The Romance group of languages, spoken by many Europeans, is considered the most beautiful in pronunciation. Separately, it is worth highlighting Spanish and Italian, distinguished by their melody and linguistic temperament. These languages ​​sound spectacular in any form: live speech, official speeches, theatrical performances, songs. Even without understanding the meaning of the words, you can listen to euphonious, melodious combinations.

Spanish and Italian are similar, in some respects synonymous, but at the same time they have many cardinal differences. In the article we will try to answer the question which of these languages ​​is easier to learn.

Spanish. Its origins and features

To give a comprehensive understanding of the language, let's dive into history, find out how spanish was born, what changes it has undergone over the years, and what it is today. Political weight, popularity, features of the study - first things first.

On the origins of the Spanish language

The birth of Spanish took place in medieval Castile. The spread occurred naturally, thanks to the conquistadors - sea travelers who introduced their language to the inhabitants of new lands. This is how they learned about español in Asia, Latin America, Africa and other countries of the world.

Like other European languages, it was formed on the basis of Latin and then gradually acquired dialects. Linguists believe that spanish is phonetically closest to Latin among modern languages. Portuguese and Italian changed more intensively, absorbing the features of local dialects.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the dialects spoken by Spaniards in different parts of the country.

• Regional groups can be divided into Catalan, Aragonese, Galician, Occitan, Asturian, Aranian, Valencian.

Each of the adverbs has its own phonetic and lexical features. State Spanish is considered normative, it is used in literature, on television, radio, and business communication.

Today, Spanish is spoken by about six hundred million people in the world - on almost all continents, in 57 countries. Español is distributed not only in Spain, it is considered the official language of the African Union, the UN, the EU. This is its primary difference from Italian - a large degree of demand.

Language features

According to teachers, Spanish is much easier to learn than, for example, French. Of course, it all depends on the level that the student wants to achieve. You can reach perfection, hone your conversational speech, and master grammar perfectly in a few years. It is possible to pump the language to communicate with foreigners during the trip in three to four months.

One of the features of spanish is accents, with which a beginner can easily get confused. It is important to remember the rule here. The stress should be placed on the last syllable, if at the end of the word it is in agreement (exceptions are n and s). We put the stress on the penultimate syllable if there is a vowel or n, s at the end of the word. Graphically, stress is indicated in the same way as in many other languages: á.

Another moment characteristic of español is the complex-vector system of tenses, which requires careful immersion. The total number is fourteen. They include seven complex and seven simple tenses. The imperative mood is used in two forms, the difference of which is not only in the negative particle, but also in the lexical structure itself.

It is better to study grammar with a teacher who will gradually dedicate to all the subtleties of the rules. The face of the verb and moods have a huge number of endings that you need not only to remember, but also to understand. Among the verbs there are deviant and irregular. If you want to learn how to build speech correctly, delve into grammar step by step, relying on the experience and professionalism of the teacher. It is difficult to learn a language from scratch on your own.

• Spanish has similar features with Russian, namely, in the wealth of synonyms! For almost every word, you can pick up analogues that repeat the meaning, but differ in sound and spelling.

Español phonetics is easier to learn than French or English, but more difficult than Italian. There are more intonation nuances, difficulties with stress. The sound of words is accompanied by expression, dynamic, bright, temperamental. Significantly different from English. So, for example, k, t, p are pronounced clearly, without aspiration.

Basics and subtleties of Italian

An elegant boot, washed by the Mediterranean Sea, two hundred years ago was not a single state. Italy was formed gradually from separate nationalities, each of which had its own culture and language. Modern Italian dialects are still very different from each other today. A single normative language was adopted, but mental linguistic features remained. Sometimes even situations arise when the native southerners do not understand the inhabitants of the north of Italy.

Language origin

Italiano is derived from volgare, a Latin vernacular flavored with regional vernaculars. Modern Italian is based on the Tuscan dialect, which was first spoken by the Florentines. The father of the literary italiano is Dante, who introduced the world to the cult Divine Comedy, which is now published in all languages ​​of the world. From this work began the development of Italian in the form in which it was in the middle of the 16th century.

Today, the language of sunny Italy is considered one of the most beautiful and melodic. It is easier to learn than Spanish. This applies to both grammar and vocabulary, phonetics. But still there are difficulties and nuances that you need to be aware of.

Features of Italian

First, about pronunciation. There are no complex transcriptions that need to be read several times before being spoken aloud. In most cases, the word is pronounced the same as it is spelled. The consonants are clear, sometimes sharp, there are no muffles, grassing, or protraction. Vowels are also phonetically simple and transparent. The main thing is to correctly place stresses, intonations and make competent semantic accents.

A feature of phonetics is multiple and long vowels, which are not found in other languages ​​of the Romance group. Due to this combination of letters in words in Italian, they are melodious, melodic. You have to master the technique of full-sounding pronunciation, which requires the tension of the speech apparatus.

There is nothing supernatural in this, skills come with experience. Conversational practice will allow you to quickly learn these phonetic nuances and learn to speak the beautiful and temperamental italiano.

Grammar is easier in español. There are three main tenses: present, future and past, the constructions of which are mostly formed on the basis of auxiliary verbs. One of the difficulties is the forms of irregular verbs. There are many of them, it is better to learn by heart. An important point on which the literacy of constructing sentences depends is the rules for conjugation of verbs, they should be given special attention.

• Study grammar in parallel with phonetics. So the process will be more efficient and will allow you to consciously immerse yourself in the subtleties of the language.

How to learn Spanish and Italian fast

If you want to master a beautiful español or italiano, set yourself up for effective learning. Linguists recommend making a motivation list that will help you tune in to the process and bring it to the end. So, what you need in order to easily and quickly immerse yourself in the features of Spanish:

Decide on a goal. Ask yourself the question - why do you learn a language? This will depend on the intensity of the program and the way of learning. If you are not in a hurry, you can gradually immerse yourself in the linguistic features of the language in classical courses. There are clear limits, get ready for a meeting with foreign partners - you should speed up by choosing the option with a tutor. If you prefer self-study, be aware that the process will be long and labor-intensive.

Practice, practice and more practice. At the end of the lesson, improvement should continue. Don't stop when you close the tutorial. Practice what you learned during the day at home. Repeat material, write out difficult moments. Get a notebook for independent work. Transcriptions, grammar rules, poorly remembered words - such a mini-book will become your assistant and help you avoid mistakes.

Practice speaking. If language courses do not give you the proper skills for live communication in Spanish or Italian, find yourself a Skype interlocutor or a good tutor who will help you understand intonation, logical and phonetic stresses.

Reinforce your knowledge with listening. The language school does not support this method - choose your own. Consult with the teacher on what to choose. So save time and in the end you will not go wrong with the auditing program.

Abstract from knowledge of English (if you have it basic). Spanish and Italian are very different from it. Do not seek to find similar features, thereby facilitating the task. So confusion will arise, the grammar here is completely different, the pronunciation features are fundamentally opposite.

Whatever language you choose for yourself, both Spanish and Italian are worthy of your attention and will come in handy when traveling around Europe, communicating with business partners, building a career in the EU countries. Can't choose one of them - learn both!

— are quite popular among those who like to learn foreign languages. Someone, having learned one of them, sooner or later pays attention to others. And someone is just looking at Romance languages ​​and cannot decide which one is better to start with. In this article, we will talk about the main similarities and differences between the Romance languages, as well as answer the question of what is the best order to learn them in case you decide to learn them all.

Vocabulary

Lexically all 4 languages ​​are very close, which is not surprising given their origins. But how much do their vocabulary match? Much stronger than, for example, the vocabulary of Germanic or Slavic languages.

According to various sources, the vocabulary of the languages ​​we are considering coincides at a level of 75 to 89%. At the same time, Italian and French (89% of the total vocabulary) and Spanish and Portuguese (the same 89%) are closest to each other.

Phonetics

And here we are waiting fairly significant differences..

In Italian and Spanish words, as a rule, are pronounced and read in the same way as they are written. In both languages, all vowels are pronounced clearly, and the reduction of vowels familiar to native Russian speakers is absent here. If we see “o”, then it will always be “o”, without exception.

Phonetics looks a bit more complicated French. However, apart from the famous French "r" and nasal vowels, no other difficulties await us in particular. Yes, you will have to remember how certain combinations of letters are read, and much of this will seem very unusual to us (for example, the fact that eau reads like “o” and oi like “wa”. But all such combinations will always be pronounced the same, and not always differently, as in the same English, whose phonetics for some reason is considered easier.

Traditionally, French phonetics is considered one of the most difficult in the world, and certainly the most difficult among European languages. But even among the Romance languages ​​there is a language whose phonetics can seriously compete with French and even get ahead of it. It is, of course, about Portuguese. Just like in French, there are nasal sounds. And not only vowels, but also diphthongs. And unlike the same Spanish with Italian, in Portuguese we will also meet the reduction of vowels.

As a result, French phonetics will start to seem less complicated than Portuguese. How do we pronounce the word alto in Portuguese, for example? I'm sorry, what? “Alto”, experts in Spanish and Italian tell us (and in these languages ​​the word is really pronounced that way)? But no. "Autu", and nothing else.

What do we have with stress in these languages? Oddly enough, the situation is easiest in French: the stress always falls on the last syllable. In Spanish, the situation is also no more complicated: there are only two simple and clear rules on which stress is placed. If the word does not obey these rules, then the letter must have an accent mark above the stressed letter: árbol, fácil, etc. In Portuguese, the situation is similar to Spanish. A little more difficult here is the Italian language, where there are more options for setting stress, but even here it is not as mobile as in Russian.

Grammar

Here, perhaps the difference will be the most. Moreover, as in the case of vocabulary, Italian with French will be much closer to each other than to other languages . Also Spanish and Portuguese will be closer to each other.

Let's start with the most basic: from the verb "to be". It would seem, what are the differences? Only such that in Italian and French this verb is one, and in Spanish and Portuguese there are two. And at the very initial stage of learning a language, this can cause a lot of difficulties.

But the complexity of a language in one thing must be compensated for by its ease in something else, and vice versa. So let's look at another interesting fact. In Spanish and Portuguese, all compound tenses are formed with the help of one auxiliary verb: “to have”. But in Italian and French there are two verbs involved in the formation of compound tenses: “to have” and “to be”. And the difficulty of choosing the right verb necessarily accompanies those who study these languages, at least at the initial level of study.

Another feature of the Romance languages ​​is the fact that all of them have a fairly extensive system of grammatical tenses. Especially past times. And, of course, any tense in one language or another has an analogue in the other three languages. But with so many times, of course, they can't all be equally popular. As a result, in order to talk about some event or fact that happened in the past, in Italian and French the perfect is most often used, and the simple past tense less often, in fewer situations and not in all regions. In Spanish and Portuguese, on the contrary, the simple past tense is used more often, and the perfect is used less often, in fewer situations, and also not in all regions where this language is spoken.

Another interesting point - subjunctive mood. Yes, the very thing that many people who have reached the intermediate level in the language are afraid of and do not understand. Earlier in this mood there were as many as 6 tenses. Now the only language that uses all 6 is Portuguese. In Spanish, all 6 tenses are also formally present, but only 4 are used in colloquial speech. In Italian, too, 4, but some of them are used less frequently than in Spanish and can sometimes be replaced by indicative tenses. In French, only 2 such tenses remain in active use.

Finishing the consideration of the main grammatical differences, it is worth mentioning such a phenomenon as personal (conjugated) infinitive in Portuguese.

It would seem that, in conjunction with the above, it is the Portuguese language that looks the most difficult in terms of grammar. But there is also something in it that brings it back to the same level of complexity as the other 3 languages.

Spanish, French and Italian use 6 forms of verb conjugations corresponding to the pronouns “I”, “you”, “he(a)”, “we”, “you”, “they”. In Portuguese, the fifth form is practically not used. And in the largest Portuguese-speaking country, Brazil, the second form is practically not used either. Thus, there are only 4 of them, which clearly facilitates the process of memorizing these forms.

What is the best order to learn these languages?

Of course, if on this moment If you are only interested in one of the Romance languages, then that is the one you should learn. But what if you really want to speak all four languages? What order of study will be most effective?

We have already found out that despite the differences in grammar, in all these languages ​​it is approximately the same complexity. Somewhere it is more difficult one, somewhere else. So it is unlikely that grammar can become the main criterion when choosing a first language.

Knowing a large number of words in one of the Romance languages ​​will undoubtedly facilitate the study of all the others. But in the case of the first language, you still have to learn all these words practically from scratch (knowledge of English can partially help), so you should not focus on vocabulary when choosing a first language. As in the case of grammar, in any of the 4 languages ​​it will be approximately equally difficult for you (well, or easy, but also about the same).

But the complexity of French and Portuguese phonetics (in comparison with the phonetics of Spanish and Italian) can significantly complicate the learning process at the initial stage, and for some even become a reason to completely abandon the study of the language.

In the case of Portuguese, by the way, the lack of high-quality teaching materials for this language, especially Russian-language ones (compared to the other three languages, of course), can become an additional complication.

That's why, if you want to learn all these languages ​​anyway, I recommend starting with Spanish or Italian. The ability to immediately speak with a clear (not necessarily perfect) pronunciation and immediately understand at least something by ear will greatly please you and greatly facilitate the initial stage of learning a language.

• study Spanish and Italian in a row (in any order);
• learn Spanish and Portuguese in a row (it also doesn’t matter in what order).

Why you shouldn't do it? I don't think anyone would wait until they reach C1/C2 in their first language before taking on the next one. And if, in parallel with the language already being studied, but not yet fully strengthened, you start learning a language that is as similar as possible to it, a lot of porridge will definitely form in your head.

As we have already found out above, Spanish and Italian are as close as possible phonetically, and Spanish and Portuguese are even closer to each other in terms of vocabulary. Probably, everyone who started learning Portuguese after Spanish went through a stage when he spoke some kind of “portuñol”. But the similarity in grammar is hardly capable of somehow interfering with learning, on the contrary, this is usually an additional plus for everyone.

Therefore, given all of the above, there are not so many options left.

If you decide to start with Italian, then the most successful order would be: Italian - Portuguese - French - Spanish.

If you decide to start with Spanish, then there will be two options: Spanish - French - Italian - Portuguese or Spanish - French - Portuguese - Italian.

Here we come to the logical conclusion of this article. Hopefully, it will help you decide on a particular language, and maybe even want to learn them all! After all, now you have a general idea of ​​​​all these most popular Romance languages ​​​​and even have a ready-made sequence for learning them!

There are many countries and peoples in Europe. The Germanic peoples dominate in the north and center, the Slavic peoples in the east, and the descendants of the Romans (Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians) dominate in the south. The West of Europe is divided between the German peoples (Dutch and English) and the French, relatives of the Spaniards.
Slavs and Russians, including, throughout history have been in contact with different peoples of Europe and, accordingly, there was a need to learn different foreign languages, which in the modern world is becoming increasingly acute.

Russia and most of the former USSR are rather cold countries and the inhabitants of this territory have always been drawn to the south, where it is warm. In addition to Turkey, Egypt and Cyprus, many of our compatriots prefer holidays in Italy and Spain, especially in the Canary Islands.
This is due not only to the warm climate of these countries, but also to the rich cultural heritage of these countries. "There is where to warm up and there is something to see." Naturally, our citizens have a question: “ How to communicate at the resort?". Usually there are no problems within the hotel. The staff there is trained in English, and if you studied at least a three in this subject at school, then you can somehow explain yourself.
It is more difficult if you need to leave the hotel and go to the city or go beyond it. English won't help here. You need to know the native language of the inhabitants of these countries, that is, either Spanish or Italian. Otherwise, you risk getting lost and not returning to your homeland.

Spanish and Italian are also part of the Romance language group, united by a common origin from Latin, the official language of the ancient Roman Empire.

In addition to Spanish and Italian, this group includes, for example, French, which is quite common as a subject in secondary schools.
In terms of the number of speakers of these languages, Spanish and Italian are very different. About 350 million people speak Spanish in the world (most of them in Latin America), about 70 million people speak Italian.
Spanish is the official language of the UN, but Italian is not. Spanish is recognized as an official language in 20 countries of the world, and Italian in only three. That is, the international prestige and importance of the Spanish language is much higher than that of Italian. The significance of the Spanish language is also shown in the fact that as a subject in schools it is much more common than the Italian language. It would seem that it is definitely more useful to learn Spanish, but this is not always the case.

Why study foreign languages ​​at all?

1. If necessary, they are forced at school or university.
2. They study a foreign language just like a hobby.
3. For practical purposes - vacation, study, work or business abroad.
4. For cultural and educational purposes.

People come to courses and schools of foreign languages ​​of their own free will, no one forces them, so the motivation of students is described only in paragraphs 2-4. Let's consider them separately.

Learning a foreign language as a hobby. It doesn't matter which language to choose for learning, Italian, Spanish or another.

Learning a foreign language for recreation. The choice is determined by the place where you want to relax. If you love the Canaries, learn Spanish, if you want to sunbathe in Sicily, learn Italian.

Choice of a foreign language for study. It all depends on the specialty you choose. If you are an artist, then you should definitely learn Italian, because there are simply no such number of museums, ancient ruins and other sights as in Italy. If you decide to become a bullfighter, then you need to go to Spain, and, of course, learn Spanish.

As for work. They usually go where they pay more. In this sense, Italy is somewhat more attractive than Spain and Latin America, and from this point of view, it is now more profitable to learn Italian. But everything can change and what will happen in the future is difficult to say.

From a business point of view, you don’t need to learn the language at all - it’s easier to take an interpreter with you. But if your business has any "subtle" points that should not reach anyone's ears, then you have to learn the language yourself. Which language to learn depends on where you have business connections. It can be Spain, Latin America, the southern states of the USA - then learn Spanish. If you have connections in Italy, the southern cantons of Switzerland, or some of the Mediterranean islands of France, then you should learn Italian.

Language learning for cultural and educational purposes. What can be said here? Spiritual needs are a complex thing and each person is quite individual. It's hard to determine exactly what you need. If you are a dance lover and love flamenco, samba, tango or cha-cha-cha, then carry a Spanish textbook with you. If you prefer a tarantella, a saltarella or a quadrille, immediately run to an Italian language course.
Dancing does not appeal to you, but do you get excited about music? If you are a lover of the classics, you should definitely learn Italian. Then you can easily understand what is, for example, allegro, staccato, fermata, arpeggio and will not look at a note to a musical notation as something mysterious and sacred, inaccessible to an ordinary person.

When it comes to songs, Spanish and Italian are roughly in the same position. In both languages, there are many great songs performed by great artists. Suffice it to mention Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.

There are a lot of pop singers, both in Italy and in Spain and Latin America. You can't list them all. Suffice it to mention Julio Iglesias and Adriano Celentano.

The only thing in which Spanish is beyond competition is in television series. Latin America is riveting these TV series at the speed of light and the housewives of the world (or, in at least, a significant part of it) weep over the suffering of heroes and rejoice in their happiness. If you are such a housewife or just a fan of Latin American TV shows, then you have a direct path to Spanish courses. Satellite TV, together with the knowledge of this language, will allow you to plunge headlong into the world of hot passions, which our viewer does not even suspect.

We hope that now it will be easier for you to decide which language to study. Of course, both are better, but take your time - choose one.

Perhaps everyone in the modern world will agree that learning a foreign language is a necessary and useful thing. Foreign languages ​​not only expand the horizons, but also change the way of thinking. Only a small percentage of Americans and Britons speak a language other than their mother tongue, and therefore it seems to us that it is not worth trying to learn something new.

However, this is absolutely not the case. Any language, whether it be the most difficult one, such as Japanese or Chinese, can be learned in one intensive summer course. Do you want to touch other cultures? We present you the 10 easiest foreign languages ​​to learn.

Spanish is a beautiful foreign language to learn

Spanish is one of the main languages ​​in the world. If the world's languages ​​were school kids, then Spanish would be the popular kid that other kids want to hang out with. Most of Central and South America speaks Spanish, as well as Equatorial Guinea in Africa and, in fact, Spain. Simply put, by learning Spanish, you discover a lot of the world.

So why is Spanish easy for us? In Spanish, a lot of words are of Latin origin, and the grammar is quite simple. Although there are some differences that may make us dizzy, for example, we would say "car red" instead of "car red". Also, you can easily practice it. People living in the US have access to Spanish-language TV, so it's easier for them to improve their vocabulary.

Portuguese

Compared to other colonial powers, Portugal did not leave much of a legacy (sorry, Macau and Angola). However, its influence extended to one of the largest countries in the Americas. Brazil covers about half of South America in area and has a population of around 200 million.

In a school analogy, Portuguese is the shy but friendly cousin of Spanish. The Portuguese language is closely related to Spanish, with all the advantages that can be. The downside is that knowing Spanish makes it difficult to learn Portuguese. This is because the two languages ​​are crammed with "false friends", words that sound identical but have very different meanings. Thus, in perfect Spanish, you can order in a restaurant, while in Portuguese, you can suggest having a dirty evening with the waiter's wife.

French

We will tell you a secret. If the language belongs to the Romance group, then it will be easy for you to learn. French is the most attractive, most sophisticated girl in school or the cutest guy who knows he's the coolest in class. This language was once perhaps the most important on Earth. Although those days are gone, he still plays a big role. Want to travel to Morocco, Algeria, Congo, Belgium, Switzerland or Haiti? Learn French. Want to impress your girlfriend (your boyfriend)? Learn French. We are not sure how much more clearly this can be expressed. Knowing French is really cool.

French includes many Latin words. It also has a strong connection with the English language. In 1066, William the Conqueror made medieval French the language of the ruling classes of what was then England. In total, over 10,000 words in English are borrowed from French.

Italian language

Italy has never had such a global influence as its cousins. Today, learning Italian pretty much narrows down the geography of your travels. Fortunately, Italy is one of the most historically important and beautiful countries on Earth.

Italy is the reason why you can learn Spanish, Portuguese and French with such ease. It was the Romans who spread Latin to these countries, leaving their mark everywhere from modern Britain, to Libya, to Syria, to Germany. Spanish is essentially a descendant of "Vulgar Latin", the language spoken by the "grouches" and soldiers of the Empire. This means that there are many similarities between these two modern languages, especially if you happen to recognize Argentine Spanish, which is more rhythmically suited to the streets of Naples than the sidewalks of Madrid.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of learning Italian is how amazing the culture you will be exposed to - from Dante's Divine Comedy and Federico Fellini's films to various world masterpieces.

Swedish language

Let's move away from the sunny climates of southern Europe. Sweden is the exact opposite of the southern countries. A cold, snow-covered country in the dark corners of Northern Europe, it is as far removed from our previous languages ​​as icy slopes and hot beaches are. However, there are still similarities. If you look closely, English has not only Latin roots, but also Germanic ones. The Swedish language, in turn, is a vivid example of the Germanic group.

German and Swedish have similar grammar, which means that learning Swedish is essentially about memorizing a lot of vocabulary. As a bonus, the verbs hardly change. Thus, while an Englishman will say "I speak English, he speaks English", a Swede will say "I speak Swedish, he speaks Swedish".

So what are the benefits of learning Swedish? Not much if you're hoping to travel the world. Swedish is spoken by only 10 million people, and almost all of them live in Sweden.

Norwegian

Norwegian is the closest language to what we call the "Viking language". This in itself should be reason enough to study it. But if manly beards or intimidating horned helmets put you off, there is at least one extenuating circumstance. Norwegian is easy to learn for native English speakers.

Norwegian, another Germanic language, has absorbed all the advantages of Swedish, being much simpler. The grammar is close to English, while the verbs are easy to learn (there are slight changes depending on the context). Again, there are many closely related words and the rhythm and accent are quite similar. In a broad survey conducted at the turn of the 21st century, the Federal Government declared Norwegian one of the easiest languages ​​for Americans to learn.

There is a downside to all this. The population of Norway is 6 million people, approximately 95% of them speak perfect English. The language is taught at all levels of school education. The chances of meeting a Norwegian who doesn't speak English are about the same as meeting an American who speaks Norwegian fluently.

Esperanto

Esperanto is the most widely spoken artificial language in the world. Yes, even Klingon and Elvish are less popular. It was invented in 1887 by L. Zamenhof, with the aim of making the language so simple that it would seem "just a game" to learn it.

To do this, he took various pieces from many European languages, mixed them all together, simplified them, and called it all a language. The result is a language that sounds oddly familiar, like you've come across it before. Watch the video to see how Esperanto is spoken. Most likely, you will be able to recognize its constituent parts.

Esperanto is spoken by about 2 million people, and, according to experts, up to 1,000 families consider it "native". For comparison, this number is much larger than the speakers of the current Cornish language.

Afrikaans

Spoken by the descendants of Dutch farmers in South Africa and Namibia, Afrikaans has a long and turbulent history. For some Boers, it is an integral part of their identity and culture, which has changed a lot over the past 20 years. This African language is closest to English.

Afrikaans exists somewhere between Dutch and English, but at the same time it is simpler. The grammar is logical and consistent, there are no exceptions like in English.

Unfortunately, Afrikaans does not provide you with much choice for travel. You are pretty much limited to just two countries in southern Africa. On the other hand, if you've ever wanted to understand Boer culture or spend a lot of time in South Africa, you'd have to be crazy not to learn Afrikaans.

Frisian

Raise your hands if you have ever heard of the Frisian language. According to our estimates, approximately 90 percent of you just sat there, shook your heads and muttered something like “Freak what language?” Do not worry, this is normal, because before you is a rather rare language. As simple as possible: Frisian is the native language of Friesland, part of the Netherlands. It is spoken by half a million people and is probably the closest language to English in the world.

Seriously, Frisian and English were the same language until relatively recently. Both languages ​​began to develop independently of each other 1200 years ago, which is a long time according to historians, but nothing from the point of view of linguists.

If you are a native (or good "owner") of English, learning Frisian will be a walk in the park for you. The written form of speech is similar to Dutch, the oral form is almost identical to English - vocabulary, sentence structure and pronunciation. Without any lessons, you probably already speak it fluently.

Sometimes it would seem that completely different things are connected in our ideas into one whole. And even in adulthood, Italian and Spanish can seem to us almost almost the same languages ​​- after all, since childhood, both cultures are associated with a vivid manifestation of emotions. But in fact, these two languages ​​are rather far from each other than close.

Definition

Spanish and Italian belong to the Romance group, which combined languages ​​derived from Latin.

Comparison

Of course, a comparative analysis of any language is the lot of highly qualified specialists, but even at an elementary level, one can outline some differences between Italian and Spanish.

The common base in the form of Latin was reworked in different ways, as a result of which, despite the presence of a certain number of similar words, both of these languages ​​acquired a different sound. Of the Romance group, the closest to Latin today is Italian, the other languages ​​\u200b\u200bare losing touch with it as they moved west, and Spanish is already quite far away.

Another point - the Spanish language was strongly influenced by Arabic, since part of Spain was under the Arab yoke for a long time. The Italian language, in turn, felt the influence of the barbarians - representatives of the Germanic tribes. In fact, in Spanish, the languages ​​of the Celtic peoples, directly Italians, French and, as already mentioned, the Arabs, and at the end of the 20th century, the English were added to Latin. The Italian language is more based on Latin, interspersed with dialects and Greek, although it also felt the influence of the British. Arabisms present may not occur in Spanish. Conversely, Latinisms preserved in Spanish are not always used in Italian.

In Italian and Spanish there are words that are similar in spelling, but different in pronunciation, slightly different in spelling and the same root, but have changed a lot in both languages.

Findings site

1. With a common basis, Spanish borrowed more from Arabic, Italian - from the Germanic tribes and the Greek language.
2. The Arabicisms of Italian are not always used in Spanish, nor are the Latinisms of Spanish in Italian.
3. Some words with the same spelling in both languages ​​may have a different sound.
4. A number of similar words have slight spelling differences.
5. The third group of words are single-root, which have undergone major changes in Italian and Spanish.