How hard is it to learn French?

For native English speakers, learning French falls into the “moderately difficult” category, typically taking on average 24-30 weeks (or 600-750 class hours) to reach general proficiency according to the Foreign Service Institute which is responsible for teaching American diplomats. French may have some peculiarities of its own, but with nearly 30% of all English words believed to originate from it, French is arguably one of the easiest foreign languages for an English speaker to learn. So here are four good reasons why French is easier than you think.

English and French share a significant amount of vocabulary, providing English speakers with a valuable advantage when learning French. This linguistic connection goes back to the Norman invasion of England. Following this event, old French (specifically the Anglo-Norman dialect) became the language of the English court, aristocracy and government, which, in turn, is the reason why today we have numerous French words in everyday English. As a result, English and French share thousands of cognates. Many terms related to military (such as army, artillery, and soldier), law (including justice, judge, and jury), politics and economics (like coup d’état, capitalism, and finance), diplomacy (such as attaché, envoy, and treaty), and cuisine (including caramel, casserole, and mustard) are instantly recognisable to English speakers. Having this shared vocabulary definitely gives English speakers a bit of a head start compared to speakers of other languages.

Unlike learning Japanese, Russian or Arabic, French uses the same Latin alphabet as English, with just a few additional accent marks to master (é, è, ê, à, â, ç, î, ô, ù, û). This means one less thing to learn and makes reading in the early stages of learning much easier.

While the French grammar structure may seem complicated at first sight, it is actually very structured and follows certain rules which makes everything about learning it easier. For example, the verb conjugations can seem scary at first but regular verbs all follow these patterns you just have to learn if they end in (-er, -ir and –re). Once these patterns are learned, they can readily be used with a large number of verbs. Likewise, those of you with limited experience of French may find the idea that nouns are either masculine or feminine (compared to English) confusing, however once you grasp it gender agreement rules across adjectives and articles/pronouns is fairly systematic. Furthermore, French uses a similar structure to English in a lot of ways due to its subject-verb-object (SVO) order; therefore, the way a sentence is built gradually transfers over. There are exceptions, of course, but they tend to have simple rules or come from habitually similar usages that make them seem natural when used frequently. That scaffolded path gives learners a lot of support, and the progress feels rewarding when patterns are recognized over time.

French is one of the most widely taught languages in the world, making it much easier for English speakers to learn. French-speaking institutions such as the Alliance Française, which can be found in most cities around the world help facilitate French learning globally. Nearly every English-speaking country offers French classes in schools and universities, There is also an abundance of language learning resources for learners including textbooks, grammar guides, apps, and courses such as Assimil, which cater specifically to English speakers while streaming platforms such as Netflix offer a treasure trove of French movies and TV shows with subtitles. The huge amount of high-quality resources available means everyone can find something that suits and interests them.

While learning French is easier for native English speakers, it’s far from a walk in the park. Learning a language is always a challenge no matter the language, however, obviously language difficulty will depend on how close your target language is to your native language. I want to quickly go over some challenges that French poses for native English speakers.

French pronunciation is often cited as one of the most challenging aspects for English speakers.. The French “R,” produced at the back of the throat, often proves particularly tricky,  Nasal vowels, found in words like “bon,” “en,” and “restaurant,” take a bit of getting used to. Silent letters add another layer of complexity – words like “petit” and “comment” end in letters that aren’t pronounced, while liaison rules require these usually silent letters to suddenly appear when connecting words.  The Stress patterns and intonation differ significantly from English’s natural rhythms, requiring learners to retrain their muscle memory and develop new speaking habits.

Like all romance languages, French has gender rules, whilst English has long since abandoned gender for nouns. This of course can be intimidating for English speakers and having to learn by heart if a noun is either masculine or feminine. Especially, when there is no logical pattern to determine gender (a table is feminine, a chair is masculine). Articles and adjectives also need to match the noun’s gender, all of this is quite different to English, however, again this doesn’t take long to get the hang of.

Now whilst there are many recognisable words and cognates. These similarities for English speakers learning French can cause problems. Faux amis (false friends)  can easily lead to misunderstandings and errors in both spoken and written communication. These deceptive words look or sound similar in both languages but have different meanings, often tricking learners into false assumptions. For instance, an English speaker might mistakenly think librarie refers to a library, when it actually means a bookshop or that actuallement means “currently” instead of “actually” or assister means “to attend” instead of “to assist”. Such mistakes can hinder progress and lead to awkward exchanges.

Now whilst there are many recognisable words and cognates. These similarities for English speakers learning French can cause problems. Faux amis (false friends)  can easily lead to misunderstandings and errors in both spoken and written communication. These deceptive words look or sound similar in both languages but have different meanings, often tricking learners into false assumptions. For instance, an English speaker might mistakenly think librarie refers to a library when it actually means a bookshop or that assister means “to assist” instead of “to attend”.  Luckily these can be quickly learnt, but they can initially cause language confusion.