Spanish is easier...

Spanish is what I like to call a phonetic language, meaning that the rules of orthography are very close to the rules of pronunciation. Each Spanish vowel has a single pronunciation and although consonants may have two or more, there are very specific rules regarding their usage, depending on where the letter is in the word and what letters are around it. There are some trick letters, like the silent H and the identically-pronounced B and V, but all in all Spanish pronunciation and spelling are pretty straightforward. In comparison, French has many silent letters and multiple rules with plenty of exceptions, as well as liaisons and enchaînement which add additional difficulties to pronunciation and aural comprehension.

There are precise rules for the accentuation of Spanish words and accents to let you know when those rules are overridden, whereas in French accentuation goes by the sentence rather than the word. The fact is that once you've memorized the Spanish rules of pronunciation and accentuation, you can pronounce brand-new words with no hesitation. This is rarely the case in French (or English, for that matter).

The most common French past tense, the passé composé, is more difficult than Spanish's pretérito.* The pretérito is a single word, while the passé composé has two parts (auxiliary verb + past participle). The passé composé is just one of several French compound verbs** and the questions of auxiliary verb (avoir or être), word order, and agreement with these verbs are some of French's great difficulties.

*The true French equivalent of the pretérito, the passé simple, is a literary tense which French students are usually expected to recognize but not to use.

**Spanish compound verbs are much simpler: there is only one auxiliary verb and the two parts of the verb stay together, so word order is not a problem.

In addition, French's two-part negation ne... pas is more complicated in terms of usage and word order than Spanish's no.

Keep reading:

1. Introduction
2. Spanish is easier...
3. French is easier...
4. Neither is easier...
5. The bottom line

Previous

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Next