Is Norwegian the easiest language to learn for English speakers?
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Is Norwegian the easiest language to learn for English speakers?
Like Swedish and many other Scandinavian languages, Norwegian is one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers. Like Swedish and Dutch, its speakers are often proficient in English and it can be a hard language to actually be able to practice at times.
Norwegian, Swedish and Danish all have their roots in Old Norse and a speaker of one has a default capability to at least understand the other two languages. But the Scandinavians’ language ability doesn’t stop there. Virtually all are fluent in English too.
What’s the easiest language for English speakers to learn?
And The Easiest Language To Learn Is…
- Norwegian. This may come as a surprise, but we have ranked Norwegian as the easiest language to learn for English speakers.
- Swedish.
- Spanish.
- Dutch.
- Portuguese.
- Indonesian.
- Italian.
- French.
Scandinavians speak English well because it’s very similar to their native languages. The similarity includes not only related vocabulary, but also grammatical structures.
Norway completes the triad of the three main Nordic countries that are considered most fluent in English. It has similar rates of English proficiency to Sweden and Dernmark (85-90\% of the population) and consistently ranks as the fourth best country in the world for English language skills – see here and here.
What are the advantages of learning Scandinavian languages?
The Scandinavian languages are ideal for learning as a foreign language. They all have quite simple grammatical structures; verbs, for example, do not change their form within a given tense. The comparatively uncomplicated grammar, combined with word recognition carry-over from English, enables students to make rapid progress and attain fluency.
Is Norwegian difficult to learn for English speakers?
Not very difficult for English speaker Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish are the three most natural languages for English speakers to pick up. If you know English, you will notice many cognates right at the start. However, it is relatively easy to learn any of these Nordic languages, notably Norwegian.
The overall conclusion does not change – the Scandinavians are very good at English. Let’s look in more detail at the proficiency rates in each major Nordic country in turn, along with some possible reasons as to why they are so much better at speaking English in this part of the world than elsewhere.
Do you need to speak the local language in Scandinavia?
Shorter term visitors do not need to worry about speaking the local languages in any of the Nordic countries, such is the prevalence of English there. Many tourists who visit Scandinavia do like to pass through each of the countries, sometimes on land or sometimes on cruises which pass through the countries.