Several languages are considered similar to English due to shared linguistic roots. The difficulty of learning a language depends on factors like pronunciation, grammar, and the learner's native language.
Dutch, Frisian, and German are very close Germanic languages to English.
Germanic languages like Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Afrikaans also share similarities.
Romance languages like French, Spanish, and Italian also have lexical overlap with English due to borrowing.
Germanic Languages
Dutch
Dutch is the closest major language to English, sharing a common ancestor in Proto-Germanic and exhibiting similar vocabulary and grammar according to Babbel.
Frisian
This language, spoken in the Netherlands and Germany, is also considered one of the close relatives to English, particularly in terms of pronunciation.
German
Frisian and German share many cognates and grammatical structures with English.
Scandinavian Languages
Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish, though distinct, also share some vocabulary and pronunciation patterns with English, particularly Norwegian.
Afrikaans
This language, developed from Dutch in South Africa, shares similarities with English.
Romance Languages
French
English has borrowed a vast amount of vocabulary from French due to historical influences.
Spanish and Italian
Spanish and Italian languages have shared vocabulary with English in scientific and technical terms.
Scots
Scots is considered a dialect of English, and is very closely related to English. Scots shares a high degree of mutual intelligibility with English speakers.
