MFL GCSEs - Is Spanish, French, or German easiest to get a high grade?

[LimeSqueezer]

DS has hated French throughout primary (Y6 now) and needs to pick two languages for Sep in Y7, one of which he must carry through to GCSE. Very bright boy, great at maths, reading, and verbal skills, but ASD, not great spelling in English, and finds speaking and listening in French really hard and just doesn't enjoy it. I'm wondering about picking Spanish and German for next year instead of trying to continue with French, with an idea that Spanish is probably the easiest of the three GCSE choices. Thoughts?

Spanish definitely unless he is a very logical boy who likes definite rules -- German grammar is very complex to say the least.
And French gets harder too before it gets easier. (At around A level.)

I did Spanish 'O' level - yes I am that old - did A level as well - loved it and found it much easier/enjoyable than French or German. Can still lapse into it when in Spain all these years later. I had the best teacher in the world though for O level- out of a class of 30 we all passed -16 A's and 14 B's.

Thanks! As it happens, he does quite like rules, and finds French frustrating because there are too many possibilities and exceptions.

Don't yhey set grade boundaries or expectations differently to account for some languages being easier?

He might prefer Spanish because it is phonetic. Simple rules for pronunciation that actually work.

Definitely Spanish.

I did German GCSE at the normal pace and got an A* *star I also got an A at A level and carried it through as a subsidiary during my degree. It's now nearly twenty years later and although a little rusty my German is still good. I did Spanish GCSE in a year while I did my A levels as an extra, I also got an A star. I cannot speak, read or understand anything other than the most rudimentary Spanish. It is definitely much easier at GCSE, but I don't think the course actually taught me much Spanish.
I've never studied french so can't comment there.

Edited because if you use the star symbol you just get bold text instead of a star!

Hey @LimeSqueezer if he hates French then it maybe makes sense for him to plump for the two he hasn't done, German and Spanish, and see which he prefers. But why does he hate French so much? Would he in fact hate studying any MFL do you think? Or is it the teacher, the way it is taught (probs not by a specialist in primary), the challenge of saying it or understanding it? Some of those factors might be an issue with any MFL obvs.

MFL is my subject btw tho I no longer teach it in school. IME one reason a lot of people say Spanish is easier is bc they learned French first (pretty common in England years ago) and then picked up Spanish later - so ofc it was more straightforward as the languages are similar in root and have a good deal of grammar in common. Also people more commonly holiday in Spain from the UK and so are keener to learn the language for that reason.

I don't actually think any MFL GCSE is at all easy, tho I do think there are things about the different languages which may appeal to different people.

All have challenges and easier aspects. German is very logical, with a lot of cases to learn and rules about word order; but it is much easier for an English speaker to get decent at pronunciation. French and Spanish much harder for us to say; the j in Spanish is especially challenging for a UK tongue to master. This may also lead to issues with listening tasks. In French and Spanish you have to make adjectives agree with the gender of the noun. I could pick examples galore - natation in French is the same as natación in Spanish is the same as Schwimmen in German - hmmm the German word is easier there! But I could pick examples the other way too for sure.

FWIW wrt grade boundaries - they are pretty similar. In 2019 (last reasonable year to look at really) there were just a few marks difference. 135 for a 6 in German, 138 in Spanish, 141 in French; 201 for a 9 in German, 205 Spanish, 203 French. That's out of 240 total btw.

Could he try some duolingo on the two he hasn't tried and see if he likes them better? If you are worried about him losing the learning of French in primary if he drops it, I wouldn't; any secondary school will start everyone from scratch and IME so little it learned at primary level sadly that is makes no difference. HTH.

If he died by like French, but had a grounding in it, then Spanish, there a lot of simpler vocabulary, and I don't remember the grammar being so hard (I've studied both languages).

DS did barejy any MFL up the Y5, then a but if French at Middle school (y6/8). At high school he did dovish and french in Y9, and is now doing Spanish GCSE - it's simple enough that a bright child can go from 0-GCSE in 3 years.

I did GCSE in all three around 15 years ago. I had been having french lessons since 8 or 9 years old but it was the one that I did worst in and really struggled with. I started German in year 7 and really took to it. For me it was far easier than French or Spanish and the one that I got A* in. I started Spanish for the GCSE course and had 2 years of lessons and came out with an A.
I even ended up living in Spain for a couple of years but even now would say that German is the language I feel more at ease with.

I think it can very much depend on the person. In my German class we had a child who was half Argentinian but despite having a Spanish speaking mother he struggled with Spanish and got better results in German and always talked about how much more sense German made for him.

Picking up on the dyslexia issue- it is well known that French is much harder for learners with dyslexia as it is not a simple phonetic language, just like English isn't. Both German and Spanish are MUCH easier from that aspect. There are some rules you can learn in German spelling that link really well with English eg cht in German usually is ght in English because of the joint Anglo-Saxon roots. Both languages have pros and cons but, if he starts both in y7, he can then see which suits him best.

I would think that all languages, grammatically, would appeal to a logic-minded child. But it’s the speaking and listening that seem to be the problem, and French can be particularly hard for this - because so many words sound the same when you hear them. I’d be tempted to go for German, but that is more grammatically complicated than Spanish.

Thank you all so much! Really helpful insights, reassuringly confirming my instinct towards trying Spanish and German next year and hoping that one of them clicks better, perhaps aided by easier pronunciation and a fresh start, and that his primary French doesn't really represent any useful start to build on.

@clary, thanks for such great insider insights! I have tried to figure out why he hates French so much, but I can only guess and hope that it's specific to French and not MFL in general.

Would you all agree that taking French and Spanish at the same time as a beginner would risk being very confusing?

I don't find two languages to be confusing. The brain has an ability to separate the two languages into two different contents. This is why bilingual people don't seem to accidentally speak to the wrong person in the wrong language.

Can you and he unpick at all what he dislikes about French?

tbh if he has absorbed any French at all it will make Spanish easier - both Romance languages.

I meant to say that sometimes a good teacher will incline a child towards a language in KS3 - tho of course not a reason to choose it for GCSE as that teacher may leave - but it might spark an interest.

I think French plus Spanish is not ideal, tho I learned them at the same time. Also if he has the mindset of hating French a fresh start would surely be better.

And thanks for the duolingo suggestion - I've tried that with no success so far, but will puh again. Tricky with a boy who's not excited about MFL!

I definitely do.
I speak French and German (and English) and quite often get stuck in French as my German is a lot better and the vocab comes in to my head before the French.

In this instance I'd take Spanish (like French but easier I think for beginners) and German (totally different).

One thing to consider, speaking as an MFL specialist, is that Year 7 children will be sitting the new format MFL GCSE. One significant aspect is that it will include dictation. It is still not clear how they will differentiate the marking but essentially Spanish is phonetic and therefore the easiest for this specific aspect with German a close second. French is considerably more difficult as graphemes and phonemes differ so much. Watching original language films on Netflix can really help to develop the ear (it's the same process by which a baby learns effectively - listening before speaking).

Funnily enough the most engaged language learners in Y7 are the ones who haven't studied the language at Primary. It might be a case of new language, new teacher. Sadly MFL provision in the UK at primary level is v poor indeed with very few specialist teachers.

One thing that will help regardless is how well read your child is in English as at GCSE there is a heavy focus on cognates and near cognates,ie words that look/ sound the same or almost the same as the English words. It's about the child's ability to recognise and apply patterns in language, and make connections to what they already know.

I would just keep gently encouraging with a focus on fun! Eat out/ cook foreign foods, go on holiday there if you can, host a foreign student - anything you can do to encourage an International outlook really! There are so many advantages for students who speak another language. Not least it helps cognitive ability across the board.

Most definitely Spanish

For basic speech and sentence construction he can try Michel Thomas which is free on YouTube. Not as much emphasis on grammar or vocabulary but excellent as an additional tool to understanding the root of the language
I found it particularly helpful for French

Good point from @adventurealltheway - the new spec (which starts being examined in 2026, so teaching to year 10s from this Sept) includes dictation in the listening exam and also reading aloud in the speaking exam. I suspect reading aloud in German is overall more straightforward for a native English speaker. But that's not a huge element of the exam overall.

I liked German because it was logical in a way that French didn't seem to be for me. Fewer pronunciation issues, as well.

@LimeSqueezer

I read German and French at Uni.

I wonder whether German could be the language for him? I think that it might appeal to him.

You could get something like the Dorling Kindersley Flash Cards and the matching book for young learners to see whether he likes the look of what he sees.

https://www.dk.com/uk/book/9780241601419-german-for-everyone-junior-first-words-flash-cards/

https://www.dk.com/uk/book/9780241491416-german-for-everyone-junior-5-words-a-day/

Although I love languages, especially German, I am aware that some teenagers really don't like doing them. If he really isn't enjoying French, I would agree with looking at a different language. The change to German, which might intrigue him, could be the boost he needs with language learning.

I’ve studied French, Spanish and German at different times. I’d say German is the most difficult of the three. It looks familiar at first, as English is a Germanic language and much of the basic vocabulary is similar. However, the grammar is complex due to the three genders and the case system. The US Foreign Service Institute considers that German takes longer to master than French or Spanish: https://www.fsi-language-courses.org/blog/fsi-language-difficulty/.

I think French is easier than German, though I found the pronunciation difficult to master (haven’t yet to be honest) and the spelling is pretty irregular. A lot of the vocabulary looks familiar, but there are a fair amount of false friends.

Of the three, I think Spanish is probably the least similar to English, but also the easiest to learn. I love the phonetic spelling and it’s relatively easy to pronounce. The vowel sounds are straightforward and there are only a few tricky consonants.

I don’t know if the marking schemes allow for the relative difficulties of each language.

I appreciate it doesn’t help matters in the short term but when it comes to choosing GCSE options you might be able to make a case for him not taking a language at all. Some autistic students do struggle with language-based subjects more than their neurotypical peers and it can be better to focus on the others. (I don’t suggest this lightly - am a languages graduate myself!) In fact if it’s a huge barrier to the rest of his learning it might be worth speaking to the SENco at this point?