Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Multilingual People Explain Which Foreign Language Was The Easiest To Learn

Multilingual People Explain Which Foreign Language Was The Easiest To Learn

People become polyglots for a variety of reasons.

Some people grow up bilingual, with one language being spoken at home and another being spoken out in the world.


Others take it upon themselves to learn more languages. And every language has its own various challenges.

u/hunchbackweeb asked:

Polyglots of reddit: What was the easiest language for you to learn and why?

Here were some of those answers.

Bibbidi Bobbidi

Giphy

Italian.

Just get an Italian girlfriend and download Italian language versions of RPGs you've already beaten. Congratulations, you're now qualified to eat pasta.

LonelyPauper

Slang Game

I literally learned English by watching cartoons since a really young age. I spoke a lot of Russian and learning another language at the time. Then developed my vocabulary through literature. The hardest part was getting used to the slang. I couldn't understand a word my first year in England.

Sayor1

Cut From The Same Cloth

Giphy

Hindi - I grew up in a household speaking Punjabi, but learned Hindi from watching Bollywood movies. The languages share some roots, so it was like learning Italian when you speak Spanish.

GidhaRani

Idioma facíl

Spanish. I'm a French speaker. Spanish is simplified French with lots of "o"s and "a"s Oh, and intonations too.

moon-angel

Formulas

I like Spanish, as it is not so difficult knowing if a noun is masculine or feminine.

In German or French, you need to learn the gender of each noun, word by word. Sometimes you have a clue, but it's far more difficult than in Spanish.

ballena8892

Even The Language Is Imperialist

Giphy

English because it was omnipresent, and I feel like I just learned it by hearing it on TV all day and reading Harry Potter books because I didn't want to wait for the translation. I never felt like I put any real effort into learning it, it just sort of happened.

Of the language I actively learned I think Spanish was the easiest (relatively simple grammar, not many crazy exceptions to the rules), but it certainly helped that I spoke French already

Inevitable-Aardvark

Groupings

It depends on your native language and /or on what foreign language you already know.

Romance languages are close enough to allow you to pick another one up relatively easily. I've never studied Spanish, yet I can understand it well and can stumble my way through a basic conversation, based on my knowledge of Italian.

Ditto for Scandinavian languages. I'd probably become fluent in Swedish within a few months of practice and even the trickier Danish is much less nonsensical when you approach it as a Norwegian speaker.

English is odd... Easy to butcher, tough to master.

German, as all inflected languages, is more intimidating and definitely has a steeper and longer learning curve.

Kalle_79

Roots

Latin. By the time you've picked up one or two of the Romance languages, Latin words are pretty easy to recognize. Sentence structure is a bit less easy, and while pronunciation may look hard at first with some words, every letter is pronounced in Latin so there are no 'tricky' letters or sounds. Of course, it's a dead language, so there's that...

temporalwanderer

Word Order

Giphy

Easiest was Spanish, but most surprisingly easy was Mandarin. I am by no means fluent in Mandarin or close to it, but the sentence structure is surprisingly similar to English (both are SVO) and verbs are never conjugated, so memorizing and learning all the conjugations just isn't a thing. You of course have to learn how to mark time and tenses, but it's not as complex as for languages in which every verb is conjugated for every tense and every person.

Sure there's the tones and the characters and the measure words and all that, but on the whole was surprisingly less difficult than I anticipated.

Robearsn

When Things Mix Inside Your Brains

Well i have two first languages: English and Japanese.

So Italian is easy because it's alphabet is similar to English. Korean is easy because Japanese has the same grammar structure and even some similar words. Totally different alphabet and slightly more confusing honorific system, but nonetheless easy in general.

On the other hand, Spanish can be a huge pain in the butt for me sometimes because it's TOO similar to Italian. I'll mix up the vocabulary far too often lol

kaede1101

More from People

Keith Ervin
WJHL/YouTube

Tennessee High Schooler Rips Into 'Cowards' On School Board For Not Firing Colleague Who Called Her 'Hot' In Scathing Takedown

A Tennessee community is in an uproar after a school board member has been allowed to keep his job after making an inappropriate comment to a high schooler.

Washington County high schooler Hannah Campbell delivered a scathing takedown of board member Keith Ervin, who called her "hot" during a public meeting in April.

Keep Reading Show less
Donald Trump
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Trump Claims The White House Was 'A Sh*t House' When He Moved Back In—And Everyone Had The Same Response

MAGA Republican President Donald Trump has made significant, controversial changes to the White House since he took up residence for his second term on January 20, 2025.

The renovations in just over one year include installing pavers to replace the grass in the Rose Garden, adding gold decor throughout the building and especially in the Oval Office, renovating the Lincoln bathroom to add marble and more gold fixtures, adding gold signs for White House features like it's one of Trump's resorts, hanging a plethora of massive portraits of himself in gaudy gold frames, and demolishing the entire East Wing of the building to erect a self-described monument to himself, an unpopular golden ballroom that will dwarf the rest of the building.

Keep Reading Show less
Trump Mobile phone; Screenshot of Trump supporter complaining about Trump Mobile
Joe Raedle/Getty Images; @codenamesteev/TikTok

MAGA Melts Down Hard After Learning They May Never Get Their 'Trump Mobile' Phones—Or Their Deposits Back

MAGA fans who signed up to get Trump Mobile T1 phones nearly a year ago are furious after learning there's no guarantee they'll ever get the phones they put down deposits for—and that these same deposits are now being described as merely a "conditional opportunity."

The Trump Mobile T1 phone was unveiled in June 2025 on the 10th anniversary of Trump’s original presidential campaign launch, marking the Trump brand’s debut in the mobile device and wireless service market. At the time, the company said the phone would be available in August.

Keep Reading Show less
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
UChicago Institute of Politics/YouTube

People Are Applauding AOC's Refreshing Take On Her Political 'Ambition' After She Was Called Out As A 'Likely 2028 Presidential Candidate'

When asked about her future political ambitions during an appearance at the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was notably candid, saying her "ambition is to change this country," as she ripped a Washington Post editorial that tried to knock her down a peg for her take on the morality of billionaires.

The progressive is not currently considered the frontrunner in early 2028 Democratic primary polling but some surveys suggest she has already emerged as a serious contender in what is expected to be a crowded field.

Keep Reading Show less
Sir Rod Stewart and King Charles III; Donald Trump
Kirsty Wigglesworth - WPA Pool/Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Rod Stewart Just Gave Trump The Most Brutally Accurate New Nickname During Candid Conversation With King Charles

On Monday, King Charles III attended an event at Royal Albert Hall to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the King's Trust—previously called the Prince's Trust—which the United Kingdom's reigning monarch founded in 1976 to support young people aged 11-30 facing challenges like unemployment, poverty, or lack of education.

In attendance that night was Sir Rod Stewart, who was knighted in 2016. Stewart and the King have met several times, and briefly chatted while King Charles greeted distinguished guests in the reception line.

Keep Reading Show less