Top 10 Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn

If you are looking to take on a second language, here's a list of some of the easiest languages to learn as an English speaker.

Published January 9, 2024

Whether you are planning to study abroad, volunteer, or take a gap year, spending time overseas presents an excellent opportunity to learn a new language. While learning another language requires patience, persistence, and practice, there are some languages that English speakers can find relatively easier for English speakers to learn.

If you want to expand your ability to communicate and have a more immersive experience while traveling, we compiled a list of the languages you should consider.

The Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn

1. Afrikaans

🕐 Approximate time to learn: 24 weeks (600 hours)
🗣️ Number of speakers: 6 million
📍 Countries to visit: South Africa

It's the native language of South Africa and a West Germanic language similar to others mentioned on the list. It originates primarily from Dutch but has Portuguese, Malay, and French influence. With 6 million speakers, you will find that Afrikaans has been heavily incorporated into the everyday vocabulary of South African English.

✅ Pros:

90% of Afrikaans words are of Dutch origin, making it a Germanic language, the same as English! You'll find similarities in vocabulary and pronunciation. Example: color is kleurand door is duer.

🟨 Cons:

Afrikaans has a limited reach compared to other languages; however, if you are traveling to the Netherlands, you may find communication easier due to its Dutch origins.
The trilled "r." How the letter is pronounced in Afrikaans has proven difficult for English speakers.

2. Dutch

🕐 Approximate time to learn: 24 weeks (575-600 hours)
🗣️ Number of speakers: 23 million
📍 Countries to visit: Netherlands, Aruba, Northern Belgium

Dutch is a Germanic language, with around 23 million people speaking it as their native tongue and another 4 million as their second. Dutch is closely related to English, which is why it makes it to one of the top spots on our list. Dutch influence can also be found in Afrikaans, Flemish (Belgium), and Frisian (Friesland).

✅ Pros:

Vocabulary will be easier to understand than other languages due to the spelling of some words being exactly the same or closely related to their English counterparts. For example, water is the same in both languages, and other terms such as boek and appel are similar to the English counterparts book and apple.
Dutch has similar grammar to English and only two past tense conjunctions, making it easier to understand and use.

🟨 Cons:

Pronunciation can be deceiving. Although some words intuitively may look like English, and you'll want to pronounce them as such, there might be an emphasis on a letter you don't stress in English.

3. Norwegian

🕐 Approximate time to learn: 23-24 weeks (575-600 hours)
🗣️ Number of speakers: 4.4 million
📍 Countries to visit: Norway, Denmark, Sweden

At first glance, you might be thinking no way is Norwegian easy to learn! But it’s actually super similar to English, making Norwegian one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. Although it does not have as broad of a reach as other languages, there are connections to Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Denmark, making communication and travel more accessible, since you’ll be able to reasonably understand and communicate with speakers of those countries.

✅ Pros:

Norwegian shares similar vocabulary and sentence structure to English, and has even borrowed words from English. See if you can translate these words without Google—oransje, fantastisk, ankel!
Most pronunciation is straightforward.

🟨 Cons:

Special characters and occasional pronunciation difficulties
Gendered nouns

4. Spanish

🕐 Approximate time to learn: 24 weeks (600 hours)
🗣️ Number of speakers: 595 million total speakers
📍 Countries to visit: Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica

Spanish is a widely spoken Romance language and the second-most spoken language globally, with over half a billion speaking it natively or as a second language. While many dialects differ by region and country, it has become a popular choice for many native English speakers for its practicality and presence in mainstream media and wide reach.

✅ Pros:

Spanish is easier for native English speakers to learn than many other languages, thanks to its Latin origins. English and Spanish have similar words such as attention means atención and camera means cámara.
Spanish is a phonetic language, making the pronunciation of most words direct. Once you understand the different accents, it will help with pronunciation and reading.

🟨 Cons:

Grammar can be challenging for English speakers due to several different verb tenses and the desire to mirror English grammatical structure when speaking.

5. Italian

🕐 Approximate time to learn: 23-24 weeks (575-600 hours)
🗣️ Number of speakers: 63 million
📍 Countries to visit: Italy, Switzerland, some parts of Croatia and Slovenia

Italian is one of the most popular romance languages, next to Spanish and French. Although it is not as widely spoken as the others and is mainly concentrated in Europe, it's the 20th most-spoken language, with 63 million Italian native speakers and an additional 3 million speaking it as their second language. Due to food and pop culture influence worldwide, some words or phrases you might already know. Does panini, gelato, or la dolce vita sound familiar?

✅ Pros:

Like Spanish and English, Italian has Latin origins. You might be able to figure out words in Italian without studying definitions, like the word generosità.
Pronunciation and spelling are direct, and there are very few tricks in pronunciation.

🟨 Cons:

Some verb conjugation can be challenging as some endings change completely and follow specific rules. The same goes for plurals; instead of adding an 's,' some endings must be changed entirely.

6. Portuguese

🕐 Approximate time to learn: 23-24 weeks (575-600 hours)
🗣️ Number of speakers: 260 million
📍 Countries to visit: Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Macau, Mozambique

Portuguese is the official language in Brazil and Portugal, but the language reaches beyond that to countries in Africa. It is the world's third most spoken romance language, with just over 250 million speakers worldwide. One of the benefits of learning a romance language is that it helps create a solid foundation to understand others, like Spanish or French.

✅ Pros:

As a Latin language, it shares the same alphabet as English.
There are also some similarities in intonation and pronunciation.

🟨 Cons:

Due to some differences between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, if you plan a long-term stay, such as studying or moving abroad, you should focus on pronunciation and vocabulary specific to the region.
Some vocabulary words will be very similar to Spanish, and you'll desire to pronounce them as such; however, they have their own pronunciation and slightly different meanings. For example, biscoito means cookie in Portuguese, but in some Spanish-speaking regions bizcocho means cake. Both sweets but ultimately different foods.

7. French

🕐 Approximate time to learn: 24 weeks (575-600 hours)
🗣️ Number of speakers: 320 million total speakers
📍 Countries to visit: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Ivory Coast, Morocco, and Canada

French is the official language of 29 countries across Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Africa, making it one of the most popular languages to learn for its global reach. Ranking as the 5th most spoken language in the world, learning French has many benefits, especially if you are interested in pursuing a career in international affairs or humanitarian work. International organizations such as the United Nations, UNESCO, and The International Red Cross use French as their official or working language.

✅ Pros:

Being a language with Latin roots means that many vocabulary words are similar or the same in English.
Due to its influence in cuisine, culture, and mainstream media, some vocabulary, such as à la carte or c'est la vie, are probably already familiar to you without realizing it.

🟨 Cons:

French pronunciation is tricky compared to other Romance languages, where most words are pronounced as they appear. It will require practice to understand pronunciation rules and use them correctly.

8. Romanian

🕐 Approximate time to learn: 24 weeks (575-600 hours)
🗣️ Number of speakers: 28 million total speakers
📍 Countries to visit: Romania and Moldova

Most people don't realize that Romanian is also a romance language that has similar vocabulary to French, Italian, and Spanish. Compared to other Romance languages, especially the ones listed above, it has the smallest reach, with over 15 million native speakers and 28 million total speakers around the world.

✅ Pros:

Romanian is a phonetic language, the same as Spanish, meaning that the words are spelled out how they are pronounced.
Latin roots allow for a similar structure, meaning you can intuitively guess many vocabulary words.

🟨 Cons:

There are grammatical challenges when learning Romanian, such as the form of nouns may change in relation to the verb in a sentence. Although a romance language, this grammatical rule is similar to Russian and Polish, which are more challenging to learn.
Due to Romania being surrounded by various Slavic-speaking countries, like Bulgaria, some words may be incorporated into local dialects.

9. Swahili

🕐 Approximate time to learn: 36 weeks (900 hours)
🗣️ Number of speakers: 80 million total speakers
📍 Countries to visit: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique

Swahili is the official language of four countries, including Kenya and Tanzania, and it is widely spoken in other countries in East Africa, making up 80 million speakers. The Swahili language has influences from Arabic, German, French, and English.

✅ Pros:

Pronunciation of words is relatively straightforward as there are no silent letters or accents. Some vocabulary sounds similar to their English equivalent, such as hoteli is hotel.
Thanks to The Lion King, a childhood favorite of many, you might even know some words already! Simba means lion, Rafiki means friend, Pumbaa means silly or careless person, and the famous phrase Hakuna Matata means without trouble.

🟨 Cons:

Sentence structure and the use of participles at the beginning of words may be challenging for some language learners.

10. Tagalog

🕐 Approximate time to learn: 44 weeks (1100 hours)
🗣️ Number of speakers: 45 million
📍 Countries to visit: Philippines

Closing out our list of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn is Tagalog, a language part of the Austronesian group, along with other languages such as Malay and Sudanese. It is one of the Philippines' official languages, with 28% of the population speaking it as a first language. However, a very widespread language of the Philippines (although not officially recognized) is Taglish, the mixture of Tagalog and English.

✅ Pros:

Pronunciation is fairly straight-forward and vocabulary has similarities to English, Spanish, and Malay.
There are many words borrowed from English with slightly different spelling. For example, doctor is doktor and computer is kompyuter in Tagalog.

🟨 Cons:

The main difficulty and the reason it is the hardest one on this list is that the sentence structure and verb conjugation is different to English, and some words do not directly translate to English.

Start your language learning journey

Remember, practicing is the best way to learn, so don't be afraid of making mistakes! Practicing frequently and immersing yourself in the language, you'll develop your skills and become more confident in your speaking abilities.