Is Spanish easier than French?

And Spanish people also just speak SO FAST!

What Paty999 said sums up my experience as well.

French looks complicated to start with: in the long run, Spanish is harder than it looks. Not least when you get to the level of going out there and communicating with the natives. Spanish speakers tend to articulate a lot less clearly than French speakers and the fact that the intonation is very monotonous makes it harder to pick out the words.

I did Spanish and French at a level over 30 years ago. I started French in year 7 and Spanish in year 8. I have always found Spanish easier. I think it's because in Spanish you pronounce every letter you see whereas in French you have a lot of soft sounding ends to words.
I have heard that dyslexia is almost unheard of in Spain....

DS is fluent in Spanish and teaches it in a large state school. He could also offer French and German. I am pretty sure he would be in agreement with Paty999 and AnnaBegins.

At gcse your DS should do the one which interests him/he is best at but if thinks he might want to continue the language at A level and possibly beyond, usefulness comes into play.

In case it's relevant, I'm fluent in French and have never learned Spanish. I think he should take the language he enjoys the most. That's more important than a marginal difference in difficulty and his potential results. Given that you implied he doesn't work very hard, he is more likely to apply himself if he enjoys it. And if he's not going to do languages at A-level or beyond, it really doesn't make a difference what he gets at GCSE (especially assuming the difference would be minor rather than top mark v fail).

Another criteria is usefulness - a language at GCSE level is likely to be useful for travel but not in a career. So is he more interested in going to France and French speaking countries, or Spain and Spanish speaking countries?

Paty999 has it I think. Generally it's accepted that Spanish is easier to begin learning but the grammar gets complicated as you progress. French is harder at first but progression is easier.

GCSE will not lead to any business conversation. It is just not good enough so "useful" regarding work is a non starter. We are so reluctant to make an effort with languages in this country and see them as "useful" as opposed to a necessity to prove you have a good brain. Everyone from abroad tries to learn English and they succeed but we can't be bothered. The NGOs in Geneva speak French not Spanish.

Just asked DD2 (year 8, excelling in both) "Spanish. At the moment".

My school became a specialist language college. In years 7 and 8 everyone did French. Then from year 9, depending on what set you were in for French, the school chose another language for you.
Spanish was picked for me, and in year 9 I did both French and Spanish.
I found Spanish easier to learn, and I enjoyed it a lot more than French, and I got better results in it. I even paid more attention in the Spanish lessons than I did in French.
So I took Spanish as my language option, and I'm really glad I did. (I did okay in my speaking, reading, listening and writing). (I still remember most of my 6 paragraphs I wrote for my year 10 Spanish speaking exam. I got 55 marks out of 56, so an A*. Was very proud).
Ultimately though it's up to your son.

I found Spanish easier than French.

There was a thread on here a while ago asking which MFL was the most useful and someone linked to a document which said that Spanish was the most useful language for business.

My opinion as a French native, who has been teaching French for 30 years and speak Spanish roughly to A level standard:

• Spanish is much easier to spell than French.
• the rules of pronunciation are easier. ( there are fewer sounds in Spanish than in French but both the “r” and the “j” can be difficult for English speakers.)
• However, Spanish grammar is overall harder than French grammar for an English speaker. ( it is easier than French to construct basic sentences, but not to achieve a top grade for GCSE when more complicated structures are introduced, it is harder.) This being said, what should guide your child is:
• how much he enjoys learning French versus Spanish. ( I loved learning English at school, my first foreign language, enjoyed learning Spanish as my second foreign language, but totally fell in love with learning Italian by myself as an adult. Some languages just appeal to us more than others.. let your child decide.)
• how good the teachers are at this school. This is vital, especially if you don’t think he will take a language for A level. He will need a good teacher to keep him interested, focused, keen to learn.
• whether or not you have holidays/ relatives/ friends in Spanish or French speaking countries/ or if your child is interested in French speaking or Spanish speaking countries. If your child picks French, he will find Italian very easy to pick up as the grammar is virtually the same. But learning any language will make it easier to pick up others in later life. And as someone said in an earlier post, learning a language opens doors to learning about cultures.

Everyone used to say this when I was at school (20 years ago) but despite having an affinity for languages I always found French way easier. I only got a handle on Spanish after spending a year there through uni.

Saying that I am now fluent in French, Spanish and Portuguese and French is now the one I am least interested in and use least.

But... I'd go with the one he's genuinely interested in!

According to this, French could become the most spoken language in the world:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3367012/C-est-impossible-French-course-world-s-commonly-spoken-language-2050.html

Agree do both and drop any soft subjects
They are both useful
I did a science degree and went off to France for a year
Great experience and not I use it daily for my job
Spanish is widely spoken though so might be more useful

When I was at school (NI) we could study french or irish for 5 years to GCSE or drop both after yr 10 and take up Spanish and complete it in 2 years which is what I did as I hated the other 2. Ended up with an A in GCSE Spanish. I loved it but I don't know if it was easier, or the teacher was better or I was just a bit more mature, I don't think I grasped the basics of the other 2 in year 8 and struggled with the rest then.

I don't think trying to guess what language might be "useful" is the best way forward for GCSE level. DD has French and Italian degree but uses neither at work. I will be controversial and suggest he does both! No-one thinks a single science is good enough so a single language is not good enough for a talented linguist. Also, languages are not all about the spoken language. There is culture, literature and art in the mix as well as no higher level of study is purely vocational. Also, why do what appears easy? Having said that, at DDs university there were more firsts in Spanish than several other languages put together!

how is his prononciation?
does he feel comfortable speaking french? Getting to grips with a passable accent seems to be more difficult in French (but isn't dd's issue with French, she's a bit of a thespian and quite likes doing all the accents.

my DD (yr8) says Spanish is much easier.
She is dropping French this year.
The school also allow pupils to switch into Spanish, effectively starting from yr9. They only allow that in Spanish - maybe due to teacher availability? or maybe because it is easier..?

It sounds as though he could do either so should choose the one he prefers. Spanish is often considered to be easier to learn as it is slightly more similar in terms of grammar and pronunciation to English than French is but if is't good at both, that isn't really a factor.

DD does both at A level and says Spanish is by far the easier of the two.