Spanish 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 the widest everyday reach of any language an English speaker can learn quickly, and a base for Portuguese and Italian.
• You will use it in Spain, Mexico, most of Central and South America, and large communities across the United States.
• You want the faster path: Spanish is the quicker of the two.

Watch out for: verb endings and the two verbs for to be (ser and estar) take practice.

• 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.

Spanish. It is one of the friendlier languages for English speakers. Many words look familiar, the spelling is regular, and you can say any word you can read. Verb endings and the two words for to be take practice, which is why we have you build and say whole sentences.

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.

Spanish 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 Spanish or start German, both free with no card.

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