French vs German: which should you learn?

Estimates for a native English speaker, following the US Foreign Service Institute’s groupings. Languages the Institute does not rank are placed beside their closest relatives. Your own pace will differ.

• You want a language of diplomacy, cooking, fashion and film, and an easy bridge to Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.
• You will use it in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and a large part of West and Central Africa.
• You want the faster path: French is the quicker of the two.

Watch out for: spelling and sound are far apart, so listening and speaking need more attention than reading.

• You want access to Europe's largest economy, engineering and science, plus a head start on Dutch and the Scandinavian languages.
• You will use it in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Watch out for: cases, noun genders and verb position are the long part.

French. Reading comes faster than speaking. Silent letters, linked words and the French r take time, so most of your effort should go into listening and saying sentences aloud.

German. Pronunciation is fairly regular and many words are close to English. Cases, genders and verb position are the real work, and they are easier to absorb as whole sentences than as rules.

In both, the quickest fix for pronunciation is the same: hear a whole sentence, say it out loud and check how close you were. That is the loop 4ToSpeak runs on every sentence.

French and German are not close relatives, so learning one saves little time on the other. Pick the one you will use soonest, get to a comfortable conversation, and add the second later.

If you cannot decide, start both for a week at 15 minutes a day. After seven days you will know which one you look forward to, and motivation matters more than the difference in hours.

Start French or start German, both free with no card.

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