Hungarian vs Finnish: Which Is Easier, and How Similar Are They?

Key takeaways

Hungarian and Finnish are in the same Foreign Service Institute difficulty group (Category III).
Their everyday vocabulary is mostly different: fewer than 1 in 10 everyday words look alike, so knowing one gives you little to lean on in the other.
Study time will not decide it, so start with the one you will actually use.

How hard is each one?

For an English speaker the two sit in the same difficulty group, so neither is officially easier: the Foreign Service Institute puts both at 1,012 class hours. These are the figures behind the how long does it take to learn a language calculator, from the US Foreign Service Institute's published language training times.

	Hungarian	Finnish
FSI difficulty group	Category III	Category III
Class hours to working proficiency	1,012	1,012
Full-time weeks	44	44

The hours are for a native English speaker in full-time classes aiming at professional working proficiency. Useful everyday conversation comes sooner, and the calculator breaks the time down by level.

How much do the words overlap?

Their everyday vocabulary is mostly different: fewer than 1 in 10 everyday words look alike, so knowing one gives you little to lean on in the other.

A few everyday words that look alike in Hungarian and Finnish:

English	Hungarian	Finnish
America	Amerika	Amerikka
Japan	Japán	Japani
bagel	bagel	bageli
Brazil	Brazília	Brasilia
cactus	kaktusz	kaktus
kilogram	kilogramm	kilogramma
lemonade	limonádé	limonadi
tourist	turista	turisti

And a few everyday words that look completely different:

English	Hungarian	Finnish
French	francia	ranskalainen
capital	főváros	pääkaupunki
drawing	rajz	piirustus
furniture	bútor	huonekalut
juice	gyümölcslé	mehu
one	egy	yksi
second	második	toinen
team	csapat	joukkue

Writing system and grammar

Both use the Latin alphabet, so neither asks you to learn a new script, though each has its own spelling rules and special letters.
Both have noun cases: Hungarian has about 18 and Finnish has about 15.

	Hungarian	Finnish
Writing system	Latin alphabet	Latin alphabet
Grammatical genders	None	None
Noun cases	18 is the figure usually given	15 is the figure usually given
Tones	No	No

Which should you learn first?

Study time will not decide this one, because the two ask for about the same. If you want to reach a particular place, a person or a job, start with the one you will actually use: steady motivation counts for more than the difference in hours.

Frequently asked questions

Is Hungarian easier than Finnish?

For an English speaker the two sit in the same difficulty group, so neither is officially easier: the Foreign Service Institute puts both at 1,012 class hours. Hours are for a native English speaker reaching professional working proficiency in full-time classes; casual learning gets you to useful conversation well before that.

How similar are Hungarian and Finnish?