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Which language is easiest to learn? - German, Spanish or Italian?

Hey people.
What do you think would be the easiest to learn. I am planning to follow in Kellywoods footsteps and take a GCSE whilst doing my A levels.
I do french GCSE btw and im taking it to A level.
Which of the GCSE's is easiest and quickest to learn without any prior knowledge in any of the subjects.
I find french quite easy and enjoyable so which of the languages is most similar.

Thank you x x x

Reply 1

leannemarie

11

Definitely Spanish or Italian. I did French and Spanish A Levels and wanted to do GCSE Italian but I couldn't arrange it for this year so I'm taking it next year, along with a French and Spanish degree and possibly a German diploma. In depends where your interests lie, but I would personally take Spanish, were I in your position. Not because I think it's easy, but between Spanish and Italian I think Spanish will be more useful and the resources are better.

Reply 2

Excalibur

15

If you did French, by far Spanish or Italian would be the easiest to pick up as they both have similar roots (however you might get confused a bit between similar words! :wink:

). German is very different, though if you want it's still not that difficult to pick up, and may be something fresh from romantic languages.

Reply 3

Gammon

OP

so what would you say between spanish and italian.
I think I prefer Italian culture and I would love to travel there however spanish is more universally spoken. Also on a webside I just looked at http://www.micheloud.com/FXM/LA/LA/ , it says spanish is easier.
If I were to study at uni which is more available??

Which would you guys personally go for between the two?

Reply 4

kellywood_5

17

Gammon

so what would you say between spanish and italian.
I think I prefer Italian culture and I would love to travel there however spanish is more universally spoken. Also on a webside I just looked at http://www.micheloud.com/FXM/LA/LA/ , it says spanish is easier.
If I were to study at uni which is more available??

Which would you guys personally go for between the two?

Oooh wow, I started a trend! :proud:

Anyway, I'm going to sit on the fence here and say you should just do whichever appeals to you more. Both are pretty widely available at university, although Spanish is probably offered by a few more places. I don't think there can be any definitive answer as to which is 'easier' because it will depend on the individual. Spanish would be more useful because it's more widely spoken. That probably didn't help at all, sorry!

Reply 5

generalebriety

16

Excalibur

...may be something fresh from romantic languages.

Erm... you mean Romance languages? :confused:

I don't like the Spanish culture. As a choice between those two I'd go for Italian. But out of all three definitely German. I spent ten days in Germany with no previous study, came back and got 100% on a mock German GCSE. :smile:

Spanish or Italian... you risk muddling them up with your French more, and also they're less 'interesting' if you like languages since you've already learnt something really similar. (I tried learning Spanish GCSE - while doing my AS subejcts! - and really couldn't care about it, as hard as I tried to.) Less interest = less motivation. Go for German.

Reply 6

*Farfalla*

2

Having studied both spanish and italian i have to say that Spanish is easier than Italian... Grammatically speaking Italian is more similar to French but the spelling & grammar is more complicated than Spanish IMO.

Personally I love Italian and it's a beautiful language... It's purely a personal choice and even if you pick one for GCSE now it's not ruling the other option out as you could always study it from scratch at uni aswell!

Reply 7

Excalibur

15

generalebriety

Erm... you mean Romance languages? :confused:

I don't like the Spanish culture. As a choice between those two I'd go for Italian. But out of all three definitely German. I spent ten days in Germany with no previous study, came back and got 100% on a mock German GCSE. :smile:

Spanish or Italian... you risk muddling them up with your French more, and also they're less 'interesting' if you like languages since you've already learnt something really similar. (I tried learning Spanish GCSE - while doing my AS subejcts! - and really couldn't care about it, as hard as I tried to.) Less interest = less motivation. Go for German.

Yeah, that's what I meant :p:

I was tired....

And I agree with you about German... and you got to GCSE standard in 10 days? Wow! :eek:

Reply 8

Jammertal

3

As nearly all the other said here: go for Spanish or Italian.

Reply 9

generalebriety

16

Jammertal

As nearly all the other said here: go for Spanish or Italian.

You would say that. You're German. :p:

Reply 10

Jammertal

3

That hadn't anything to do with my statement.

Reply 11

Cunning Linguist

3

Just by looking at the title of this thread and the first post - without a doubt, Spanish.

Reply 12

Saffie

11

I'd say German actually. Because the words are pronounced like they are written (once you understand the basic rules, you're sorted). So on your own, I think it's far easier to learn. There will also be less chance of getting muddled up because it's rather unlike the romance languages. Plus you don't need to be able to really understand grammar to get an overall A/A* (if that's what's putting you off).

Reply 13

Toby10107

In my eyes, there is no doubt, that if you are basing your decision on which language is easiest to learn, then you should choose Italian. Especially if you are currently studying French aswell. As someone else pointed out, Italian grammar is similar to that of French. However, if you really wanted to stretch yourself, I'd suggest German as that is more of a mental exercise, and requires a high level of intelligence and dedication to suceed in due to the complexity of grammar and syntax. It would also look far more impressive to an employer, compared to somebody who speaks two fairly similar romance languages.

Reply 14

lucho22

13

I would agree that Italian is probably the easiest - I can speak Italian pretty well only by going on holiday there once every so often. You can apply all the same grammatical rules as the other romance languages. Spanish in my opinion has slightly trickier grammar. German is quite tough, and (i know people will slate me for this :redface:

) it has a less interesting culture. I gave it up for GCSE because the grammar was tough, it is harsh sounding (again people disagree with this), and the cultural aspect just wasn't as captivating. Italy has a wonderful culture...and I'd envy anyone who would have the chance to go on exchange trips etc over there!

Reply 15

generalebriety

16

lucho22

German is quite tough, and (i know people will slate me for this :redface:

) it has a less interesting culture. I gave it up for GCSE because the grammar was tough, it is harsh sounding (again people disagree with this), and the cultural aspect just wasn't as captivating.

*covers ears and screams*

Jammertal

That hadn't anything to do with my statement.

You think so? It's not very well known, but most people (in some kind of cultural arrogance) assume their own language is much harder to learn than any other. In fact it's been "proven" that English is the hardest language for a foreigner to learn... over here in England. Anywhere else it will be different. Trust me, I've spoken to enough foreigners about this to know there is no most difficult language. :p:

Personally I have tried Spanish and German, and found German infinitely more interesting, simply because it's not just French with an accent like Spanish is sometimes. And more interest = more motivation, blah...

Reply 16

Jammertal

3

Fair enough. Hopwever, many others here agreed that German is comparably hard to learn- especially if you've learnt a Romance (bet it's wrong) language before.

Reply 17

Fleece

15

I do German and Italian as a degree and I find German easier because I've been speaking it longer, but when you look at all the complex grammar it's easy to class it as difficult to learn.
However, I like the rigid rules of German, because with Italian it's usually a rule and then about 300 exceptions. (I exaggerate but still...)

I can't speak for Spanish but (and not to be offensive) I know complete ******* who can speak it, so it can't be that difficult (waits for a torching)...

Reply 18

paddy

14

Spanish. The grammar isn't that difficult and much more similar to English than French or German. Spanish is completely phonetic as well, meaning you spell it as it sounds which is highly helpful. I started Spanish having already done French for a few years and found it unbelievably easy.
However I would find Italian very easy to start as I can pretty much understand 40-60% of any I see already, plus since I do Spanish and Latin, and have done French, the vocab really wouldn't be too much of an issue. In fact, I really want to start learning some this summer and may spend some time in Italy for my gap year.
Anyway I'd say go for Spanish.

Reply 19

allmyshoes

1

personally (i havent read any replies, btw, so sorry about that in advance..) i would find spanish the most difficult.
i've been speaking french almost my whole life, so i am reasonably familiar with 'romance languages', and when i started learning italian a year or so ago, i picked it up really quickly because of that. the accent is different obviously, but there are several similarities.
german i found incredibly easy at GCSE, but i have no idea how i'd feel about taking it further. the structures are very different to english AND french, so i dunno.

spanish would be terrible for me. new accentS, new accent, new inflections, new pronounciation.. i'd get the hang of it because i have an ear for languages, but it would definitely be the most difficult of the three.

so.. i would reccommend italian for someone with a prior knowledge of romance languages, i think. but if you want a change, german.

Which language is easiest to learn? - German, Spanish or Italian?

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