Italian

Italian is the most phonetically consistent Romance language — every letter is always pronounced the same way. No silent letters, no ambiguity. The musicality of Italian makes pronunciation intuitive and enjoyable. Grammar is more complex than Spanish (more verb tenses, gendered articles that change with prepositions), but the vocabulary overlap with English is enormous thanks to Latin roots and centuries of Italian influence on music, food, art, and architecture. 67 million native speakers. FSI: 600 hours.