German Vs Spanish: Which One Should You Learn?

So you’re a budding bilingual, or maybe a well-established polyglot who’s looking for your next language. If you’re trying to make a choice between Spanish vs German, it’s probably because you’re interested in a language with a lot of practical utility — one that can open doors while you’re traveling, studying, or perhaps building your career abroad. Whether you want to learn German or you’re leaning toward Spanish, both are excellent choices for anyone interested in learning a foreign language.

Narrowing it down isn’t always straightforward, but looking at each language from a few different angles can make the decision easier. Spanish and German are both practical choices for English speakers, but they each come with their own strengths and challenges. If you’re wondering whether to learn German or Spanish, the best answer depends on your goals, interests and the kinds of opportunities you hope your new language will open.

Here are some more considerations you might want to take into account.

Spanish vs German: At A Glance

German vs Spanish: How Similar Are The Two Languages?

One thing you’re probably already aware of: Spanish and German are very different languages. And presumably, you love them both for who they are.

But on the scale of world languages, Spanish and German do share a lot in common. They’re both distant cousins in the Indo-European family. They both use the Latin alphabet. They both have grammatical gender, so you won’t be escaping that part anytime soon. (Spanish has two genders: masculine and feminine, whereas German has a third “neuter” gender, too.) Plus, they’re both relatively straightforward in terms of pronunciation. Both are also relatively accessible for English speakers, although each language presents different challenges as learners become more advanced.

German And Spanish: Key Differences In Grammar And Sentence Structure

The most obvious difference between Spanish and German is that their shared linguistic ancestry traces back to thousands of years in the past. Spanish is a Romance language, and German is, well, Germanic (like English, Danish and many others). These are both language families that began to take shape around the time of the Roman empire.

Beyond the fact that they sound a lot different and have different vocabulary, Spanish and German also differ in word order and sentence structure. Like English, Spanish generally follows a subject-verb-object (SVO) sentence structure. German sentence structure might stretch your mind a little more due to its flexible word order. You can sometimes say the same thing in two or more different ways by placing the verb or subject in completely different places in the sentence. Not to worry; it does have its own logic. It’s just one you may not be used to at first.

Another key difference is that German has four noun cases — the nominative, genitive, dative and accusative — whereas this concept isn’t really as important in Spanish. At the very least, you’ll be spending a lot less time getting your head around it.

Which Language Is Easier To Learn: Spanish Or German?

On Babbel’s internal ranking of easiest languages for English speakers to learn, Spanish was number three, and German didn’t even make the list. Don’t get too concerned, though, because German didn’t make the cut for hardest languages to learn, either.

In short: Neither language is especially difficult to learn compared with many languages around the world, although Spanish is often considered the easier starting point. If your goal is to speak Spanish as quickly as possible, Spanish may have a slight advantage. If you’d rather speak German for work or life in Central Europe, German might be worth the extra effort.

Spanish and German both share lots of cognates with English, or words that look or sound similar due to a common linguistic root ancestor. So you probably won’t struggle too much with either set of vocabulary.

Both languages are also fairly phonetic, meaning they’re generally spoken much as they’re written. And though German is known for its long, convoluted compound words, they’re actually not that hard to muster once you tackle them systematically.

Overall, Spanish might be easier than German at the beginning stages, but the two tend to even out in difficulty once learners get to the more advanced stages. German has more complicated grammar rules that need to be mastered early on, but once learners get familiar with them, they find that they’re pretty consistent. Spanish has a bit of an easier onboarding process, but more advanced learners run into more complexities and rule exceptions down the line.

So, German Or Spanish: Which Language Should You Learn?

Well, that depends on where (and how) you intend to use it.

In terms of sheer demographics, Spanish wins out. Spanish has the second largest native speaker population in the world (after Chinese), and there are 543 million total speakers around the world that you’ll be able to converse with (many of whom are less likely to know English than their German-speaking counterparts, by the way). Additionally, knowing Spanish will open large swaths of the world to you, including Spain and most of Latin and Central America. It’s an official language in 20 countries overall, and Spanish is spoken in many more.

Meanwhile, German is the 11th most-spoken language in the world, with around 155 million speakers. Of that number, about 80.6 million (so, roughly half) of the speakers live in Germany.

When it comes to learning a new language for work, Spanish and German can both make you more competitive in the business world. If you have your sights set on working in Europe, German is a good language to know. Germany has the largest economy in the European Union (with many high-quality companies to work for), and it’s an official language in Germany, Austria and much of Switzerland. We Forum’s Power Language Index ranks German third in the world in terms of the economic opportunities that it offers.

Spanish is also highly in demand, especially considering the sheer amount of speakers around the world who might be looking for services in their native language. It is also the official language in many growing South American economies. It has an overall ranking of fourth on the Power Language Index due to a combination of factors, above German, which ranks at number seven. However, German beats Spanish specifically in terms of economic opportunities. Still, there’s no objective answer as to which will be better to learn, as everyone is different.

Whether you decide to learn German or learn Spanish, both languages can open doors to new cultures, careers and friendships. Whatever you choose, your language learning journey will be more rewarding if you pick the language you’re genuinely excited about.