Is Spanish easier than French?

[bananacake1]

Is Spanish easier to learn than French? And does that mean it is easier to get a 8/ 9 in GCSE Spanish than GCSE French?

Are people really better at one Romance language than the other with the same amount of teaching in both?

DS has to choose between these options today. He says that he prefers French, but according to his results, he's better at Spanish.(NB he said he preferred French before he got the results - knowing him, the only thing that he really prefers is minimal work!).

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.

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.

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?

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.

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....

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.

And Spanish people also just speak SO FAST!