The Easiest Languages to Learn for English Speakers

Thinking about learning a new language but not sure where to start? Good news: some languages are much friendlier to English speakers than others, and picking one of them means you'll understand real conversations sooner.

For English speakers, the easiest languages to learn are Spanish, French, Dutch, Norwegian and Afrikaans. According to the U.S. Foreign Service Institute (FSI),Spanish, Dutch and Norwegian take about 24 weeks (600 class hours) of full-time classroom study to reach professional working proficiency, and French takes 30 weeks (750 class hours).That is the shortest range the institute lists for native English speakers.

These languages are easier because they are closely related to English, or because they remove what usually slows learners down: irregular spelling, complex verb tenses and unfamiliar alphabets.

Key Takeaways

• Easiest for English speakers:Spanish, French, Dutch and Norwegian sit in the fastest tier of the U.S. Foreign Service Institute (FSI): 24 weeks (600 class hours) for Spanish, Dutch and Norwegian, and 30 weeks (750 class hours) for French. Afrikaans, a simplified offshoot of Dutch, is just as approachable, although the FSI no longer lists it.
• Easy in specific ways: Indonesian and Swahili (about 36 weeks, 900 class hours). Both use the Latin alphabet and spell words as they sound.
• For balance: Arabic is rewarding but much harder (about 88 weeks, 2,200 class hours).
• What makes a language easy: shared roots with English, consistent spelling and fewer verb conjugations.
• On Lingopie:Spanish, French, Dutch and Norwegian are among its 17 languages. Afrikaans, Indonesian, Swahili and Arabic are not.
• Learning with TV helps: in one study of 227 learners, captions with word translations more than doubled word-meaning recall compared with standard captions.
• No single winner: the easiest language depends on your native language and your goals.

On this page:What makes a language easy · How we chose · The 8 languages · Comparison table · How to choose · Learning with TV · Shows to start with · FAQs · Sources

For English speakers, the easiest languages to learn are Spanish, French, Dutch, Norwegian and Afrikaans. According to the U.S. Foreign Service Institute (FSI),Spanish, Dutch and Norwegian take about 24 weeks (600 class hours) of full-time classroom study to reach professional working proficiency, and French takes 30 weeks (750 class hours).That is the shortest range the institute lists for native English speakers.

These languages are easier because they are closely related to English, or because they remove what usually slows learners down: irregular spelling, complex verb tenses and unfamiliar alphabets.

What Makes a Language Easy to Learn?

A language is easy to learn when four things line up:

• Grammar: fewer verb conjugations, tenses and gendered nouns mean you build sentences faster.
• Vocabulary:a language is easiest when its vocabulary is similar to your first language.
• Writing system: a Latin alphabet with phonetic spelling saves months of work.
• Exposure: how often you hear and read the language decides how quickly it sticks.

How We Chose the Easiest Languages

We ranked languages by similarity to English (vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure), phonetic spelling and resource availability.

As a benchmark, we used the FSI's language-training page, whose timelines reflect 70 years of teaching U.S. diplomats. They show the average time to reach "Professional Working Proficiency," a Speaking-3/Reading-3 score on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale, often compared to B2–C1 on the CEFR.

The FSI says actual time varies with natural ability, prior language experience and classroom time, and its students study full-time. Earlier FSI lists placed Afrikaans in the easiest category, but the current list does not include it, so we judged it on grammar and resources.

8 Easy Languages to Learn for English Speakers

Spanish

Spanish is a highly phonetic Romance language, and the FSI puts it at 24 weeks (600 class hours).With five vowel sounds and regular spelling, you can read almost any new word aloud. Shared Latin roots, such as -tion becoming -ción, let you recognize hundreds of words early.

• Pros: consistent pronunciation, similar vocabulary, plenty of media.
• Cons: many verb conjugations, the subjunctive and gendered nouns.

It is the easiest starting point for US learners:more than 40 million US residents speak Spanish at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, as summarized by LanguageLine.

French

English shares thousands of words with French, largely since the Norman Conquest of 1066.The FSI puts it at 30 weeks (750 class hours), the longest estimate in its fastest tier.Pronunciation is the main hurdle: silent letters, nasal vowels and spelling that does not map neatly to sound.

• Pros: large vocabulary overlap and skills that carry over to other Romance languages.
• Cons: irregular spelling, gendered nouns, many tenses and hard listening.

French is easy on paper and harder by ear, so read first and listen second.

Norwegian

Norwegian is a North Germanic language.The FSI puts it at 24 weeks (600 class hours). Basic words such as hus (house), fisk (fish)and sommer (summer) look familiar, and verbs keep the same form for every subject.

• Pros: no conjugation by person and a familiar sentence structure.
• Cons: pitch patterns, regional dialects and fewer materials than Spanish or French.

Most learners start with Bokmål, the more common of its two written standards.Norwegian is one of the 17 languages on Lingopie.

Dutch

Dutch sits between English and German, so its vocabulary and word order feel familiar.The FSI puts it at 24 weeks (600 class hours). Words likewater and appel are easy to guess, though the guttural g and vowels such as ui take practice.

• Pros: simple sentences mirror English, andthere are no case endings on everyday nouns, unlike German.
• Cons: two articles (de and het) to memorize, and verbs that move to the end of subordinate clauses.

It is one of the 17 languages on Lingopie.

Afrikaans

Afrikaans developed from Dutch in South Africa, where it is an official language, and simplified much of Dutch grammar.It is not on the FSI's current list, but its grammar makes it one of the lightest Germanic languages to start.Verbs have one form for all subjects and nouns have no gender; the quirk is double negation with nie.

• Pros: very light grammar and recognizable Germanic vocabulary.
• Cons: far fewer courses and media than Spanish or French.

Indonesian

Indonesian is a good example of an Asian language that suits English speakers.The FSI puts it at about 36 weeks (900 class hours). It usesthe Latin alphabet with phonetic spelling, and has no conjugations, tenses or gendered nouns: words like kemarin (yesterday) show time.

• Pros: phonetic spelling and consistent sentence structure.
• Cons: few shared words with English, a formal and informal register split, and meaning-changing affixes.

Swahili

Swahili is a Bantu language widely spoken in East Africa, including Tanzania and Kenya.The FSI puts it at about 36 weeks (900 class hours). It is writtenin the Latin alphabet and pronounced as spelled, with no grammatical gender.

• Pros: phonetic spelling and a regular structure once you learn the prefixes.
• Cons: noun classes that change verb and adjective agreement, few cognates and fewer resources.

Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic)

Arabic is not easy for English speakers, and we include it for balance. According to the FSI, it needs about 88 weeks (2,200 class hours). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the formal variety used in news and literature across the Arab world.

• Pros: logical root-and-pattern words (k-t-b gives kitab, "book," and katib, "writer").
• Cons: a right-to-left script without short vowels, new sounds, complex conjugations and the gap between MSA and spoken dialects.

For conversation and TV, many learners add Egyptian Arabic, widely understood thanks to Egyptian film.

Easiest Languages to Learn: Comparison Table

Spanish, Dutch and Norwegian have the shortest FSI estimate (24 weeks); Arabic has the longest (88 weeks).

*Source: U.S. Foreign Service Institute, classroom hours to professional working proficiency.Lingopie availability as of November 2026.

Want to see how the harder languages compare? Watch our video ranking 16 languages from easiest to hardest, including German, Japanese and Korean.

How to Choose the Right Language

Start with your goals: Spanish for travel or work in the US, French or Dutch for Europe, Arabic for the Middle East. Then pick a language whose shows and books you enjoy, because you will study longer, and check that you can find media and partners to practice with.

Does Watching TV Help You Learn a Language?

Yes. Oxford linguist Robert Vanderplank writes that there is "nothing to compare with film and TV as resources for language learning," especially with captions (Captioned Media in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching, 2016).

• Word translations: in a study of 227 learners, captions with word translations more than doubled target-word meaning recall compared with standard captions (Montero Perez, Peters & Desmet, 2018).
• Listening: after one 68-minute episode, captioned viewers improved listening scores by 16.9 percentage points, versus 7.1 without captions (Birulés-Muntané & Soto-Faraco, 2016).
• Comprehension: across nine episodes, 250 learners averaged 87.4% correct with captions and 73.7% without (Pujadas & Muñoz, 2024).
• Vocabulary: a meta-analysis of 49 experiments found larger vocabulary gains with captions (Kurokawa, Hein & Uchihara, 2025).

These studies tested captioned viewing as a method, not any single app.

Practice With Lingopie: 6 Shows to Start With

Lingopie offers 5,000+ shows, podcasts and booksin 17 languages, and recommendsabout 10 minutes a day. Of the eight languages above,Spanish, French, Dutch and Norwegian are available. All six titles below are available on Lingopie in the US catalog as of November 2026.

Wake Up (Spanish)

Five teenagers in a world where reality and virtual reality are hard to tell apart.

• Best for: B1 learners who like sci-fi.
• Level, pace and accent: CEFR B1–B2 · fast · Castilian (Spain) · moderate youth and tech slang.

Colleagues (Spanish)

A gentle comedy about actors who reunite twenty years after their hit show.

• Best for: A2 learners who want everyday conversation and humor.
• Level, pace and accent: CEFR A2–B1 · moderate · Castilian (Spain) · moderate everyday slang.

Crazy Cruise (French)

A six-episode family comedy aboard a Mediterranean cruise.

• Best for: vocabulary for jobs, small talk, weddings and travel.
• Level, pace and accent: CEFR A2–B1 · moderate to fast · Standard France · low to moderate slang.

Fluid (French)

A workplace comedy about four characters and three couples.

• Best for: intermediate learners who want relationship and daily-life expressions.
• Level, pace and accent: CEFR B1 · fast · Standard France · moderate to high colloquial French.

Wonder: Stories of the Unexplained (Dutch)

True stories from the Netherlands and beyond, in 10–15-minute episodes.

• Best for: A2 beginners, thanks to clear narration and everyday vocabulary.
• Level, pace and accent: CEFR A2 · slow narration · Standard Dutch · little or no slang.

Vermist (Dutch)

A Belgian-Dutch crime series about missing persons cases.

• Best for: intermediate learners training their ear on Flemish accents and police vocabulary.
• Level, pace and accent: CEFR B1–B2 · fast · Belgian Dutch (Flemish) · police jargon and Flemish idioms.

FAQs

What is the easiest language to learn for English speakers?

Spanish is the most common answer because of its phonetic spelling and abundant resources.By FSI learning time, Spanish, Dutch and Norwegian share the shortest estimate at 24 weeks, and French follows at 30 weeks.

Is Spanish easier than French?

For most learners, yes. Spanish pronunciation is more consistent, while French has silent letters and irregular spelling.

Which easy language has the simplest grammar?

Indonesian and Afrikaans. Indonesian has no conjugations, tenses or gendered nouns; Afrikaans uses one verb form for all subjects and has no grammatical gender.

What are the hardest languages for English speakers?

The FSI puts Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean in its hardest group, at about 88 weeks (2,200 class hours).

How long does it take to learn an easy language?

The FSI estimates 24 weeks (600 class hours) for Spanish, Dutch and Norwegian, and 30 weeks (750 class hours) for French.These are full-time classroom estimates, not promises.

Can you learn a language by watching TV?

TV helps most with captions. In one study, captioned viewers improved listening scores by 16.9 percentage points after one episode, versus 7.1 without captions.

Which of these languages can I learn on Lingopie?

Spanish, French, Dutch and Norwegian. Afrikaans, Indonesian, Swahili and Arabic are not among Lingopie's 17 languages.

Conclusion

There is no single easiest language.Spanish, Dutch and Norwegian have the shortest FSI estimate, French follows closely, and Afrikaans is just as approachable on grammar.Pick the one that fits your goals and the media you enjoy, thenchoose Spanish, French, Dutch or Norwegianand practice with subtitled shows on Lingopie.

Sources

• U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Institute. Foreign Language Training.
• LanguageLine Solutions. Limited English Proficient Census data (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey).
• Vanderplank, R. (2016). Captioned Media in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Montero Perez, M., Peters, E. & Desmet, P. (2018). Vocabulary learning through viewing video. Computer Assisted Language Learning 31.
• Birulés-Muntané, J. & Soto-Faraco, S. (2016). Watching Subtitled Films Can Help Learning Foreign Languages. PLOS ONE 11.
• Pujadas, G. & Muñoz, C. (2024). When to switch captions off? Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching 14.
• Kurokawa, S., Hein, J. & Uchihara, T. (2025). Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Through Captioned Viewing: A Meta-Analysis. Language Learning 75.