouns are added to the end of both, they are not hyphenated in Spanish like they are in French... which would not be a big deal, except that it changes the accent-orthography of the verb in Spanish which can make spelling tricky (almost the only time spelling is hard in Spanish!).
That's about it. Anything else someone can think of would be appreciated.
As someone who has academically had to learn both and is now fluent (in both), I just want to say that this is completely false! As a preface to the rest of this argument, I just want to say that I am not commenting on the merit or beauty of the languages because both are very beautiful and worth equal amounts, in different ways of course.
Foregoing all arguments about pronunciation (in which French is more difficult), prepositions and adverbs (where probably both are equally difficult), and pronouns (where French may have the slightest more difficulty mainly due to y and en), I mainly want to focus on verbs.
Spanish verb conjugation is harder than French. There I said it.
It really is, though. French may start off harder at first, especially with orthography being a problem, however the difficulty beings to level off fairly quickly (once you get past the passe simple, or written past, and the some of the compound subjunctive constructions like the imperfect subjunctive). Again, I'm not arguing vocabulary, orthography, or any other aspects.
Here is a basic rundown of why Spanish verbs are more difficult:
1) There are two verbs for to be: ser and estar. French has one, etre (I'm typing fast so sorry for mising the circumflex and other diacritical marks coming up).
While not extremely complicated, this can cause more confusion and difficulties in Spanish (dealing with temporary vs. permanent conditions, and idioms such as 'Estoy muerto' rather than 'Soy muerto')... not to mention more conjugations for the two verbs ser and estar (and both are irregular).
2) Even though the spoken french past (passe compose) is a compound tense, and deciding between etre and avoir can cause the beginner trouble, the preterito in Spanish is still harder IMO. It has way more irregulars than the passe compose and Spanish still has the past perfect tenses and the imperfect just like French. The written past can be trouble in French, but you mainly just need to recognize it, not know the conjugations by heart.
3) Probably the biggest reason of all: the Subjunctive. First of all, conjugation of the subjunctive is SLIGHTLY more rigorous in Spanish than French. In fact, the French subjunctive is fairly easy provided you know your present tense well. I'm not exactly sure about the number of irregulars in each, but they are at least the same, if not, Spanish has more.
Even more important, however, is that the subjunctive is used in more obscure places in Spanish than in French. Both use it quite extensively, but Spanish even more so. Sometimes you don't even need a 'que' in Spanish and it will still be triggered (a word that's usually necessary in both languages). In French, it is rare (perhaps impossible... can someone correct me on this?) to do a subjunctive without a 'que'. There are also more exceptions, more nuanced situations, and more colloquialisms that use the subjunctive in Spanish rather than French.
4) Commands. French commands are relatively easy. There are three irregular ones. Spanish commands have four times as many irregulars and verbs are more rigorous when switching between negative and positive commands. Also, even though pronouns are added to the end of both, they are not hyphenated in Spanish like they are in French... which would not be a big deal, except that it changes the accent-orthography of the verb in Spanish which can make spelling tricky (almost the only time spelling is hard in Spanish!).
That's about it. Anything else someone can think of would be appreciated.