It can be hard to call any language harder or easier to learn than another, but we will attempt in this article to answer the age old question: “how hard is French to learn?”

How Hard is it to Learn French?

The French language is placed by the Defense Languages Institute into Category I (out of IV) for language difficulty.

French is an Indo-European language just like English, but it is a Romance language descended from Vulgar Latin. Still, both French and English descended from a common ancestor and therefore have some similarities. It is likely that native English speakers might think learning French is easier than speakers of other languages.

Let’s begin by going over some reasons students might think French is difficult to learn. We will also discuss how French might be easy to learn, as well as compare it to languages that are broadly considered difficult.

Why French is Difficult to Learn

The following are some reasons why French can seem difficult to learn.

Pronunciation

French pronunciation tends to be much softer than English. It can be hard for the native English speaker to train himself to make these totally new sounds.

Grammar

French grammar is different from English grammar, and this reason alone makes it difficult for new students. Adjusting to new rules takes some time.

Noun Gender

Unlike English, French nouns are masculine or feminine. Definite articles include le (M), la (F) and les (plural). Indefinite articles will vary with noun gender as well. There are no set rules as to why a noun takes a certain gender, so these must be memorized.

Speaking

French words sound like they are all mashed into one. Though it sounds much prettier than English, it can be hard to decipher where one word ends and the next begins.

Ways in Which French is Easy to Learn

On the other hand, French can seem easy to learn, too. The French language shares the same alphabet and quite a few cognates with English so you don’t need to learn new letters or completely new vocabulary.

Structured Spelling

English can be quite confusing if you are not a native speaker. French spellings are much more structured and therefore easier to learn. For example, there are many cases in English of words like moon and book that are both spelled with oo but sound completely different. French words that use the same vowels sound alike.

Conjugation Patterns

There is a pattern for conjugating French verbs, both regular and irregular. Conjugation can seem quite difficult at first, but once you know the pattern it becomes easier.

Cognates

As mentioned French and English share quite a few cognates since they are both Indo-European languages. Cognates are words that mean the same thing and are spelled similarly in different languages. For example, the French biologie is biology in English.

How does French Compare to Other Difficult Languages

Because language learning depends on a variety of subjective variables, it is difficult to definitively answer the question “is French hard to learn?” When considering other languages like Russian or Chinese, two of the DLI’s Category IV languages, you can see how French can be perceived as easier to learn.

The Russian languages uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which is almost completely different from the Latin alphabet used by French and English. Likewise, the Chinese language uses 2400 basic characters that are nothing like the Latin Alphabet. Learning Russian or Chinese is like learning a completely new concept, whereas learning French has some familiar ideas with it.

How Long Does it Take to Learn French

There are many factors that determine how long it takes to learn to speak French. From the type of course the learner are enrolled in to the native language of the learner. French may be easier for an English or Spanish speaker to pick up than it would be for a Chinese speaker because they are more similar. A few other factors include:

How Long Does it Take to Speak Fluent French?

Becoming completely fluent in French can take up to five years, but this is not guaranteed. Fluency can be affected by a number of factors, but mostly it depends on the learner’s desire to become fluent. One of the most effective ways of gaining fluency is by immersing oneself into the language. If it is possible to live and work in a French-speaking community and use the language daily, it will speed up the time it takes to become fluent.

The French Alphabet

French uses the 26-character Latin alphabet like English which helps to take the pressure off learning a new system. In fact, the only difference is the pronunciation of those letters. Remember when we mentioned that French sounds softer than English? That is the key difference. For example, the English H is pronounced ash in French. Similarly, you will notice the English G, A and Y are pronounced shay, ah and ee-grehk, respectively.

The Best Free Resources for Learning French

If you are considering learning how to speak French, but you aren’t sure you want to dive right in, you can always try out some of these free resources. Duolingo is an interactive, game-like platform designed to make learning fun with a variety of fill-in-the-blank, speaking, and reading exercises. It is colorful and keeps learning interesting and fun. However, you won’t find in-depth coverage of grammar rules and such. Still, it is a great way to see if you want to take French learning to the next level.

Another free French learning site is Learn French. It offers a variety of everyday scenarios you can work through with recorded pronunciations. There are over 350 audio lessons to practice. You can even use Skype to have one-on-one French conversations with others.

The Best Paid Resources for Learning French

FrenchPod101

One of the most thorough courses we found for the price is FrenchPod101 by Innovative Languages. Structured courses begin for as low as $4 per month and offer four levels of expertise from absolute beginner through the advanced speaker. There are audio and video lessons, interactive learning tools, and even one-on-one instruction available. Click the image below to read our review:

Rocket French

Rocket French from Rocket Languages offers a good, one-time payment option (if you’re sick of monthly payments like us…). The course is well-structured and material is comprehensive. We found it to be a good option for people already enrolled in a high school or university French course.

Mimic Method

The Mimic Method, developed by Idahosa Ness, is another paid resource for learning French. Ness is a polyglot and musician and believes sound is the basis of learning a new language. Like the Pimsleur Method, the Mimic Method teaches you to speak French by immersing you in conversations and music in order to teach you French in a way you learned your mother language, by listening and mimicking. Click the image below to read our detailed review of the Mimic Method:

So, is French Hard to Learn?

French may be difficult for some and easier for others, but overall it is one of the easier languages for a native English speaker to learn. Of course, motivation and dedication to becoming fluent in French will play a major role, but anyone who puts in the time and commitment can succeed in learning to speak French.

Michael

Michael has been an avid language learner and traveler for many years. His goal with LanguageTsar is to discover the most fun and effective ways to learn a language. He is currently learning Japanese, French and Indonesian.

languagetsar.com/

Lots of factors come into play when determining language difficulty, and most of those factors tend to be subjective to the language or the learner.

For example, your cousin Pete who was class valedictorian and spent a few years abroad in Eastern Europe might find learning to speak Russian a piece of cake. On the other hand, if you are just starting to learn your first foreign language, you might find Russian to be difficult. In this article, we will try to answer the question: How hard is it to learn Russian?

Is Russian the Hardest Language to Learn?

With all the factors that come into play, being objective about whether Russian is hard to learn can be difficult. However, we can look at some facts about learning the Russian language that lends to its appearance of being one of the most difficult languages to learn. First, we will cover what is “hard” about Russian, which is “easy” about Russian and offer some comparisons to other languages that are considered difficult to learn.

How is Russian Hard to Learn?

How hard is it to learn Russian? The following list briefly describes the ways in which Russian can prove difficult to many learners.

Cyrillic Alphabet

One look at a Russian website and it’s already like you’ve been thrown overboard from the Germanic- or Latin-based language ship. The Cyrillic alphabet, though offering some similarities to the English alphabet, has 33 letters, which is a good eight completely new letters to learn.

New Pronunciations

New letters bring about new sounds, and so do new letter combinations. Russian uses quite a few consonants in their words and each consonant has its own distinct sound.

Few Cognates

Cognates are words that are spelled similarly in both languages and mean the same thing. For example, the word “technique” means the same thing in both French and English. “Coffee” is considered a cognate for English and Russian (Кофе). As you can see, to even learn cognates, you will need to understand the Cyrillic alphabet.

Case System

Russian uses six cases and each one requires a different spelling of the noun. Each case has its own suffix added to the noun, so the case must be determined before writing or speaking the word.

How is Russian Easy to Learn?

As impossible a hurdle as the above aspects of Russian may seem, there are a few ways in which you might find it to be easier to learn.

No Articles

No articles are used in Russian. Personally, this is a selling point for me. You do not have to memorize whether your nouns are masculine or feminine or whether you need de, het, le, la, etc. to proceed them. Headache averted.

Three Tenses

Russian speaks the past, present and future and that’s it. Forget all that Present Perfect and Past Continuous stuff!

Flexible Word

Order In most languages word order is important, but with Russian’s case system, it matters much less. In fact, it doesn’t matter if you begin sentences with the object or the verb. This makes it easier for new learners to convey their messages from the get-go.

How does Russian Compare to Other Languages?

Chinese is often considered alongside Russian as one of the hardest languages to learn. Again, this will vary depending on the native language of the learner. A native English speaker might have an easier time learning Russian, while a native Japanese speaker might fare better with Chinese. Here are a few comparisons between Russian and Chinese.

How long does it take to Learn Russian?

Most experts will agree that to have a sufficient understanding of Russian with intermediate fluency, you will need about 1,100 hours of immersive study. The Defense Language Institute offers Level III Russian as a 48-week course. This means that independent study and class time would need to be about 22 hours per week.

Obviously, learning with an online program or such would grant you a bit more leeway. Ultimately, the length of time it takes you to learn Russian will be determined by your motivation to learn, the amount of time you spend in it, and your desired fluency level.

How long will it take to Speak Fluent Russian?

As with learning Russian, becoming fluent will depend highly on the learner. It goes without saying that the more time you spend practicing something, the better you will become at it. Most experts believe that to become truly fluent in Russian —that is thinking and speaking in Russian— requires 7-10 years of study.

Immersing yourself in the language is often thought the best way to enhance your fluency. This means living in a Russian-speaking community and using the language in daily life. Fluency can be achieved without immersion, but it might take longer. Again, fluency level is highly influenced by the motivation of the learner.

Learning the Russian Alphabet

The Cyrillic Alphabet has some similarities to the English Alphabet. For example, the Russian letters “Aa” and “Кк” both look and sound like their English equivalents. Other letters including the Russian “Нн” look like English letters but sound very different (Нн= “Nn” sound like nine). Still, other Russian letters look and sound like nothing from the English alphabet.

This is an excellent tool for learning the Russian Alphabet complete with cursive form and pronunciations.

The Best Free Resources for Learning Russian

One of the most popular free Russian learning sites has to be Duolingo. It is a fun, colorful program that makes language learning almost feel like a game. There is little grammatical explanations with the free version, but when used in conjunction with other programs, Duolingo can be a great way to break the monotony of traditional study.

Another great free resource to consider is Anki, which is the Japanese word for memorize. This app uses spaced repetition flashcards to help increase your vocabulary.

Memrise is another useful app that works similarly to Duolingo by speaking and reading useful phrases with little emphasis on grammar. This is another app to consider using in conjunction with a more in-depth learning platform or as practice away from the classroom.

Best Paid Programs for Learning Russian

RussianPod101 by Innovative Languages, is — in our opinion — one of the most comprehensive programs for learning Russian. Premium PLUS subscription plans include one-on-one instruction from a native speaking Russian teacher. It offers hundreds of video lessons and podcasts along with interactive learning tools. This is an ideal course with a monthly subscription fee for serious learners who cannot attend a class.

MimicMethod is the brainchild of polyglot, Idahosa Ness. It focuses on “learning by ear” and mimicking what is heard like a young child does. MimicMethod offers three-part courses including over 6 hours of video lectures with Ness, training exercises and learning tools like flashcards. This is an ideal system for those who excel in audio learning.

Conclusion: Russian is Difficult, but not Impossible!

While the Russian language can prove difficult for some and easy for others, ultimately the answer to this question depends on the student, their native language, and how much time they can devote to learning Russian. Is it impossible? No way! With the above-listed resources, you can start learning to speak Russian today.

Michael

Michael has been an avid language learner and traveler for many years. His goal with LanguageTsar is to discover the most fun and effective ways to learn a language. He is currently learning Japanese, French and Indonesian.

languagetsar.com/

In my search to find the best way to learn Russian, I have taken to Reddit for advice from those who have gone before me. Who better to consult about what works and what doesn’t than people who have already started on the path to speaking Russian?

How do I Start Learning Russian?

Though most people would not answer this question with: “Reddit,” I have found that it is a useful tool for directing you to the best Russian learning sites. To save you some time, I did some searching through the top posts in r/Russian for resources to help answer “how do I start learning Russian?”

So, You Want to Learn Russian?

This is a basic, albeit in-depth and lengthy, how-to-get-started post. It provides tons of valuable tips to learning Russian including the best ways to approach vocabulary, grammar and even boredom (because hey, it happens.). You can find an easy to follow and more in depth post at r/Russian full course, which provides even more links to Russian resources, as well as provided links to other free Russian sites like www.russianlessons.net and www.learnrussian.rt.com.

I was impressed with the number of resources available in this single post from help with learning vocabulary at Memrise, changing your keyboard to Russian with www.apronus.com or help in finding language learning buddies at places like My Language Exchange.

Overall, this is a great place to start learning how to learn to speak Russian online. Clicking on the full course takes you to the table of contents where you can begin your studies. I would highly recommend reading the full introduction before embarking on this journey.

I Made a Website of Russian and Soviet Movies with English Subtitles

RussianEnthusiast has gone to great lengths to put together an archive of movies at www.russianfilmhub.com with subtitles. You can choose movies from different decades, genres and countries, and watch them for free. Subtitles are available in English, Italian, German, Portuguese and more.

Watching movies, reading books and listening to podcasts are a great way to break up the monotony of vocabulary and grammar studies day in and day out. Plus, with the English subtitles you can truly get an idea of what is happening and how words are being used and pronounced.

Best way to Learn Russian?

Reddit user, CodingCore, has doubts that Duolingo is the most effective way to learn Russian.
Picture 7
Advice varies from buckling down and taking a class at the university to using the desktop version of Duolingo. The majority of Reddit user advice focuses on using a variety of resources including podcasts, videos, learning games and guided lessons all together in order to compensate for gaps in all learning methods.

Reddit user, ioswarrior67 wants to SERIOUSLY learn to speak Russian.

Since he is young, most of his responses revolve around immersion learning including participating in an exchange program. The general consensus is no, Duolingo is not an effective way to seriously learn to speak Russian.

User erisdawn wanted to know the best way to learn Russian from her smartphone while admitting she learns better by sight and pictures.

She was given loads of information including the following from user XFactorjjw:

“There are apps that have images you can pair with words. That will help with your vocabulary, but for grammar and other nuances of the language you will need a textbook. Check out your local library. I’m sure they will have resources you can use.

Listen to Russian music, watch Russian movies on YouTube, read Russian books at any level. Kids books will be perfect because they have pictures, you can get some on Amazon with a KU subscription, or just torrent some due to your situation. Immerse yourself in the language and you will be surprised at how much you pick up.”

Paid Russian learning sites including Pimsleur or a variety of books including Russian for Dummies and the New Penguin Russian Course are also recommended by different users. This further illustrates that learning preferences vary greatly among individuals. What works for some may not work for others, and it is always a good idea to use more than one learning source.

Cheesemuffin8 recommends first using Memrise to learn the Cyrillic alphabet and following up with RussianPod101, a paid Russian learning site that I feel is one of the most comprehensive programs out there.

Read our honest review of RussianPod101 here.

Unique Russian Words

According to most comments from native speakers, many of these unique Russian words are not at all unique, unheard of, or mistranslated. This is a prime example of where Reddit is a valuable resource in filtering out misinformation:

After learning of these (not so unique) Russian words, I veered slightly off-track to a few posts about getting a tattoo in Russian. Surprisingly, more than one post came from people who did not speak a lick of the language and were putting their ultimate trust into the commenters.

I was impressed by the answers given to this English to Russian tattoo post when she asked if her translation was correct. I’ll let you check out those comments yourself, but it seems most Reddit users kept her from getting a potentially embarrassing tatt!

Moral of this story: run it by Reddit before accidentally calling someone an uneducated old hag or permanently printing obscenities on your body.

Related: How Hard Is It To Actually Learn Russian?

50 Words for Cat?

In a meme most likely poking fun at Russian diminutives and the myriads of ways to say “cat,” this post spiraled off into an unrelated but probably useful tangent about transliterations. This simple communication and explanation amongst users is yet another argument for Reddit being a useful tool to those learning Russian.

Finally, the comments circle back to all the different ways to say “cat,” which is pretty much necessary given most of the world’s affinity for cat videos.

Final Thoughts

So, what is the answer to our title question:

What is the best way to learn to speak Russian according to Reddit?

It’s simple, really. There is no one-size-fits-all way to learn Russian. It is usually most efficient for Russian learners to use a variety of tools — and Reddit can be one of the best resources to help you find those tools.

Michael

Michael has been an avid language learner and traveler for many years. His goal with LanguageTsar is to discover the most fun and effective ways to learn a language. He is currently learning Japanese, French and Indonesian.

languagetsar.com/

Steve is a big fan of the pioneering research of Dr. Steven Krashen and his comprehensible input theory.

This basically means that one needs a lot of input (listening and reading) in the new language in order to make effective progress. This ‘input’ should be understandable and at the same time challenging in order to speed up the learning process.

You can go and take a look at Lingq by clicking here!

Lingq actually covers all 4 competences (speaking, writing, reading and listening) and is available in over 20 languages, including Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, French, English, Chinese, German, Portuguese and Italian.

PRICE

Lingq has a premium option at $10/month or a plus option at $39/month. The plus options offers you 3,000 points per month.

Points are used for tutored services like writing correction and live conversation and to buy premium lessons.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

LingQ is structured as a series of lessons featuring a very short texts in your foreign language.

I tried out the program for Ukrainian in early in 2018 as I was learning Ukrainian in the city of Lviv.

You can read through the lesson or listen to the lesson spoken by native Ukrainian speakers, or both.

The lessons are organised so each one builds on the previous lesson making the acquisition of new vocabulary more natural.

Words are color-coded depending on the option you click on to say how well you know them. These are called lingqs. It’s a novel way to track how you are progressing with vocabulary building.

There are 4 categories to click on:

1. New

2. Can’t Remember

3. Not Sure

4. Learned

There are libraries with 1000s of texts in the various languages offered. You can also import your own texts to the platform.

You can choose to learn via flashcards, cloze tests, dictation and multiple choice which are designed to utilize spaced repetition learning to be more effective. This means that the vocabulary chosen is timed so that you are reminded of it just before you are likely to forget it according to scientific research.

LingQ also has an option to pay for a language tutor on the site and a community tab where you can connect with other learners of your target language.

THE PROS

1. Lingq is definitely effective at reminding me of vocabulary just before you’re likely to forget it and its integration with flashcard apps is terrific.

2. It’s a useful complementary platform and the fact that you can input your own texts increases its value to the language learner.

3. It helps you identify exactly the kind of vocabulary that you are likely to forget. I found this very revealing.

4. The option of booking the language tutor through the site removes the necessity to look elsewhere for one (a tutor is something I always recommend to language learners).

THE CONS

1. It can be a bit boring to use (you should choose carefully the texts so that they are interesting for you personally) and the interface does not look that modern.

2. It’s ultimately a complementary platform not a one-stop shop for learning a language.

I would recommend this platform to anyone no matter what their level in the language if they want to build their vocabulary and while it’s not the one course/platform/app you will need to learn a language, it definitely will speed up the learning process and help you go further faster in your target language. The addition of the language tutor option means that LingQ is moving towards becomes a platform on which possibly you could learn a language from zero to fluency in the near future.

If you have used Lingq then write me a comment below about your experience with the platform.

Michael

Michael has been an avid language learner and traveler for many years. His goal with LanguageTsar is to discover the most fun and effective ways to learn a language. He is currently learning Japanese, French and Indonesian.

languagetsar.com/

I tried out Speechling in Russian as that was the language where I thought it would be most effective for me to test it. My current level of Russian is intermediate (somewhere around B1/B2 on the European Common Framework for Langauges).

Pronunciation is a competence that I recommend that you focus on in the beginning of learning a language as it is really hard to correct engrained mispronunciations later on (takes a lot of time to correct) and it will really help with building your confidence in your new language as it will be easier for you to be understood by native speakers and you will also be able to pick out the words a lot quicker in the new language.

PRICES

The freemium version allows you to have 35 sentences corrected per month without paying for anything.

The premium version cost $19.99/month and for that you’ll get unlimited reviews of your pronunciation in any of the languages offered.

There is a 10% discount available for Language Tsar readers with the code: Tsar18 which you can use when paying for the premium version. You can download the app on your phone or go to the desktop version of Speechling here.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Speechling is primarily a pronunciation training tool that can also indirectly teach you some vocabulary and grammar when you do the exercises.

Primarily it gives you listening and speaking practice in a controlled learning environment. Firstly, when you open the interface, you’ll select the language you want to learn and your current level (A1, A2 or B1/B2 options).

Then you listen to sentences (the difficulty depends on the level you’ve just selected) spoken by a native speaker of the target language (you’ll also see a transcription in your target language – Russian in my case – and a translation into English).

The audio is typically spoken at a fast native like pace so there is also the option of slowing the audio down (just click the button beside the tortoise icon).

You then record yourself speaking the sentence. Once you are happy with your recording, you then press ‘send’ and your recording is sent to your coach for review and feedback.

The coach should respond with 24 hours with feedback and help you by pointing out mistakes or difficulties in your pronunciation.

When you leave the ‘study’ mode, there are several options in the ‘toolbox’ tab to choose from, namely: dictation, listening practice, flashcards, multiple choice quiz and fill in the blank.

These are variations on the same learning process and allow you to mix up the type of drill or exercise you are doing with the same sentences.

Moreover, Speechling provides a ‘community’ element with a dedicated Facebook page for language exchanges. This is a handy option for you to connect with native speakers of the language you’re learning.

THE PROS

1. Uses sentences instead of individual words so that you are also exposed to the prosody (‘flow’) of the new language and not just the individual sounds separately.

2. Easy to use interface layout which is aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

3. Feedback from a native speaker teacher which is vital for correcting mistakes quickly.

4. You will also pick up some of the vocabulary and grammar even if the software is designed primarily for pronunciation so a valuable bonus to a language learner.

THE CONS

1. Speechling doesn’t give training on how to identity and distinguish the sounds in your new language or how to actually make them in your mouth. I recommend using the Mimic Method to learn important first step in pronunciation this and actually these 2 products complement each other very well, I find. Check out the Mimic Method here!

2. Speechling does not fully replace the value in having a dedicated language teacher who can give you feedback in real time. For this I recommend iTalki. Check out iTalki here!

So overall, I would rate Speechling as a very useful service for improving your pronunciation in a foreign language (with the qualifications that I’ve outlined above). The feedback even if not in real time that I received from my coach was invaluable for helping me improve my pronunciation in Russian and I became a lot more aware of my intonation as well as my pronunciation of the individual words.

In short, while Speechling is not a panacea for all of the difficulties of learning good pronunciation in a foreign language, it does bring you a long way along the path to speaking clearly with a reduced accent in the language you are learning so therefore I can recommend trying out the freemium version first and if you are making progress then up your game by investing in the paid version of the service.

Remember your 10% discount code as a TsarStyler: Tsar18

Good luck with your pronunciation and please comment below to let me know how Speechling (or other products) helped you with making progress in your foreign languages.

Update (September 2018): Speechling has recently expanded beyond dictation addeding listening comprehension, multiple choice, fill in the blank and flashcards to their platform. They have also added an entirely offline module for premium users who can download a huge chunk of the sentence collection (about 10,000 sentences) with access to audio books and Anki decks.

Michael

Michael has been an avid language learner and traveler for many years. His goal with LanguageTsar is to discover the most fun and effective ways to learn a language. He is currently learning Japanese, French and Indonesian.

languagetsar.com/