Is Spanish or French less difficult to learn for English-speaking population?
Is Spanish or French less difficult to learn for English s?
I think we see this question at least once a month here. They are about the same in difficulty, imo, and FSI and others rate them at the same difficulty as well.
The only thing difficult about french is pronunciation and the orthography; its usually hard for english speakers to produce the sounds of french, and the illogical complex orthography is no help. Every other aspect of french is easier than spanish.
French also has so much more in common (vocabulary-wise) with english, so its better suited for english speakers than spanish is.
French also has so much more in common (vocabulary-wise) with english, so its better suited for english speakers than spanish is.
I would agree that the pronunciation and spelling/orthography are probably the "hardest" things about French.
The problem is English speakers who mangle French pronunciation sound terrible even if their sentences are grammatical. They usually don't mangle Spanish to the point of not being understood, but it "ain't" pretty in Spanish to hear a twangy gringo accent either.
French and Spanish are both good languages to learn. Learn 'em both.
The problem is English speakers who mangle French pronunciation sound terrible even if their sentences are grammatical. They usually don't mangle Spanish to the point of not being understood, but it "ain't" pretty in Spanish to hear a twangy gringo accent either.
French and Spanish are both good languages to learn. Learn 'em both.
Many people say that Spanish is easy and French is harder. I don't understand this reasoning. French and Spanish are at an equal difficulty level for me, a native English speaker. They're slightly below Italian, which is quite a bit below German.
I also do not understand why people insist that French's pronunciation is ridiculously difficult. It may seem rather illogical at first, but once you become accustomed to it, it's no big deal. I actually find it easier to articulate French sounds than Spanish ones. Spanish often leaves me tongue-tied while French rolls off the tongue much more easily.
There are some aspects of French, however, that are more difficult than Spanish and vice versa. Overall, they really are about the same. For me, anyways.
I also do not understand why people insist that French's pronunciation is ridiculously difficult. It may seem rather illogical at first, but once you become accustomed to it, it's no big deal. I actually find it easier to articulate French sounds than Spanish ones. Spanish often leaves me tongue-tied while French rolls off the tongue much more easily.
There are some aspects of French, however, that are more difficult than Spanish and vice versa. Overall, they really are about the same. For me, anyways.
It looks like there's just about unanimous agreement that the two languges are about equal in difficulty for E1Lers. If you learn French first (like me), then Spanish, I suppose French would be more difficult, and vice versa.
If you're an E1Ler, don't worry at all about learning French spelling -- you shouldn't have any problems. The strange sounds are probably the biggest problem in French for teh E1Ler.
In Spanish, the grammar is probably the most difficult aspect. In French, you hardly ever encounter those inscrutible sentences that you sometimes do in written Spanish, where the word order is all scrambled around. Of course, spoken Spanish doesn't seem to have this problem as much, for some reason.
- US Guest
If you're an E1Ler, don't worry at all about learning French spelling -- you shouldn't have any problems. The strange sounds are probably the biggest problem in French for teh E1Ler.
In Spanish, the grammar is probably the most difficult aspect. In French, you hardly ever encounter those inscrutible sentences that you sometimes do in written Spanish, where the word order is all scrambled around. Of course, spoken Spanish doesn't seem to have this problem as much, for some reason.
- US Guest