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Is French as L3 easier than Spanish as L2 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5376 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 1 of 7 19 March 2012 at 2:02am | IP Logged |
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If a native English speaker learns Spanish to a B2-ish level and then tries to tackle French... would it take less time to learn French than it did to learn Spanish?
If so (or not), how much easier (or harder) would French be than Spanish under these circumstances? The reason I am asking is that I would not want to embark on French if it was as much of a committment as Spanish was, but if I could get to the same level in French in half the time I put into Spanish I might be willing to invest the time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4950 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 2 of 7 19 March 2012 at 3:08am | IP Logged |
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It will take you far less time to understand the grammar as there is probably a 75% correlation between the two, so a substantial amount of the material that will be in front of you will feel literaly like Spanish review. There is however 20-25% that is different, some easier some harder.
French uses fewer tenses than Spanish (no preterite to learn, only two subjunctives compared to 4-6 in Spanish, and a more straightforward imperative with no affirmative/negative variation). So there are less tedious verb tables overall although French does have its share of irregular verbs (though you will quickly notice a pattern to them making them mostly predictable). French however has some grammatical quirks in the sense there seem to be more exceptions to certain rules than Spanish, particularly in the area of gender/number agreement: some words have three-way (masc/fem/plur), others have four (masc/fem sing AND masc/fem plural); some are invariable in some environments and in others situations agree but only with feminine nouns!(tout); a few even have additional male forms for pronounciation purposes. Relative pronouns are a little harder in French because there are more of them. And (this is only my personal opinion), the pronoun "en" is a challenging mountain to master. I still haven't after months into the language. Overall, because most people hate verbs, Spanish is harder because not only there are more tenses but a ton of irregular verbs across tenses (present, preterite, future). French is harder than Spanish in pronounciation/spelling by far, because it is not only a matter of 16 vowel sounds vs only 5 in Spanish, the spelling is a challenge for beginners and intermediates (made worse by words having been reformed in spelling to "retrogress" latin etymology), and there are several overlaps for the same sound, etc.That's not even getting into the liaison rules which can get rather involved. Now, this is all if you want to pronounce French at an excellent level, otherwise it is not so difficult if you just trust your ears (which is what I recommend), and then later work on polishing by learning and applying more precise conventions. And the french "r" of course (though for me it was never an issue at all). My opinion is, you should not tackle a language if you are not 100% ready to commit to what it takes (if your goal is to match another language you learned), since any language requires the same dedication. But since not trying is far worse than taking the risk, I always err on the side of risk in knowledge and would say go for it. Edited by outcast on 19 March 2012 at 3:15am 13 persons have voted this message useful | |
| crafedog Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5819 days ago 166 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean, Tok Pisin, French | Message 3 of 7 19 March 2012 at 10:09am | IP Logged |
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It's interesting that you ask this question because this is exactly what I've been
going through lately. I've found French to be incredibly easy with a Spanish background for both vocabulary and for grammar. Stuff that I struggled with a lot before when learning Spanish (the first language I ever studied) is just familiar ground to me now in French. There is a lot of layover and so much so that I've found it too easy and quite unchallenging (hence why I've started learning Latin at the same time). Also you'll have more experience with learning a language by then so obviously those skills/that knowledge will transfer over nicely. You do get quite a considerable 'discount' in these related languages but as outcast said, it will still require a notable amount of time and dedication (a less strenuous dedication than before though) and there are some significant differences between the two (spelling/pronunciation being the big ones) but I would definitely answer yes to your topic's main question. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5376 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 4 of 7 21 March 2012 at 11:16pm | IP Logged |
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These are very helpful and interesting responses. Thank you. I had never thought that French might actually be easier than Spanish, but reading about the things that are "easier" in French (preterite, fewer subjunctives, no change on the commands, etc) I am somewhat excited about this.
Is it possible to quantify how much easier French as L3 would be than Spanish as L2? In other words, it will take roughly 40%, 50%, 60% as much time to get to the same level? I know "it depends" is really the answer, but if anyone could wager an approximate guess I'd be interested to hear it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 5 of 7 22 March 2012 at 3:25pm | IP Logged |
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Depends on how good your Spanish is as well. If you're a C2+ level Spanish speaker, then it'll be easier from a vocab/grammar than a B2-level, though you'll still get a big discount.
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| rasta87 Diglot Newbie Colombia Joined 5512 days ago 13 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Persian, French | Message 6 of 7 18 August 2012 at 11:48pm | IP Logged |
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I'm just starting French after spending almost 4 years getting my Spanish to a C2 (I hope) level. I was curious about
the similarities so I decided to study it with Assimil's 'El frances sin esfuerzo'. My theory is that studying it like this will also help me avoid confusing vocabulary. I'm already finding it very interesting, it's like half of French is the same as Spanish, a quarter is like English and the rest is a bit different (but often like Portuguese when it's not like Spanish or English). Edited by rasta87 on 18 August 2012 at 11:52pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5376 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 7 of 7 22 August 2012 at 10:40pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you rasta87 for your thoughts. I have basically the same theory. I have also purchased Assimil's Spanish based French book and, if I study French, that is what I will use. How are you liking it? Are you finding French is easier for you to learn than Spanish was?
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