what is the easiest language to learn? and the hardest?

Answer 1

the one you are raised with
one that you are not
or latin

Answer 2

The hardest language, hmmm. Again a debatable question.
Each language is dependant on the complexity it presents to potential students, and the desire and mental discipline that those students command. English is a contender because of all its bastardizations and idioms. Navaho (Navajo) is also. They used Navaho as a code language in the Pacific because of its complexity during World War II.

The constructed language Esperanto is the strongest contender as the easiest language because it is designed to be just that. A look at its history will show you that it is expanding exponentialy. In numerous studies conducted over the last century, it has been demonstrated that first mastering Esperanto can lessen significantly the amount of instruction required for a third or forth language, because it clearly demonstrated linguistic theory that is useful in understanding languages. The link below provides details on this phenomena.
Now one could say that the same effect would happen with almost any language, and I believe they are correct. So if you are in a position to learn any language, and hope to use it to vault into a third language, then by all means do so.
The only real benefit that Esperanto has over the other tongues in this case is its ease of absorption, and its clear demonstration of linguistic principles.
I frequently make this next statement, and I live by it.

"If you can't learn Esperanto, you can't learn any language."

At the very least, if you learn Esperanto first, which by the way can lead to the enjoyment of meeting new friends and traveling to new places, you'll at least have that under your belt regardless of how far you decide to take any other languages.
It's not uncommon for a student of Esperanto to become fluent inside of a month, maybe less, if you've the desire.

Please don't let anybody tell you it's useless. As with anything else, it's use is dependant on how you decide to use it. With over 2,000,000 speakers in the world, there aren't too many places where you won't find it, you just need to look. The internet is the best place to start. The sites below are the best intitial places to investigate the language and it's history. (Yes, it has a history (120 years) and a culture.)
Research and make your own conclusions.

Ĝis!

Source(s):

Answer 3

Esperanto could be the easiest language to learn, since it was designed to be simple.

Other western languages like French or Spanish will be easier easier than Asiatic languages or Russian. Chinese is particularly difficult, as the vocabulary is far away from English words, the writing system is different and requires a lot of memory, and the pronunciation is difficult as well because there are numerous possible accentuations.

(Assuming an English background.)

Answer 4

I've been told that English is the hardest to learn. There are so many variations and slang in our everyday language that I can see how it would be difficult to learn. I don't know which would be easiest. Probably Spanish.

Answer 5

i'm not sure about the easiest, cos i only know english, but i had heard that icelandic is the hardest language to learn in the world. Also, one of the chinese languages has somethin like 50,000 symbols so remembering how to say, write and read many of them will be hard

Answer 6

I'm not so sure about the easiest, but I am fairly positive that the hardest language to learn is English. And by that, I don't mean the English most people speech (incorrect, slang, etc.) but proper, grammatically correct English.

There are so many double meanings and contridictions. There are tons of rules to learn, and 101 words that are eaily confused/commonly misspelled (desert and dessert, for example).

Answer 7

from what background?
If you're learning with an English background, I'd suggest Spanish. There are a lot of cognates, pronunciation isn't terribly different, and it's becoming increasinly popular, especially in the US.
Greek is pretty difficult from an English background because there are rules we don't use in our language, such as declensions and cases. German and Russian (I think) have those too ... Slavic and Germanic languages seem the most difficult, from what I've seen.

Answer 8

english and german are really easy! the grammar is nothing.... sanskrit is the most difficult language. i want very very much to learn how to speak and write. i use a site to learn....but i have to tell you that greek is the hardest language of all. and if you try ancient greek.....big mistake!! i am greek, i know what im saying

Answer 9

The easiest language is Hindi & english.
Hardest is Sanskrit.

Answer 10

I think french is really easy because half the worlds look the same in English (ex: hopital=hospital)

English is supposedly the hardest

Answer 11

In my opinion:

Easiest: Spanish and Portuguese (if you already speak Spanish)

A little harder: French, German

Hardest: Finnish, English, Chinese, Icelandic, and languages using a different alphabet

Example: kaksikymmentäyksi = 22 (Finnish)