English, Spanish and French, similar languages

I think that English, Spanish and French are the most important international languages because of several factors. But, perhaps, one of them is very important: they are very similar. They have the same alphabet and more than half of the words are almost identical.

I think that almost everybody in the world study one of these languages, for instance, English, and they can study easily, Spanish or French. That is a plus for Spanish or French.

If this factor is very important, these 3 languages will be also very important in the near future. And other languages, like Chinese, Hindi or Arabic will have more difficult to be true international languages.

At the same time, Russian or German are European languages, but not so similar that the first three languages.

In short, if English is the most important language, it is a good point for Spanish and French.

How can you say that French or Spanish are similar to English??? English does not even belong to same Family. Even if English has got lots of words with latin origine, their pronunciation is often quite different! Moreover, syntax, verbal conjugation, noun gender, articles are different

I wholeheartedly agree with the Guest: I see more divergence than similarity.

Bjorn (if that's truly your name), where do you hail from if I may ask?

I agree with Bjorn, despite English belongs to a different family than Spanish and French, i think that even Spanish grammar is similar to the English one in some ways. I some aspects English and Spanish grammars are more similar than English and German ones.

In my view Spanish grammar is much harder than the English one.

I don't think so. English grammar is much more irregular.

I don't consider Spain to be a real international language, unlike English and French. Spanish is spoken in Latin America and well...Spain. That's a regional language in my book.

I don't think so. English grammar is much more irregular.

English grammar is a breeze compared to Spanish
Spanish verbs are 70% harder the English ones

English phrasal verbs are very difficult. They follow no rules and you must learn them by heart. Spanish verbs follow predictable patters. Everything which does not follow patterns is inherently difficult, and English is full of these things: phrasal verbs, spelling...In Spanish once you learn how to decline verbs that's all, you don't need to memorize many things.

French is not an international language, it's only spoken in some parts of France.

French is spoken in Africa.

Not really, they speak just a French creole.

The use of the subjunctive mood is hard in Spanish. Very few foreigners can master it. You don't only need to learn subjunctive endings but also how to use them...this is tricky

Spanish subjunctive can't be easier. It's a piece of cake.

guest try to write some sentences in Spanish. don't be shy