Is Swedish hard to learn from natively speaking English? - General

I figure since Facepunch has a lot of different nationalities, this would be a good place to ask this. Can anyone who originally speaks English that learned Swedish tell me if it was really difficult? Such as learning proper pronunciation and writing the language? Or to any native Swedish speakers, was it difficult to learn English?

Probably. Pretty much all languages are hard to learn with an English nativity because English isn't really related to any other language. Like, if you knew Spanish, it'd be relatively easy to learn Italian because they're closely related. English, however, is if you took a bunch of different languages and threw them in a blender and started speaking the outcome.

Meatballs. King of language!

[QUOTE=DudeGuyKT;28882675]Probably. Pretty much all languages are hard to learn with an English nativity because English isn't really related to any other language. Like, if you knew Spanish, it'd be relatively easy to learn Italian because they're closely related. English, however, is if you took a bunch of different languages and threw them in a blender and started speaking the outcome.[/QUOTE] I'd say the language closest to English would be Dutch.

[QUOTE=DudeGuyKT;28882675]Probably. Pretty much all languages are hard to learn with an English nativity because English isn't really related to any other language. Like, if you knew Spanish, it'd be relatively easy to learn Italian because they're closely related. English, however, is if you took a bunch of different languages and threw them in a blender and started speaking the outcome.[/QUOTE] As for Spanish, I say French would be easier to learn.

If you manage to learn Irish or Chinese i will applaud you.

I am Danish, but learned English first. Since Danish and Swedish are pretty similar, it's safe to say, it's no easy task. It's not tough, since the grammar is fairly easy in Swedish compared to so many other languages. Give it a shot. [editline]30th March 2011[/editline] I have no clue what I just posted.

[QUOTE=JerkyOdius;28882838]As for Spanish, I say French would be easier to learn.[/QUOTE] Well if you already speak Spanish or French or Italian it'd be easy to learn those related languages because they all branched off from Latin. But English isn't really from something.

[QUOTE=Cypher_09;28882768]I'd say the language closest to English would be Dutch.[/QUOTE] Dont be silly. Its obviously French. Besides, Dutch is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn.

It's as difficult as Spanish. I'm learning Norwegian and the sentence structure + alphabet are nearly the same. All I have to learn are words.

I found Swedish very easy for me, because a lot of English words are based off of Swedish.

I don't know, but it seems to be pretty easy. When we get exchange students here, they usually manage to pick up the language within a few months. Grammar is quite easy (easier than English I would say, and [I]way[/I] easier than German/French). Syntax is nearly identical to English. The languages also share alot of words. The hardest part will probably be the pronounciation - but it's also the part that's least important (we will understand you, and nobody expects you to get it right anyway). I think it's overall an easy language to learn for an English speaker - relatively speaking (no pun intended)! You must still work and study to get it. And since the language has little to zero real world practical applications (all the swedes you'll ever meet will speak English themselves, and alot of the education here is in English) you should ask yourself if it's really worth learning an entire language just for novelty's sake.

[QUOTE=DudeGuyKT;28885526]But English isn't really from something.[/QUOTE] it's west germanic with latinate words thrown on top

I'm a Native English speaker and Chinese is pretty easy to learn. Grammar is easy as shit.

Have fun learning R, Sj, Stj, Kj and all the other fun sounds.

Pronunciation of Swedish words i've found not to be a problem. Just everything else :/

[QUOTE=Drumdevil;28885559]Dont be silly. Its obviously French. Besides, Dutch is one of the hardest languages [highlight]in the world[/highlight] to learn.[/QUOTE] [img]http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/dec2008/5/7/8734958F-E669-8C46-216B6D2BCBB3C7F9.jpg[/img]

Maybe the hardest part is the pronunciations. The grammar and whatnot is pretty easy, i guess.

Dutch According to the dutch in my school is "Oh you stupid faggot, Dutch is easy" All the dutch kids except for one are dicks. But on a side note, Pronunciations are easy to learn even if they are hard, just practice.

[QUOTE=desrt_rat;28887912]I found Swedish very easy for me, because a lot of English words are based off of Swedish.[/QUOTE] It's actually the other way around.

[QUOTE=VaSTinY;28891154]It's actually the other way around.[/QUOTE] This. Also, I found English very easy for me (Swede here) but I guess it'll be harder for natively English people as we have a big vocab. The simplest thing in our language is grammar.

Well, I have pretty much never heard someone english, american or australian speak swedish with good pronouncation, though I doubt the grammar will be very hard.

I actually recently started learning, it's fairly simple vocab wise as there are many words really similar to English. Hund = Dogg. Katt = Cat Mann = Man Kvinna = Woman (Kvinna pronounced similar to Queen, i.e. female.) There are just a lot of pesky grammatical things. Words aren't given genders, but for 'a' (I think...) They have 'en' and 'ett.' And I believe a few others. You can't just add 's' to make something plural either, the word changes.

Dog* Man* :v:

Yeah I shouldn't offer advice, I can barely speak English.

[QUOTE=Drumdevil;28885559]Dont be silly. Its obviously French. Besides, Dutch is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn.[/QUOTE] I've heard that before but I failed to find testimonials on this to confirm it is true. (for Dutch being the hardest language). As for Swedish, I think it will be less difficult because it's a Germanic language too. The pronunciation might be trickier.

[QUOTE=Darmvlinder;28891899]I've heard that before but I failed to find testimonials on this to confirm it is true. (for Dutch being the hardest language).[/QUOTE] I would assume something like Russian would be the hardest. Actually Bulgarian is fucking hard because it's completely unrelated to any other language.

[QUOTE=MintyMginty;28891804]I actually recently started learning, it's fairly simple vocab wise as there are many words really similar to English. Hund = Dogg. Katt = Cat Mann = Man Kvinna = Woman (Kvinna pronounced similar to Queen, i.e. female.) There are just a lot of pesky grammatical things. Words aren't given genders, but for 'a' (I think...) They have 'en' and 'ett.' And I believe a few others. You can't just add 's' to make something plural either, the word changes.[/QUOTE] Swedish does have gender, Common and Neuter

[QUOTE=Lufttygger306;28891932]Swedish does have gender, Common and Neuter[/QUOTE] Really? This is why you shouldn't learn off the internet.

Swedish is pretty simple. If most swedes have an easy time learning english then I suppose most english people should have an easy time learning swedish.