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French vs Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| languagefreak Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5039 days ago 51 posts - 52 votes  Speaks: Russian, English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 3 28 March 2011 at 6:29am | IP Logged |
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I am planning to learn french after I get fairly fluent in German, which could be maybe a year away. However, I am
just curious about what I can expect. I took Spanish in HS and thought it was pretty easy. When I think back and compare it to the languages that I speak, Russian and English, and the one I am learning now, German, it is just really easy (for me). Back then I just had to interest in Spanish, so I didn't really try. My question is, when I go to learn French, what should I expect when it is compared to Spanish? The general thing I hear is that French is a bit harder because of the pronunciation, but the grammar and all of that will be pretty similar, and in fact they say the subjunctive is easier in French. Is that what you guys would generally say? Where do you think the differences in difficult for a learner are? Please note that I won't change my mind if you guys say French is a bit harder, I am just curious (and I know some people will use that as a reason not to voice their opinion). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Evilgoat Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4784 days ago 8 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 2 of 3 29 March 2011 at 3:01am | IP Logged |
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I studied Spanish for four years in high school and French for a bit in college, including a short study abroad stint. I'm not an expert in either, but here are my thoughts:
I personally found French easier, though that's probably largely a function of better instruction. I think using the passe compose is easier than the preterito, and the subjunctive does seem to be less common. Spoken conjugation of French verbs tends to be easier because while the orthography is different, quite often the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 3rd person plural forms of a verb in a given tense will sound the same. The last part can be a liability if you're a book learner whose aural recall depends upon being able to connect the sound to a visual representation of the word (i.e. how it's spelled; I have this problem to a certain extent). French would appear to have a greater number of cognates, and chances are you can "frankify" a given word and make yourself understood, which is handy. I think this cannot be done as often in Spanish. Finally, the pace of Spanish conversation seems to be a bit faster, which would make it harder for me, a listening comp dunce. In any case, I made a similar transition as you (Spanish in HS, French later) and found the transition very agreeable. I also studied a harder language in between (Mandarin Chinese), so you'll probably find French to be really easy regardless of any mitigating considerations. Bonne chance! Edited by Evilgoat on 29 March 2011 at 3:15am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| reyeszjj Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5589 days ago 11 posts - 13 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, English, Spanish Studies: French, Latin | Message 3 of 3 29 March 2011 at 3:49am | IP Logged |
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From my experience, there's really no difference between learning Spanish and French, you just have to spend some
time reviewing the conjugations, or learning new vocabulary and using it. Actually I think French pronunciation is more regular than English, just the pronunciation rule is not that easy to find at first, compared with Spanish 1 person has voted this message useful |
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