Over the years, this Germanic Anglo-Saxon language has evolved by taking on many words and expressions originating from other languages. This has been a great help for part of the world’s population for studying and practicing the most widely used language on the planet.
Similarly, this evolution has made it easier for English speakers to learn other languages, some more easily than others. That is what this article is about; with IPT Translations, we will find out which language is the easiest for English speakers to learn and why. The answer is below!
What is the origin of the English language?
To understand the evolution of the English language, we must go back to its origins. The history of the language can be divided into three different periods:
Old English
In the first phase of English, we recognize the great influence of the Germanic tribes that migrated from the North Sea coasts to the British Isles in the 5th century. Old English was strongly influenced by Old Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled mainly in the northeast of Britain.
Middle English
Middle English from the 14th and 15th centuries is closer to modern English and the Romance languages, although it differs in pronunciation. The influence of the French-speaking Norman nobility arriving on the island also had an effect on the lexicon. From the 18th century onwards, the pronunciation of English was already very similar to that of modern English.
Early Modern English
This is the English that was spoken mainly during the Renaissance, between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was strengthened due to the rise of British literature and words borrowed from foreign languages.
What are the easiest languages for English speakers to learn?
To establish whether a language is easy for speakers of another language, a series of criteria are considered, such as similarity, writing system, tone and sounds, and the number of methods for studying, among others. With these guidelines in mind, we highlight five languages that are easy for English speakers to learn:
Dutch
The Germanic language of the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, and the Dutch Caribbean is one of the easiest for English speakers to learn. Despite its particular use of certain special letters in writing, there are many similarities in morphology (e.g. street – straat). Also, native Dutch speakers tend to include English words in their speech.
Spanish
Latin has greatly influenced the development of English, which leads to many similarities with the Spanish language (e.g. present – presente). It is also easy to learn because it is a largely phonetic language (it is written how it is pronounced). Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world, which opens up many opportunities, especially in Europe and America, as well as a great variety of learning material.
Portuguese
This Romance language also shares many similarities with English with its alphabet, word order, and syntax. The best-known places where this language is spoken are Brazil and Portugal, although the language is more widely spoken and has a presence on the African continent in countries such as Angola and Cape Verde and in some corners of Southeast Asia such as Macao and East Timor.
Italian
Like Spanish or Portuguese, this language has an infinite number of resources when it comes to learning it. Some American English speakers have close contact with large Italian communities, making it easy to practice the language. As another Romance language, it also shares similarities with English. It is spoken by over 60 million people and the vast majority of them are in Europe, mostly in Italy, Switzerland, and parts of Croatia.
French
French is another Romance language like Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, but its intonation, structure, and conjugation make it somewhat different and more difficult to learn. Even so, French is the second most studied language in the world after English and has great power since it is spoken by more than 300 million people on five continents. In short, it is a language that is easy to access and practice.
IPT Translations: accurate and reliable translation services
Now that we know which language is the easiest for English speakers to learn, the only thing left to do is to choose the one that is most useful and that can keep us motivated throughout the process. Even if a language is “easy” to learn for English speakers, it still would take 575 to 600 hours to fully become ingrained in one’s mind.
If you need to translate any type of document from one language to another urgently and you have no knowledge of the language, a good option is to have document translation services provided by a specialized company such as IPT Translations so you do not have to deal with any language barriers, either personally or at work. Request a free, no-obligation quote now!