There is a common myth among English speakers that Spanish is easier to learn than French. In high schools, many students choose Spanish to fulfill foreign language credit requirements. Many students think that Spanish is more useful in the US and other countries, but others claim that Spanish is much easier and thus won’t take much work to learn. In many countries, Spanish classes or Spanish courses are the primary choices of many students.
When asked for more information, these urban legends always mention how difficult French is to pronounce and spell, compared to Spanish. And in this, at least, there is some truth.
For students who have studied both languages, some may find Spanish easier than French, and others may find French easier than Spanish. However, everyone learns and speaks preferences besides, there’s a lot more to a language than just its phonetics. Once you consider some other factors, such as syntax and grammar, the Spanish vs French claim loses a lot of validity.
Top 5 languages worldwide (including native and non-native speakers):
- English (1,132,000,000)
- Mandarin Chinese (1,117,000,000)
- Hindi (615,000,000)
- Spanish (534,000,000)
- French (280,000,000)
One Opinion: Spanish Is Easier
Spanish is a phonetic language, which means that the rules of orthography are very close to the rules of pronunciation. Each Spanish vowel has a single pronunciation and although a consonant may have two or more, there are very specific rules regarding its use, depending on where it is in the word and what letters it surrounds.
There are a few trick letters, like the silent H and the identical B and V, but all in all Spanish pronunciation and spelling are pretty straightforward. In comparison, French has a lot of silent letters and few rules with many exceptions, as well as relationships and fusions that add additional difficulties to pronunciation and aural comprehension.
There are precise rules for the accentuation of words and Spanish accents so you know when the rules are overwritten, whereas in French accentuation takes place with sentences rather than words. Once you know the Spanish pronunciation and accentuation rules, you can say new words without hesitation. This is rare in French, or English, for that matter.
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Another Opinion: French Is Easier
Spanish subject pronouns are usually dropped, so it’s important to have all the verb conjugations memorized to recognize as a listener and to express as a speaker the subject performing the action. French subject pronouns are always stated, which means that the conjugation of the verb, while still important, is not as important as understanding: yours or your listeners. In addition, French has only two words for “you” (singular / familiar and plural / formal), while Spanish has four (familiar singular, familiar plural, formal singular, and formal plural), or even five. There is a different singular/familiar used in parts of Latin America with its own conjugations.
What also makes French easier than Spanish is that French has fewer verbs/moods than Spanish.
French has a total of 15 verbs/moods, four of which are literary and rarely used, so only 11 are used in French on a daily basis.
The last straw is probably conjunctive conjugation. Although the subjunctive mood is difficult in both languages, it is more difficult and more common in Spanish.
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French and Spanish similarities
So how similar are French and Spanish to one other? You are well aware of the common linguistic heritage and the lexical resemblance between French and Spanish, but there are even more parallels.
Start with the alphabet, which is yet another obvious choice. The Latin alphabet includes 26 letters in total, with the addition of the “eñe” in Spanish. French and English also use the Latin alphabet.
There are also some significant grammatical parallels between French and Spanish. Both feature gendered nouns, two past tense options, two ways to say “you,” two ways to conjugate the verb “be,” and separate subjunctive verb forms.
The use of accents is another feature that distinguishes French and Spanish from English. Accents are used in both languages to denote phonetic emphasis over specific letters in words (although French has more accent marks than Spanish).
Due to their similarities, studying French and Spanish at the same time would probably be simpler than learning either language for the first time together with English.
Learning Spanish as a second language might not take very long for someone who already speaks French, or vice versa.
Conclusion
Now that we’ve covered what’s difficult and easy about learning each language, it’s time for you to make a choice! Both Spanish and French are eagerly awaiting you to master them. For Spanish, you can attend Spanish language classes in Mumbai or Spanish language courses in Mumbai, and for French, you can go for the same.
