Taking all the features of languages into account, which language would you choose the most difficult? Make them in order please.
English, German, French, Spanish, Italian?
English, German, French, Spanish, Italian?
Which one is more difficult?
English, Italian, Spanish, French, German
English: because it's my native one
Italian: it's easier to pronounce it well than Spanish, and is easier to read right off the bat than Spanish.
Spanish: it is fairly easy to pronounce, and has lots of similar words for technical terms
French: Although I find French very easy to read since most technical terms are identical to English, so reading wise I'd say French is the easiest written language, but everything is elided in speech, so it's very difficult to understand, and it's so difficult for an English speaker to lose his accent, because it has so many hard vowels to pronounce, not to mention the r's, and the non-aspirated initial stops. So overall I'd say it's more difficult. Also the core vocabulary has gone thru lots of sound shifts, and odd spellings.
German: Although the closest language (in the list) to English, it's hard to recognize many cognates because of the second sound shift, and because it has so few Latin based derivatives compared to the other languages, it's insanely difficult to read technical texts without a good command of the language.
English: because it's my native one
Italian: it's easier to pronounce it well than Spanish, and is easier to read right off the bat than Spanish.
Spanish: it is fairly easy to pronounce, and has lots of similar words for technical terms
French: Although I find French very easy to read since most technical terms are identical to English, so reading wise I'd say French is the easiest written language, but everything is elided in speech, so it's very difficult to understand, and it's so difficult for an English speaker to lose his accent, because it has so many hard vowels to pronounce, not to mention the r's, and the non-aspirated initial stops. So overall I'd say it's more difficult. Also the core vocabulary has gone thru lots of sound shifts, and odd spellings.
German: Although the closest language (in the list) to English, it's hard to recognize many cognates because of the second sound shift, and because it has so few Latin based derivatives compared to the other languages, it's insanely difficult to read technical texts without a good command of the language.
<<Italian: it's easier to pronounce it well than Spanish, and is easier to read right off the bat than Spanish.>>
Language easiness/difficulty is a completely subjective thing, of course, but I find Spanish to be easier than Italian. In Italian, the letters "e" and "o" each represent two phonemes (open and closed), and stress is usually not marked as in Spanish. In Spanish, I know how to pronounce every word as soon as I see it, whereas in Italian I often have to check a dictionary in order to know how to pronounce a word correctly. So in that sense, I think Spanish is a lot easier to "read off the bat".
Language easiness/difficulty is a completely subjective thing, of course, but I find Spanish to be easier than Italian. In Italian, the letters "e" and "o" each represent two phonemes (open and closed), and stress is usually not marked as in Spanish. In Spanish, I know how to pronounce every word as soon as I see it, whereas in Italian I often have to check a dictionary in order to know how to pronounce a word correctly. So in that sense, I think Spanish is a lot easier to "read off the bat".
Thank you both.The infos you gave will be useful really.I've decided to learn French because it is the most useful one after English in my country, Turkey.Although I don't speak English well enough for further speech, I'll learn French.It's also a useful language, isn't it?
>> I'll learn French.It's also a useful language, isn't it? <<
Yes, it is. And since the technical vocabulary is the same as in English, it'll also help you with your English, if you decide to learn English as well.
e.g.:
English/French
information - information
computation - computation
graphical - graphical
Yes, it is. And since the technical vocabulary is the same as in English, it'll also help you with your English, if you decide to learn English as well.
e.g.:
English/French
information - information
computation - computation
graphical - graphical
Most difficult to least difficult:
German, French, English, Spanish, Italian
German, French, English, Spanish, Italian
Thank you all. They will be useful for my future. By the way, if there is a French person here, I wanna ask something.There is a Francophone university called Galatasaray University in Turkey.It belongs to both France and Turkey.Do you know it anyway?
Q :
« e.g.:
English/French
information - information
computation - computation
graphical - graphical »
???
Fr <information> — An <information>
Fr <calcul> — An <computation>
Fr <graphique> — An <graphical>
« e.g.:
English/French
information - information
computation - computation
graphical - graphical »
???
Fr <information> — An <information>
Fr <calcul> — An <computation>
Fr <graphique> — An <graphical>
Easier: Italian or Spanish?
I agree with Lazar that Spanish is easier to READ than Italian, and probably easier to pronounce. But I find that spoken Italian is much clearer than Spanish (at least coming from most speakers), which would make it easier to understand. Does anyone have any experience studying both languages?
(P.S. Q is right about French--an English speaker can learn to decipher a French text in a relatively short time because of the vocabulary.)
I agree with Lazar that Spanish is easier to READ than Italian, and probably easier to pronounce. But I find that spoken Italian is much clearer than Spanish (at least coming from most speakers), which would make it easier to understand. Does anyone have any experience studying both languages?
(P.S. Q is right about French--an English speaker can learn to decipher a French text in a relatively short time because of the vocabulary.)
I have studied both languages. I would say that Italian in general was harder to pronounce, especially because of the double consonants, which English speakers have a hrad time with. Penne and pene are pronounced differently and mean very different things (a type of pasta vs a penis).
I found them to be similar in overall stucture, but the Spanish ser vs. estar was difficult for me at first. The Italian essere vs stare was much easier as the cases were clear-cut.
I found learning the correct auxillary verb (essere vs avere) very difficult in Italian. I still make the occasional mistake, though less now. Spanish was easier as they have only one auxillary and don't use it (auxillary + verb) as much whereas Italians use auxillary + verb much more often as it is everyday past tense.
The Italian plurals may be harder for an English speaker as well. Italian uses -e and -i (depending on case), while Spanish uses -s, the same in English.
Both have many verb cases, so I think both present equal difficulty in that arena.
I found them to be similar in overall stucture, but the Spanish ser vs. estar was difficult for me at first. The Italian essere vs stare was much easier as the cases were clear-cut.
I found learning the correct auxillary verb (essere vs avere) very difficult in Italian. I still make the occasional mistake, though less now. Spanish was easier as they have only one auxillary and don't use it (auxillary + verb) as much whereas Italians use auxillary + verb much more often as it is everyday past tense.
The Italian plurals may be harder for an English speaker as well. Italian uses -e and -i (depending on case), while Spanish uses -s, the same in English.
Both have many verb cases, so I think both present equal difficulty in that arena.
I think pronounciation of Italian would be easier for most native English speakers, but that is just an assumption. I say this because Spanish has the unique 'j' and 'gua' sounds which are very difficult for an English speaker to master. But the phonologies are so similar between Italian and Spanish that it's difficult to say that one is really more difficult to pronounce than the other. Italian pronounciation is about as natural for me as English, and I have never studied Italian. It's like pronouncing Spanish, except with a greater sing tone effect. I just exaggerate the length of syllables and bam!, you have perfect Italian pronounciation.
Most difficult to least difficult:
german
french
italian
english
spanish
german
french
italian
english
spanish
LAA - try pronouncing "gli" and the doubled consonants. I applaud if you find these easy. I've got the hang of them now, but I remember my dismay at the beginning at my pronunciation of these sounds. Of course, I find Spanish pronunciation easy, but then I had a headstart compared to most English speakers...
I'm surprised that no one has yet managed to assert that English really is a piece of cake compared to any of the others as usually happens...
Yeah you are right. Taking the other languages in account, I can say among the five languages that I wrote up the easiest one is English.Because I don't think any of the Romance languages would be easier than English.I think all Slavic and Romance languages are much more difficult to learn when compared to Germanic ones.