What is the easiest language to learn Russian. What is the easiest foreign language to learn for a Russian person

One of the most difficult languages ​​is Chinese. Each word is indicated in it by a separate symbol, having learned which, you still will not have a clue about how it is pronounced. The complexity is also represented by a huge number of homophones - words that are pronounced the same way, but are spelled differently and denote different concepts. The tonal system in Chinese also does not make the task easier for the student. In addition to the general intonation of the sentence, each syllable is also pronounced with a different tone, which determines the meaning of the word.

The Japanese language is not much inferior to Chinese in its complexity. Knowledge of symbols also does not give an idea of ​​their pronunciation. Japanese has three writing systems: kanji, which uses Chinese characters, hiragana used for writing grammatical particles and suffixes, and katakana for loanwords.

It is estimated that students who study Japanese spend three times as much time on it as those who study English or French.

The Arabic language also causes a lot of difficulties. Vowels are not used when writing, and consonants have four spellings depending on their position in the word. Nouns and verbs have to be studied in singular, dual and plural. The nouns themselves have three cases and two genders, and the verb in the sentence is placed before the predicate.

Of great difficulty are the dialects of Arabic, which can differ as much as modern European languages ​​differ from each other.

The easiest languages

Despite the fact that the English language has a lot of nuances (for example, words are often read not at all the way they are written, and a lot of verbs are conjugated incorrectly), it has a simple grammar. In addition, in everyday life, people often come across English in songs, films, brand names and product names on supermarket shelves. Learning this language will not be so difficult.

Spanish is also quite easy to learn. The pronunciation is very similar to English, however, unlike the language of the UK and the US, in Spanish the spelling of words is the same as their pronunciation. The structure of sentences in this language is also easy to learn.

For a Russian-speaking person, it will not be very difficult to study other languages ​​\u200b\u200bof the Slavic group, and the closer they are to their native language, the easier it will be to learn. The fastest way to learn Ukrainian and Belarusian, somewhat more difficult - Bulgarian and Czech. The Polish language is not considered simple - it has seven cases, and the grammar is replete with exceptions to the rules.

When you are faced with the task of learning a language, you often wonder which of the languages ​​is still the easiest? TravelAsk decided to make a small selection.

How were the easiest languages ​​determined?

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs classifies as ordinary languages ​​those requiring approximately 600 hours of study. Of course, we are talking about quality ownership.

First of all, they refer to the easy languages ​​\u200b\u200bof German and Latin language groups. However, German itself will be more difficult: on average, in order to master it sufficiently, you need to spend about 750 hours studying it. It's pretty complicated grammar.

But do not forget that the degree of difficulty is still individual for everyone and in most cases depends on personal motivation and interest.

English language

One of the simplest is English language. Judge for yourself: its grammar is not so complicated, it has no cases and gender, and words do not need to be coordinated. And the words themselves are quite short and concise. Add to this all the widespread: it is spoken almost everywhere. Well, native English speakers who live in different corners planets are quite calm about the mistakes of foreigners.

French

The French talk like they sing, don't they? But from the outside it seems that you can’t approach it, such a pronunciation ... But, according to experts, it only seems. After all, many words in French similar to English. In addition, the language is very popular and is used in many places.

Spanish

Spanish is probably one of the easiest languages ​​to learn. It is very similar to English, and its spelling is much simpler: as I hear, so I write. Many native Russian speakers who memorize dictionary spelling from the first grade will only envy this rule)

Well, Spanish is quite popular, and its pronunciation is simple. As is grammar.

Italian language

Another language that is included in our rating is Italian. There are no cases, a fairly simple pronunciation, the stress is fixed. Well, the language itself has Latin roots, so it will be familiar to many people. And it is also related to Spanish, so if you want to become a polyglot, then choosing close languages ​​will help you achieve your goal in a shorter time)

Esperanto

Well, most plain language Esperanto is considered to be studied. Perhaps someone will even be surprised by the existence of this language, but yes, it exists. And do you know why it is the easiest? Because it was developed specifically as a second language for each person, it was even originally called that - an international language or a language for humanity. It is spoken, according to various estimates, from one hundred thousand to ten million people.

Esperanto grammar is very simple, there are no exceptions at all. And, of course, its undoubted plus is that it is neutral, since it is not tied to any state. Perhaps its only drawback is that it is not as common as English).

Language learning has long ceased to be fashion trend and has become a necessity - today a highly paid job will be given to the applicant who can speak two, three or even four foreign languages. Therefore one of topical issues among students and ordinary people- what to study.

What is the difference between an easy language and a complex one?

It is almost impossible to say which are the easiest languages ​​to learn, because speakers of the same group of languages ​​can easily learn each other's language, as they have similar vocabulary and grammar. And, conversely, it will be more difficult for them to learn the language of another group, since it will have many differences. But there are a number of characteristics that make it possible to distinguish an easy language from a complex one:

in difficult languages and in the lungs - short;

the more rules in the language, the easier it is to learn and, conversely, the less - the more difficult;

the more homonyms in the language, the more difficult it is;

languages ​​with a Latin or Cyrillic alphabet are easier to learn than those with their own alphabet;

it is easier to learn the spelling of a language in which all words are spelled as they are heard;

The fewer dialects a language has, the easier it is to learn.

Thus, the easiest languages ​​to learn are those based on Cyrillic or Latin with the most rules and the fewest homonyms.

Language difficulty levels

Both ordinary people and professional linguists are wondering what is the easiest language to learn. Research led to the fact that all the languages ​​of the world were divided into three groups based on the parameters of complexity.

The easiest foreign language for learning - this is any language from the Latin and Germanic groups, it will take from 600 to 750 hours to study.

The languages ​​of average complexity are Indo-European, Turkic and the study of which will take from 900 to 1100 hours.

The most difficult foreign language is any language that has its own alphabet and vocabulary - Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Georgian and other languages. The training will require at least 2200 hours.

Top 6 Easy Languages ​​to Learn

What is the easiest language to learn? According to the US State Department, this is the language that will take no more than 600 hours to learn. That is how long it will take to speak tolerably in an unfamiliar language. Thus, the easiest languages ​​to learn in are the following Indo-European languages:

English - due to the lack of genders, cases, agreement of words. In addition, he has a simple grammar, verbs change only in the third person, the words are short. A nice bonus is that native speakers can easily perceive the speech of those who study their language and are tolerant of language mistakes, since today there are a lot of people learning English. In the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and some African countries, it is official.

French - some words of this language are similar to English, and it is easy to learn, as it is one of the most popular languages ​​in the world. In France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and some African countries, it is the official language.

Italian has a simple pronunciation, there are no cases, and the vocabulary is rooted in Latin. The range of Italian-speaking countries is small - Italy, the Vatican, San Marino, Switzerland and Argentina.

Spanish has a simple grammar and spelling, with vocabulary similar to Italian and English. In terms of the number of speakers, it is not far from the most popular languages ​​​​- only 4th place after English, Chinese and Hindi. Distribution area - Spain, Mexico and Argentina.

Portuguese is similar to Spanish, but it is not easy for their speakers to understand each other due to the fact that the first language is hissing. The distribution area is the countries of Africa, Brazil and Portugal itself.

Esperanto is the easiest language, as you can master it in a month. By similarity, it is close to Spanish. Esperanto is not a state language in any country, but it may be recognized as official in the European Union.

What language is suitable for learning by Russian speakers?

A person is suitable for learning the language that is in the same language group as his native language. For example, it is easy for an Italian to learn Spanish or Portuguese. And what is the easiest language to learn for Russians? Since Russian is one of them, it will be easiest to learn Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Czech or any other Slavic language. Of the European ones, the easiest to learn are those whose culture and sound are closest to the student - for example, expressive Italian or Spanish are suitable for temperamental people, and French for romantics. The same applies to languages ​​of the 3rd complexity group. This is due to the lack of similarity with the native language, so it will take the same amount of time and effort to learn them.

Many who decide how to learn a language and are given a choice - a school of foreign languages ​​or independent studies are wondering what the top of the easiest languages ​​​​in the world to learn looks like? Similar questions are asked by many ordinary people and specialists, both those who are going to take up the study of a language, and professional linguists.
In this article, we will discuss a number of characteristics that usually determine how easy a particular language is to learn. It should be noted right away that the most important thing in the process of learning a foreign language is the motivation of the student and the fact whether you like to speak this new language for you. These factors determine which languages ​​are the easiest for you. Spanish, French, Esperanto or... Chinese. If you take on the study of a language that you are deeply uninterested in, then learning it may seem difficult and tedious to you, even if in fact it is not. Learning a foreign language, like everything else in study, must include interest and pleasure, otherwise there will be little sense. Of course, you can find additional factors that will make learning a non-native language easy for you. Read the following material, and then decide for yourself which languages ​​are the easiest for you.
According to the State Department, the easiest languages ​​for people in English-speaking countries are those that require about six hundred hours of class time (we mean more or less high-quality language proficiency). Specifically, these are the languages ​​of the Germanic and Latin language groups. However, directly on German more time is required, about seven hundred and fifty hours: the grammar of the German language is very complicated.


English
The English language is considered to be quite simple: it has no cases, no word agreement, no gender. English grammar is also quite simple. Also, English is the most widely spoken language, it is spoken almost everywhere. Words in English are short, verbs change exclusively for the third person. Native speakers of this language are quite calm about the language mistakes of foreigners, since there is a very large number of people learning English as a second language. Thanks to all this, English is one of the easiest languages ​​in the world to learn.

It is estimated that there are about 60 English-speaking countries in the world, i.e. without knowledge of English today it is difficult to get a job, so it is gaining immense popularity in preschool institutions. The main English-speaking states today are Great Britain, the USA, Canada (excluding Quebec), Australia and New Zealand. Also, English is one of the two official languages ​​of India, and besides that, it is spoken in most of the southern island states and African countries.


French
The French language is also not difficult. Many French words are similar to English words. The French language is widely used all over the world. It is not difficult to find an opportunity to learn French and speak it. Given these factors, it can be argued that the French language also belongs to the list of those languages ​​that are easy to learn.
People who learn French are called Francophones. There are 18 countries in the world where French is spoken. The main French-speaking states are France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada (Quebec). In 14 African countries, this language is the only or one of the two official languages.

Italian
The Italian language is also simple, it has no cases, its pronunciation is quite simple, the vocabulary has roots Latin, in other words, will be familiar and close to those people who speak one of the languages ​​​​of the Indo-European group.
Learning Italian will be useful for those who at least know or have studied Latin, one of the two official languages ​​in the Vatican City State. Italian is the language of music. True, the Italophone world is not too large in its area: the language is spoken only in Europe and only in four states: Italy, the Vatican, San Marino and Switzerland. Small Italian-speaking minorities outside of Europe live in Argentina (oriundi).


Spanish
The easiest language for a foreigner to learn is Spanish. His vocabulary is similar to English, the spelling is very simple (the way it is written is the way it is heard). Spanish is similar to Italian and is quite widely used. It has very simple grammar and pronunciation. Spanish ranks 3-4th in terms of prevalence, number of speakers and its use in speech after English, Chinese and Hindi; it is spoken by about 0.5 billion people, most of whom live overseas. The record holder for the number of Spanish speakers is not Spain, but Mexico! There are 130 million Spanish speakers in Mexico. The largest Spanish-speaking countries are Spain (in Europe), and overseas Mexico (in North America) and Argentina (in South America).


Portuguese
Portuguese is one of the easy languages. At least there is no one who would not watch Brazilian soap operas, which were once popular among our grandmothers. The pronunciation is almost the same as Spanish, except that Portuguese is slightly sibilant, unlike its Eastern Pyrenean counterpart; this is if we talk about the classic (European) version, which is widely used not only in Portugal itself, but also in African countries: Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome, Goa, Angola and Mozambique. In the world, the Portuguese language is the sixth most popular language, despite the fact that the population of this country is only about 10 million, which is even less population Moscow. The Brazilian version differs significantly from the standard (for example, there is no sound "sh"). Although these languages ​​are similar to each other, the Spaniards do not always understand their neighbors, so the Portuguese sometimes have to write what they say.
Those who study Portuguese are called Lusophones (from Lusitania; ancient name Portugal). In total, there are about 1/4 billion people who speak Portuguese (250 million speakers)


Esperanto
You will probably be very surprised, but Esperanto holds the palm for ease. In it, as in Spanish, "as it is heard, so it is exactly written." This language is artificial, that's why it's so simple. But the bad thing about it is that so far relatively few people speak it (about 2-3 million worldwide) - compared to languages ​​such as Spanish, French or English. However, if you speak Esperanto, other Esperanto speakers will be very fond of you.
Esperanto is NOT an official language IN ANY COUNTRY OF THE WORLD! That is why knowing and studying it, you can find friends absolutely anywhere. Linguists have conducted studies that it takes only a month to master colloquial speech, and in order to know it perfectly - from 3 months to six months, while the basics of the same English will have to spend at least a semester or a year. I will add that next year, at the end of July, this language will celebrate its anniversary - 130 years since its birth! Recently, a petition appeared on one of the sites to make Esperanto the official language of the European Union! Anyone can sign it, including you!


Summary
An additional set of conditions that can make the language easy for you personally:

1) Is it similar new language to your home? In the event that the chosen language is similar to yours, has a vocabulary (vocabulary) and grammar similar to it, then this language will be easier for you personally. For example, a person who speaks Arabic will learn Farsi more easily than Spanish, even though Farsi is considered very difficult.

2) Do you personally like to study? If the answer is yes, any language can be simple - or at least interesting. And this circumstance will help you learn the language faster.

3) Availability additional resources. With their help, you can achieve more effective and faster results. Additional resources include vocabulary and grammar books, audio, conversations with native speakers, and so on.

The material is based on an article by Frantisek Langer.

At school, many of us were faced with the fact that they were divided into groups of different foreign languages ​​according to completely incomprehensible signs, calling some languages ​​simple and others complex, some children capable of learning English, and others German. We often hear from different people that this language is simple and this one is complex. But how to evaluate in fact whether a language is complex or simple? What language to choose for a child so that it is easier for him to learn it? What language to teach yourself as a second or third, so that it is again easier? Which European language is more difficult for a Russian person to learn, and which one is easier? I used to ask myself often these questions, and here's what I think about it now.

What parameters are important when learning a foreign language?

Below you can see a summary comparative table of foreign languages, which summarizes the data on the degree of difficulty of learning these languages ​​for a Russian person

1. Pronunciation

In pronunciation, the most important thing is the presence of special sounds that are not in mother tongue. These sounds are difficult to pronounce at the time of the beginning of language learning, since the pronunciation of different sounds uses different facial muscles and uses the tongue as a muscular organ in different ways. When we actively use only part of our facial muscles, the rest will atrophy. Some of these atrophied muscles are very easy to "start" and start using them, others are more difficult. It takes practice, it takes habit. It is for this reason that the faces of foreigners and people living in another country for a long time are often very different from our compatriots, while some subtle similarity can be found in their faces. It arises precisely due to the fact that people speak the same language and actively use the same facial muscles.

In German and Italian, there are no particularly difficult sounds for Russian people. In Italian, sounds just need to be pronounced brighter and more emotionally, and in German, harder and more specifically. Of course, there are some nuances of pronunciation. For example, in German there is a burry [p] and a muffled soft [x], but these sounds are familiar to a Russian person and it does not take much effort to master them.

Spanish has a few special sounds:

• Interdental [s] (you need to put your tongue between your teeth and say [s], i.e. such a lisping [s]), but this sound is used only in European Spanish, in Latin America pronounce normal [s])
• Something between the sounds [b] and [c] (both of these sounds are very muffled and they sound very similar)

In French, there are more special sounds and you “break the language” more strongly, while you are just starting to learn French. Here are the following special sounds for a Russian person:

• burry r
• nasal sounds
• Unusual combination of vowels and consonants

English is the most difficult of this group of languages ​​for pronunciation by a Russian person. It has such new sounds for us:

• Interdental s and s
• Bow n
• special sound r
• A wide variety of vowels that cannot even be expressed in Russian letters
• The presence of long and short sounds that affect the meaning of the word

Therefore, without an accent, it is much easier for a Russian person to speak Spanish, Italian and German. And in French and especially in English it is much more difficult. But with practice, anything is possible. Still, Russian people are lucky, our language has a lot of different sounds that allow us to train our facial muscles, and we are able to quickly start speaking other languages ​​​​without a strong accent. For example, the Spaniards cannot boast of this. Russian pronunciation is very difficult for them, due to the fact that their language does not have such a variety of consonant sounds.

1. Reading

Reading in a foreign language is considered easy if there are few rules for reading and there are practically no exceptions. Accordingly, it is considered difficult if there are many reading rules and exceptions to them.

According to this rule, German is nowhere easier. You will always be able to read any new unfamiliar word correctly with almost one hundred percent probability.

But English in this regard is a complete disorder. You can almost never be sure how a new word is read for you. English is a mixture of several other languages ​​(it has a lot of French, Spanish and German words), so there are many rules for reading, and even more exceptions to them. In addition, in English, even the context affects how to read the same combination of letters. For example, the phrases “I read” and “I read” are written in the same way “Iread”, and they are read in the first case [ai read], and in the second [ai red], and if you do not know the context of this phrase, then how to read it correctly completely unclear. In general, to read English correctly, you just need to know how each word is read. Therefore, it becomes easy to read in English only when you have a large enough vocabulary.

Reading French is not that very difficult, but it has its own peculiarities. Some letters are not readable at all, and some are read only in certain cases, and there is also such a thing as word chaining, that is, a group of words in certain situations is read as one word. But if you know all these features, then it gradually turns out that reading French is not so difficult.

1. Spelling

Spelling refers to how difficult it is to write down a new word correctly by ear. In this regard, the Russian language itself is very complicated, since we often say “a” and write “o”, or we say “and” and write “e”, but there are a lot of other rules. That is why few people at school have “excellent” in the Russian language. But not all languages ​​are like that.

It's hard to get it wrong in German. In Spanish and Italian, you can make a mistake, but also very rarely.

But writing in French and English is very difficult. In French, there are a lot of letters that are not pronounced, but written, and one sound is transmitted by three or four letters. A simple example, the word beaucoup (a lot) is read [side], and there are twice as many letters.

In English, the same sound can be transmitted by several different combinations of letters, and the same letter can be read in different situations as many as 7 different options sounds.

To write correctly in French, you just need to know a lot of rules, but in English you just need to know how EVERY word is spelled, otherwise you have a lot of chances to make a mistake.

1. Vocabulary

Vocabulary is vocabulary. Vocabulary complexity can be judged by how easy it is to learn new words. It is easy to learn new words if they are short, if they consist of several other words you already know, or if many other words can be formed from one root using different prefixes and endings.

In this regard, German is again a very simple language. There are few short words, but there are a lot of single-root words or compound words. Therefore, vocabulary is gained very quickly, and even gradually you yourself learn to invent German words that you have not heard before.

This is unlikely to work for you in English. In English short words very many, especially those used in everyday speech so it's very easy to start learning English words. But it is very difficult to gain vocabulary, since there are practically no single-root and compound words. Each word needs to be learned anew, associations do not work. In addition, due to the fact that English is a mixture of several languages, it has a lot of synonyms from different languages, which you have to learn in order to simply understand your interlocutor. In order to speak, one can have fewer words in the active vocabulary.

1. Grammar

Knowledge of grammar is understood as the ability to correctly connect words together into meaningful phrases, not at the level of "my yours to understand." It is not easy to assess the complexity of the grammar of any language at first glance, each has its own difficulties, and each of them, on the contrary, simplifies something. Therefore, it is better to compare them on several parameters. See the table below first.

Please note that I give this assessment only from the point of view of spoken language, that is, I consider only those grammatical structures that are regularly used in speech. For example, out of 9 English tenses in real life only 3-5 are used. And in German and Spanish, present tense verbs can be used with the appropriate context to convey the future tense.

In English, only word order is relatively complicated, since the question is not asked by a simple change in intonation, but a rearrangement of words is also necessary, and sometimes the addition of auxiliary verbs. The conjugation of verbs in colloquial speech is very simple: only the ending in the 3rd person singular changes, and in the future and past tense, you can generally use the same construction for all persons and numbers (will + verb, verb + ed). The only difficulty with English verbs is the presence of a relatively large number of irregular verbs that are not declined according to the rule, and you just need to remember their forms, but these irregular verbs are in all languages, and you can’t hide from them anywhere J Pronouns, articles, nouns and adjectives generally do not decline by gender and case. The plural of a noun is formed using the same ending -s. The form of adjectives never changes at all.

In Spanish, Italian and French, all grammar rules are very similar. Only Spaniards and Italians have a simpler attitude to word order, there are practically no rules (only the place of the verb and adjectives play a role), and the question can be asked simply by changing your intonation. Although the French in colloquial speech are increasingly beginning to simplify their speech. Verbs in these languages ​​are conjugated by gender and number, their endings change, but to convey the future tense, you can use the present tense and add only the context, and the past tense is formed using the verbs to be / have in the appropriate conjugation + participial form from the semantic verb, that is, you only need to know the conjugation of the verbs to be and to have in the corresponding language. Pronouns, articles, nouns, and adjectives decline in similar ways in these languages, but French has more exceptions.

The German language does not please us with its grammar. There are many difficulties in it. But it all obeys clear rules, there are few exceptions. The order of the words is strict, the intonation is not particularly helpful. Verbs have a special place in a sentence, especially compound ones. The plural of nouns is formed according to several rules. Nouns, adjectives, articles and pronouns are declined by gender, case and number just like in Russian. But, for example, in German there are no auxiliary verbs, as in English.

In general, in each language, grammar is simple or complex in its own way. But still, of these 5 champions by the rules that you need to know in order to speak correctly in spoken language, German is ahead of others. But in all other respects (reading, spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary), the German language is very simple.

There are no simple languages. Unless for Russians, Belarusian or Ukrainian 🙂 But you can choose for yourself those parameters that are easier for you and use them to choose a foreign language for yourself or for your child if you are going to teach him.

In Russia, most people prefer English. This is due to the demand for this language in the world and its international status, but English is not the easiest language for Russian people to learn. Maybe you studied English, maybe it was difficult for you, and this article helped you understand why. So maybe you and your children should choose another foreign language to learn, and return to English later. The second foreign language is always much easier to learn than the first.

You may find other articles on this topic useful:

More information about each language can be found here.