What language is most similar to Italian. French or Spanish?

Question

I have to take french or spansih in high school(i was going to take german, but the german teacher quit) and i dont really want to learn either of them, but i want to learn italian later in my life and i was wondering what one would help me out the most, french or spanish?

Answer 1

Spanish

Answer 2

The spanish...

Answer 3

both of them. But if I have to choose the most similar, then Spanish

Answer 4

Maybe spoken italian is more similar to spanish but gramatically has lots of common items with french.

Anyway spanish is more useful these days than french or italian.

Answer 5

spanish. the vowels and sounds and pronunciations are very very similar.. .. i have been able to hold conversations with italian speaking ppl.. (im hispanic) and understand 90% of what they are saying.. not french though.... although there are some similarities.. there are many more dif rules and exceptions in french

Answer 6

really neither of them will help you in life unless your planning to move to mexico or france. but french is wayyy easier

Answer 7

They're both similar but my language teacher who is fluent in both French and Spanish says that French is closer to Italian for example;

Martedi = Tuesday in Italian

Martes = Tuesday in Spanish

Mardi - Tuesday in French

Answer 8

honestly, they BOTH will.  spanish will help with pronouncing the vowels and french will help you decode more vocabulary. actually italian and french share a little more vocab than italian - spanish.  italian - french share 89% lexical similarity, while italian - spanish share 82%. but italian - spanish are much closer pronunciation-wise.  i speak all three. here, you can compare the vocab:

english: My head hurts.

italian: La mia testa fa male.

french: Ma tête fai mal.

spanish: Mi cabeza duele.

Put it on the table.

Mettelo sul tavolo.

Mette-vous sur le table.

Ponelo en la mesa.

Look at my face.

Guarda la mia faccia.

Reguarde-vous ma face.

Mira mi cara.

My sister is beautiful.

Mia sorella è bella.

Ma soeur est belle.

Mi hermana es hermosa.

My cousin has a dog.

Mio cugino ha un cane.

Mon cousin a un chien.

Mi primo tiene un perro.

I want to eat cheese every evening this summer.

Voglio mangiare il formaggio ciascuna sera quest'estate.

Je voudreis manger le fromage châque soir c'été.

Quiero comer el queso cada noche esto verano.

My brother talks too much.

Mio fratello parla troppo.

Mon frére parle trop.

Mi hermano habla demasiado.

I need you.

Ho bisogno di te.

J'ai besoin de toi.

Me necesitas.

to succeed

riuscire

reussir

exitar

under

sotto

sous

abajo

to leave alone

lasciare

laisser

dejar

more

più

plus

más

to bring

portare

reporter

traer

to watch

guardare

regarder

mirar

to have

avere

avoir

tener

morning

mattina

matin

mañana

tomorrow

domani

demain

mañana

to search

cercare

chercher

buscar

to find

trovare

trouver

encontrar

to take

prendere

prendre

tomar

to want

volere

vouloir

quierer

to cut

tagliare

tallier

cortar

never

mai

jamais

nunca

but

ma

mais

pero

again

ancora

encore

otra vez

many more...plus italian words that are completely different from BOTH spanish and french...

see? if you say italian - french are nothing a like, it is the same as saying spanish - portugues are nothing a like.  speaking-wise an italian speaker can understand a spanish speaker more due to similar pronunciation, but when it comes to reading, an italian can understand more from written french due to roots/vocab. than from spanish which is heavely influenced by arabic.  italian has practically no arabic influences and has more germanic influences, but french has more germanic influences than italian.

Answer 9

Have modern linguists concluded that there are more similiarities between the syntax, lex., phonology, etc. of Spanish and Italian than exists between Spanish and French? Yes, absolutely.

Spanish and Italian are considered sister languages.  French changed considerably in the middle ages so that it doesn't follow the Latin/Romance  base as much as Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian do.

Answer 10

I'm italian and I've studied spanish. SPANISH IS THE MOST SIMILAR  if you know it is simple lern italian...however is a good decision  to study italian!

Answer 11

Spanish is closer, but Italian has many similarities with French as well.

Travelling to 18 countries (and living in 4 of them), I have found knowing French (as well as Spanish) has been very helpful case in point with Spanish you can travel throughout South+Central America/Mexico with French you can see more of Africa in America it's becoming increasingly beneficial to know Spanish French more so if you're in Canada

I enjoy hearing Italian and trying to speak it, but outside of Italia there simply isn't as much of a need for it.

Desole chekazzo, mais tu parles francais comme une vache espagnole.

Answer 12

Spanish has the same Latin roots as Italian.  Nobody knows where French came from but who wants to talk to them anyway.

Answer 13

They are all Romance languages but I would say Spanish is closer to Italian and easier to learn. I have taken all three.