Yes, French is harder.
For people like me, whose native language has nothing in common with either of them, memorizing vocabulary is almost equally demanding in English and French. The process presents similar challenges: in English, words are spelled one way and pronounced another. For example, the word “through” is pronounced completely differently from how you’d expect from the spelling. On the other hand, French is a bit like that too, but for another reason: many consonants are silent. So, in terms of memorizing word forms, English and French are alike—there’s a certain irregularity that makes everything a bit… more complicated. English isn’t always logical, but French, with its pronunciation rules and exceptions, is just as tricky to master.
Having talked about the difficulty of memorizing vocabulary, let’s move on to grammar. There, the difference between French and English becomes even clearer.
French has far more complex grammatical rules than English. Verb conjugations, noun genders… there’s no bluffing. To master French—whether written or spoken—you have to put in a lot more effort than you do for English. In English, once you know the basics, you can often get by with minor mistakes and communication stays fairly smooth. But in French, every little detail counts. So, to avoid mistakes and to feel truly at ease in French, you really have to double your efforts.
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