Languages similar to English

Table of languages significantly similar to English
Similarity Statistics
Vocabulary Grammar Speakers Countries GDP
English 100% – 618 M 12 $14,129 bn
French 40% 213 M 17 $2,223 bn
Italian 35% 58 M 2 $1,490 bn
Spanish 35% 376 M 25 $3,198 bn
Portuguese 35% 203 M 6 $666 bn
Norwegian 30% 5 M 1 $221 bn
Dutch 30% 30 M 4 $713 bn
Swedish 30% 9 M 1 $300 bn
Danish 30% 5 M 1 $212 bn
German 30% 91 M 3 $2,850 bn
Romanian 20% 28 M 3 $60 bn
Russian 10% 167 M 8 $548 bn
Total 1,803 M 83 $26610 bn

EXPLANATION

Similarity
VOCABULARY: Percentage of vocabulary that isvery similar in both languages.
GRAMMATICAL: Cactuses () indicate the relative difficulty of learning this language if you already speak English. The fewer cactuses/cacti, the easier.

Speakers
NUMBER: total number of native speakers of each language.
SHARE: number of speakers times % similar vocabulary (see above). This gives you an indication of the number of people you can reach indirectly by learning English.

Countries
NUMBER: Total number of countries where the language is an official language or widely spoken.
SHARE: The number of countries times % similar vocabulary (see above). This gives you an indication of the number of countries you can reach indirectly by learning English.

GDP
NUMBER: Combined total nominal GDP in US dollars for each language.
SHARE: Combined GDP times % similar vocabulary (see above). This gives you an indication of the economic importance of the language group you enter by learning English.

The purpose of this table is to list the most important languages similar to English and see how closely related they are. It helps you select the language you want to learn by appraising you on what significant other languages you could learn more easily on the basis of your future knowledge of English.

If you feel the figures listed in this table are not correct and you have learned one of the languages listed above, please feel free to contact me and let me know how this should be improved and why.