5 easiest languages to learn on your own for free (2023)

FAQs

5 easiest languages to learn on your own for free? ›

However, if you want to pick up a new language as easily as possible, we recommend starting with something from the top of the list — like Spanish, Swedish or Norwegian.

However, if you want to pick up a new language as easily as possible, we recommend starting with something from the top of the list — like Spanish, Swedish or Norwegian.

Riau Indonesian is different from most other languages in how simple it is. There are no endings of any substance, no tones, no articles, and no word order. There is only a little bit of indicating things in time.

German. German is rooted as a West Germanic language, like English, and those who are somewhat proficient in English, Dutch, Yiddish, or more will have a much easier time learning. For example, notice the similarities in German and Dutch in the example below: "What came first: the chicken or the egg?"

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

Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.

If a message circulating on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook is to be believed, Bengali has been voted the sweetest language in the world. Conducted by Unesco, the vote ranks Spanish and Dutch as the second and third sweetest tongues respectively.

Which language has no word for please? ›

Iceland's language makes British manners impossible to impart – there is no word for please. Icelandic does offer 45 different ways to say the word green, however.

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

Also known as Tetawo, the Tanema language is again only spoken by one person, Lainol Nalo, on the island of Vanikoro, in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands.

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

1. English (1,452 million speakers) According to Ethnologue, English is the most-spoken language in the world including native and non-native speakers. Like Latin or Greek at the time, English has become the world's common language.

Aramaic is best known as the language Jesus spoke. It is a Semitic language originating in the middle Euphrates. In 800-600 BC it spread from there to Syria and Mesopotamia. The oldest preserved inscriptions are from this period and written in Old Aramaic.

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

Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon.

If we consider the number of speakers, location, career possibilities and ease of learning, the overall three best languages for Americans to learn are (drum roll, please): Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese.

What is the most intelligent language? ›

1. Mandarin Chinese. With over one billion Mandarin Chinese speakers in the world, of course it tops the list of most important languages to learn in 2021.

Spanish (405 million native speakers)

Without a doubt, Spanish is one of the most valuable second languages if you're in the United States-even if you never plan to travel outside the country. That's because it's the most common language in the US aside from English.

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

Finally, the “Big Four.” According to the US Department of State, the four most difficult languages to learn are Arabic, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. To become conversational in one of these languages, you'll probably need 1.69 years, spending 2,200 hours in class!

Latin languages tend to be "soft" to the ear because they tend to use more vowels than consonants at least in speech. German, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, probably some of the Caucasian languages like Georgian, etc sound "Hard" because they have groups of consonants with fewer connecting vowel sounds.

The team of Dr Peter Dodds from the University of Vermont decided to reveal which are the most positive languages in the world, using scientific methods. The study found out that Spanish can be labeled as the happiest language.

Without curse words, the Japanese language managed to articulate its way across hundreds of years of evolution, though with some limitations to apply. Looking into another language and its special traits, even just the smallest aspects like profanity, is truly inspiring.

What language has no word for yes? ›

The Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx) do not have words for yes or no at all.

In Polish, no means 'yes'.

Rotokas is believed to have the smallest alphabet of all known languages, with just 12 letters and 11 sounds (two of the 12 letters share one sound).

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.

Mayan Languages

K'iche', the most widely spoken Mayan language, has an estimated 2.3 million native speakers, mostly in Guatemala. Currently, no Mayan languages are available in Google Translate. Why not offer K'iche'? After all, Google Translate is available in Frisian, with only 480,000 native speakers.

Kawishana. Spoken near the Japura River in Brazil, Kawishana (Kaixana) was once a popular language utilized by many. The numbers began dwindling, eventually dropping down to 200. Now, there remains only one documented person still able to speak the language.

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

– Mandarin Chinese is considered the most difficult language to learn for non-English speakers. – The language has over 50,000 characters and a complex writing system. – Mandarin Chinese has four tones, which can change the meaning of a word completely.

Which language has the easiest grammar? Well, the obvious answer is Esperanto. But in terms of natural languages, the easiest language grammatically, is also the most common language: Mandarin Chinese.

The New Zealand vowel system has undergone what linguists consider a “shift” in pronunciation. This means that a letter, such as “e”, no longer has the same pronunciation that the rest of the English world uses. For example: “Test” in New Zealand is pronounced as “Tist” = /e/ has become /i/.

Why is English so hard to learn? ›

The language features grammatical rules that are often broken, an alphabet that can confuse people who are used to a character-based system, and spelling and pronunciation irregularities that perplex even native speakers.

English – 245 million (78.5%) Spanish – 41.3 million (13.2%) Chinese (including Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and all other varieties) – 3.40 million (1.1%) Tagalog (including Filipino) – 1.72 million (0.5%)

1. Chinese — 1.3 Billion Native Speakers. Numbers vary widely — Ethnologue puts the number of native speakers at 1.3 billion native speakers, roughly 900 million of whom speak Mandarin — but there's no doubt it's the most spoken language in the world.

English is by far the most prominent spoken language in the U.S., with over 239 million English-speaking people across the country. In fact, English is commonly mistaken as the official language of the United States, which doesn't actually have an official language on record.

What's the Easiest Language to Learn? ‍The clear winner from the 7 easiest languages to learn is Spanish. Everything from writing, grammar, and speaking will come more naturally to the English speaker. Similar rules, structure, and Latin roots.

Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.

In contrast to traditional classroom learning, learning a language on your own is a dizzying amount of freedom. This freedom can be a real blessing if you're a nontraditional learner, but it can also lead to laziness. That's why it's important to immerse yourself in the language whenever possible and make it a habit.

Spanish grammar is considered more difficult to understand than French grammar. The vocabulary of the French language is less challenging because of the similar words French and English share. Vocabulary is harder to learn in Spanish because there are less similar words to the English language.

World's oldest language is Sanskrit. The Sanskrit language is called Devbhasha. All European languages ​​seem inspired by Sanskrit. All the universities and educational institutions spread across the world consider Sanskrit as the most ancient language.

What language is easiest to type? ›

Among these, Sumerian showed the lowest entropy, followed by Egyptian, Tagalog and Chinese, suggesting that ancient Sumerian and Egyptian writing systems might make for fast typing if anyone cared to use them.

Ever heard of Malayalam? Officially recognised by Google as the 2nd toughest language in the world.

The answer is yes—and no. Before you scoff in frustration, hear us out: Even learning by listening in your native language has its limits. You might be able to memorize the technique for baking a cake, but it'll take several real-life attempts before you're able to truly master it.

The correct answer is: “it depends,” but you probably already knew that. The next and most accurate answer is that it can take anywhere between three months to two years to learn how to speak, write, and read in a new language fluently.

Do Colleges Care Which Foreign Language You Take? Nope! College admissions officers do not view certain languages as harder or more impressive than others because all foreign languages require time and dedication to learn and all provide benefits.

One 2011 study from the Université de Lyon looked at 7 languages, which reported the order as Japanese (7.84 syllables per second), Spanish (7.82), French (7.18), Italian (6.99), English (6.19), German (5.97) and Mandarin (5.18).