If you’re at a point where you want to learn another language and your choice is between French and Italian, you’re in the right place. Deciding which language to learn comes down to many factors and in this article, we’ll help you decide which one of the two is right for you.
Learning French vs. Italian: The 5 considerations
Learning either language is a great experience so rest assured that no matter which one you go for, you’re opening up your world to a huge range of opportunities. Before making your decision, it will help to consider the following:
- The similarities
- The popularity of the language
- The usefulness
- The difficulty
- Job prospects
1. The similarities
Both French and Italian derive from Latin and are Romance languages. For this reason, you won’t be surprised to find lots of similarities between the two languages.
Firstly, France and Italy share a border and so they’re closely connected physically as countries. This, or their shared-language history, could be why both languages are considered languages of love. It is said that they both have melodic pronunciations. This has been explored through opera even: Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata and Georges Bizet’s Carmen are sung in Italian and French, respectively.
Secondly, both languages are lexically similar. Lexical similarity is a measure in linguistics that shows how similar two languages are. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 1 whereby 0 means the languages share no common words and 1 means there is a complete overlap of their vocabularies.
For Italian and French, the lexical similarity coefficient is 0.89. To compare, the coefficients for French and Spanish is 0.75, and French and English is 0.27. German and English have a lexical similarity of 0.6.
While this information does not help you with the question should I learn French or Italian, it certainly helps you realise that learning one will probably mean that you can learn the second relatively easily at a later date should you wish.
Here are some examples of shared words (English – Italian – French):
- To eat – mangiare – manger
- To finish – finire – finir
- To think – pensare – penser
- To live – vivere – vivre
- Milk – latte – lait
- Bread – pane – pain
- Friend – amico – ami
- Easy – facile – facile
The biggest difference between the two languages is their pronunciation. Italian is arguably easier as the pronunciation rules are more consistent and there are fewer sounds. Whereas French has more words that don’t follow the rules and has silent letters too.
2. The popularity of the language
When weighing up learning French Vs Italian, the language’s popularity doesn’t really matter to most people. However, if you’re wanting to practise, you might want to know how many people speak the language to know how easy it’s going to be to find someone to talk to.
In this respect, French is more widely spoken. There are around 128 million native French speakers and it is an official language in an impressive 29 countries. Conversely, Italian has 60 million native speakers and is an official language in just four countries. Thus, French remains one of the world’s most important languages.
In terms of second language speakers, there are believed to be over 400 million. Apparently, 212 million people in the world use French every day.
Italy, on the other hand, has fewer speakers. It is, however, spoken as a second language by 14 million EU citizens. An impressive 66% of Maltese people speak conversational Italian and 70% of Albanians know some Italian due to their shared history. There are also 19,000 Italians living in Albania too.
3. The usefulness
Going on what we’ve just said, French is going to be the clear winner when it comes to usefulness. This is because it’s spoken in so many places including France, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
Don’t forget, though, that learning any second language makes you much more useful compared to monolingual people!
4. The difficulty
There isn’t a lot of difference between the difficulty of learning French or Italian. Both languages are remarkably similar and if you can learn one, you can learn the other. That said, if you’re wondering is Italian or French easier to learn, it’s probably Italian. But only just!
We’ve touched upon pronunciation above. Italian is a phonetic language. This means that it’s pronounced how it’s written according to a set of rules. French, on the other hand, has more complicated pronunciation and even a native might pronounce a new word wrong because of this.
In terms of vowel sounds, Italian has seven (the five vowels a, e, i, o, u, plus a second way of pronouncing i and o). French, however, has thirteen vowel sounds – or if you’re counting nasal vowel sounds, you might count 17.
The grammar of the two languages is of similar difficulty. There are some, more complicated aspects of grammar in Italian but the rules are pretty consistently followed. Grammar could be classed as slightly easier in French but there are more exceptions to the rule.
5. Job prospects
Any second language will look good on your CV, so it doesn’t matter if it’s French or Italian you learn. However, because it is so widely spoken, many people consider French to be more useful for job prospects.
That said, not as many people speak Italian and so you might be more sought after with Italian on your CV.
French in the English Language
When William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066, he brought with him Norman French. This then became the language of the upper class, the government, and the court. At this time, French was the country’s dominant language.
Both English and French evolved considerably during this time too. Norman French ended up Anglo-Norman as it was affected by English just like Old English became Middle English as it was affected by French.
Because of this influence, English speakers use about 15,000 words that are French in origin – and that’s before they start learning French!
Italian in the English Language
Like French, there are many Italian loan words in English. These are often in areas related to music, food, literature, art, commerce, architecture, banking and the military.
An example of words that are of Italian origin include volcano, lava, fiasco, finale, scenario, opera, and solo.
Finally, if you play a musical instrument, you’ll already know lots of common Italian words like adagio (slowly), animato (lively), dolce (sweetly), forte (loud/strong), and piano (soft).
Why is studying French important?
If you’re thinking of learning French, you might want to think about why it’s important to help you decide whether or not to learn it.
Firstly, French is spoken on every continent and is the fifth most-spoken language globally. Whether you want to travel to Tahiti, work in Senegal, or be a diplomat in Switzerland, French is a good idea!
Aside from learning the language to improve your skills or job prospects, learning a language also opens you up to understanding and experiencing the culture.
French has an interesting history and rich culture. If you like books, poetry, architecture, art, science, or music (pretty much any topic, actually!), then French is a great language to learn.
Learning French will help you understand nuances in the culture that you would otherwise miss.
Why is studying Italian important?
Like French, Italian is an important language both in terms of its current position in the world as well as its history and culture.
According to UNESCO, more than 60% of the art treasures in the world are in Italy. What’s more, if you’re interested in philosophy, archaeology, art history and literature, learning Italian will be of great benefit.
So, whether you want to study the land that inspired Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, read Dante’s La Divina Commedia in its original language, or appreciate the language of Vivaldi, learning Italian will give you insight into a whole new world and culture!
Final thoughts
If you still can’t decide, perhaps consider learning both! You don’t have to do this at the same time (this would be difficult!) but knowing how similar the languages are in terms of vocabulary, means that you might then find it easier to learn the second one after you’ve learnt the first!
Above all, learning a language should be fun and not a chore. Of course, there will be times when you’re learning the subjunctive mood and you’re thinking this isn’t fun but, on the whole, it should be enjoyable – and you’ll learn more if it is.
With that in mind, consider choosing the language that you think you’ll enjoy the most. Even if this means deciding whether you prefer pizza and cappuccinos or croissants and champagne!
In bocca al lupo (“in the mouth of the wolf” – or good luck – in Italian).