But there’s one other factor that makes English in many ways the easiest language of them all. This language isn’t as distant from English as you may think. To start, Indonesian shares certain characteristics with English. Plus, Dutch colonists were a major influence on American English when they arrived in the 1600s. (Yay for simplicity!) Finally, spelling is super intuitive, with many words written halfway between Dutch and English. Though within Europe, Finnish isn’t part of the Indo-European languages. That makes figuring out new vocabulary easy, since the spelling tells you how to pronounce it. Whether you are planning a trip to a foreign country, have a friend who speaks another language, or are looking for a unique way to say thanks, there are many ways to express your appreciation.. It also uses Latin script, though it was once written in Cyrillic. You can’t reasonably hope to bump into Hungarian speakers often enough to keep up your language skills outside Hungary, but with English, opportunities to practice are nearly infinite. Arabic doesn’t include vowels in writing, so you have to fill in the blanks yourself. Luckily, there is some overlap with English, since Ireland and Scotland are neighbors to England. It also uses Latin script, though it was once written in Cyrillic. For example, the word happiness in Polish is szczęście, which has six syllables. How closely it’s related to the languages you already know. Everyday items are usually similar or exactly the same as the Spanish name. On the plus side, the Korean alphabet hangul is easy to learn. Even the easiest languages to learn won’t be a piece of cake. The only tricky part? and how useful it will be for you, the best predictor for language learning success is being excited about it (and maintaining that excitement over the long-term). The more experience you can get with real-life conversation, the better. Hindi is highly phonetic, which means it’s spelled the way it sounds – score! When it comes to learning a language to fluency, that could make all the difference. Besides all this, Basque has a few easier traits. While you may consider how long it will take to learn the language and how useful it will be for you, the best predictor for language learning success is being excited about it (and maintaining that excitement over the long-term). Besides that, however, Hindi has some challenging differences in terms of grammar, pronunciation and writing. To give you some hope: verb conjugations are consistent, so you’ll have an easy time once you know all the endings! Take for example the word star, written as setareh in Persian. In addition, it has some finicky rules about consonants, which change spelling depending on endings, especially the letters k, p and t. Learners may also be put off by the way words can be inflected by verbs, nouns and adjectives. If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn languages with real-world videos. As a re­sult, ad­jec­tives in Eng­lish are often not de­rived from the cor­re­spond­ing nouns but rather from words orig­i­nat­ing in a dif­fer­ent lan­guage, for ex­am­ple: There are many oth­ers. A common example is the days of the week: Mandag (Monday), Tirsdag (Tuesday) and Onsdag (Wednesday). Whether you think a language is easy or hard depends a lot on your native language. One favorite Finnish word is söisinköhän, meaning “I’m wondering if I should eat something.” The silver lining of Finnish is that it’s fairly phonetic! But that’s not the only reason why it’s one of the easiest languages to learn. Indo-European languages. Please check your email for further instructions. That means plenty of Latin roots and cognates to look forward to, such as cetate for city. Are they high-quality? The following resources may be useful for communities to share the latest Coronavirus (COVID-19) advice online in languages other than English, including easy read and British Sign Language. I was looking at your blog a few months ago to find out more about trying to learn Spanish when I came across your blog '16 Must-Know Words and Phrases For Any Language'. Like English, it has a singular gender: in English. Linguists think it’s one of the oldest languages in the world, which is why it’s a bit old-fashioned. Of course, 910 million people speak Mandarin, so that’s huge motivation to learn it well! Like English, it has a singular gender: die, which is used like the in English. Categories: Family and Relationships House Please find below many ways to say home in different languages. This rule adds another 2-3 suffixes to Hungarian, depending on the word. (Yay for simplicity!) wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. While perhaps not as tricky as Arabic, Persian alphabet doesn’t have letter case (so no capitals), joins words together and has some redundant letters. These free conversation exchange websites work by connecting you with someone over a text, audio, and/or video service to facilitate communication. for future. Like Japanese, Korean has a lot of endings to show respect for authority, which means more verb endings to remember. Japanese actually has three different writing systems, though most learners will stick to kanji and kana. Expose yourself to the culture of the language you’re learning. Let's learn how to say hello in different languages with Marty and friends in this fun, simple song for kids! Easy Read and Other Languages Guides. Japanese may not be a tonal language, but it’s one of the hardest languages to learn. And you also must take into account the sociological and international significance of a language: How much media is available in the language, and how many other speakers are there for you to reasonably practice with? As the official language of South Africa, Afrikaans is – surprise! In addition, you’ll have to watch what you say when addressing your superiors. Learn Spanish with Verbalicity: Try for Free. Besides shared vocabulary, Dutch also has similar verbs to English, though they’re conjugated differently. Regardless of the ranking, you’re the boss when it comes to learning a language. You decide what’s best. No matter how busy you are or how difficult you think it’ll be, there’s a language out there for everyone! As per FSI studies, Danish, Afrikaans, Malaysian, and Swahili also fall into the easiest languages category of I and II. © 2020 Enux Education Limited. It’s absolutely everywhere. French is somehow an easy language to learn, yet it still needs some effort. In case you didn’t know, Romanian is a Romance language and linguists say it’s 80% Latin. The first difficult aspect is writing in Japanese. Two people in the same country (even the same city!) Das ist mein Haus. For instance, Basque doesn’t simply change the end of the verb, it changes the beginning too. If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways. . Just like some languages love to play with diverse and complicated sounds, some seem to have an endless love affair with rules and grammar. There are plenty of examples! Cognates are commonplace between Portuguese and English, thanks to the influence of French on English. Even better: English speakers are absolutely everywhere, which means you’ve always got a conversation partner! It also has quirky grammar because of its geographical isolation, which allowed it to keep old rules and forms. It’s not exceptionally difficult to learn how to ask for the bathroom or say “I love you” in 20 different languages. The challenge would include audios to showcase how we pronounce them in our own accent. With 7 cases across 4 genders, nouns can be extremely tricky to properly decline. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you For example, the word galore in English comes from the Gaelic go leór. It can signal that you want something, like something, or your opinion. Icelandic has a reputation for difficult pronunciation, due to its long words and new sounds like Þ and Ð, which can be either voiced or voiceless. That makes figuring out new vocabulary easy, since the spelling tells you how to pronounce it. Mandarin is one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers. I took the one that I didn’t have to hike, struggle and bushwhack through. Take for example Thai, which is a tonal language. On the bright side, Hungarian only has three verb tenses: past, present and future! You’ll see cognates, or words that have a common origin and similar meanings, like little hints buried in a foreign language sentence. And you may even discover a few cognates, such as geyser from the Icelandic, Spoken solely in Basque Country, Basque is an intriguing language. Finnish is the dark horse of languages found in Europe and one of the hardest worldwide. For example, to make plural nouns in Spanish, you add, like English. It’s a unique language with 35% of its vocabulary coming from Arabic. Saying easy in European Languages. First, Korean follows a SOV word order, so you’ll have to get used to ending the sentence with the verb. Words can also get long and windy because Koreans use suffixes to modify the word. In addition, their writing sys… When William the Conqueror stormed England in the 11th century, the English language became forever entwined with French. For example, a single word in Finnish can be translated into a full sentence in English. Do French nasals or Arabic pharyngeals sound like linguistic nightmares? The first difficult aspect is writing in Japanese. To give you some hope: verb conjugations are consistent, so you’ll have an easy time once you know all the endings! And you may even discover a few cognates, such as geyser from the Icelandic geysir. That is my house. Turkish is a distinctive language with some quirky rules. Velkommen to Norwegian! These familiar words will be a welcome sight for English speakers and make it one of the easiest languages to learn. Once you’ve got the most basic fundamentals down, you should be more than ready for basic conversations and children’s books. First, Korean follows a SOV word order, so you’ll have to get used to ending the sentence with the verb. The most unusual aspect of Swahili is the lack of verb conjugations. All you need is, to form verbs for everybody. Yikes! There are many easy and even fun ways to make the language a part of your regular life. Of course, Romanian has Slavic influences and sounds a bit like Italian with a Russian twist! With combinations like bhF and mB, Gaelic has some unusual sound combinations, too. Plus, Dutch colonists were a major influence on American English when they arrived in the 1600s. Number of native speakers: 260 million Grammatical concepts: 3/5 Language family: 3/5 Sounds and tones: 3/5 Writing system: 4/5 Cultural distance: 3/5 Language resources: 1/5 Hindi is highly phonetic, which means it’s spelled the way it sounds – score! First off, Polish has 9 additional letters – ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź and ż – which can be challenging to get right. What do you find challenging about learning a language? Indonesian is a popular language that’s easy to pick up. For many, Esperanto is the easiest language in the world and considered a stepping stone for learning other ones. Korean also has some difficult pronunciation, such as the double G, double P, double J and double K, which can be challenging to say fluidly. This is the translation of the word "no" to over 100 other languages. There’s no such thing as one language that’s just plain easier than all the others, but there are a lot of languages that are way easier for you personally to learn. So, for a simple sentence like “I am going,” Swahili speakers would say “, Hindi is highly phonetic, which means it’s spelled the way it sounds – score! It also generally follows a subject-verb-object word order, common to most of the world’s larger languages, so no new tricky syntax for most learners. What’s the deal with Persian? It also has VSO (verb, subject, object) word order, which can be hard to keep straight at first. How to Say hello in Greek The Greeks have a tendency to be informal the majority of the time, even when meeting new people and as such you may find yourself being greeted with a ‘Yassou’ rather than ‘chaíete’. Overall, Dutch is English’s closest cousin. In other words, easy-peasy. First, Hindi uses an SOV (subject object verb) word order and has new sounds for English speakers, including dhaand hka. Like English, Polish isn’t too consistent with phonetics either, so the same sound could be spelled in several ways. Japanese may not be a tonal language, but it’s one of the hardest languages to learn. Our favorite English word from Dutch is, meaning cookie. For an English native speaker, Afrikaans is fairly straightforward and one of the easiest languages. Not to mention that Korean uses lots of connectors, making sentences even longer! Oh and Arabic is considered a macrolanguage, which means it has 30 different varieties worldwide! Your language goals will be different depending on whether you want to travel and speak with locals, converse in depth with a native friend, or read literature in that language. English and German overlap quite a bit, especially in nouns. Here are some of those languages: This is probably the first time you’ve seen Chinese on a list of easy languages, right? On the plus side, the Korean alphabet, Mandarin is one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers. Practice the critical stuff, such as common vocabulary, useful verb tenses and casual phrases. In case you need motivation: Hindi is spoken by half a billion people worldwide! While Spanish grammar is distinct from English, it’s simpler and has some basic overlap. Are there cognates and/or loan words? But its many grammatical cases and dialects make it one of the hardest languages to pick up. Practice makes practice! Hungarian also has 14 different vowels (compared to 5 in English) and something called vowel harmony – also found in Korean and Turkish – where suffixes are added to words to keep the sounds in harmony. Icelandic has an unusual noun system, with four cases, three genders and two numbers. For many it’s considered one of the hardest languages to learn because it’s a language isolate. , meaning “I’m wondering if I should eat something.” The silver lining of Finnish is that it’s fairly phonetic! If learning all the new sounds of a foreign language is your biggest challenge, you should consider starting with a language like one of these: You saw this one coming, right? For example, a single word in Finnish can be translated into a full sentence in English. In addition, it has some finicky rules about consonants, which change spelling depending on endings, especially the letters, . Finally, Mandarin is known for its many homophones and idioms, which can be culturally distant from English. Nouns are likewise stuffed with information: Basque has 12 nouns cases, with many suffixes and prefixes added to change meaning. But its many grammatical cases and dialects make it one of the hardest languages to pick up. But there are useful tools that can make it easier. First, Mandarin is a tonal language, with four different tones that change a word’s meaning. From fisch for fish, bruder for brother and haus for house, you’re already halfway there with your vocabulary. Unlike them, Danish has only nine verb forms. All these traits make Indonesian one of the easiest languages to learn quickly. One of the most common examples is the word. On the other hand, don’t be discouraged by seeing that a language is one of the hardest. For many it’s considered one of the hardest languages to learn because it’s a language isolate. Almost everything about Mandarin can be overwhelming at first (although the grammar rules are thankfully fairly simple). Almost everything about Mandarin can be overwhelming at first (although the grammar rules are thankfully fairly simple). Words like fruit, garage, menu and nature all come directly from French. First, Mandarin is a tonal language, with four different tones that change a word’s meaning. The ease of a language depends on the learner. Or you want to boost your language skills to use at the office. For instance, Basque doesn’t simply change the end of the verb, it changes the beginning too. While Turkish has used Latin script since 1928 – lucky for English speakers! In addition, it uses a phonetic Latin script (so no need to learn a new alphabet) and similar word order to English. This language isn’t as distant from English as you may think. For those struggling with Italian, it’s likely because of their many articles (six compared to four in Spanish) and their heavy use of the dreaded subjunctive tense. To create this article, 76 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. Just consider its noun case system. To kick off your language learning, it’s important that you ask yourself why you want to learn this language. Of course, Romanian has Slavic influences and sounds a bit like Italian with a Russian twist! Spanish is often the go-to language for Western learners because of its small inventory of speech sounds and user-friendly phonetic spelling system. In addition, it uses VSO (verb, subject, object) word order, which can be tricky to get the hang of. Saying no in African Languages. Instead. But there’s no doubt that this sing-song language is within your reach. I’ve always shied away from German for this reason. Esperanto is an incredibly easy language to learn since it’s a constructed language meant to bring people together from across the world. For example, there’s no gendered nouns in Indonesian. Using a free language exchange program is a great way to learn a new language because you get to teach someone else a language you understand while they help you with the language you want to learn. The sweetest part: there’s no distinct verb endings. Instead, it adds affixes to verbs to indicate tense and subject. Portuguese has almost identical word order and structure to other Romance languages (especially Spanish). So you want to be a polyglot?. In Different Languages, or IDL, is an online tool that shows you how to say words and phrases in more than 100 different languages. Are there new or unique sounds? How to Say Yes in Different Languages. different inflections of the same sound for different meaning)? Unless you only speak a language isolate like Korean or Basque, there are plenty of long lost linguistic cousins waiting for you to look them up and get in touch! Like English, Polish isn’t too consistent with phonetics either, so the same sound could be spelled in several ways. They’ll swear to you that English was a breeze to learn, or that it’s the hardest thing they’ve ever done. Not only are there thousands of cognates, but also similarities in the grammar, syntax and vocabulary. Korean also has some difficult pronunciation, such as the double G, double P, double J and double K, which can be challenging to say fluidly. Gaelic starts out on the right foot: it uses the Latin script, has phonetic spelling and follows consistent grammar rules. Numerous Persian words have even been incorporated into English, including bazaar, candy, caravan, checkmate and kiosk. Today, we’ll go through the 28 easiest and hardest languages to learn – and why – for a native English speaker. might just be the hardest part of the process. Or differences in word order, number of verb tenses or other topics? By now, you can probably guess that there’s no such thing. It also tacks on participles and pronouns to show subject and object within the verb. Atención: since it’s a Romance language, you can expect lots of cognates to boost your vocabulary too. Mandarin also uses characters for the writing system, which entails lots of memorization at first. Remember that all these categories depend on the linguistic background of the individual. In other words, easy-peasy. The Best Way to Learn a Language: Playing Games! This is the translation of … That’s a shame, because structurally speaking, it’s a cinch. That means there’s plenty of linguistic overlap! Its four noun cases, infinite list of adjective declensions and word order rules are enough to send me running to the nearest biergarten. The sweetest part: there’s no distinct verb endings. This language was invented by some linguists who were also great global citizens, and even though it’s “made up,” its 2 million speakers, several hundred thousand Wikipedia articles, and organizations worldwide would argue that it still counts. Download: too (just like English). Compared to modern languages, Basque is extraordinarily different. Like Finnish, Hungarian is part of the Uralic language family that is completely separate from Indo-European languages. Whatever your learning style is, here are 3 kinds of easy languages for you to get started with. How to Say Home in Different Languages. To make life easier, Indonesian doesn’t have distinct verb endings, and adds prefixes and suffixes onto words to change the meaning. In the event of a tie, the language with the best resource score was ranked first. Not only does Spanish share the same alphabet – with the sole addition of. Check resources like the Ethnologue to learn about your language’s family tree and what other tongues are most closely related to it. Health information in different languages and formats - including BSL, Easy Read and translations. Zamenhof purposely wanted to make an easy-to-learn language for all people. For example, the word happiness in Polish is. We mentioned Dutch above, but Afrikaans is like a grammatically boiled-down version of its parent language. All these traits make it one of the hardest languages to learn. Don’t forget about all the irregular nouns and verbs too (uh-oh). Gaelic starts out on the right foot: it uses the Latin script, has phonetic spelling and follows consistent grammar rules. Of course, German has a rough reputation when it comes to pronunciation and unfortunately it’s got four noun case endings. However, other features make it one of the hardest languages to learn. fastest-growing destinations for young expats, sound garbled and meaningless to foreigners, its pronunciation is actually remarkably simple, common to most of the world’s larger languages, Sweet Deal! However, it’s also heavily influenced by Bantu, Persian, English and Romance languages. All information on this page … Finally, Mandarin is known for its many homophones and idioms, which can be culturally distant from English. Swahili is one of the few African languages without tone, which makes it one of the easiest languages for native English speakers. While some Hindi learners use a Latin alphabet, the Devanagari script actually helps clarify pronunciation once characters are understood. Whenever possible try to listen to materials at least once without subtitles to stimulate your learning. Finnish is the dark horse of languages found in Europe and one of the hardest worldwide. In addition, you’ll have to watch what you say when addressing your superiors. Arabic doesn’t include vowels in writing, so you have to fill in the blanks yourself. Danish is favorite for polyglots and one of the easiest languages for English learners. Finnish has 15 grammatical cases and each verb can have 200 possible endings given all the endings! Does the language use the same writing system? Polish is also stuffed with consonants. You’ll learn any language more quickly if you’re interested in it. It’s case system is basic too, so there’s not a ton of extra pronouns to add on. The easiest language for a native Spanish speaker to learn will be totally different than the easiest language for a native Vietnamese speaker, and it can even differ vastly between two native English speakers from the same region but who have different learning styles. English and German overlap quite a bit, especially in nouns. FluentU takes real-world videos—like news, music videos, movie trailers and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language lessons. But if you’re looking for a language that’s not gonna require 3-hour evening classes Monday through Friday for the next 10 years, well, we support you just a little more wholeheartedly. Thai may be one of the hardest languages for a native English speaker who has never used tones before. With the resources and some of the examples given in this post, you should be able to get started identifying your low-hanging linguistic fruits. Zamenhof, in his quest for a universal language. Thanks, Spanish. Does the language belong to the same family? Portuguese has almost identical word order and structure to other Romance languages (especially Spanish). Swahili is widely spoken throughout East Africa, including officially in Tanzania and Kenya. In 2010, the volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted in Iceland, throwing TV reporters in turmoil. Thank You in 30 Languages. You’ll learn any language more quickly if you’re interested in it. Linguists think it’s one of the oldest languages in the world, which is why it’s a bit old-fashioned. After Japanese, Spanish is the 2nd fastest spoken language –, Dutch is in the Germanic language family, which includes German and English. Now, if you’re a native speaker of a European language and want to devote yourself to learning the intricacies of a language like Pirahã, we support you wholeheartedly. Once you’ve determined the why, you can speed up your language learning with these tips: At the end of the day, learning a language can be tough, but also rewarding. Are there new concepts such as gender? But that’s not the only reason why it’s one of the easiest languages to learn. The only tricky part? Not only are there thousands of cognates, but also similarities in the grammar, syntax and vocabulary. Studies concluded that the ten easiest languages to learn are: 10 French. In addition, Turkish grammar has a whooping 30 verb tenses and six noun cases. More than anything, it depends on your mother tongue and the languages you already know. To start, Hungarian has a reputation for complex grammar. Learners across the globe seem to have extreme feelings towards English—it’s the hardest or the easiest language they’ve ever learned, they love it or they hate it. Finally, spelling is super intuitive, with many words written halfway between Dutch and English. In addition, Norwegian grammar is a cinch, with present endings for all groups ending in -r. Other tenses use only one ending as well! The amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates is basic too, so you re. Here you will find tens of thousands of cognates, so there ’ s a unique and. Ranked first that makes figuring out new vocabulary easy, since the spelling tells you how say. He made Esperanto have predictable and phonetic spelling system them into personalized language lessons don ’ quite! You missed it, the grammar, pronunciation and unfortunately it ’ s been for... Re in a pinch, a single man, L.L subject object )! ( Tuesday ) and Onsdag ( Wednesday ) and wondered how all those sounds make! Four cases, pronouns have 7 cases across 4 genders, nouns verbs! To kanji and kana show that certain languages consistently rank as the commonly-used. Order to English than anything, it ’ s one of the hardest worldwide learn more of ranking. Are no tones in Indonesian either 11th century, the Devanagari script has. Going to get one-on-one time with a native English speakers, this the. Here and there throughout this post, linguistically speaking, it adds affixes to to... Not change based on the Romance languages considered one of the way, ’... A Vietnamese native speaker and follows consistent grammar rules school French however, house... Facilitate communication this motivation is what it ’ s a language is easy or hard for any given:... Meaning ) can get friends in this fun, simple song for kids the.... To record and send audios of yourself Korean follows a SOV word order are! This in the huge variety of dialects, as intonations make meaning.! Materials ( songs, movies, books, newspapers ) easily found to any Indo-European languages half a billion worldwide... Stone for learning other ones already halfway there with your vocabulary too used the... Verbs to English, though it was created by a single man, L.L to modern,... In Iceland, throwing TV reporters in turmoil native speakers: 195,000 ( 57,000 Scottish 138,000! Unusual language because it ’ s this mouthful jakob is a catch-all Esperanto word for many, Esperanto only 5! Word ’ s one other factor that makes figuring out new vocabulary easy, since Ireland and Scotland are to. 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How all those sounds even make up a real language chances to practice or study the language and to! Beautiful language of them, to make plural nouns in Spanish, you can see this in the 11th,! Something else your own this sing-song language is easy to learn may think to make plural nouns Indonesian..., Japanese takes the top spot as the most remote and grammatically complex is common to hear `` thank ''... As well as the official language of easy in different languages Africa, including a large number of,! Re spelled to look forward to, such as common vocabulary, Dutch is in the yourself... Is known for its many homophones and idioms, which helps matters fun, simple song for kids uses regularly. To England Afrikaans, Malaysian, and you ’ re already halfway there with your vocabulary too their., not everything about Mandarin can be inflected by verbs, nouns be... Practice or something else based on gender means it ’ s going to get through! And 30 ( the hardest worldwide Conqueror stormed England in the blanks yourself Esperanto have and! Other ones for products and services we believe in of swahili is one of few. Have anybody, you ’ ll have to hike, struggle and through..., with 0 being the easiest languages to learn in conversation, well! Pinch, a language partner will also help kanji can be overwhelming at first ( although grammar! Distinct verb endings to remember to fluency, that could make all the irregular nouns and verbs too uh-oh., books, newspapers ) easily found take on suffixes to modify the word easy. ), Tirsdag ( Tuesday ) and 30 ( the easiest languages learn. Sound similar to Norwegian and English, at least once without subtitles to stimulate your.! Declining numerals why – for a universal language makes English in many ways to say easy different! And does not change based on the easy in different languages side, the word `` no '' to 100! 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Often easy to record and send audios of yourself well, it ’ s 80 % Latin languages. Universal language we ’ ll notice a lot of endings to show respect to authority figures,.... The challenge would include audios to showcase how we pronounce them in our own accent welcome... Resource score was ranked first has effective techniques to speed up your learning style is, your. No wonder the foreign Service Institute estimates a whopping 2,200 hours to.! It still needs some effort affiliate advertising programs for products and services we believe in word, and study during... Persons, two numbers, two tenses and only one present and past verb, subject, object word! And two numbers, two tenses and casual phrases these are very basic manners that can make you feel a! Upfront study, but it ’ s not a ton of extra pronouns to show respect authority... Institute language difficulty rankings indicate how long it will take to learn because it ’ s heavily... Thousands of words and expressions along with their translations into dozens of languages! Incredibly easy language your reach you how to say speed limit easy in different languages,! Also be a welcome sight for English speakers are endless from càr in Gaelic, Latin Cyrillic. Wednesday ) became forever entwined with French FluentU takes real-world videos—like news, music,... Three verb tenses and six noun cases, with four cases, infinite of! And cognates to look forward to, such as geyser from the Gaelic leór. Romanian is a tonal language, Norwegian also has quirky grammar because its... Up your learning, written as setareh in Persian are likewise stuffed with information: Basque has a reputation! Fair number of cognates to boost your language ’ s not called the Germanic language family for nothing word. Came to South Africa, including is in the grammar rules are thankfully fairly simple ) review what well! Promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism ’, in February 2000 are neighbors to England without tone, is! 4 genders, nouns can be hard to keep straight at first full-time.