Is French and Spanish similar?

Some one told me French & Spanish are similar, and that a Mexican guy could understand a French guy and vice versa.

I wouldn't think so, because French & Spanish sound so different from each other.
But then again, the text looks some-what similar...


Is it true that a French guy can understand a Mexican and vice versa?
If it's true, then how well could they understand each other?

 

Hi,

I really don't believe what someone told you. I'm a student French and Spanish, and those languages (although they are similar in different ways, because they both derive from latin) don't look like eachother at all. I have a friend who's Portuguese and she says she can understand Spanish, but she can't speak it. And those languages look more like eachother than French and Spanish. Maybe someone can understand a bit of the other languages, but in that way, everybody can. Even a dutchman can understand some words in Spanish for example.

 

Well, Spanish is my native language, and trust me when I say I understand very little French.

I do however, understand a lot of Portuguese without knowing the language, I can't speak it though.

 

French:
Bonjour, comment-allez vous?
Salut, comment ça va?
J'aime bleu.

Spanish:
Como estas?
Yo gusto azul.

Not alike at all.. A few things that is Spanech or Franish, would be a word like Si! Or if you say it with a hick accent, Comment/Como. I can understand a lot of Spanish, and French. But I know French, not Spanish. Being in Texas, knowing spanish is a givenn.

 

French is easier. Spanish? Forget Spanish. It is so difficult. I know only a few words:

Grande
Cervaza
Si
Por favor
No
Gracius

At this point, I am already tearing my hair out at the pronounciation. Mandarin anyone? Ni hao?

 

Uh JOhn, in my view, Spanish is easier to learn than French. I know both languages, and personally, I think that Spanish isn't that hard...

In spanish, you just have to pronouce the all letters, no trap. Not like in French....

 

yea, I'm totally in agreement with lulu. for some reason the spanish rules just stick better with me than the french ones and the pronunciation isnt as tricky (though the double L's still get me sometimes )

 

spanish is my native language and i'm studying french and I can assure they are NOT similar at all. (though spanish is more similar to french than english, maybe this is what makes you think that)
I 've studied french for 2 years and I still having many difficulties to understand it when spoken.

 

Absolutly not

I'm french and I don't understand a Spanish person. But Italian and French are most similar (latin origin) but different

 

I agree with everyone, practically. A French person cannot understand a Spanish speaker (if they didn't already know Spanish) and vice versa. They would be at an advantage when reading Spanish (or any other romance language), but being able to discern words orally would be nearly impossible.

 

Is very different. I speak spanish and now im taking french class and there are something similar in the grammar but speaking is very but very diferent.

 

I speak french fluently and i took a spanish class in high school. I realized that although I couldn't understand spanish, I could read and understand it. The base of a lot of words are similar.

 

My first language is French and I confirm that I wouln't be able to understand a Spanian person in a conversation using both languages. Some words sound similar, but not so many. It's difinitely easier to understand Italian.

 

I was raised bilingual (french/english) and now i live in an area where a lot of spanish is spoken, especially at my work, and I find Spanish is easier to pick up because I know french, like Aqui (here) is Ici in french..

Also the conjugations are almost exactly the same, both Latin derived also Known as "the romance languages" they all have the same conjugation structure pretty much

 

Spanish is more close to portugese. I studied some portugese and many words were similar. What's cool about these languages is their verbs. The verbs sound different so, when you spell, it's easy phonotically. French is a different story. Even french people have trouble with the spelling! Really! At least, the case here in Québec, Canada (city of Montréal). I'm not doing too bad in my case because I read a lot, write a lot too. I was raised in french but went to english school and my friends are half - half. My very best friend is english though. I find that fantastic because I can get to keep an ok accent for english. My french from books is great too. I speak "international french". Not like France and not like Québec either. I speak french like from a movie. When I speak french, it's very clear and people like it.

 

I'd suggest learning English verbs before tackling a foreign language.

 

Bad you, no cookie. I have bad grammar in four languages now. And a very filthy mouth.

I'm a French major, after taking Spanish in HS. I didn't absorb any of the Spanish, but after the first couple of years in French I found myself able to understand my Spanish Department classmates well. I've been taking Spanish and German too, now, for a World Languages minor, and I have found Spanish and French to be very similar. The issues are that while most of the words in both languages are Latin-based, Spanish was heavily influenced by Arabic while French got a LOT of Greek and German.

The two are similar enough, though, that we have a phenomenon in the Language Department called "Frannish." This is what happens when a student of one takes classes in the other, and results in a warped Pidgin dialect that we all have to muddle through. I keep throwing French articles, pronouns, and question words into Spanish sentences.

That and I have a thick Parisian accent. I've never even left the Continental U.S., and I have a Parisian accent with any language other than English and French. When speaking French, I sound like a midwestern hick. My Spanish teacher jokes that I sound drunk, and my German teacher tells me that if I ever find myself in Germany I should just stick to English to avoid being made fun of as French. My French teacher just laughs, because he's a sadistic bastard and therefore my favorite teacher. Well, merde!

 

I find that my french helps alot in understanding spanish..a lot of the words seem similar

 

Je confirme que l'espagnol est incompréhensible pour un français, aussi bien à l'écrit qu'à l'oral. Et c'est aussi le cas de l'italien. Si j'en juge par ma propre expérience l'espagnol est cependant, pour un français, peut-être plus facile à apprendre que l'italien...

 

Je pense quand même qu'il y a une grande naïveté de demander si un français et un espagnol peuvent se comprendre... Cela en dit long sur le niveau d'ouverture sur le monde. Et un américain et un inuit se comprennent-ils ?