The most difficult is pronunciation for English speakers.This proximity between these two languages comes from the invasion, the Normandy landings more precisely, indeed it seems that a third of the English vocabulary has been influenced by the French language. Despite this, the two languages are not mutually intelligible. Combustion and Combustión is another good example. Spanish — also easier to learn than most. If you’re looking for the closest relative to English that is definitely a distinct language, the answer is Frisian. The two came together when French was the prestige language of Anglo-Norman nobility prior to the 17th Century. Yeah apart from the fact Spanish objects are totally different along with the past tenses, subjunctive and conjugations. We can definitively say that English and Scots are very similar because they both developed from Old English (Anglo-Saxon).

This is why English and German share a great deal of vocabulary. The most common, of course, is English. The closest language to English is arguably Scots.

You might have heard that Dutch is the closest language to English. All of these factors make it difficult to determine the languages closest to English. Let’s see why. Aw human sowels is born free and equal in dignity and richts. English, Scots, and the Frisian languages are the only living members of the Anglo-Frisian language group.

The English translation follows immediately on. Indeed, it is estimated that the lexical similarities between the two languages are around 80%.

Still, because both are romance languages derived from Latin origin, basic vocabulary in French is often very familiar to English. Got that? You can also chat with people from different countries to have a language exchange and learn their language. I can’t say Frisian is high on my list of languages to learn. Each language is different and requires special training, there is no easier language than others only languages that are closer to each other often based on a common historical past. If you’re wondering how the unruly English language took shape, read on! The UK government classifies it as a regional language and it is protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. For an example of just how much vocabulary Germanic languages share, take a look at a couple of examples between German, Dutch and English: All of this overlap in pronunciation and meaning means that despite German’s complicated grammar, English and German are still considered 60% lexically similar. Wouldn’t the closest word to English start with a d or f? It would be easy to think that English is closest to French, because of all the shared vocabulary, or German, since English is a Germanic language. However, it presents some difficulties on verbal forms and gender names.

An Italian listening to Spanish: or a German listening to Dutch will have the strange sensation of understanding a language that is not their own.

The Frisians shared a common ancestry and a mutually intelligible language with the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who settled England. Bathroom looks and sounds nothing like baño. Required fields are marked *, The Difference Between Translation and Localisation, 9 Best Practices for Multilingual Websites, Website Localisation Guide: 7 Recommendations For Success, 9 Creative Ways to Celebrate Birthdays in Lockdown. Then, third, for reasons that have never been properly explained, English mutated away not just from the Germanic but from almost all Indo-European languages by abandoning an inflectional system with its verbs: crudely speaking English has the same verb ending in most situations. Part of this is to blame on. In the Middle Ages, Frisian was spoken all along the southern coast of the North Sea, from Bruges in Belgium to the river Weser in Germany. Today, there are about 480,000 Frisian native speakers. Well, despite English’s dramatic drift over the centuries, the answer to that question must be one of its continental Germanic cousins. Similar to Danish but with a more familiar pronunciation for English speakers.Depending on the person or number there is no conjugation in Norwegian, moreover the past tense is formed with the suffix -e and the passive with the addition of a simple -s which is very simple compared to English. Indeed, Afrikaans and English come from the Western Germanic language family which makes these two languages quite close. However, try speaking English to a German who knows no English, or try understanding German (with just English) and you will find that they are very distant relations.

Frisian was used as a written language until around 1500, when Dutch became the language of government in most Frisian lands. The longest word in the Dutch dictionary is  “meervoudigepersoonlijkheidsstoornissen,” or “multiple personality disorders”. Can’t decide which new language to take up? Grammatically Spanish has fewer irregularities than other Romance languages.It happens that some words sound the same as in English but mean something completely different. Though apparently Dutch people can’t really understand it either. That said, there’s no real consensus among language exerts as to what really constitutes a dialect or a separate language… Live Lingua offers a free trial lesson in eleven different languages, taken via Skype on your schedule.

Why do native English speakers sometimes use incorrect grammar? I also understand that I can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the 'unsubscribe' link in every email. Take a look at how its dialects compare with English: While there are only around 480,000 Frisian native speakers today, Frisian was a popular language in the middle ages. He argues that because Old English borrowed significant amounts of vocabulary and grammar from Old Norse when England was under Viking rule, Old Norse essentially “replaced” Old English as the language transitioned into Middle English. We’ve ranked our six closest relatives, and given a little insight into why we’re so similar.

That’s even excluding the French phrases that have been so normalized in English it’s almost a faux pas not to know them. Germany shares 60% of its vocabulary with English. Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich an Würde und Rechten geboren. We say arguably as the language is often regarded more as a dialect of English than an actual language. Verb formation also uses many of the same patterns as in English and the verb forms are normally constant even if the person changes. Flean op! However, try speaking English to a German who knows no English, or try understanding German (with just English) and you will find that they are very distant relations. Let's connect you with a hand-picked native-speaking tutor today.

Because of this, Dutch possesses many words and phrases similar to English and has a similar grammatical structure. You can find this service in the language exchange section. Linguistically it is the closest language to English because it comes from the same sub-family of Western Germanic languages. NORWAYGermanic language close to English because the Vikings brought it to the United Kingdom. 20 May 2015: Louis gives us science: As a Dutch speaker, I am always very glad of my knowledge of English, whenever I am reading (not hearing, mind!) The majority of English grammar, at least as spoken in traditional modern English, is of Norman origin. For any budding linguists out there, you might be wondering why English is so close to French when French is from another language family, the Romance languages. Like Frisian and English, Dutch is another West Germanic language that developed from Proto-Germanic. Together with my German and Dutch knowledge I am usually able to decipher about 90 percent of a Frisian text. However, this does not mean that they will not be able to learn other languages. These languages therefore have similarities with the English language and English speakers will surely find it easier to learn them. Some of them might surprise you…. Afrikaans by far! Frisian is a group of three languages spoken in parts of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. Try reading this Scots Wikipedia entry. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

“My pen is groen” (Afr) … “My pen is green”