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Kick-start your language journey with this incredible list of 100 words to learn in any foreign language. Starting to learn a foreign language might seem intimidating or challenging. Many of us have the motivation but don’t know we to start. The first essential step is to learn the basic vocabulary. It will help you to get familiar with the language and understand your first sentences. This article will give you the list of essential 100 words to learn in a foreign language. I’ll also explain to you how to learn these words and what to do after you’ve learned them. Ready? Let’s get started.
List Of The Essential 100 Words To Learn In A Foreign Language
100 words make quite a long list. I can give you here the first 10 or 20, but let’s admit… The list would be simply too long to write into this blog post. And it would also be quite confusing. So that’s why I’ve created a nice word sheet for you, where you’ll have all the essential 100 words to learn. You can download it below for free and get started.
Get the List of 100 Words
Have you got your list? Perfect. After learning 4 languages (and I keep learning more), I know how hard it can get to achieve your language learning goals. That’s why I would like to guide you a few steps further and help you out with it.
In the next sections, I’ll give you some tips and tricks on how you can learn these 100 words in a fun and engaging way. Then, once you learn them, I’ll explain how you can keep going and learn your foreign language further. Which steps you should take to proceed. And how you can finally go from the beginner to the intermediate level.
Effective Ways To Learn The First 100 Words In A Foreign Language
I don’t recommend you just to memorize these words by heart without any method. Of course, you can do it and might get there… but we want to have some fun when learning languages. It’ll be much more enjoyable and effective if you learn new vocabulary using great strategies. Here is a quick list of tips for how you can learn the first 100 in your foreign language:
- create flashcards with words & images
- create vocabulary walls
- play pexeso
- play scrabble
- record yourself saying the words aloud
- change words in a sentence
- write the words into vocabulary sheets
So, let’s break each tip down. I’ll explain to you step-by-step how you can implement each tip into your language learning journey.
1. Create Flashcards With Words & Images
At first, I recommend you create flashcards. Cut 200 rather smaller pieces of paper. The size is up to you. I advise you to cut smaller pieces because you can take and carry the flashcards anytime.
Once you cut these pieces (blank flashcards), separate them into two halves. In the first half, write all the 100 words you want to learn. Write one word per flashcard. In the second half, either draw or glue some images that you can associate with each word. I know it might be quite time-consuming to find images for each word… so take it easy. Do it as you wish. Maybe create images only for the more difficult words ranked 50 – 100 on our list. However, you want to do it. Feel free to also skip the images and only create 100 flashcards with each word from our list.
The reason why I recommend you also create flashcards with images is simple. From my own experience, you learn new vocabulary faster when you associate the words with something. And the best thing is images. If you picture an image in your head, you’ll think about the respective word faster. That’s why I highly recommend you have flashcards with words and images.
How To Learn 100 Words Using Flashcards?
Once you have the flashcards, it’s time to play with them. You can simply mix them up and try to find a pair of flashcards, one with a word and one with a suitable image.
Or, mix them all up and leave them up-side-down. After, take the first flashcards and put them on a table. Then, take the second flashcard and again put it on the table. Repeat the same process over and over again. Put it right next to it whenever you find an image or a word that matches another flashcard.
This process helps you to have the first contact with the words. When you see a word, you automatically think about its meaning, trying to find a suitable image for it. You might not realize, but the foreign words are already getting to your head.
2. Create Vocabulary Walls
Another tip is to create vocabulary walls. Again the same process. Cut 100 pieces of paper. Write one word from our list into each piece. You can use color paper here. Once you have all words, put them onto a wall in your bedroom, living room, or kitchen. It has to be a space where you spend most of the time in your day.
Pro Tip: I recommend you get color paper (10 different colors). Use one color for 10 words. So for every 10 words, choose a different color paper. This will help you differentiate the words and organize them on the wall. You can then learn 10 words per day. So each day, but these 10 words onto your wall and try to remember them. The next day, choose the second 10 words in a different color and put them again onto the wall to learn them. Repeat the process each day until you have all 100 words on your wall.
3. Play Pexeso
Playing pexeso is so much fun. And the best part of it is that you might not even realize you’re actually learning a foreign language. Take the flashcards you’ve created in the first step (words and image flashcards), and simply play pexeso with them. Mix them all up and try to find a match with one word and one image flashcard. You can either play with a friend or partner or on your own.
4. Play Scrabble
Another fun activity for learning your first 100 words in a foreign language is playing scrabble. But not the one you’ve maybe bought from a shop. We’ll have our own scrabble. As with the flashcards, cut pieces of paper. But this time, you won’t write words into each. Instead, you’ll only write a letter to each piece. Write each letter from an alphabet 3 times.
Once you have all letters, start playing. First, you’ll have to find suitable letters to put together and create one word. Either start with the first words from our list, or create any words from the list that comes to your mind.
5. Record Yourself Saying The Words Aloud
This is a perfect pronunciation practice. I always tell my students to practice pronunciation right from the beginning. What you can do is to write each word into Google translator and listen to its pronunciation. Then, repeat it in the foreign language after Google several times. Once you feel confident, start recording yourself.
You can either use a recorder or simply use your phone. So once you learn the pronunciation of the words, speak each word out loud while recording it. You can do only the first 20 or 30 words. Once you’re done, stop the recording and play it. This way, you can listen to yourself whether you pronounce the words correctly. And a big plus, you are learning the words.
Pro Tip: I use this method also in the intermediate stage of my language learning. Once I know the basics, and want to learn whole sentences and conjugation of verbs. I use a recorder, pronounce sentences I want to learn, and record myself. After, I take the recorder with me and listen to it when walking or doing other activities. It helps me not only to memorize words and sentences but also with the correct pronunciation.
6. Change Words In A Sentence
This is such a fun process. One of the best methods to learn a language on your own is talking to yourself. I do it all the time, and its worksperfectly. Whenever I go to a supermarket, or for a walk. I start talking to myself in a foreign language. It can be any topic. I either talk to myself about things I see during the walk, or I just say what I’m doing or what I’ve gone through for the past week.
We are at the beginning of our language learning. So just make it easier. Whenever you see or think about a word on our list, say it in a foreign language. You can talk to yourself in your native language. Once you come across a word from our 100-word list, say it in the foreign language. This will help you remember the words much better.
7. Write The Words Into Vocabulary Sheets
Last but not least, you can also use the vocabulary sheets I’ve designed for you. Find your own way how to use them. It basically serves as a temporary language notebook. You can keep track of each word you’re learning in a day. Or, if you’re creating a vocabulary wall, write all words you want to put onto the walk first into the vocabulary sheet. Once you put a word onto the wall, cross it out in the sheet.
Use Gold List Method
What you can also do is to use the so-called Gold List Method invented by David James.
On the first day, write all 100 words onto one sheet (or how many sheets you’ll need for it). Write them in a column. Next to each word, write its translation in your native language. Don’t try to memorize the words. Just leave it for the day. On the next day, do the same thing. Write all 100 words again into the sheets. Repeat this process for 6 days in a row.
On day 7, take blank vocabulary sheets and the words with translations you wrote on day 6. First, cover the words written in the foreign language with your hand or anything so that you can only see the translations in your native language. Then, go through each word and write it in the foreign language into the blank sheet. You’ll see how much you can remember just from writing all 100 words each day in the foreign language with translations.
Gold List Method Explanation
This method was invented by David James, a polyglot who saw the potential of how much our brain can remember just from writing new vocabulary down. It is mainly used by intermediate learners who can already create sentences. I slightly changed the method here and accommodated it to the very beginner stage. If you like to learn about the original Gold List method, refer to the OpenLearn website from the Open University and find out more.
These are the most effective strategies you can use to learn the first 100 words in any foreign language. Choose a technique that resonates with you. Whichever you like the most, go for it. You can also try all the techniques and then use the one you like the most.
I hope it will help you to learn your first 100 words in any foreign language.
What To Do After You Learn The First 100 Words?
Congratulations if you’ve learned your 100 words in a foreign language. That’s amazing. Now I don’t want to leave you alone, figuring out what to do next. So here are a few tips you can implement into your language learning process.
Vocabulary & Grammar Basics
Read my article about what to learn in a new language. It’ll give you the exact topics you need to learn as a beginner in any foreign language. I’ve broken down what you can learn each week, including basic vocabulary and grammar. So check it out. It’ll guide you through the next steps.
Topic Ideas To Learn In A New Language
Once you know the basics of your target language, it’s time to move further. I recommend you implement my language learning method. Thanks to it, I’ve learned 3 languages, which I now speak fluently. You’ll basically learn vocabulary in topics and create sentences. First, you’ll think about situations within which you want to speak a foreign language. Think about words necessary to communicate in that situation, and then you’ll create sentences with them.
To understand the entire process of learning topic-based vocabulary, read my article about the best way to learn a language by yourself. After, check out the best 8 topic ideas to learn vocabulary in a foreign language.
Incorporate More Language Resources
To get from the beginner level to the intermediate, I recommend you start incorporating more language resources.
Start listening to audiobooks that will help you understand the language more in-depth. Choose an audiobook from the following languages:
- 13 best German audiobooks for beginners
- 6 best French audiobooks for beginners
- 6 best Italian audiobooks for beginners
- 8 best Spanish audiobooks for beginners
- 6 best Russian audiobooks for beginners
You can also listen to the best language learning podcasts on the way to work or school and get more familiar with the language.
Choose some of the best foreign language books and start reading. Language magazines are also a great way to learn a foreign language. They often talk about topics we are interested in, which makes the learning process even more enjoyable.
Check out the best way to learn a language online for free. You can watch movies or videos if you feel less motivated to learn. You don’t necessarily have to stuff your head with new vocabulary all the time. Sometimes, it is just important to spend some time with the language. Movies and videos are great for it.
Read about best app to watch TV shows in different languages. It’ll help you to learn new vocabulary in context, which is the best way to learn any languge. Especially at the beginning of your language learning journey.
This is the list of the essential 100 to learn in a foreign language. Get the list and start learning your foreign language. Choose one or a few methods to learn the words in a fun and effective way. Also, check out my language blog for more inspiration on language learning.
I wish you a happy learning. Remember, the most important thing is to have fun when learning languages. It will bring you success.
By
Last updated:
December 7, 2022
There are many effective ways to learn English vocabulary—and you can find the perfect one for you right here.
For some people, simply memorizing a word’s definition is enough. Others need entertaining or unique techniques to truly remember a word.
No matter what type of learner you are, we’ll show you how to learn English vocabulary successfully.
Contents
- Make Vocabulary Building Easier by Knowing Your Personal Learning Style
- These 13 Questions Will Reveal the Best Way to Learn English Vocabulary for You
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- 1. Do Keep To-do Lists?
- 2. Do You Love a Good Conversation?
- 3. Do You Spend Your Weekends Playing Board Games?
- 4. Are You a Movie Buff?
- 5. Are You Good at Spotting Patterns?
- 6. Does Traditional Studying Work for You?
- 7. Are You a Writer (or a Future Writer)?
- 8. Are You Detail-oriented?
- 9. Are You a Bookworm?
- 10. Do You Learn by Doing?
- 11. Do You Love to Travel?
- 12. Are You a Social Butterfly?
- 13. Are You Curious and Always Asking Questions?
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Make Vocabulary Building Easier by Knowing Your Personal Learning Style
What kind of learner are you?
Some people learn best by listening, others learn best by writing. You can’t know which learning tips and methods will work best for you until you know which kind of learner you are.
For example, if you remember words better when you write them down, you should try something fun and productive that involves writing. Try writing a blog.
If you remember words better through repetition, use English vocabulary exercises to boost your knowledge.
It all depends on how you learn best.
Once you figure that out, you are ready to start really learning!
If you are not sure which learning style works best for you, then you can try all of the suggested ways to learn English below. You will learn a lot about yourself and your brain by trying different methods.
These 13 Questions Will Reveal the Best Way to Learn English Vocabulary for You
Words are all around us. Sitting down and looking up words in a dictionary is not the only way to learn English words. You can improve English vocabulary by talking with English speakers, watching TV shows in English, writing in a journal… we’ll show you all of it and more below.
Remember, you may answer “yes” to more than one of our questions below. That’s okay! You can try multiple methods to learn English vocabulary, and mix and match the best ones for you.
1. Do Keep To-do Lists?
Your best way to learn English vocabulary: write down all the new words you hear.
If you’re the kind of person who loves keeping lists—like grocery lists, to-do lists for errands, project ideas, etc.—then use that to your advantage.
Keep a vocabulary list to remember new words that you encounter in English. Put this list somewhere portable (easy to carry around) like a little notebook or your phone, so you can access it from anywhere.
As you find words you don’t know, write them down. Make sure to keep plenty of space between words so that you can write more about the words later. When you get the chance (at the end of the day, or at the end of the week) find out what these words mean. You can write the definition however you want, translated to your native language, copied from the English dictionary or written in your own original words.
However you do it, we recommend also writing down the part of speech (e.g., verb, noun, adjective), different versions of the word (for example, if you write down the word “fish” you could also write down information for fishing, fishy, fisherman, etc.), and a full sentence using the word.
After you have been recording lists for a while, go back and read your old lists. How well do you remember those words from the older lists? Take any words you have forgotten from your old lists and add them to your new list. This is a good way to make sure you continue to improve English vocabulary as you advance.
2. Do You Love a Good Conversation?
Your best way to learn English vocabulary: use new words in conversation.
It can be easy to forget about words you’ve already learned as you move on to new ones. This is especially true for common words and words that you’re not sure how to use.
Try using your new words during the week as often as you can. The more you use the words in English conversations, the better you’ll remember them.
An English language exchange offers a great opportunity to use your new English words in real conversations. If you’re not able to have as many English conversations as you’d like, keep a diary and simply write about your day using the words, or just talk to yourself!
3. Do You Spend Your Weekends Playing Board Games?
Your best way to learn English vocabulary: play English-language board games.
Who said that studying can’t be all fun and games?
English board games like Scrabble offer great ways to learn new words.
There are lots of games you can play to strengthen your vocabulary. In fact, you can find a list of vocabulary board games right here!
Games are a good way to learn because they make learning fun, and they help give you context for your new words. That means you’re giving the word you learn an extra meaning.
For example, you might remember the way that the word was used during the game. You might remember your friend laughing about how the word was used. You might remember that it was very hard to think of that word the first time while playing! Having a real-life memory attached to that word makes it much more memorable.
4. Are You a Movie Buff?
One great way to learn English vocabulary: watch real English language movie clips online.
One of the best ways to learn new vocabulary words is to hear them being used. When you’re talking to an actual person, you might not have time to write down any new words or to look them up in the dictionary.
That’s why videos are a great option for vocabulary learning. Movie clips specifically can help you improve your English vocabulary without being overwhelming. Some virtual immersion platforms make use of movie clips and other videos to teach English.
FluentU, for example, has a dedicated section for excerpts from movies and TV shows. Each video has interactive subtitles that you can click for definitions and example sentences. And you can take a review quiz afterward to test your knowledge of the material.
5. Are You Good at Spotting Patterns?
Your best way to learn English vocabulary: group similar English words together.
As we already mentioned, it is better (and easier) to learn new vocabulary words by giving them some context. One way to do this is to remember words in a sentence. This is a great option because you will not only know the word, but you will also know exactly how to use it in conversation.
Another easy way to learn English vocabulary is to remember words by groups. If you just learned the word “humongous” (very large), you can memorize it by thinking of a group of words getting bigger and bigger—large, huge, humongous. This also gives the chance to learn even more words at the same time.
For example: large, humongous, gargantuan. What do you think “gargantuan” means?
6. Does Traditional Studying Work for You?
Your best way to learn English vocabulary: use English dictionary websites.
Sure, you can use an old-fashioned dictionary to look up a word. But many dictionary websites these days have so much more to offer!
Explore dictionary websites like Vocabulary.com and Dictionary.com and you’ll find lots of resources and things to do or read that can help you learn new words. Online dictionaries often have interesting word-related blogs, games you can play and “word of the day” newsletter subscriptions.
Merriam-Webster even has a learner’s dictionary (with a “word of the day” option that teaches you a new English word every day) with useful words for people learning English. Perfect!
7. Are You a Writer (or a Future Writer)?
Your best way to learn English vocabulary: keep an English writing blog.
Reading blogs is a nice way to learn new words, but writing a blog is even better!
You can start a free blog on many websites like WordPress and Tumblr. What you write in your blog and who sees it is all up to you. You can write about fashion or cats… or cat fashion—write about whatever interests you.
As you write, you will probably need to look up words in a dictionary. As you look up words, you will start to remember many of them! Using them in your blog gives them great context which will help your memory. You will learn exactly how to use them in writing.
Choose a list of words that you want to use before you write the blog. Writing with these words will help you practice and remember them.
Share your blog posts with friends and native speakers. Ask them for feedback. This will help make sure you used your words correctly.
8. Are You Detail-oriented?
Your best way to learn English vocabulary: break words into their parts.
Many words can be broken down into smaller parts. For example, the word “dictionary” comes from the Latin word dictio, which means “to speak.”
This is called the root of the word. A root word is a base used to create many words. Now that you know the root word dictio, you might notice it in other words too, like dictate, dictator and contradict. Even if you don’t know what the words mean, you now know that they have something to do with speaking.
Learning word parts is a great idea because you don’t just learn one word, you also learn other words that use these parts. You will also be better at guessing the meanings of new English words, because you will know what some parts of these words mean.
There are more parts to words than roots. Along with roots, words use prefixes (word parts that come in the beginning of the word) and suffixes (word parts that come at the end of a word).
Many dictionaries break down the word into these parts and tell you where these parts are from. You can find a list of word roots on LearnThatWord, and a more complete list that includes prefixes and suffixes on Macroevolution.
9. Are You a Bookworm?
Your best way to learn English vocabulary: read English books.
Reading is a good way to learn new words, but what you read can also make a huge difference in how much you learn.
Choose books that are a little bit challenging for you, and you will learn a lot more than if you read at your level. If you read a book at your level, you may already know all the words. If you read a challenging book, you will need to learn many new words.
You can also try reading special vocabulary books. These are fiction books that include over 1,000 vocabulary words and their definitions! These books are available to buy online, and can be found at ThriftBooks or by searching Amazon.
10. Do You Learn by Doing?
Your best way to learn English vocabulary: take English vocabulary quizzes.
For many people, memorization is simply not enough. You have to practice and apply what you’ve learned—in other words, “learn by doing”—to truly remember the information.
If that sounds like you, test yourself later with a more traditional vocabulary building method: quizzes.
Try using quizzes to make sure you still remember each word you learned, and to remind yourself of the words you learned a while ago. There are many vocabulary quizzes you can use to test yourself. You can find some at Vocabtest, Merriam-Webster and Vocabulary.com, among many others. Don’t forget that FluentU will always keep you practicing the vocabulary words you learned while watching videos!
11. Do You Love to Travel?
Your best way to learn English vocabulary: link new words to English-speaking cultures.
There are a number of different kinds of English around the world. British and American English might seem the same, but there are many little differences.
If you love to travel and discover new cultures, consider how English words are used, pronounced or spelled in different cultures. This will make them seem more interesting and memorable to you—plus, it will be helpful if you visit different English-speaking countries!
The word color, for example, is spelled as “colour” in British English. British people used the words “brilliant” and “cheers” often, but Americans prefer to say “cool” instead of “brilliant” and “see you” instead of “cheers.”
This is also a helpful idea if you’re already focused on one specific type of English. When you are learning new words, keep in mind which country you plan to visit, live in or work in. You should learn British English if you plan to go to England, American English if you plan to go to the U.S., and so on.
12. Are You a Social Butterfly?
Your best way to learn English vocabulary: study new words with English learning friends.
Learning is easier and more fun when you do it with others!
Find a group of friends who want to learn English with you, get an online native speaking buddy or join a website with other learners. Whatever you choose to do, you will benefit greatly from working with others.
One excellent group learning program you can join is called Toastmasters. This group has meeting spots all over the world, and it helps people learn to speak in public. This can be a huge help to you if you have trouble speaking English with others!
Another great idea is to talk to other English learners on Facebook. There are many Facebook pages for English learners. Some are pages where English learners have created an online community for support and friendship. Other pages have actual native speakers helping the group learn. Find one, and your studying will suddenly get much easier.
13. Are You Curious and Always Asking Questions?
Your best way to learn English vocabulary: ask “what does that mean?” as often as you can!
Finally, never be afraid to ask questions!
If someone uses words you don’t understand, ask them “what does that mean?” Many people are very patient and understanding if you tell them that you’re learning English. In fact, many will actually enjoy helping you!
So, have you found your personal best way to learn English vocabulary? Don’t be afraid to try everything and discover how to learn English vocabulary in a way that works for you. Study hard but have fun, and before you know if you’ll have a gargantuan vocabulary!
Download:
This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you
can take anywhere.
Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Maybe learning a new language is on your bucket list. Or you want to boost your language skills to use at the office. You may even be an avid traveler wanting to pick a few phrases before arriving at your next destination. Whatever your reasons, learning a new language can be exciting and, well, challenging. As you decide what language to learn next, it’s a good idea to consider which languages are the easiest and hardest to learn.
Whether you think a language is easy or hard depends a lot on your native language. Take for example Thai, which is a tonal language. Thai may be one of the hardest languages for a native English speaker who has never used tones before. However, for a Vietnamese native speaker who uses tones regularly, Thai may be easier to grasp.
Today, we’ll go through the 28 easiest and hardest languages to learn – and why – for a native English speaker. Studies show that certain languages consistently rank as the easiest and hardest for English learners around the world. Let’s get linguistic!
Why Some Languages Are Easier or Harder Than Others
The linguistic factors that make a language easy or hard for different speakers are endless. Generally speaking, however, the reasons are grouped into six categories:
- Grammatical concepts: Does the language have similar grammar to the native language? Are there new concepts such as gender? Or differences in word order, number of verb tenses or other topics?
- Language family: Does the language belong to the same family? Are there cognates and/or loan words? Are vocabulary words easily identifiable?
- Sounds and tones: Does the language use the same sounds? Are there new or unique sounds? Does the language use tones (i.e. different inflections of the same sound for different meaning)?
- Writing system: Does the language use the same writing system? Is the script organized differently (i.e. right to left)? Does the script build or require heavy memorization?
- Cultural distance: Is the language culturally distant from the native language? Are there significant differences in cultural concepts visible within the language?
- Language resources: Are language resources readily available? Are primary materials (songs, movies, books, newspapers) easily found? Are they high-quality?
These are the main criteria for deciding whether a language is one of the easiest or hardest. Remember that all these categories depend on the linguistic background of the individual.
Note on Our Ranking and the Subjectivity of Easy and Hard Languages
For our ranking, we used the six categories above to show why a language can be easier or harder to learn. Each category is scored between 0-5, with 0 being the easiest and 5 being the hardest. This means that the total score for each language runs between 0 (the easiest) and 30 (the hardest). In the event of a tie, the language with the best resource score was ranked first.
Regardless of the ranking, you’re the boss when it comes to learning a language. All languages require effort and practice. Even the easiest languages to learn won’t be a piece of cake. You’ll have to do the work no matter what! On the other hand, don’t be discouraged by seeing that a language is one of the hardest. You’ll learn any language more quickly if you’re interested in it. While you may consider how long it will take to learn the language and how useful it will be for you, the best predictor for language learning success is being excited about it (and maintaining that excitement over the long-term). Knowing whether a language is easy or hard is good for setting expectations, but it’s still subjective.
Remember: no language is impossible to learn. You got this!
The Easiest Languages to Learn for Native English Speakers
1. Spanish (3/30)
Number of native speakers: 480 million
Grammatical concepts: 1/5
Language family: 1/5
Sounds and tones: 1/5
Writing system: 0/5
Cultural distance: 0/5
Language resources: 0/5
Spanish may be the #1 easiest language to learn. Not only does Spanish share the same alphabet – with the sole addition of ñ – but it’s also phonetic. That makes figuring out new vocabulary easy, since the spelling tells you how to pronounce it. Atención: since it’s a Romance language, you can expect lots of cognates to boost your vocabulary too. While Spanish grammar is distinct from English, it’s simpler and has some basic overlap. For example, to make plural nouns in Spanish, you add -s like English. The hardest part about Spanish is the huge variety of dialects, as it’s officially spoken in 21 different countries. Some Spanish learners also struggle with the speed. After Japanese, Spanish is the 2nd fastest spoken language – ay ay ay!
2. Dutch (3/30)
Number of native speakers: 24 million
Grammatical concepts: 1/5
Language family: 0/5
Sounds and tones: 0/5
Writing system: 0/5
Cultural distance: 0/5
Language resources: 2/5
Dutch is in the Germanic language family, which includes German and English. That means there’s plenty of linguistic overlap! Plus, Dutch colonists were a major influence on American English when they arrived in the 1600s. Our favorite English word from Dutch is koekje, meaning cookie. Besides shared vocabulary, Dutch also has similar verbs to English, though they’re conjugated differently. The biggest difference is likely the new sounds, including sch and ij. Overall, Dutch is English’s closest cousin. In other words, easy-peasy.
3. German (6/30)
Number of native speakers: 95 million
Grammatical concepts: 2/5
Language family: 0/5
Sounds and tones: 2/5
Writing system: 1/5
Cultural distance: 0/5
Language resources: 1/5
It’s not called the Germanic language family for nothing. English and German overlap quite a bit, especially in nouns. In fact, one linguistic study found that 40% of German words sound similar to their English equivalent. There are plenty of examples! From fisch for fish, bruder for brother and haus for house, you’re already halfway there with your vocabulary. German also has consistent verb tenses and only one present and past verb, which is a big help. Of course, German has a rough reputation when it comes to pronunciation and unfortunately it’s got four noun case endings. Not to mention that compound words are likely to freak you once in a while. (To say speed limit in German, it’s this mouthful geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung). But given its similarities to English, German is one of the easiest languages.
4. Italian (7/30)
Number of native speakers: 69 million
Grammatical concepts: 2/5
Language family: 1/5
Sounds and tones: 1/5
Writing system: 1/5
Cultural distance: 1/5
Language resources: 1/5
Named the easiest Romance language, Italian has different grammar than English, but it’s consistent and often simpler to create sentences. Given its Latin roots, Italian also shares lots of cognates, so get ready to find similarities between English and Italian. For example, poeta for poet, problema for problem and futuro for future. Some linguists also say that the rhythm of Italian makes it easy to learn in conversation, as intonations make meaning clear. For those struggling with Italian, it’s likely because of their many articles (six compared to four in Spanish) and their heavy use of the dreaded subjunctive tense. Mamma mia!
5. Afrikaans (7/30)
Number of native speakers: 7.2 million
Grammatical concepts: 1/5
Language family: 0/5
Sounds and tones: 0/5
Writing system: 1/5
Cultural distance: 2/5
Language resources: 3/5
As the official language of South Africa, Afrikaans is – surprise! – a close relative of Dutch. That’s because Afrikaans evolved from Dutch colonists who came to South Africa in the 1600s. Afrikaans was then infused with indigenous languages and other linguist influences. For an English native speaker, Afrikaans is fairly straightforward and one of the easiest languages. Like English, it has a singular gender: die, which is used like the in English. Another benefit is that Afrikaan verbs don’t conjugate by person, so there are fewer endings and noun genders to learn compared to Dutch. Finally, spelling is super intuitive, with many words written halfway between Dutch and English. Take the word for sun, for example: it’s zon in Dutch and son in Afrikaans.
6. Esperanto (7/30)
Number of native speakers: 1,000-2,000
Grammatical concepts: 0/5
Language family: 1/5
Sounds and tones: 0/5
Writing system: 0/5
Cultural distance: 1/5
Language resources: 5/5
Esperanto is an unusual language because it was created by a single man, L.L. Zamenhof, in his quest for a universal language. Zamenhof purposely wanted to make an easy-to-learn language for all people. To achieve his goal, he made Esperanto have predictable and phonetic spelling. In addition, Esperanto only has 5 vowels, simply word order and vocabulary based on the Romance languages. For many, Esperanto is the easiest language in the world and considered a stepping stone for learning other ones. While no country has adopted Esperanto as an official language, it’s been widely supported by the European Union and organizations like PEN International.
7. Portuguese (9/30)
Number of native speakers: 223 million
Grammatical concepts: 2/5
Language family: 1/5
Sounds and tones: 2/5
Writing system: 1/5
Cultural distance: 2/5
Language resources: 1/5
Hotly debated as the most beautiful language in the world, Portuguese is a Romance language with some overlap with English. Cognates are commonplace between Portuguese and English, thanks to the influence of French on English. But that’s not the only reason why it’s one of the easiest languages to learn. Portuguese has almost identical word order and structure to other Romance languages (especially Spanish). This can be both a blessing and a curse, as Portuguese is known for having lots of “false friends,” words that sound similar but mean something different. A good example is the word puxar, which sounds like it should mean push, but actually means pull. Pronunciation can also be a little tricky, as some nasal sounds are unique to Portuguese.
8. French (9/30)
Number of native speakers: 76.8 million
Grammatical concepts: 2/5
Language family: 1/5
Sounds and tones: 3/5
Writing system: 1/5
Cultural distance: 1/5
Language resources: 1/5
French and English go way back. When William the Conqueror stormed England in the 11th century, the English language became forever entwined with French. In fact, linguists say that 45% of English words have a French origin. You can see this in the huge number of cognates, i.e. similar sounding words with identical meanings. Words like fruit, garage, menu and nature all come directly from French. These familiar words will be a welcome sight for English speakers and make it one of the easiest languages to learn. Of course, not everything about French is simple. Their notorious silent letters can make you feel like a cat’s got your tongue.
9. Danish (9/30)
Number of native speakers: 5.5 million
Grammatical concepts: 1/5
Language family: 0/5
Sounds and tones: 2/5
Writing system: 1/5
Cultural distance: 2/5
Language resources: 3/5
Danish is favorite for polyglots and one of the easiest languages for English learners. As a Scandinavian language, it’s similar to Norwegian and Swedish, but with a few twists. Unlike them, Danish has only nine verb forms. (Yay for simplicity!) It’s case system is basic too, so there’s not a ton of extra pronouns to add on. Oh, and it’s definitely got similar sounding words to English. A common example is the days of the week: Mandag (Monday), Tirsdag (Tuesday) and Onsdag (Wednesday). The only tricky part? Pronunciation may require some practice.
10. Norwegian (9/30)
Number of native speakers: 5.2 million
Grammatical concepts: 1/5
Language family: 0/5
Sounds and tones: 2/5
Writing system: 1/5
Cultural distance: 2/5
Language resources: 3/5
Velkommen to Norwegian! This language isn’t as distant from English as you may think. As a Germanic language, Norwegian and English share tons of cognates (like welcome). In addition, Norwegian grammar is a cinch, with present endings for all groups ending in -r. Other tenses use only one ending as well! If you want to create the passive tense, just add -s. And if you want to create possessive, pop on -s too (just like English). As if that wasn’t easy enough, Norwegian also has somewhat similar word order to English, at least compared to German.
11. Romanian (10/30)
Number of native speakers: 25 million
Grammatical concepts: 2/5
Language family: 1/5
Sounds and tones: 2/5
Writing system: 1/5
Cultural distance: 2/5
Language resources: 2/5
Romanian may sound like an exotic language – given the whole vampire thing – but it’s actually one of the easiest languages to learn for native English speakers. In case you didn’t know, Romanian is a Romance language and linguists say it’s 80% Latin. That means plenty of Latin roots and cognates to look forward to, such as cetate for city. Romanian is also consistently phonetic, so words are pronounced as they’re spelled. It also uses Latin script, though it was once written in Cyrillic. Of course, Romanian has Slavic influences and sounds a bit like Italian with a Russian twist!
12. Swedish (11/30)
Number of native speakers: 10 million
Grammatical concepts: 2/5
Language family: 0/5
Sounds and tones: 3/5
Writing system: 1/5
Cultural distance: 2/5
Language resources: 3/5
Last but not least, Swedish is one of the easiest languages because it shares Germanic roots with English. Not only are there thousands of cognates, but also similarities in the grammar, syntax and vocabulary. The sweetest part: there’s no distinct verb endings. All you need is -är to form verbs for everybody. Some English speakers complain about their articles en and ett, which have to be memorized for every case, as well as the extra vowels å, ä and ö. But there’s no doubt that this sing-song language is within your reach.
13. Swahili (14/30)
Number of native speakers: 15 million
Grammatical concepts: 2/5
Language family: 3/5
Sounds and tones: 2/5
Writing system: 2/5
Cultural distance: 3/5
Language resources: 2/5
Swahili is widely spoken throughout East Africa, including officially in Tanzania and Kenya. Swahili is one of the few African languages without tone, which makes it one of the easiest languages for native English speakers. It’s a unique language with 35% of its vocabulary coming from Arabic. However, it’s also heavily influenced by Bantu, Persian, English and Romance languages. This should be muziki to your ears, since you’ll find a fair number of cognates. The most unusual aspect of Swahili is the lack of verb conjugations. Instead, it adds affixes to verbs to indicate tense and subject. So, for a simple sentence like “I am going,” Swahili speakers would say “nina-kwenda”: ni is I, na is present tense and kwenda means “to go.”
14. Indonesian (15/30)
Number of native speakers: 43 million
Grammatical concepts: 1/5
Language family: 4/5
Sounds and tones: 2/5
Writing system: 2/5
Cultural distance: 4/5
Language resources: 2/5
Indonesian is a popular language that’s easy to pick up. To start, Indonesian shares certain characteristics with English. For example, there’s no gendered nouns in Indonesian. In addition, it uses a phonetic Latin script (so no need to learn a new alphabet) and similar word order to English. To make life easier, Indonesian doesn’t have distinct verb endings, and adds prefixes and suffixes onto words to change the meaning. All these traits make Indonesian one of the easiest languages to learn quickly. Bonus: in case you were worried, there are no tones in Indonesian either!
The Hardest Languages to Learn for Native English Speakers
15. Hindi (17/30)
Number of native speakers: 260 million
Grammatical concepts: 3/5
Language family: 3/5
Sounds and tones: 3/5
Writing system: 4/5
Cultural distance: 3/5
Language resources: 1/5
Hindi is highly phonetic, which means it’s spelled the way it sounds – score! Besides that, however, Hindi has some challenging differences in terms of grammar, pronunciation and writing. First, Hindi uses an SOV (subject object verb) word order and has new sounds for English speakers, including dha and hka. In addition, their writing system, Devanagari script, has 47 characters including 14 vowels and 33 consonants. This script system is quite distinct from the English alphabet because it doesn’t uses letter case (so no caps here!). While some Hindi learners use a Latin alphabet, the Devanagari script actually helps clarify pronunciation once characters are understood. In case you need motivation: Hindi is spoken by half a billion people worldwide!
16. Polish (17/30)
Number of native speakers: 45 million
Grammatical concepts: 4/5
Language family: 2/5
Sounds and tones: 4/5
Writing system: 3/5
Cultural distance: 2/5
Language resources: 2/5
Polish falls within the Slavic language family, but luckily for English speakers, it uses the Latin script. However, other features make it one of the hardest languages to learn. First off, Polish has 9 additional letters – ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź and ż – which can be challenging to get right. Polish is also stuffed with consonants. For example, the word happiness in Polish is szczęście, which has six syllables. Yikes! Like English, Polish isn’t too consistent with phonetics either, so the same sound could be spelled in several ways. Finally, Polish has notoriously complex grammar, including five grammatical genders, free word order and 17 different forms for saying numbers. The good news? There are only three verb tenses in Polish: present, past and future.
17. Czech (17/30)
Number of native speakers: 10.7 million
Grammatical concepts: 4/5
Language family: 2/5
Sounds and tones: 4/5
Writing system: 3/5
Cultural distance: 2/5
Language resources: 2/5
While it doesn’t use the Cyrillic alphabet, Czech is part of the Slavic language family and takes complexity to the next level. Just consider its noun case system. With 7 cases across 4 genders, nouns can be extremely tricky to properly decline. Compared to German nouns, for example, Czech has 15 times more possibilities! That’s not all: adjectives have 6 cases, pronouns have 7 cases and it has a complex way of declining numerals. Don’t forget about all the irregular nouns and verbs too (uh-oh). Czech is also one of the hardest languages because of the way that consonants cluster together in words, making pronounciation a mouthful! Many learners also consider the ř sound devilishly difficult to say.
18. Persian (18/30)
Number of native speakers: 70 million
Grammatical concepts: 3/5
Language family: 3/5
Sounds and tones: 3/5
Writing system: 4/5
Cultural distance: 3/5
Language resources: 2/5
Persian, which you may known by the dialect names Farsi (Iran), Dari (Afghanistan) and Tajik (Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), is spoken by 110 million people. What’s the deal with Persian? Well, it’s an Indo-European language, which means there are some useful cognates between Persian and English. Take for example the word star, written as setareh in Persian. Numerous Persian words have even been incorporated into English, including bazaar, candy, caravan, checkmate and kiosk. However, Persian is one of the hardest languages to learn because of its writing system. Though right to left, Persian uses Arabic script, as well as four more letters in their alphabet. While perhaps not as tricky as Arabic, Persian alphabet doesn’t have letter case (so no capitals), joins words together and has some redundant letters. Finally, Persian grammar can be difficult to grasp, including a large number of prefixes and suffixes added onto words.
19. Gaelic (18/30)
Number of native speakers: 195,000 (57,000 Scottish, 138,000 Irish)
Grammatical concepts: 3/5
Language family: 2/5
Sounds and tones: 3/5
Writing system: 2/5
Cultural distance: 3/5
Language resources: 5/5
Gaelic starts out on the right foot: it uses the Latin script, has phonetic spelling and follows consistent grammar rules. But its many grammatical cases and dialects make it one of the hardest languages to pick up. With combinations like bhF and mB, Gaelic has some unusual sound combinations, too. In addition, it uses VSO (verb, subject, object) word order, which can be tricky to get the hang of. Luckily, there is some overlap with English, since Ireland and Scotland are neighbors to England. For example, the word galore in English comes from the Gaelic go leór. Even the word car comes from càr in Gaelic!
20. Arabic (19/30)
Number of native speakers: 310 million
Grammatical concepts: 3/5
Language family: 3/5
Sounds and tones: 4/5
Writing system: 5/5
Cultural distance: 4/5
Language resources: 0/5
Arabic is just about as linguistically and culturally distant from English as you can get. The first zinger? Arabic doesn’t include vowels in writing, so you have to fill in the blanks yourself. No wonder the Foreign Service Institute estimates a whopping 2,200 hours to learn Arabic! In addition, Arabic is read from right to left, has a unique alphabet and requires you to learn new sounds. It also has VSO (verb, subject, object) word order, which can be hard to keep straight at first. Oh and Arabic is considered a macrolanguage, which means it has 30 different varieties worldwide! All these traits make it one of the hardest languages to learn. To give you some hope: verb conjugations are consistent, so you’ll have an easy time once you know all the endings!
21. Korean (20/30)
Number of native speakers: 77.2 million
Grammatical concepts: 3/5
Language family: 4/5
Sounds and tones: 4/5
Writing system: 4/5
Cultural distance: 4/5
Language resources: 1/5
Korean is one of the hardest languages to learn for native English speakers because of some key grammatical and pronunciation rules. First, Korean follows a SOV word order, so you’ll have to get used to ending the sentence with the verb. Words can also get long and windy because Koreans use suffixes to modify the word. Not to mention that Korean uses lots of connectors, making sentences even longer! Korean also has some difficult pronunciation, such as the double G, double P, double J and double K, which can be challenging to say fluidly. In addition, you’ll have to watch what you say when addressing your superiors. Like Japanese, Korean has a lot of endings to show respect for authority, which means more verb endings to remember. On the plus side, the Korean alphabet hangul is easy to learn.
22. Mandarin Chinese (21/30)
Number of native speakers: 910 million
Grammatical concepts: 2/5
Language family: 4/5
Sounds and tones: 5/5
Writing system: 5/5
Cultural distance: 5/5
Language resources: 0/5
Mandarin is one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers. Almost everything about Mandarin can be overwhelming at first (although the grammar rules are thankfully fairly simple). First, Mandarin is a tonal language, with four different tones that change a word’s meaning. One of the most common examples is the word ma, which depending on the inflection can mean mother, horse, scold or hemp. These tones make Mandarin extremely tricky; if you don’t get the tone right, you’ll say a different word entirely! Mandarin also uses characters for the writing system, which entails lots of memorization at first. Finally, Mandarin is known for its many homophones and idioms, which can be culturally distant from English. Of course, 910 million people speak Mandarin, so that’s huge motivation to learn it well!
23. Japanese (21/30)
Number of native speakers: 125 million
Grammatical concepts: 3/5
Language family: 4/5
Sounds and tones: 4/5
Writing system: 5/5
Cultural distance: 4/5
Language resources: 1/5
Japanese may not be a tonal language, but it’s one of the hardest languages to learn. The first difficult aspect is writing in Japanese. Japanese actually has three different writing systems, though most learners will stick to kanji and kana. Kanji can be notoriously difficult to master because it’s a character-based system, so you have to memorize how words are written. Luckily only 2,000 kanji characters are commonly used, which helps matters. In addition, Japanese can be tough because of its SOV word order and use of articles to denote information such as subject, motion, object and questions. Since Japan is a polite culture, it’s important to use hierarchical forms to show respect to authority figures, too. To top it off, Japanese takes the top spot as the fastest spoken language in the world!
24. Turkish (22/30)
Number of native speakers: 75.7 million
Grammatical concepts: 5/5
Language family: 5/5
Sounds and tones: 4/5
Writing system: 3/5
Cultural distance: 4/5
Language resources: 1/5
Turkish is a distinctive language with some quirky rules. While Turkish has used Latin script since 1928 – lucky for English speakers! – pronunciation can still be a challenge. Turkish uses vowel harmony, so some vowels will shift depending on context. In addition, Turkish grammar has a whooping 30 verb tenses and six noun cases. Many words will also take on suffixes to change the meaning, which can throw learners for a loop. Its redeeming factor? Turkish has no gender or articles.
25. Finnish (22/30)
Number of native speakers: 5.4 million
Grammatical concepts: 5/5
Language family: 5/5
Sounds and tones: 4/5
Writing system: 3/5
Cultural distance: 2/5
Language resources: 3/5
Finnish is the dark horse of languages found in Europe and one of the hardest worldwide. Though within Europe, Finnish isn’t part of the Indo-European languages. You won’t find shared roots or cognates here, which means Finnish is a bit of a blank slate. Then there’s the grammar. Finnish has 15 grammatical cases and each verb can have 200 possible endings given all the endings! In addition, it has some finicky rules about consonants, which change spelling depending on endings, especially the letters k, p and t. Learners may also be put off by the way words can be inflected by verbs, nouns and adjectives. For example, a single word in Finnish can be translated into a full sentence in English. One favorite Finnish word is söisinköhän, meaning “I’m wondering if I should eat something.” The silver lining of Finnish is that it’s fairly phonetic!
26. Icelandic (22/30)
Number of native speakers: 358,000
Grammatical concepts: 3/5
Language family: 5/5
Sounds and tones: 3/5
Writing system: 3/5
Cultural distance: 3/5
Language resources: 5/5
In 2010, the volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted in Iceland, throwing TV reporters in turmoil. Eyjafjallajökull was so difficult for them to pronounce that most shortened it to E13. Icelandic has a reputation for difficult pronunciation, due to its long words and new sounds like Þ and Ð, which can be either voiced or voiceless. It also has quirky grammar because of its geographical isolation, which allowed it to keep old rules and forms. Icelandic has an unusual noun system, with four cases, three genders and two numbers. In addition, their verbs have three persons, two numbers, two tenses and two moods. Icelandic requires quite a bit of upfront study, but once you get the hang of it, the rules are consistent. And you may even discover a few cognates, such as geyser from the Icelandic geysir.
27. Hungarian (23/30)
Number of native speakers: 13 million
Grammatical concepts: 5/5
Language family: 5/5
Sounds and tones: 4/5
Writing system: 3/5
Cultural distance: 4/5
Language resources: 2/5
Like Finnish, Hungarian is part of the Uralic language family that is completely separate from Indo-European languages. For English native speakers, this makes Hungarian one of the hardest languages to learn. To start, Hungarian has a reputation for complex grammar. And with 35 different cases, we can see why! Hungarian also has 14 different vowels (compared to 5 in English) and something called vowel harmony – also found in Korean and Turkish – where suffixes are added to words to keep the sounds in harmony. This rule adds another 2-3 suffixes to Hungarian, depending on the word. On the bright side, Hungarian only has three verb tenses: past, present and future!
28. Basque (26/30)
Number of native speakers: 750,000
Grammatical concepts: 5/5
Language family: 5/5
Sounds and tones: 4/5
Writing system: 3/5
Cultural distance: 4/5
Language resources: 5/5
Spoken solely in Basque Country, Basque is an intriguing language. For many it’s considered one of the hardest languages to learn because it’s a language isolate. Even though Basque Country is located in Europe, Basque isn’t related to any Indo-European languages. Linguists think it’s one of the oldest languages in the world, which is why it’s a bit old-fashioned. Compared to modern languages, Basque is extraordinarily different. For instance, Basque doesn’t simply change the end of the verb, it changes the beginning too. It also tacks on participles and pronouns to show subject and object within the verb. Nouns are likewise stuffed with information: Basque has 12 nouns cases, with many suffixes and prefixes added to change meaning. By the way, you won’t find any cognates either. Besides all this, Basque has a few easier traits. There are only two new sounds, tx and tz, and the alphabet uses Latin script. There is itxaropena (hope) after all!
Tips to Speed Up Your Language Learning
To kick off your language learning, it’s important that you ask yourself why you want to learn this language. Your language goals will be different depending on whether you want to travel and speak with locals, converse in depth with a native friend, or read literature in that language. This motivation is what’s going to get you through the ups and downs of the language learning process.
Once you’ve determined the why, you can speed up your language learning with these tips:
- Set language goals: Make a clear goal for how often you want to practice or study the language. Daily goals? Weekly goals? You decide what’s best. Even just ten minutes a day can keep the language fresh in your mind.
- Focus on critical tasks: Don’t spend hours studying that rare past perfect tense, if you aren’t going to use it. Instead, the best way to learn a language is to follow the famous 80-20 rule that states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. In other words, go for the low-hanging fruit. Practice the critical stuff, such as common vocabulary, useful verb tenses and casual phrases.
- Get a language partner or teacher: There’s no use learning a language if you can’t speak it. Get a language partner or hire a teacher to get one-on-one time with a native speaker. The more experience you can get with real-life conversation, the better. Of course, a language teacher has effective techniques to speed up your learning. But if you’re in a pinch, a language partner will also help.
- Record yourself speaking: Learning how to SPEAK a language might just be the hardest part of the process. But there are useful tools that can make it easier. Nowadays with apps like WhatsApp, it’s easy to record and send audios of yourself. Every day, try sending an audio to a friend or family member so that you’re using the language constantly. If you don’t have anybody, you can also simply record yourself and review what went well or not-so-well. Practice makes practice!
- Enjoy music, books, TV shows, movies, radio and newspapers: Expose yourself to the culture of the language you’re learning. You’ll find useful vocabulary and get the feel for natural phrasing. Music and movies can be motivating as well! Whenever possible try to listen to materials at least once without subtitles to stimulate your learning.
At the end of the day, learning a language can be tough, but also rewarding. No matter what language you choose – whether easy, hard or something in between – you’ll enrich your life by learning another language. Best of luck!
Aloha! Are you wondering what is the easiest language in the world? Since we have so many languages globally, there must be some relatively easy ones, right? If you are looking for a language to learn and wish to start off with one of the easiest (by easy we mean you can probably learn them fast), you’ve come to the right place. This article will offer you some useful information.
First of all, it’s important to note that the difficulty level of these languages can vary from person to person, based on a number of factors like your mother tongue, your previous language learning experiences, your motivation to learn a language, etc.
So in this article, we’ll go through 15 languages that are generally considered easy to learn for English speakers. All of them are classified by FSI as Category I and Category II, which are the easiest groups of languages for English speakers to learn, requiring less than 36 weeks to acquire “Professional Working Proficiency.”
So what are these easiest languages to learn? Let’s see!
Norwegian
Norwegian is spoken by around five million people today, primarily in Norway. In many ways, Norwegian is a language that feels familiar to English speakers. If we think of the language system as a large tree, then English and Norwegian are both fruits of the Germanic family branch. Thus, the two languages share quite a lot of vocabulary.
According FSI, Norwegian grammar is supposedly the easiest for English speakers to learn. Furthermore, English and Norwegian have almost the same word order and sentence structure (SVO), making it easy for you to understand the logic of the language. For example, “There are five members in my family” translates to “Det er fem medlemmer i familien min.” Notice any similarities?
Romanian
Romanian language is another Romance language quite similar to English. Though less popular than French, Portuguese, and Spanish, Romanian is also quite easy for English speakers to learn.
About 24 million people speak Romanian as their native language. Romanian is the single official language in Romania and Moldova, although in some regions, it shares the official status.
A fun fact is that foreign influences have heavily influenced the Romanian language—the Imperial roman army in the first century AD and Slavic languages from the 7th to the 9th century.
As a result, 63% of the Romanian vocabulary is Romanian, and 11.5% is Slavic. Since many loanwords from the Romanian language group are also present in English, you will feel some familiarity when learning Romanian.
Danish
Danish has about six million native speakers, mainly in Denmark. Like their geographical relationship, Danish is closely related to Swedish and Norwegian. English speakers will find Danish also has relatively easy grammar rules and quite a lot of familiar vocabulary.
Contrary to many people’s beliefs, the languages mentioned above are not phonetically interchangeable. However, the writing systems are quite similar. It could be said that if a person is fluent in either language, they can read the other two easily. Thus, the 3 Scandinavian languages are so common can almost be seen as dialects.
Even though FSI considers Danish a category1 language, I would say that Danish is seen as a language that is not easy to understand and learn because of its complex phonology. Many sounds may be weakened or dropped in Danish. Danish was heavily influenced by the Low German language in the Middle Ages and was influenced by English from the 20th century onwards.
Danish verbs are also quite straightforward. Many verbs are conjugated by tense, but there is no change in person or number. For example, the simple present tense of the verb spise (to eat) is spiser, and it doesn’t conjugate whether the subject is in first, second, or third person, singular or plural. This can certainly save you a lot of time when learning Danish.
Swedish
Thanks to IKEA’s exposure, you’ve probably already heard of some Swedish words, like “hej” meaning hello.
Swedish has about 10 million native speakers, with 9 million in Sweden, and the rest mainly in Finland. Swedish belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic language family and is an East Scandinavian language, along with Danish.
Like Norwegian, Swedish shares a similar word order with English (subject-verb-object) and has pretty simple grammar rules. For example, Swedish conjugation rules are quite simple, with very few changes just like Danish. And there are only two types of nouns in Swedish: common and neuter, with 3/4 of them being common nouns.
The only slightly tricky part in Swedish is probably pronunciation. Swedish has 20 consonants, 9 vowels, and 17 phonemes, which means it has more vowel phonemes on average than any other major language worldwide. So once you’ve mastered its tricky pronunciation, Swedish can be very easy to learn.
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Portuguese
Portuguese is one of the most prevalent languages in the world, with around 230 million people speaking it. It is the second most widely spoken Romance language after Spanish because it spread to the four corners of the world during the colonial period. As a result, Portuguese is the official language of Portugal, Brazil, and six other countries.
Due to the French and Latin influences on English, Portuguese contains tons of vocabulary that English speakers would immediately recognize, like most Romance languages. Therefore, if you speak English, you should be able to learn to read some Portuguese easily. Moreover, if you know another Romance language, you can probably read a lot of Portuguese even if you haven’t studied it.
French
Did you know that French is not only the official language of France but also of the other 29 countries, including Canada, Belgium, and various African countries? It’s estimated that there are between 100 and 120 million native French speakers. In addition, there are between 150 and 190 million second-language speakers. French is a vital language of international diplomacy and was once the primary global lingua franca.
The English and French languages have a lot in common. Because a great deal of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, English speakers will certainly notice a number of French words that seem like English words. Furthermore, the word order of French in simple SVO phrases is nearly identical to that of English. It could be said that French is both practical and straightforward for English speakers to learn.
Spanish
The official language of Spain is Spanish, also known as Castilian Spanish. With about 500 million native speakers and another 100 million who use it as a second language, Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages on the planet. It is very significant for many international organizations as one of the six official languages of the UN and one of the 24 official languages of the EU.
Like Romance languages in general, the Spanish language shares a lot of related vocabulary with English. You can figure out and remember them more quickly if you associate them with the corresponding English words. Another benefit of learning a Romance language for English speakers is that the basic syntax is very similar to English.
Dutch
Dutch is mainly spoken in Europe, although it is also spoken in a few other parts of the world. It has 25 million native speakers and roughly 30 million speakers in total, including second-language speakers. There’s also a language called Afrikaans which you may have heard of before. Afrikaans is a sublanguage of Dutch prevalent in South Africa and Namibia. It’s worth mentioning that Dutch and Afrikaans are mutually intelligible to some extent.
As an English speaker, you will notice related vocabulary and similar grammar in Dutch if you disregard pronunciation and spelling and simply look at the most basic sentences side-by-side. Occasionally, some sentences in Dutch might be strangely familiar to English speakers. For example:
My name is Paul – Mijn naam is Paul
I am a student – ik ben een student
Italian
Italian doesn’t receive as much attention as French, Spanish, or Portuguese because it’s mainly spoken in Europe rather than in former colonies. However, it’s still one of the most widely spoken languages in the world with over 70 million speakers. The majority of its speakers (60 million) live in Italy, but it is also an official language of Switzerland, Vatican City, and San Marino. Furthermore, there are almost 70 thousand people who speak Italian in the U.S.
Italian has had a major cultural impact on the rest of the world. For example, Italian composer’s developed the current system of musical notation. Hence, Italian is a language of art, and learning Italian is like wandering through the streets of Rome and experiencing magnificent classical beauty.
German
Although German is not classified by FSI as Category I, but as Category II (taking around 36 weeks). Nevertheless, I think it is still easy for English speakers, especially compared to Chinese and Japanese, which are classified as category IV.
With three types of nouns, various verb conjugation forms and extremely strict syntax, German is considered as quite difficult to start with for many people.
However, being in the same language family (Germanic language) with English means German shares a lot of vocabulary with English, making it relatively easy to acquire for English speakers from this perspective. Also, you can see why German people are quite patient when you speak: they are waiting to hear the verb at the end of the sentence.
German is also a very useful language to learn. It is spoken by 95 million native speakers and an additional 11 to 15 million second-language learners, especially in Eastern Europe. What’s more, in both the U.S and Europe, German comes fourth when it comes to the most popular languages to learn. If you are a researcher, knowing some German can also help you a lot because of the many scientific papers documented in German.
At last, we want to say that even if there are some universally “easy” languages to learn, it shouldn’t be your sole factor to consider when choosing which language to learn. There are far more important factors like motivation, which is best maintained by interest in a culture or wish to communicate with someone.
Language learning probably takes more effort than you think no matter which one you choose. But thankfully, with apps like LingoDeer, it’s a lot easier and fun with bite-sized lessons and various exercises. Give it a try today!
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Which language(s) are you learning or wish to learn in the future? Leave a comment and let us know!
Hey there, I’m Jerry. I completed my undergraduate studies in China in 2020, and I’m working hard to get my Master’s degree at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Japan. I speak Chinese, English, Japanese, and have recently been learning Portuguese. It could be said that learning languages have lit up my life, enormously enriched my academic background, and enhanced career prospects for me. Don’t hesitate, let’s enjoy learning languages together!
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“What’s the best way to learn new English vocabulary?”
My students ask me this question so often! The answer is practice. But what type of practice is best? Wouldn’t it be great to learn and practice new vocabulary in the most effective way, so you can feel confident that you’re learning as quickly as possible? Right now, I’m learning Spanish so I’m just as interested as you are to find the right answer to this question! To successfully learn new vocabulary, you need to create good study habits, keep it interesting and make it fun! The truth is, we all learn differently. So I’ve made a list of different tools and techniques that you can use to improve your vocabulary (in the way that works best for you)!
1. Don’t learn individual words on their own! Learn words in groups that they are commonly used in.
Have you heard of collocations? A collocation is two or more words that are often said together. They just ‘sound right’ together because native English speakers use them together often. Have you ever heard a native speaker tell you “well… you could say that, I guess… But it doesn’t sound right (it doesn’t sound natural).” By learning words together, you’ll quickly start to understand which words ‘sound right’ together. You’ll learn how words correctly join together in a sentence, then later, you can start adding or replacing new words, as you learn new ones.
For example, instead of memorising the noun ‘bunch‘, learn ‘bunch of grapes’ or ‘I bought a bunch of bananas’. Instead of learning the word ‘apply‘, learn the phrase ‘apply for a job’. You can learn hundreds of new individual words in English but you will be frustrated if you can’t correctly put them into your sentence together, in a way that makes sense and sounds natural. When you learn words in groups, you’re learning new words WITH the verbs, nouns and prepositions they are used with so you sound more natural when you speak!
2. Learn new vocabulary through stories.
Stories are FULL of new words, phrases and interesting expressions that show you how words come together in an interesting, fun and engaging way! Just like the collocation method, you are learning new vocabulary in context. You’re not only learning what words to use but how to use them! An important note to remember: It’s great to challenge yourself, but it’s important not to feel completely confused! Read stories that are fun and enjoyable! If you are not very confident with English, start with children’s books. “Emma, are you serious? Children’s books?” Yes! I’m serious! There are lots of great children’s books that are interesting, funny and full of adventure! Start with children’s books, and when reading them becomes too easy, try something a little more challenging! Some great books to start with are:
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
- Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
- James and The Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
3. Listen while you read.
Take English storytime to a whole new level using audiobooks! Some of you will prefer to listen and read in English, see you can see new words as they’re read. Another technique is to listen to the same story in your native language while you read in English! This technique will help you understand to understand so many new, interesting words and phrases. You will need to select a popular book that has been translated from English into your native language, such as Harry Potter.
4. Learn new vocabulary through songs
If you love listening to music, there is no doubt that learning new vocabulary through songs will help you remember them. You’ll need to find songs where the words are not sung very fast so that you can hear each word and how it’s pronounced. It’s more effective if you can download the lyrics and read as you listen to learn the words and rhythm correctly. There are lots of extra benefits when you learn new vocabulary through songs, such as:
- Good songs get stuck inside your head, so you’ll be singing and practicing them in your head often – and it won’t feel like practice sing in the shower, while you’re exercising and when you’re driving to work!
- Songs use colloquial language and slang words that are common in spoken English. You’ll learn how words are reduced and contracted and improve your listening skills too!
- Singing them out loud will improve your pronunciation and other aspects of spoken English.
- The rhythm of music helps you to memorise new vocabulary!
Here are a few of my suggestions:
The Lazy Song – Bruno Mars
(Sitting On) The Dock of the Bay – Otis Reading
You can easily find the lyrics to heaps of other English songs at metrolyrics. (If you know some good songs to practice with, post your suggestions in the comments box and share your love of English music!)
5. Use Online dictionaries!
Online dictionaries offer so many ways to practice and learn new vocabulary! Let’s look at the verb ‘produce’ as an example. When I look up this word in an online dictionary I can:
- Read the definition(s)
- Read and listen to the different verb forms (produces, produced, producing, etc.)
- Read lots of example sentences, that show how the word is used in context
- Learn synonyms (other similar words) and collocations (words that are often used with ‘produce’)
- View the word family, including produce (verb), producer (noun), production (noun), productive (adjective), unproductive (adjective antonym), productively (adverb), product (noun) and produce (noun).
- Listen to the pronunciation. In this example, you’ll be surprised to learn that the verb produce and the noun produce are pronounced differently!!
I recommend the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary. They also have great apps for iPhone and Android. Go and explore all their amazing vocabulary building tools! Plus if you sign up to their email list, you’ll get sent a new English word every day! That’s another great way to learn new vocabulary!
Flashcards have been a favourite way of learning new vocabulary for years and years. But there are different options available for us today. You might prefer to hand-write flashcards with an English phrase on one side and the translation to your native language on the other side. You can also use an SRS programme, such as Anki. I downloaded Anki a couple of weeks ago and I think it’s fabulous! An SRS allows you to remember a large number of words in a short amount of time and it lets you work at your own pace. As you practice with the flashcards, the programme remembers what words you know and what words you don’t know. It will keep showing you the flashcards you get wrong so that you practice them more! It is a really efficient way of studying.
7. Describe the world around you
If you like using a dictionary to learn new English vocabulary, getting into the habit of describing things that are happening around you in English is a great way to study. When you are unsure of words, look it up! It will help you fill in the gaps in your vocabulary. For example, when you are at your local supermarket, ask yourself:
- Do I know the name of all the items in the fridge?
- How can you describe the woman waiting in front of you?
- How many colours can I see?
- Do I know the English names of all the vegetables?
When you can’t think of a word, stop and look it up. Understand how to use it and practice it again the next time you visit the supermarket!
8. Imitation and Shadowing
Imitation and shadowing are great techniques to improve pronunciation and spoken English, but they’re also awesome for learning new vocabulary! Sign up for my free email lessons here to practice imitation and shadowing! Try it for yourself!
9. Language Immersion for Google Chrome
This is a really neat extra trick you can use to keep you learning new words as often as possible, so you improve quickly! Language Immersion for Chrome works when you are browsing websites. It randomly chooses words on websites you are viewing and shows them in English. It works for any of the 64 languages supported by Google Translate. The great part is that you can change the settings from beginner through intermediate to advanced! For example, individual words and short phrases are translated for beginners, while whole sentences are translated for advanced level students. If you hover your mouse over the word, you can hear it pronounced and translate it back to your native language
Most importantly, you need to find ways to learn vocabulary that work best for YOU. Because hey, we all learn differently, we have different priorities and different amounts of time to spend learning new languages. You need to create your own good study habits and find ways to enjoy English!
Do you have any other great ideas for learning English vocabulary? Suggest them in the comments box below, I’d love to hear from you!