One language which is closely related to English is German. German sits within the West Germanic arm of the Indo-European language family, together with English, Dutch and Flemish, Frisian, Yiddish, Afrikaans and Luxembourgish. There are certain similarities regarding grammar, syntax and vocabulary with the Scandinavian languages (Norwegian, Swedish and Danish) and Icelandic which, together with Faroese, are among the North Germanic languages.
French is a Romance language, ie of Latin origin. These languages share a similar grammatical structure and there are often similarities in vocabulary.
If you learn French, you’ll have a head start in learning other languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, Italian or Catalan.
Romance languages share a similar grammatical structure and there are often similarities in vocabulary.
Learning Italian will help with the grammar of other languages in this family. You’ll find that some words are very similar to Portuguese and Spanish. In fact, it’s said that Italians can get by in Brazil or Argentina speaking only Italian!
Many would also argue that the universal language of Italy is that of gesture, whether conveying messages with the hands or with facial expressions. This ‘handy’ method of communication helps Italians to be understood abroad, even when they don’t speak the language. So when you visit this beautiful country, enjoy observing the locals conversing and gesticulating with each other!
Now you decide….which one are you going to start with?