The closer a language is to your native language, the easier it is to learn. If you know Spanish, it could take you half the time to master Portuguese; if you know Dutch, you’ll have a much easier time learning Afrikaans.
But what about English? What is the closest language to English and is it easier for you to learn that language?
What Language is Most Similar to English?
English is an incredibly diverse language. It borrows words from Latin, Greek, German, French, and Scandinavian languages. It’s as diverse as the people who speak it, and none of the world’s major languages are as similar to English as Danish is to Norwegian or Dutch is to Afrikaans.
But there are a couple of minor languages that you may have overlooked, as well as some major languages that aren’t too far removed.
The Closest Language to English: Scots
Scots is technically the closest language to English, but it’s debatable whether it’s actually a language.
According to a study conducted by the Scottish government, even the majority of Scottish residents don’t consider it to be a separate language.
If you have no exposure to Scottish accents, it’ll definitely sound like a completely different language. If you’re in the UK, you’ll likely just recognize it as a really strong Scottish accent.
In any case, it has its very own Wikipedia entries, literature, and poetry, including the work of Robert Burns.
Here are a few passages from Auld Lang Syne (a Robert Burns poem often sung at New Year) to give you an idea of how this language looks and sounds:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?[a]
For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And surely ye’ll be your pint-stoup!
and surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
There is no universal criteria for differentiating a language from a dialect, so it’s hard to say for sure whether Scots is a dialect or a distinct language. It’s definitely an interesting language, though, and one that should prove both fascinating and challenging for English speakers.
The Closest (Unique) Language to English: Frisian
Frisian is a distinct language. Kind of. It’s actually a group of three languages spoken in parts of Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands. It’s also not a major language, so if you’re looking for something that you can use a lot and something that has a lot of educational resources, this isn’t it.
There are close to half a million speakers of Frisian languages and they are split into West Frisian, North Frisian, and East Frisian.
Frisian is an official language in Friesland, a province in the Netherlands that includes the municipalities of Heerenveen and Sneek.
There are many grammatical similarities between Frisian languages and English, and they also share a lot of cognates.
It’s not exactly mutually intelligible, so you may struggle to understand a Frisian speaker, but it could be a good language to learn.
The Closest Major Language to English: Dutch
Dutch is a West Germanic language, just like English and Frisian.
Dutch has a lot in common with the English language and you’ll find that you recognize a lot of words and phrases.
For this reason, Dutch is often considered to be one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers. It’ll still take you many months of study to reach conversational fluency and true fluency could take years, but you’ll likely have an easier time with Dutch than with other languages.
Other Languages Close to English
Unsurprisingly, German is also one of the Germanic languages, so it has a lot in common with English.
However, it can be a little trickier for English speakers to learn.
According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), an agency tasked with teaching new languages to foreign diplomats, German is a tier 2 language. This means that it takes the average English speaker around 36 weeks of full-time study to reach fluency.
For comparison, Dutch is just 24 weeks. Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Italian, Norwegian, and Romanian also require 24 weeks.
Still, the fact that German and English have the same root language and many similar words means they are closely related.
Is English Closer to French or Spanish?
French and Spanish are romance languages while English is a Germanic language. However, English has been heavily influenced by French thanks to the Norman conquest.
It has been estimated that around 40% of all English words come from French. That doesn’t mean they sound the same or look the same, as many of those words are from Old French and both languages have evolved since then, but there are still lots of similarities.
Spanish also has lots of words in common with English, as these languages have been influencing each other for hundreds of years. However, French is definitely closer to English than Spanish is.
As with German, being more closely related doesn’t necessarily mean it will be easier to learn. Many consider French to be harder to learn than Spanish. It’s on the same FSI tier, but if you look a little closer at the criteria, you’ll see that French requires 30 weeks while Spanish requires only 24 weeks (some representations of this list merely state 24 to 30 weeks and include all languages).
Does it Matter if it’s Close to the English Language?
English is a diverse language that borrows little bits from lots of other languages. As a result, there are many similar languages, but the extent of those similarities makes all the difference.
For instance, if you read guides on learning Greek, you’ll find many comments stating that the language is “easier than you might think” because English has borrowed a lot of words from Greek.
It’s true, but most of the words it has borrowed are from ancient Greek. Some of them are still used, but the pronunciation is often vastly different from English.
If you were to ask a non-Greek speaker what the words are for “Fire” and “Nose”, they’ll probably tell you some variation of “Pyro” and “Rhino”, as they are the words we know from “rhinoplasty/rhinitis” and “pyrotechnics/pyromania”. But neither of these are used in modern Greek.
The same is true for Latin.
There are a lot of Latin words in modern English, but most relate to the sciences. When you’re trying to learn how to greet people and make basic statements, what good is it to know the technical name for a medical procedure/body part or the name of a plant?
It’s a little different with French and Dutch, as many of the similar words are used in everyday conversation, but if someone tells you that a language is “easier” because it has some of the same words, take it with a grain of salt.