What's the easier language to learn, Farsi or Arabic?

Question

I'm thinking of learning one of the two, but not sure which would be easier to grasp and more useful to know. Also, how difficult is it to learn a language from scratch, not being a child?

Answer 1

US library of Congress:

As part of the Indo-European family of languages, Persian is distantly related to Latin, Greek, the Slavic and Teutonic languages, and English. This relationship can be seen in such cognates as beradar (brother), pedar (father), and mader (mother). It is a relatively easy language for English-speaking people to learn compared with any other major language of the Middle East. Verbs tend to be regular, nouns lack gender and case distinction, prepositions are much used, noun plural formation tends to be regular, and word order is important. The difficulty of the language lies in the subtlety and variety of word meanings according to context.
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and never again use "farsi" instead of Persian , here's some articles on this issue :

Farsi or Persian ? (CHN)
http://heritage.chn.ir/en/Article/?id=88 [in English]
By Pejman Akbarzadeh.

Persian or Farsi? (PersianDirect)
http://www.persiandirect.com/articles/2004/july/id_00001.htm [in English]
By Ali Moslehi Moslehabadi

"FARSI", recently appeared language! (CAIS-SOAS)
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Languages/persian_not_farsi.htm [in English]
By Prof. Ehsan Yarshater.

Persian, not farsi (Iran Heritage)
http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/language-letter9.htm [in English]
By Fereshteh Davaran.

Farsi, is this a new language? (PGO)
http://persiangulfonline.org/articles/farsi.htm [in English]
By A. Rostam Beglie Beigie

"FARSI" or "PERSIAN"? What Is the English Name of Our Language? (Payvand)
http://www.payvand.com/news/03/dec/1083.html [in English]
By Pejman Akbarzadeh.

IRAN or PERSIA? FARSI or PERSIAN? (Iran Heritage)
http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/iranorpersia1.htm [in English]
By Pejman Akbarzadeh.

"FARSI" or "PERSIAN"? (Payvand)
http://www.payvand.com/news/05/dec/1063.html [in English]
By Pejman Akbarzadeh.

The announcement of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_announcement_of_the_Academy_of_Persian_Language_and_Literature [in English]

Persian or Farsi? (Iranian)
http://www.iranian.com/Features/Dec97/Persian/ [in English]
By Kamran Talattof.

"FARSI", recently appeared language! (PersianDirect)
http://www.persiandirect.com/articles/2004/july/id_00003.htm [in English]
By Prof. Ehsan Yarshater.

Technical Terminology
http://students.washington.edu/irina/persianword/tt.htm [in English]

Answer 2

Well my first language is Farsi.. Arabic grammar is hard to learn; even though, I can read arabic because our alphabets are basically the same, but for most parts I don't underestand it. I took arabic at school for 4 to 5 years but I can't speak a word, plus I lived in an arabic country for 9 years.
Well I never liked arabic language that is why I didn't learn it. but it is the common language for most middle east and north african countries. Farsi is hard to learn as well, but I guess is easier than arabic. In Farsi you don't have use female or male sign for every single word such as Spanish or French, but in arabic you do. and that is the hardest part for me, that is why i couldn't learn arabic or spanish.. Farsi is kinda like english, but maybe harder;)

Answer 3

Farsi is easier to grasp. Arabic is spoken in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Palestine and Western Sahara. The Persian language is spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, parts of Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and Southern Russia. Persian is in the Indo-European family of languages so the sounds are easier to pronounce than Arabic.

Answer 4

Learn Arabic With Rocket Arabic!

Answer 5

At first you should say "Persian" not "Farsi". Actually, while you are translating Iranian language to English, you should translate Farsi to Persian.

Persian is easier than Arabic.
In Arabic, French even in English you should use somethings like, She, He, etc.

In Persian language you don't need to use some subjects, Verbs, etc. for separating female and male or somethings like this.
Also, Persian language is contain of classical and modern literature with rich ancient history , so this is very fantastic to learn.

Answer 6

learning any language from scartch is hard lol.....i can tell u that when i meet my husband he was lebanese and arabic speaking i grew up in canada knowing only english and bits of french....so i had to begin a new journey from scratch its hard and all but its worth it in the end...i wud say they are equally as hard but farsi is sort of less common..most people know what arabic is and actually some words in farsi are alike and it looks the same to read..but like if ur travelling arabic is more common and u wud do better with it..good luck!

Answer 7

Arabic language is harder to learn than Farsi, but it is more usefull. this is because there are many countries speak it (comparing it to the Farsi).

Answer 8

i dunno, I'm an Arab but dnt know Farsi so if we're talkin about Arabic, its really easy to learn the spoken language but books language is kind of hard "till now, i cant write a whole page without grammatical mistakes!!!!!!! i was born in an Arab country n i've lived there since i was born n i had studied Arabic for 12 years n till now i dunno everything in grammar!!! but its easy to learn writing n reading, spelling wise!

Answer 9

I will go for arabic .... well to be honest its my mother language so i think its easier ;)

Answer 10

I Think Arabic..