Spanish vs Portuguese
Often partly understood across the border, especially on paper: roughly 6 in 10 everyday words look alike.
Spanish vs Italian
Roughly half of everyday words look alike, and both are spoken with clear, open vowels.
Spanish vs French
Shared Latin roots, but French spelling hides its sounds, so the two look closer on paper than they sound.
French vs ItalianItalian is spelled much as it sounds; French is not. Same Latin roots, very different spelling logic.
French vs PortugueseBoth keep nasal vowels and plenty of Latin vocabulary; about 3 in 10 everyday words look alike.
Italian vs PortugueseLatin cousins that sound surprisingly different aloud; roughly 4 in 10 everyday words still look alike.
Japanese vs Korean
Similar sentence order and particles, but two completely different writing systems.
Japanese vs Chinese
They share many written characters, yet the spoken words rarely match.
German vs Dutch
Next-door neighbours: roughly 4 in 10 everyday words are alike, and Dutch comes out easier for English speakers.
Spanish vs GermanA Romance language set against a Germanic one, so only about 1 in 10 everyday words look alike.
French vs GermanFrench has two genders and no noun cases; German has three genders and four cases.
Korean vs ChineseHangul letters on one side, Chinese characters and tones on the other.
Norwegian vs Swedish
Speakers can often follow each other; roughly 7 in 10 everyday words look alike.
Norwegian vs Danish
Nearly the same in writing, very different when spoken.
Swedish vs DanishClose on the page, with roughly 6 in 10 everyday words alike, but clearly different to the ear.
Polish vs Ukrainian
Both Slavic with seven cases, but one is written in Latin letters and the other in Cyrillic.
Hebrew vs Arabic
Related Semitic languages, both written right to left, in two different scripts.
Hindi vs Bengali
Scripts built on the same Brahmic logic, and roughly 4 in 10 everyday words are recognisably the same.
Indonesian vs Tagalog
Related Austronesian languages, yet only about 2 in 10 everyday words look alike.
Thai vs Vietnamese
Both are tonal, but Thai has its own script while Vietnamese uses Latin letters with accents.
