Therefore, the most complicated language to learn for an English native speaker would be for example a non-[[Indo-European languages|Indo European]] [[Ergative-absolutive alignment | ergative language]] with a different writing system and with postpositions.
Another study <ref>{{cite book |last=Stevens |first=Paul B. |editor1-last=Wahba |editor1-first=Kassem M. |editor2-last=Taha |editor2-first=Zeinab A. |editor3-last=England |editor3-first=Liz |title=Handbook for Arabic Language Teaching Professionals in the 21st Century |publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum Associates |year=2006 |pages=35-66 |chapter=Is Spanish really easy? Is Arabic really so hard? Perceived difficulty in learning arabic as a second language |isbn=978-0-203-76390-2}}</ref> conducted in 2006, started with the commun idea that Arabic is hard to learn for an English native speaker, more so than Spanish or German. This study is also based on the FSI classification of languages according to their difficulty, placing Arabic in the fourth (relatively difficult) group. The study compares Arabic with languages usually perceived as easier to learn and concludes that Arabic is not inherently more complex than these languages. The study provides a list of linguistic properties that make Arabic actually simpler than these languages. For instance, verbs in Arabic, despite the complexity of their consonant roots, wouldthe beArabic easierverbal tosystem learnrelies than those in other languages, because Arabic hason very specific sub-rules and uses only onea single [[Morphology (linguistics)#Paradigms_and_morphosyntax|verb paradigm]]. SpanishAlso, as well as other languages,Spanish is therefore more complicatedcomplex than Arabic in its verb tenses;. French is more complicatedcomplex in its phoneme-grapheme correspondence;. German, Polish and Greek,inhave theirmore complex systems of case [[inflection|inflections]] and. Japanese inhas itsa complicatedmore complex writing system. DespiteThe thefact few easier characteristics of Arabic compared to others languages,that English native speakers perceive this languageArabic as moreparticularly difficult becauseto itslearn structurewould andthen writingnot systembe aredue veryto differentArabic frombeing English.inherently Thereharder arebut thusrather manyto parametersthe fact that canits bestructure usedand towriting measuresystem theare difficultyvery ofdifferent afrom language compared to anotherEnglish.
ThisThe belief that some languages are inherently easier to learn is notless oftencommonly addressedfound for [[language acquisition| first language learning]]., Ifalthough itfirst was,language itacquisition couldshould giveprobably somebe insightmore onstrongly ifcorrelated somewith languagesthe arelanguage's inherentlyinherent morecomplexity. difficultSome thanstudies othershave totackled learnthis question. HoweverFor instance, somethere studiesis lookevidence atfrom someDanish linguisticsthat characteristicschildren inlearning particular.a Therelanguage iswith somea evidencecomplex sound structure might be slightly delayed in their lexical development.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bleses |first1=Dorthe |last2=Vach |first2=Werner |last3=Slott |first3=Malene |last4=Wehberg |first4=Sonja |last5=Thomsen |first5=Pia |last6=Madsen |first6=Thomas O. |last7=Basbøll |first7=Hans |year=2008 |title=Early vocabulary development in Danish and other languages: A CDI-based comparison |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-child-language/article/early-vocabulary-development-in-danish-and-other-languages-a-cdibased-comparison/D12A283664A8BA4A695D0DDF3378555A |journal=Journal of Child Language |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=619-650 |doi= 10.1017/S0305000908008714 |access-date=2020-05-18}}</ref> Danish has [[Danish phonology|a complex phonological system]], with extensive [[lenition]] of plosives. In line with the hypothesis that sounda structuremore mightcomplex influencephonology earlyentails lexicalgreater developmentdifficulties in children.word learning, Danish children were found to have a slight delay comparedin toearly otherlexical languages,development whocompared showto achildren similarspeaking pattern.other Onlanguages the other hand,(although they seem to catch up on the delay when they reach two years of age). This showssuggests that sound structure might have an influence on the difficulty of a language. There is, however, not enough evidence as of yet to confidently say that some languages are globally easier or harder to learn as a first language.
