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Because I don’t speak Romanian and I can’t comment on it… I mentioned that in the video. Oh well, maybe you can give us some insights on Romanian in the comment section :)
@@PolyglotSecrets Dont worry much about the slavic words most of them have latin synonyms Prieten-Amic Verbs like a auzi may seem different to an italian speaker even tho the italian word for that (udire i think) is derived from the same latin word as the romanian one (Audire) that is because they come from different parts of the same word Some genders are flipped Romanian Un perete (a wall, masculin) Spanish una pared (f)
@@PolyglotSecrets it's not the language as much as the culture! The reason we are different is because we are kinda surrounded by the balkans, so what you can really do is first things first understand the balkan culture, traditions etc and once you get into the vibe you are one of us! Don't worry, you can leave if you don't like it!😂 I'm telling you this because Romanian is not such an easy language and it's usually learned as you go with the flow! That was my observation based on interractions I had with strangers here! So the first thing you can do is making some romanian friends who also speak english (at least B1) and just try to understand what they say! If you never tried sarmale or mici, come here! My favorite foods!❤️💪🇷🇴 And as Alex said, the slavic words can be easily explained, so you don't have to worry about that! Hope it helped you☺️
My mother tongue is french (french Canadian), and I'm learning Spanish because my girlfriend is mexican. I found it fun to learn her language, so it made it easier and french is already similar. Catalan intrigues me, it's look like a mix between french and Spanish
I am a Catalan speaker and I can tell you that Catalan has similar words to French but let’s say that Catalan sounds like French but with a Romance pronunciation because French sounds like a Germanic language but with Romance words
I appreciate the distinction between Portuguese from Portugal vs Brazilian Portuguese, and I agree that PT-PT is a lot harder than PT-BR. I'd say that learning PT-PT is actually a lot harder than learning French, primarily because French resources are a lot easier to find.
As a native Spanish speaker, I liked this video. The list goes like this for me (from easiest to hardest) Spanish (obviously) Portuguese (Brazilian) Italian French Portuguese has more similar words to Spanish. In fact, many times, they're the same or so similar I only have to change the pronunciation or a little portion of the word. The disadvantage is false friends because they can trick you when you try to learn the other's language. Also grammar is very similar, you can translate many times word by word and both sentences in both languages will be correct. Italian has the easiest pronunciation. For Spanish speakers, a few days of study is more than enough to learn how to read in italian and many words are the same. Grammar is more different but still somewhat similar. Plurals and ci ne particles can be tricky to understand and remember. French is the hardest because of the reasons you mentioned. Hard pronunciation, many silent letters, liaison, grammar isn't that similar compared to Italian and Portuguese. Ce vs il, y and en particles. Ironically, this is the first romance language (apart from my own) I've learned and I still love it! For some Spanish speakers Italian will be easier than Portuguese and it's understandable. Now talking about european Portuguese in particular, it would be harder than Brazilian Portuguese and Italian but easier than French only because of its pronunciation and grammar. European Portuguese is more different and difficult to understand without practicing your listening. Now I understand it better but the first time it was hard, silimar to French.
I only started learning Spanish in July. I'm an English native speaker and I don't speak any of the other romance languages. However, I do speak Māori (New Zealand) fluently. My early impression of Spanish so far is that it's a lot easier to learn than Māori, for the simple fact that there are lots of Spanish cognates or words that resemble English. Spanish also has a lot more content available than Māori.
Wow. I didn't realise that French was so difficult. In Belgian French - they do away with base 20 number system, and 70 is septante instead of soxiante-dix, if you see what I mean.
Same in Switzerland, as far as I know. But it's not that French is that difficult of a language, just that in my opinion, if I compare it to the other 3 Romance languages I speak, it's harder. Perhaps there are even harder Romance languages, but I haven't studied them.
Very interesting video. I agree with your ranking. I also think that French is the toughest, even if it’s my native language. French grammar was easy for me but I know very few French (Canadian) speakers who are comfortable with it. Spanish would technically be an easy new language for me but I have absolutely no interest in it. I’m glad you mentioned the importance of passion in learning a new language, because that was my selection criteria. I’m learning Mandarin (my favorite) and Russian, and just started getting my feet wet with Arabic. These 3 languages are very difficult for someone with a French and English background, but I do enjoy the journey.
Absolutely! Interest and passion trump everything else. That's what the biggest determinant there is. My ranking was supposed to be "objective", if that's even possible haha.
I agree with the list and would add that with Spanish we are all spoiled with the sheer amount of available learning resources and content. This also makes it easier to learn (especially here in the US where I currently live). I think all the listed languages have a decent amount of resources but I still think Spanish has the most. Here in the states I was able to change the language in my car to Spanish to aid in “immersion” while studying Spanish.
That's interesting! I live in a country in which French is by far the biggest Romance language, with the most resources, opportunities to study in school, you name it - and I still think it's the hardest. :)
I'm a black french, spanish is so easy for us. European portuguese is very difficult to understand. Brazilian portugùese is my favorite and italian is the closest language to french with catalan. French pronounciation in southern french is my understandable. In Marseille they almost pronounce all the letters, even the silent "e". French is the most germanized latin language, despite french having relatinized after the middle age.
French is really composed of 2 languages. The written language is definitely different from the spoken language. Even native speakers struggle with spelling. I don't think French has necessarily more tenses than most other romance languages: the difficulty there is the fact that a lot of it is not pronounced.The conjugated endings look very different on paper but are often similar sounding.
İ agree that French is tough, although in terms of grammar, it is actually simpler than most other romance languages. The verb conjugation is arguably simpler, especially in the spoken language. e.g. "parler" in the present tense ends up having only two pronunciation: "parl" and "parlé". also the different adjectives and participles end up having the same pronunciation. compare "vəny" in French to four form of "venut_" in İtalian. French uses subjunctive probably the least frequently compared to its brother languages. You also mentioned partitive, but this is pretty normal in Valencian and İtalian.
I so agree with French being difficult. I have been learning it for 2 years at this point. But I realized very quickly I should have started with Spanish, French later would be easier to learn as both are sister languages.
@@lizsalazar7931 Languages from same family are generally easy to learn due to large number of similarities. These similarities vary from language to language. In terms of French and Spanish, they have similar grammar and lots of vocabulary that somewhat match each other. This really eases language learning if you speak one of the two langs already.
I agree with the list, even though I might be biased. But objectively speaking, Spanish is, in most aspects, either similar or easier than all of the others, rarely harder. Italian plurals are quite different, but rather easy (other than irregularities). And Portuguese is indeed tricky mostly phonetically, which is why I would also rank is at 3rd easiest. French can go f*** itself though. Romanian is arguably harder since it has some slavic grammar properties added to it (which are alien and complex in the romance world), but I'd rather learn Romanian ten times than French once 🤮
There is very little Slavic effect on the grammar of Romanian. The bigger effect is on the vocabulary (10-15% of the loanwords or so, depending on whether you are counting just the most used words, or every single word including all sorts of obsolete tools). Even then, there are many Latin derived synonyms for many words derived from Slavic languages. The non Romance effect on grammar is more likely due to the pre Roman languages spoken in the region, and there are characteristics of the Balkan Sprachsbund.
Io sono italiano ma penso che sia tutto molto soggettivo e dipende parecchio dalla partenza della propria lingua madre. Io parlo il francese abbastanza bene ma conosco anche lo spagnolo. Andrò controcorrente ma per me è il francese la lingua più facile, perché è fluida come l'italiano ed ha le stesse regole grammaticali. Ho più difficoltà con lo spagnolo sebbene sia intellegibile, in quanto presenta una ruvidezza nel parlato e sembra, per usare una metafora, che abbiano la carta vetrata in bocca. Il portoghese per me è decisamente la lingua più difficile. La sua pronuncia è complicata e totalmente nasale, mentre il rumeno è più trasparente nel parlato ma con una grammatica e un vocabolario condizionato dalle lingue dei suoi confini.
My native language is Spanish and I learned French and English and let me tell u something: Even though French is closer to Spanish in terms of vocabulary, grammar, etc... English was by far the easier one !!!, French is definitely crazy.
Nothing crazy with French, you were just much more exposed to English and were probably also more motivated about learning English than French, and it thus appeared as much easier. Exposure, inclination and motivation are the key when learning a language, much more than the intrinsic characteristics of said language. A Spanish speaker who is in love with Japan and Japanese culture will learn Japanese more easily than he would learn Portuguese if he was forced by parents/others to do it.
It would be interesting to hear your opinion on Romanian, as both Bulgarian and Romanian belong to the Balkan sprachbund and have some similarities, and if you speak Italian and French, it will help you to learn Romanian.
For a native English speaker, French is made easier because of so many recognizable words. The pronunciation and liaison system is a challenge. Spanish has ser/ estar which I still struggle with as well as more complicated subjunctive rules, but at least it's phonetic ... but with so many different regional accents, that makes Spanish hard. I found Italian fairly easy ... but I studied it after French which helped A LOT! I think it's hard to speak Italian precisely at the grammatical level but it seems easier to get the gist across to someone. I've never studied Portuguese formally, but I have a really hard time matching the spoken language to the written. I think I need more exposure. And like you, I don't speak Romanian. Great video - it really made me think about my own experiences.
Yes French prononciation and writing is difficult, but not more than the English ones which are a mess too. And a lot of English vocabularies come from French language so you won't be totally lost ; don't be affraid by that. Still, I agree with the ranking.
Unless you are immersed in the language, when it comes down to it, are the commercial resources available is what makes a language easier. If you don't live in an immersed environment and can't find commercial resources to use, then it won't matter how linguistically easy the language is if you can't find anything to acquire and learn it.
That was my experience with Romanian. I love the language but finding resources are difficult. Assimil makes a Romanian course but it only comes in French or Italian. And I don't speak either.
great video. As another slavic language learning enthusiast, it was a delight to hear your take on romance languages and comparing their difficulty. Which country exactly are you from? Edit: I watched the rest of the video and already know you're Bulgarian lol. Greetings from Poland!
But Portuguese and Spanish have got pretty much of all that influence. Okay, let's talk about history here. These romance language speakers were ALL romanized, and by "ED" here, I mean being part of a process of becoming something you were not. So the very name of Portugal shows that, since it is a hybrid of the celtic elderly Mother Goddess, Cailleach and Portus in latin, in other words, The Port of Cailleach. Even the symbol for portugal is the same celtic rooster they adopt in France. So, we are talking about the Coinos, Lusithans and most importantly, the Galaicos, the celtic tribes that lived there. If we check on the musical aspects of Galicia, Asturias and the Northeast of Portugal, the celtic roots, their bagpipes, dances and rhythms are still alive. Celtic words in portuguese: cachorro, cerveja, briga, cuca(a word for head), plus many nasal sounds which are believed to be mandatory in major celtic influences. Then, once fully romanized, the Peninsula was invaded by the Suevos and the Vysigoths, which were germanic. Words of germanic origin? Mala, Irmão, Irmã, Guerra (from the vysigothic word wirra), the slang for beer, bira, the word branco, guarda, etc. Then the arabs invaded the Peninsula and stayed there for not only 8 days, but 8 centuries. Arabic words? Wow, so many. Alcateia, almoxarifado, xarope, jarra, azeite, camisa, alparcata, alcaparra, almôndega, oxalá, aldeia, etc, etc. Then, after the diaspora, Jews migrated to Spain, after kicked out from Spain, they went to Portugal, more than a 100000 jews went to Portugal back then. Then yeah, that's the basis of the people there, romanized celtic tribes with a whole lotta germanic + arabic + jewish influence. Then they came to Brazil, where portuguese mingled with tons of Native american words from different native american languages, from where we inherited words such as: capim, capivara, sucuri, quati, jacaré, tatu, caju, urucum, etc. Then with the Yoruba language with people who were enslaved in Nigeria, words such as Caçula, Cangote, neném, bagunça, cafuné, cachaça, etc. The thing is, yeah, the basis to the language is pretty much a latin one (let's not forget how many greek words the romans took everywhere, like metáfora, anacoluto, catacrese, disforia, símbolo, metanoia, etc, etc) but there are still so much of a linguistic melting pot in the iberian languages, with or without, after and even BEFORE, the formation of the ibero-american countries.
Spanish , French, Portuguese had global explorers and trade. Spanish in the America's especially, French in Africa especially. Spanish is growing fast in number of speakers. Italian is limited regionally to a few countries. Will you be making videos about germanic and Slavic and Asian and Indian families also?:)
Unfortunately, I can't make such videos as I don't have the experience yet. I have not studied Indian languages yet; I only speak English and German from the Germanic family (and can't compare with Nordics or Dutch for example), and when it comes to Slavic... well, I am a native Slavic speaker, so it all appears very easy. So I have dabbled very little in Slavic languages, because they always seemed too easy and I wasn't that interested. But that might be starting to change!
Italian explorers brought Spain, Portugal (Colombus and Vespucci), France (Verrazzano) and England (Caboto) to America. Marco Polo is the most famous navigator that explored China. Italy had some cities that were rich "Repubbliche Marinare", especially Genoa and Venice. The flag of England is the flag of Genoa given by the city to England to scare the pirates attacking English ships. Imagine how strong was Genoa in those times. The fact that Italy was not yet a reunified country that did not try to colonize lands outside Europe doesn't mean that it didn't have rich and powerful cities and great navigators.
@zaqwsx23 I always enjoyed reading about explorers... the pole explores, the fountain of youth Florida guy, Cook, Cortez. Columbus tried to calm his men from hurting natives. The inspiring one is Magellan, around the world trip.
Even tho im native Spanish speaker I struggle a lot with grammar. Conjugation and Tenses can be really tricky. But other than grammar Spanish is extremely easy. The "pronounced as it's written" is very suitable. But smth hard of spanish besides Is how it changes depending on the country. Even the region. So ys Spanish is really easy and I recommend it to be learnt
Interesting ! For me it is different. When it comes to _understanding_ , actually _French_ is the easiest to understand for me, but I guess, when it comes to _speaking_ the Language it would be _Italian_ .. However when it comes to _Passion_ I would say _Spanish_ .... :D :D :D But for me as a Speaker of a Germanic Language like German, _all_ Romance Languages are at least "a little bit" alien ...
Interesting! I think since you are a German speaker, it makes sense - French is the most germanically influenced language, so maybe that’s why you find it easier.
@@PolyglotSecrets That is exactly what I think, too. But I have to admit, not all German Speaking People would say that. Actually many Germans like Spanish much more than French.
1. Spanish. Being from Texas, it's everywhere. 2. Portuguese. It has about 90% lexical similarity with Spanish. 3. French. Similar vocabulary with Spanish, Portuguese, and English. 4. Italian. There are a lot of words that simply don't exist in or are similar to words in other Romance languages. 5. Romanian. Fewer resources for learning it. Some of the vocabulary came from Romania's neighbors. The definite article is glued to the end of nouns, especially with masculine nouns. Possible Scandinavian and North Germanic influence: Old Norse, Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish all place the definite article at the end of a noun. 6. Latin. Grammar, grammar, grammar. Latin grammar may be easier for a Russian than a Bulgarian, but Russian has very much lost the vocative case.
Hi, I am glad I watched your video it has helped me a bit. But I have a question. My native language is English but I speak Spanish up to a B2 level. So I can speak Spanish and write it a bit. But I was wondering from your point of view if you know Spanish decently how quickly could you learn Italian? From your personal point of view how easy do you think it would be to learn? In 6 months do you think its possible to be able to at least read and speak the language some what decently?
Yes, I definitely think it’s possible within 6 months, but it depends on so many things - your approach, how much time you have, if you immerse yourself well, even your mood… but in any case, Italian will come easily to you. I started learning it after Spanish and French, I believe, and it was a breeze.
I think the Belgians & Swiss simplified the nomenclature of their numbers . If you think the French are weird with their nunbers don't learn Danish. It's one of the reasons I'm not ( along with it being officially ugly , although i speak with a guttural stop & being partly Swedish, therefore illegal). PS - C. Portuguese is stressed timed ( like English) ; unlike B. Portuguese , Spanish, Italian ( not sure about French).
No clue! I have always avoided the Slavic group, as I was always interested in something new and not so easy. So it’s difficult for me to say. Thanks for sharing your opinion!
Ah, sei bulgara te? Bello! 🙂 Mi domandavo di dove eri credendoti di madrelingua neolatina. Il tuo inglese è fluente e perfetto, ma sentivo nondimeno un vago accento che poi non sapevo indirizzare. Con il rumeno voi bulgari avete una cosa in comune, se ho capito bene, ossia gli articoli enclitici, tipo "la casa" = "domul" e infatti anche con noi dei paesi scandinavi. Io ultimamente ho seguito un corso di rumeno e ho notato che alcune cose della grammatica sono molto diverse dall'italiano (l'unica lingua che so abbastanza bene), per esempio l'uso del congiuntivo dopo verbi modali, tipo "devo lavorare" che deve essere tipo "devo che io possa lavorare". Forse questa è una cosa slava entrata poi nel rumeno? Comunque per me che so l'italiano lo spagnolo è molto più trasparente delle altre lingue neolatine. Con gli spagnoli mi faccio capire piano piano, con i francesi poco.
@@diegoflorencio, and North, Northeast and the South of Brazil say "tu" casually too, but commonly without the extra verbal conjugations. As like: Ele vai (he goes) - Tu vai (you go), instead "Tu vais". So Brazilian portuguese commonly permit more "mistakes".
I am terrible at tracking, as it's a chore to me. So I don't track. I have had pauses, I have had many years relying on school only. Then I learned a bunch of languages in a very short period of time. Then I paused for a while. I am chaotic and have no answer to this question :)
I wouldn't agree with you completely. Actually, even though Italian has a more difficult grammar than Spanish, Spanish is more exotic and strange for us Balcan people. I am from southern Serbia and Italian sounds to me very closely and clearly. Spanish has those strange "d" "g" "ll" and especially "z" sound. Serbian (Vranje ) : Ne vi vidimo Italian : Non vi vediamo Spanish : No vemos vosotros.
Аз знам 🇧🇬🇨🇵🇪🇦🇮🇹🇵🇹🇬🇧 , мисля че румънския е най -труден от всичките румънски , граматиката му е коварна и много трудно се изговарят думите , и доста се различава от френския , когато научих италиански, малко по малко взех да разбирам езика от етикети на продукти , италианския е най -близък до румънския , а що се отнася до италиански по мое мнение най лесният от всички поне по отношение на слушане и лексика и думите ти влизат инстиктивно , не е като при френски или испански, на мене испанският ми беше по труден , но както каза италиански му е гадна граматиката , да.... От най-труден към лесен според моето учение към езиците : 1.Румънски 2. Френски 3. Португалски 4.Испански 5 . Италиански
Thank you for your insight this was very interesting. I want to make a point with regards to the "easiest language to learn" but I will come back to that shortly. English is my native language I also speak fluent German which is not a category 1 language from an native English standpoint.(Category one refers to a group of languages that are easiest to learn for native English speakers and German is not among that group) Yet I learned it with great ease. I'm probably B2 in Spanish or maybe between B2 and C1. And just recently started learning Portuguese. I was undecided between Italian and Portuguese. Obviously as you state anyone who speaks Spanish can read a lot of Portuguese however as you note the pronunciation is quite different, very closed mouth and very nasal almost reminds me of some Asian languages. Back to my point and wanted to make. Everything is relevant. I would say it's easier for a native Spanish speaker to learn Italian that would be English speaking person to learn German for example. And again it would be easier for a Swedish native speaker to learn Norwegian then it would be for a Swedish person to learn Finish. Yes , I fully understand the concept of groups of languages, so depending on your native language everything is relevant. However nothing is ever written in stone. I still don't understand why I learned German without any effort and yet I literally put 10 times the effort into learning Spanish and my Spanish is still nowhere near my German ability??
For languages, the correct term is Romance. I am not sure why the term Roman can't be used. I think it's because when you say Roman, it pertains to the republic or empire. But these languages were not spoken then, they are descendants of Latin. So I think that's why they came up with a different word.
agree, french is the worst... and french speakers do not understand other romance languages, not even on a very basic level. also, other romance speakers don't understand french at all (without learning it, of course). between all other romance languages, even between romanian and portuguese, there is some basic mutual intelligibility - see: lots of youtube videos. romanian imho is more difficult than portuguese - pronunciation is very clear, even "better" than italian i'd say, but grammar is max. pain. and, finally, spanish is way less complicated than italian, maybe because italian was "made" by dante, and spanish was made for and by the kings, and those kings were no intellectuals (prejudice alert!!!)
Exactly why I hate French the most. WHY CAN'T IT BE CLOSER TO ITS SIBLINGS? If you speak a little of Spanish, Italian, or PORT. You can get a grasp of the conjugations for all of them being very clear... PORT of Brasil can be funny though. False friends between PORT and ESP being CRUEL though.
Brazil have more than 80% of the Portuguese speakers in the world, have much more content in the internet than all other Portuguese-speaking countries and It's easier for a foreigner to understand (as it's said in this video) and recognize the flag, so...
Yes, exactly! Also, I use flags relevant to me (in addition to Brazil having Portuguese dominance as you described): I learned primarily Brazilian Portuguese, hence the flag, and I speak primarily Iberian Spanish (although I’ve spent enough time around Mexicans and Colombians to have a good understanding of their type of Spanish too). So… I put the Spanish flag. Never had contact with Canadian French, so of course I will put the flag of France. But yes, people gotta laugh at everything :)
@@PolyglotSecrets The title of your video is romance languages! Brazilian Portuguese wasn't born at that time! And phonetically it's different from real Portuguese !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Portuguese from Portugal is the romance language! Brazilian Portuguese has indigenous and African origins! They have their own styles and have changed the language in many ways.
@@vastoaspecto I don't give a damn about fame! Portuguese from Portugal is a romance language and true Portuguese unlike Portuguese from Brazil which was influenced by the natives and Africans they have their styles they changed the language on many things and your Portuguese was born in 1822 😂 romance was 1000 years ago
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Thanks for your support Stefani. The team and I appreciate it and great video as always.
Thank you as always, Steve! It's a pleasure to support LingQ
WHY DO WE ALWAYS GET LEFT OUT!!
JUSTICE FOR 🇷🇴
Because I don’t speak Romanian and I can’t comment on it… I mentioned that in the video. Oh well, maybe you can give us some insights on Romanian in the comment section :)
@@PolyglotSecrets
Dont worry much about the slavic words most of them have latin synonyms Prieten-Amic
Verbs like a auzi may seem different to an italian speaker even tho the italian word for that (udire i think) is derived from the same latin word as the romanian one (Audire) that is because they come from different parts of the same word
Some genders are flipped
Romanian Un perete (a wall, masculin)
Spanish una pared (f)
It means it is the 5th list of hardest romance languages.. 😊
So romanian is the 5th hardest??
@@PolyglotSecrets it's not the language as much as the culture! The reason we are different is because we are kinda surrounded by the balkans, so what you can really do is first things first understand the balkan culture, traditions etc and once you get into the vibe you are one of us! Don't worry, you can leave if you don't like it!😂 I'm telling you this because Romanian is not such an easy language and it's usually learned as you go with the flow! That was my observation based on interractions I had with strangers here! So the first thing you can do is making some romanian friends who also speak english (at least B1) and just try to understand what they say! If you never tried sarmale or mici, come here! My favorite foods!❤️💪🇷🇴 And as Alex said, the slavic words can be easily explained, so you don't have to worry about that! Hope it helped you☺️
My mother tongue is french (french Canadian), and I'm learning Spanish because my girlfriend is mexican.
I found it fun to learn her language, so it made it easier and french is already similar.
Catalan intrigues me, it's look like a mix between french and Spanish
I am a Catalan speaker and I can tell you that Catalan has similar words to French but let’s say that Catalan sounds like French but with a Romance pronunciation because French sounds like a Germanic language but with Romance words
I appreciate the distinction between Portuguese from Portugal vs Brazilian Portuguese, and I agree that PT-PT is a lot harder than PT-BR.
I'd say that learning PT-PT is actually a lot harder than learning French, primarily because French resources are a lot easier to find.
That's true! French resources are everywhere and there are many more for PT-BR than PT-PT.
As a native Spanish speaker, I liked this video.
The list goes like this for me (from easiest to hardest)
Spanish (obviously)
Portuguese (Brazilian)
Italian
French
Portuguese has more similar words to Spanish. In fact, many times, they're the same or so similar I only have to change the pronunciation or a little portion of the word. The disadvantage is false friends because they can trick you when you try to learn the other's language. Also grammar is very similar, you can translate many times word by word and both sentences in both languages will be correct.
Italian has the easiest pronunciation. For Spanish speakers, a few days of study is more than enough to learn how to read in italian and many words are the same. Grammar is more different but still somewhat similar. Plurals and ci ne particles can be tricky to understand and remember.
French is the hardest because of the reasons you mentioned. Hard pronunciation, many silent letters, liaison, grammar isn't that similar compared to Italian and Portuguese. Ce vs il, y and en particles. Ironically, this is the first romance language (apart from my own) I've learned and I still love it!
For some Spanish speakers Italian will be easier than Portuguese and it's understandable.
Now talking about european Portuguese in particular, it would be harder than Brazilian Portuguese and Italian but easier than French only because of its pronunciation and grammar. European Portuguese is more different and difficult to understand without practicing your listening. Now I understand it better but the first time it was hard, silimar to French.
I only started learning Spanish in July. I'm an English native speaker and I don't speak any of the other romance languages. However, I do speak Māori (New Zealand) fluently.
My early impression of Spanish so far is that it's a lot easier to learn than Māori, for the simple fact that there are lots of Spanish cognates or words that resemble English. Spanish also has a lot more content available than Māori.
Wow. I didn't realise that French was so difficult. In Belgian French - they do away with base 20 number system, and 70 is septante instead of soxiante-dix, if you see what I mean.
Same in Switzerland, as far as I know. But it's not that French is that difficult of a language, just that in my opinion, if I compare it to the other 3 Romance languages I speak, it's harder. Perhaps there are even harder Romance languages, but I haven't studied them.
80
Very interesting video. I agree with your ranking. I also think that French is the toughest, even if it’s my native language. French grammar was easy for me but I know very few French (Canadian) speakers who are comfortable with it. Spanish would technically be an easy new language for me but I have absolutely no interest in it. I’m glad you mentioned the importance of passion in learning a new language, because that was my selection criteria. I’m learning Mandarin (my favorite) and Russian, and just started getting my feet wet with Arabic. These 3 languages are very difficult for someone with a French and English background, but I do enjoy the journey.
Absolutely! Interest and passion trump everything else. That's what the biggest determinant there is. My ranking was supposed to be "objective", if that's even possible haha.
I agree with the list and would add that with Spanish we are all spoiled with the sheer amount of available learning resources and content. This also makes it easier to learn (especially here in the US where I currently live). I think all the listed languages have a decent amount of resources but I still think Spanish has the most. Here in the states I was able to change the language in my car to Spanish to aid in “immersion” while studying Spanish.
That's interesting! I live in a country in which French is by far the biggest Romance language, with the most resources, opportunities to study in school, you name it - and I still think it's the hardest. :)
I'm a black french, spanish is so easy for us. European portuguese is very difficult to understand. Brazilian portugùese is my favorite and italian is the closest language to french with catalan.
French pronounciation in southern french is my understandable. In Marseille they almost pronounce all the letters, even the silent "e".
French is the most germanized latin language, despite french having relatinized after the middle age.
French is really composed of 2 languages. The written language is definitely different from the spoken language. Even native speakers struggle with spelling. I don't think French has necessarily more tenses than most other romance languages: the difficulty there is the fact that a lot of it is not pronounced.The conjugated endings look very different on paper but are often similar sounding.
İ agree that French is tough, although in terms of grammar, it is actually simpler than most other romance languages.
The verb conjugation is arguably simpler, especially in the spoken language.
e.g. "parler" in the present tense ends up having only two pronunciation: "parl" and "parlé".
also the different adjectives and participles end up having the same pronunciation.
compare "vəny" in French to four form of "venut_" in İtalian.
French uses subjunctive probably the least frequently compared to its brother languages.
You also mentioned partitive, but this is pretty normal in Valencian and İtalian.
Valid points!
I so agree with French being difficult. I have been learning it for 2 years at this point. But I realized very quickly I should have started with Spanish, French later would be easier to learn as both are sister languages.
How can you say that? They are not that similar
@@lizsalazar7931 Languages from same family are generally easy to learn due to large number of similarities. These similarities vary from language to language. In terms of French and Spanish, they have similar grammar and lots of vocabulary that somewhat match each other. This really eases language learning if you speak one of the two langs already.
@@AdamYLM I don’t see any of that 🙄 maybe more like distant cousins
I agree with the list, even though I might be biased. But objectively speaking, Spanish is, in most aspects, either similar or easier than all of the others, rarely harder. Italian plurals are quite different, but rather easy (other than irregularities). And Portuguese is indeed tricky mostly phonetically, which is why I would also rank is at 3rd easiest. French can go f*** itself though. Romanian is arguably harder since it has some slavic grammar properties added to it (which are alien and complex in the romance world), but I'd rather learn Romanian ten times than French once 🤮
hahaha love this comment!
There is very little Slavic effect on the grammar of Romanian. The bigger effect is on the vocabulary (10-15% of the loanwords or so, depending on whether you are counting just the most used words, or every single word including all sorts of obsolete tools). Even then, there are many Latin derived synonyms for many words derived from Slavic languages. The non Romance effect on grammar is more likely due to the pre Roman languages spoken in the region, and there are characteristics of the Balkan Sprachsbund.
Io sono italiano ma penso che sia tutto molto soggettivo e dipende parecchio dalla partenza della propria lingua madre. Io parlo il francese abbastanza bene ma conosco anche lo spagnolo. Andrò controcorrente ma per me è il francese la lingua più facile, perché è fluida come l'italiano ed ha le stesse regole grammaticali. Ho più difficoltà con lo spagnolo sebbene sia intellegibile, in quanto presenta una ruvidezza nel parlato e sembra, per usare una metafora, che abbiano la carta vetrata in bocca.
Il portoghese per me è decisamente la lingua più difficile. La sua pronuncia è complicata e totalmente nasale, mentre il rumeno è più trasparente nel parlato ma con una grammatica e un vocabolario condizionato dalle lingue dei suoi confini.
Romanian has the closest grammar to Latin. It's the other Romanance languages who didn't preserve it!
Totally agree! French can go to hell!!!
My native language is Spanish and I learned French and English and let me tell u something: Even though French is closer to Spanish in terms of vocabulary, grammar, etc... English was by far the easier one !!!, French is definitely crazy.
100%!
Nothing crazy with French, you were just much more exposed to English and were probably also more motivated about learning English than French, and it thus appeared as much easier. Exposure, inclination and motivation are the key when learning a language, much more than the intrinsic characteristics of said language. A Spanish speaker who is in love with Japan and Japanese culture will learn Japanese more easily than he would learn Portuguese if he was forced by parents/others to do it.
My native language is Catalan, so French is very easy for me !
I learned french too.. it was crazy.. but when i started learning german, i became crazier..
I loved this video, so interesting! 👍
🙏
Hi Stefanie congratulations for video. I love languages.
It would be interesting to hear your opinion on Romanian, as both Bulgarian and Romanian belong to the Balkan sprachbund and have some similarities, and if you speak Italian and French, it will help you to learn Romanian.
Absolutely! I think it shouldn't be too hard, but unfortunately, I haven't found the time for Romanian yet.
For a native English speaker, French is made easier because of so many recognizable words. The pronunciation and liaison system is a challenge. Spanish has ser/ estar which I still struggle with as well as more complicated subjunctive rules, but at least it's phonetic ... but with so many different regional accents, that makes Spanish hard. I found Italian fairly easy ... but I studied it after French which helped A LOT! I think it's hard to speak Italian precisely at the grammatical level but it seems easier to get the gist across to someone. I've never studied Portuguese formally, but I have a really hard time matching the spoken language to the written. I think I need more exposure. And like you, I don't speak Romanian. Great video - it really made me think about my own experiences.
thanks for sharing!
Yes French prononciation and writing is difficult, but not more than the English ones which are a mess too. And a lot of English vocabularies come from French language so you won't be totally lost ; don't be affraid by that. Still, I agree with the ranking.
So true!
Unless you are immersed in the language, when it comes down to it, are the commercial resources available is what makes a language easier.
If you don't live in an immersed environment and can't find commercial resources to use, then it won't matter how linguistically easy the language is if you can't find anything to acquire and learn it.
Yes, resource constraints are so tough in some languages!
That was my experience with Romanian. I love the language but finding resources are difficult. Assimil makes a Romanian course but it only comes in French or Italian. And I don't speak either.
This is always tough! @@jamesasmith2494
great video. As another slavic language learning enthusiast, it was a delight to hear your take on romance languages and comparing their difficulty. Which country exactly are you from? Edit: I watched the rest of the video and already know you're Bulgarian lol. Greetings from Poland!
Thank you and greetings ☺️
But Portuguese and Spanish have got pretty much of all that influence. Okay, let's talk about history here. These romance language speakers were ALL romanized, and by "ED" here, I mean being part of a process of becoming something you were not. So the very name of Portugal shows that, since it is a hybrid of the celtic elderly Mother Goddess, Cailleach and Portus in latin, in other words, The Port of Cailleach. Even the symbol for portugal is the same celtic rooster they adopt in France. So, we are talking about the Coinos, Lusithans and most importantly, the Galaicos, the celtic tribes that lived there. If we check on the musical aspects of Galicia, Asturias and the Northeast of Portugal, the celtic roots, their bagpipes, dances and rhythms are still alive. Celtic words in portuguese: cachorro, cerveja, briga, cuca(a word for head), plus many nasal sounds which are believed to be mandatory in major celtic influences. Then, once fully romanized, the Peninsula was invaded by the Suevos and the Vysigoths, which were germanic. Words of germanic origin? Mala, Irmão, Irmã, Guerra (from the vysigothic word wirra), the slang for beer, bira, the word branco, guarda, etc. Then the arabs invaded the Peninsula and stayed there for not only 8 days, but 8 centuries. Arabic words? Wow, so many. Alcateia, almoxarifado, xarope, jarra, azeite, camisa, alparcata, alcaparra, almôndega, oxalá, aldeia, etc, etc. Then, after the diaspora, Jews migrated to Spain, after kicked out from Spain, they went to Portugal, more than a 100000 jews went to Portugal back then. Then yeah, that's the basis of the people there, romanized celtic tribes with a whole lotta germanic + arabic + jewish influence. Then they came to Brazil, where portuguese mingled with tons of Native american words from different native american languages, from where we inherited words such as: capim, capivara, sucuri, quati, jacaré, tatu, caju, urucum, etc. Then with the Yoruba language with people who were enslaved in Nigeria, words such as Caçula, Cangote, neném, bagunça, cafuné, cachaça, etc. The thing is, yeah, the basis to the language is pretty much a latin one (let's not forget how many greek words the romans took everywhere, like metáfora, anacoluto, catacrese, disforia, símbolo, metanoia, etc, etc) but there are still so much of a linguistic melting pot in the iberian languages, with or without, after and even BEFORE, the formation of the ibero-american countries.
Super interesting and a great point!
Spanish , French, Portuguese had global explorers and trade. Spanish in the America's especially, French in Africa especially. Spanish is growing fast in number of speakers. Italian is limited regionally to a few countries.
Will you be making videos about germanic and Slavic and Asian and Indian families also?:)
Unfortunately, I can't make such videos as I don't have the experience yet. I have not studied Indian languages yet; I only speak English and German from the Germanic family (and can't compare with Nordics or Dutch for example), and when it comes to Slavic... well, I am a native Slavic speaker, so it all appears very easy. So I have dabbled very little in Slavic languages, because they always seemed too easy and I wasn't that interested. But that might be starting to change!
Italian explorers brought Spain, Portugal (Colombus and Vespucci), France (Verrazzano) and England (Caboto) to America. Marco Polo is the most famous navigator that explored China. Italy had some cities that were rich "Repubbliche Marinare", especially Genoa and Venice. The flag of England is the flag of Genoa given by the city to England to scare the pirates attacking English ships. Imagine how strong was Genoa in those times. The fact that Italy was not yet a reunified country that did not try to colonize lands outside Europe doesn't mean that it didn't have rich and powerful cities and great navigators.
@zaqwsx23 I always enjoyed reading about explorers... the pole explores, the fountain of youth Florida guy, Cook, Cortez. Columbus tried to calm his men from hurting natives. The inspiring one is Magellan, around the world trip.
ps... In your opinion from a phonetic standpoint which language is more phonetically consistent Italian or Portuguese?
Even tho im native Spanish speaker I struggle a lot with grammar. Conjugation and Tenses can be really tricky.
But other than grammar Spanish is extremely easy. The "pronounced as it's written" is very suitable.
But smth hard of spanish besides Is how it changes depending on the country. Even the region.
So ys Spanish is really easy and I recommend it to be learnt
Interesting ! For me it is different. When it comes to _understanding_ , actually _French_ is the easiest to understand for me, but I guess, when it comes to _speaking_ the Language it would be _Italian_ .. However when it comes to _Passion_ I would say _Spanish_ .... :D :D :D But for me as a Speaker of a Germanic Language like German, _all_ Romance Languages are at least "a little bit" alien ...
Interesting! I think since you are a German speaker, it makes sense - French is the most germanically influenced language, so maybe that’s why you find it easier.
@@PolyglotSecrets That is exactly what I think, too. But I have to admit, not all German Speaking People would say that. Actually many Germans like Spanish much more than French.
1. Spanish. Being from Texas, it's everywhere.
2. Portuguese. It has about 90% lexical similarity with Spanish.
3. French. Similar vocabulary with Spanish, Portuguese, and English.
4. Italian. There are a lot of words that simply don't exist in or are similar to words in other Romance languages.
5. Romanian. Fewer resources for learning it. Some of the vocabulary came from Romania's neighbors. The definite article is glued to the end of nouns, especially with masculine nouns. Possible Scandinavian and North Germanic influence: Old Norse, Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish all place the definite article at the end of a noun.
6. Latin. Grammar, grammar, grammar. Latin grammar may be easier for a Russian than a Bulgarian, but Russian has very much lost the vocative case.
Hi, I am glad I watched your video it has helped me a bit. But I have a question. My native language is English but I speak Spanish up to a B2 level. So I can speak Spanish and write it a bit. But I was wondering from your point of view if you know Spanish decently how quickly could you learn Italian? From your personal point of view how easy do you think it would be to learn? In 6 months do you think its possible to be able to at least read and speak the language some what decently?
Yes, I definitely think it’s possible within 6 months, but it depends on so many things - your approach, how much time you have, if you immerse yourself well, even your mood… but in any case, Italian will come easily to you. I started learning it after Spanish and French, I believe, and it was a breeze.
@@PolyglotSecrets Gracias muchísimos, hoy me voy a comenzar el primero día estudiando italiano, no tenía la confianza.
@@PolyglotSecrets thank you I started learning Italian today
@@DevlogBill Your Spanish level is not B2
@@user-bu8rc8vh5l Thank you for sharing your opinion. I appreciate your honesty.
I think the Belgians & Swiss simplified the nomenclature of their numbers .
If you think the French are weird with their nunbers don't learn Danish.
It's one of the reasons I'm not ( along with it being officially ugly , although i speak with a guttural stop & being partly Swedish, therefore illegal).
PS - C. Portuguese is stressed timed ( like English) ; unlike B. Portuguese , Spanish, Italian ( not sure about French).
They did! Numbers are simpler outside of France.
I'm think that bulgarian maybe is the most easy slavic language, from a spanish speaker, greetings from Chile.
No clue! I have always avoided the Slavic group, as I was always interested in something new and not so easy. So it’s difficult for me to say. Thanks for sharing your opinion!
LAS LENGUAS MAS BUENA DE HABLAR SON ESPAÑOL Y PORTUGUES PARA MI QUE SOY LATINO SOLO ESSAS
Un verdadero latino habla italiano. Los latinoamericanos son otro concepto.
Ah, sei bulgara te? Bello! 🙂 Mi domandavo di dove eri credendoti di madrelingua neolatina. Il tuo inglese è fluente e perfetto, ma sentivo nondimeno un vago accento che poi non sapevo indirizzare. Con il rumeno voi bulgari avete una cosa in comune, se ho capito bene, ossia gli articoli enclitici, tipo "la casa" = "domul" e infatti anche con noi dei paesi scandinavi. Io ultimamente ho seguito un corso di rumeno e ho notato che alcune cose della grammatica sono molto diverse dall'italiano (l'unica lingua che so abbastanza bene), per esempio l'uso del congiuntivo dopo verbi modali, tipo "devo lavorare" che deve essere tipo "devo che io possa lavorare". Forse questa è una cosa slava entrata poi nel rumeno?
Comunque per me che so l'italiano lo spagnolo è molto più trasparente delle altre lingue neolatine. Con gli spagnoli mi faccio capire piano piano, con i francesi poco.
Ciao! No sono sicura di dove entrano le cose in rumeno, ma c’è il Balkan Sprachbund, che è la ragione della maggior parte delle regole grammaticali.
I prefer european portuguese to brazilian because they use tu and conjugate it correctly and many even use vós
I'm a bit partial to Brazilian PT, as I like the pronunciation more. But to each their own; we all have different language loves :)
To me, unironically makes it easier for me to understand as someone studying Italian, Spanish, alongside maybe will go full on with French.
In some parts of Brazil we do conjugate “tu” correctly like in Portugal, mostly in the north region.
@diegoflorencio so cool!
@@diegoflorencio, and North, Northeast and the South of Brazil say "tu" casually too, but commonly without the extra verbal conjugations.
As like: Ele vai (he goes) - Tu vai (you go), instead "Tu vais".
So Brazilian portuguese commonly permit more "mistakes".
How many years you have spent to learn 7 or 8 languages
I am terrible at tracking, as it's a chore to me. So I don't track. I have had pauses, I have had many years relying on school only. Then I learned a bunch of languages in a very short period of time. Then I paused for a while. I am chaotic and have no answer to this question :)
Funny that as a Bulgarian you didn't learn Romanian, so phisicly close...
Yes, and also no Slavic languages.. I just always went for languages, which were more out of reach for some reason.
I wouldn't agree with you completely. Actually, even though Italian has a more difficult grammar than Spanish, Spanish is more exotic and strange for us Balcan people. I am from southern Serbia and Italian sounds to me very closely and clearly. Spanish has those strange "d" "g" "ll" and especially "z" sound.
Serbian (Vranje ) : Ne vi vidimo
Italian : Non vi vediamo
Spanish : No vemos vosotros.
Makes sense! This is an extremely subjective topic, so it’s nice to hear your perspective as well.
Sure! I would add that Spanish is probably the easiest language generally.
Thank you for your response!
"No los vemos" (a ustedes) suena más coherente, normalmente en este caso omitimos el pronombre pues se sobreentiende que hablamos de un tercero
What is no vemos vosotros?
ai uitat de romana
I just don't speak it... so I can't comment on it. That's why.
Аз знам 🇧🇬🇨🇵🇪🇦🇮🇹🇵🇹🇬🇧 , мисля че румънския е най -труден от всичките румънски , граматиката му е коварна и много трудно се изговарят думите , и доста се различава от френския , когато научих италиански, малко по малко взех да разбирам езика от етикети на продукти , италианския е най -близък до румънския , а що се отнася до италиански по мое мнение най лесният от всички поне по отношение на слушане и лексика и думите ти влизат инстиктивно , не е като при френски или испански, на мене испанският ми беше по труден , но както каза италиански му е гадна граматиката , да....
От най-труден към лесен според моето учение към езиците :
1.Румънски
2. Френски
3. Португалски
4.Испански
5 . Италиански
Portuguese from Portugal is very stressed like french because they tried for centuries to copy them.
Oh interesting! I had no idea. But then again, the French influence in many countries in Europe is pronounced (historically speaking).
I would point the last decades that many Portuguese migrate to France, because Br-Pt should be as old Portuguese.
Oh but no as a french person, french is not a stressed at all like as in Pt-Pt. I supposed you'd have said English rather than French?
romanian is the most difficult imo
Could be! I haven't tried it yet
Thank you for your insight this was very interesting. I want to make a point with regards to the "easiest language to learn" but I will come back to that shortly.
English is my native language I also speak fluent German which is not a category 1 language from an native English standpoint.(Category one refers to a group of languages that are easiest to learn for native English speakers and German is not among that group) Yet I learned it with great ease. I'm probably B2 in Spanish or maybe between B2 and C1. And just recently started learning Portuguese.
I was undecided between Italian and Portuguese. Obviously as you state anyone who speaks Spanish can read a lot of Portuguese however as you note the pronunciation is quite different, very closed mouth and very nasal almost reminds me of some Asian languages.
Back to my point and wanted to make. Everything is relevant. I would say it's easier for a native Spanish speaker to learn Italian that would be English speaking person to learn German for example. And again it would be easier for a Swedish native speaker to learn Norwegian then it would be for a Swedish person to learn Finish.
Yes , I fully understand the concept of groups of languages, so depending on your native language everything is relevant.
However nothing is ever written in stone. I still don't understand why I learned German without any effort and yet I literally put 10 times the effort into learning Spanish and my Spanish is still nowhere near my German ability??
Wait until you hear or see the Aromanian language, XD
Rather wait until I study it; only then can I compare :)
Do you mean roman language ?? Isn't romance something else ? Maybe I'm wrong, english is my 3rd language, it's not perfect
For languages, the correct term is Romance. I am not sure why the term Roman can't be used. I think it's because when you say Roman, it pertains to the republic or empire. But these languages were not spoken then, they are descendants of Latin. So I think that's why they came up with a different word.
@@PolyglotSecrets I seee ! Thank youuu for teaching me !! Chukran ☺❤
agree, french is the worst... and french speakers do not understand other romance languages, not even on a very basic level. also, other romance speakers don't understand french at all (without learning it, of course). between all other romance languages, even between romanian and portuguese, there is some basic mutual intelligibility - see: lots of youtube videos. romanian imho is more difficult than portuguese - pronunciation is very clear, even "better" than italian i'd say, but grammar is max. pain. and, finally, spanish is way less complicated than italian, maybe because italian was "made" by dante, and spanish was made for and by the kings, and those kings were no intellectuals (prejudice alert!!!)
hahah loving the prejudice alert!
just like standard german was "made" by martin luther and the real literature (like der abenteuerliche simplicissimus) was "corrected" to fit in...
I do not agree. As a french speaker, the other romance languages are easy to catch
Exactly why I hate French the most. WHY CAN'T IT BE CLOSER TO ITS SIBLINGS? If you speak a little of Spanish, Italian, or PORT. You can get a grasp of the conjugations for all of them being very clear... PORT of Brasil can be funny though. False friends between PORT and ESP being CRUEL though.
I agree, Spanish is by far the easiest of the four. (And French, the hardest.)
Even Brazilians don't understand European Portuguese.
Acho que vc esqueceu de escrever o "don't".
@@lucasoliveira9834 Thanks. Edited.
hahaha love this!
@@RemyZombiedon't understand
@@Tuliosantos1 eu fiquei com preguiça de corrigir
🇧🇷? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Brazil have more than 80% of the Portuguese speakers in the world, have much more content in the internet than all other Portuguese-speaking countries and It's easier for a foreigner to understand (as it's said in this video) and recognize the flag, so...
Yes, exactly! Also, I use flags relevant to me (in addition to Brazil having Portuguese dominance as you described): I learned primarily Brazilian Portuguese, hence the flag, and I speak primarily Iberian Spanish (although I’ve spent enough time around Mexicans and Colombians to have a good understanding of their type of Spanish too). So… I put the Spanish flag. Never had contact with Canadian French, so of course I will put the flag of France. But yes, people gotta laugh at everything :)
@@PolyglotSecrets The title of your video is romance languages! Brazilian Portuguese wasn't born at that time! And phonetically it's different from real Portuguese !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Portuguese from Portugal is the romance language! Brazilian Portuguese has indigenous and African origins! They have their own styles and have changed the language in many ways.
@@vastoaspecto I don't give a damn about fame! Portuguese from Portugal is a romance language and true Portuguese unlike Portuguese from Brazil which was influenced by the natives and Africans they have their styles they changed the language on many things and your Portuguese was born in 1822 😂 romance was 1000 years ago
@Luzi.00 Not a very kind way to speak …
As a brazilian yes I agree about French.. but its not so harder than slavic languages 😂😅
I wish I could have an objective opinion on this, but as a Slavic speaker, I honestly can't imagine what our languages appear like to others.