Spanish vs French: Which Is Easier, and How Similar Are They?

Key takeaways

Spanish and French are in the same Foreign Service Institute difficulty group (Category I).
Their everyday vocabulary overlaps in places: roughly 3 in 10 everyday words look alike, so some Spanish words will feel familiar if you know French, but most will not.
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 552–690 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.

	Spanish	French
FSI difficulty group	Category I	Category I
Class hours to working proficiency	552–690	552–690
Full-time weeks	24–30	24–30

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 overlaps in places: roughly 3 in 10 everyday words look alike, so some Spanish words will feel familiar if you know French, but most will not.

A few everyday words that look alike in Spanish and French:

English	Spanish	French
centimeter	centímetro	centimètre
chimpanzee	chimpancé	chimpanzé
continent	continente	continent
generation	generación	génération
kilometer	kilómetro	kilomètre
mushroom	champiñón	champignon
restaurant	restaurante	restaurant
temperature	temperatura	température

And a few everyday words that look completely different:

English	Spanish	French
Friday	viernes	vendredi
bright	brillante	vif
daughter	hija	fille
fish	pez	poisson
jewelry	joyas	bijoux
muffin	magdalena	muffin
ring	cuadrilátero	ring
street	calle	rue

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.

	Spanish	French
Writing system	Latin alphabet	Latin alphabet
Grammatical genders	2 (masculine, feminine)	2 (masculine, feminine)
Noun cases	None	None
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 Spanish easier than French?

For an English speaker the two sit in the same difficulty group, so neither is officially easier: the Foreign Service Institute puts both at 552–690 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 Spanish and French?

Their everyday vocabulary overlaps in places: roughly 3 in 10 everyday words look alike, so some Spanish words will feel familiar if you know French, but most will not. They are both Romance languages, both descended from Latin.

Should I learn Spanish or French first?

Can speakers of Spanish and French understand each other?

Some can, to a degree, but it varies a lot from person to person and with practice. Written text is usually easier to follow than fast speech.

Keep going

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