Romance languages come from Latin. Both “Roman” and “Romance” refer to the Roman Empire, where Latin (specifically, conversational Vulgar Latin) was the most common language.
While Latin may be a dead language today, Romance languages are very much alive—and they’re spoken everywhere on Earth! Explore the most commonly spoken Romance languages, how they’re similar, and why one of these languages may be a great option for you to learn.
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There are 5 common Romance languages today
While the number of Romance languages is often debated, Ethnologue lists 44 Romance languages in total. Over one billion people speak one of the five main Romance languages (Ethnologue, 2026), and you’re likely to hear them on every continent during your travels.
The most common Romance languages are:
- Spanish (561 million speakers)
- French (335 million speakers)
- Portuguese (269 million speakers)
- Italian (66 million speakers)
- Romanian (24 million speakers)
With Rosetta Stone, you can learn Latin, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian individually or all at once with our all-access subscription. With access to 25 languages, you can create your own learning path to become a Romance language aficionado.
Although “Romance” and “romantic” look similar, they don’t mean the same thing when it comes to languages. The Latin term romanice scribere (“to write in a Romance language”) became the Old French romaunce, or “a story about a knight or hero” during the 14th century. Eventually, it became “romance” in modern French and English. But the uppercase “Romance” still keeps the original definition of “Roman language.”
List of less common Romance languages
Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian are the most common Romance languages. But there are many more Romance languages spoken in the world, especially in the Mediterranean region in and around Italy.
Romance languages with fewer speakers include:
- Asturian
- Catalan
- Corsican
- Galician
- Istriot
- Judeo-Spanish
- Ladin
- Ladino
- Occitan
- Piedmontese
- Rhaetian
- Romansh
- Sardinian
- Sicilian
- Venetian
How Romance languages are similar
Romance languages are in the Indo-European language family, so they have similar grammatical structures and vocabularies, dating back to their Latin roots.
Common similarities in these languages include:
- using the Latin alphabet (with a few modifications to denote language-specific pronunciations)
- a vocabulary derived from Latin
- a shared grammatical gender in nouns and pronouns
- a similar intonation and pronunciation
- following a subject-verb-object order, with adjectives and modifiers following nouns
You can often see these similarities just by comparing words from Romance languages:
| Language | “Love” | “Family” | “Life” | “Friend” |
| Spanish | amor | familia | vida | amigo/amiga |
| French | amour | famille | vie | ami/amie |
| Portuguese | amor | família | vida | amigo/amiga |
| Italian | amore | famiglia | vita | amico/amiga |
| Romanian | dragoste | familie | viaţă | prieten |
1. Spanish (560 million speakers)
Over half a billion people speak Spanish in 20 countries, making it the fourth most commonly spoken language (and the most spoken Romance language) in the world. The largest Spanish-speaking countries include Mexico in North America, Colombia and Argentina in South America, and Spain in Europe, where the Spanish language originated.
You’ll find several similarities between Spanish and its Vulgar Latin roots. Much of Latin America speaks Spanish as their native language, which is why the region is called “Latin” America.
| Vulgar Latin | Spanish | English |
| que | que | what |
| matre | madre | mother |
| videre | ver | see |
| bono | bueno | good |
2. French (335 million speakers)
French is the sixth-most spoken language in the world (Ethnologue, 2026), primarily in French-speaking countries such as France, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Canada. Many French-speaking regions use French dialects, such as Cajun French in the southern US and Canadian French dialects like Québecois and Ontario French.
French looks and sounds different from other Romance languages because of its history of Germanic Frankish influences. The name “France” even comes from “Frank,” illustrating the effect of the Frankish domination in this region. Still, you can see the similar Latin roots in modern vocabulary words.
| Vulgar Latin | French | English |
| que | quoi | what |
| matre | mère | mother |
| videre | voir | see |
| bono | bien | good |
3. Portuguese (269 million speakers)
Today, over 83% of the world’s Portuguese speakers (225 million) live in Portugal, Brazil, and Angola. Smaller Portuguese-speaking populations are found in regions of Africa, Europe, and Asia. If you know Spanish or a bit of Latin, Portuguese might not be difficult to learn.
| Vulgar Latin | Portuguese | English |
| que | que | what |
| matre | mãe | mother |
| videre | ver | see |
| bono | bom | good |
4. Italian (66 million speakers)
Since Rome was the center of the Roman Empire, Italian is one of the closest languages to the original Latin. Around 66 million people speak Italian today (Britannica, 2026). Italian speakers live in the United States, Argentina, and Australia, but most live in Italy. Neighboring European countries and states, including Switzerland and San Marino, use Italian as an official language.
| Vulgar Latin | Italian | English |
| que | cosa | what |
| matre | madre | mother |
| videre | vedere | see |
| bono | bene | good |
5. Romanian (24 million speakers)
The Romanian language combines its Latin roots with elements of neighboring Slavic languages, such as Ukrainian and Polish. Today, nearly 25 million people speak Romanian and its nearly identical cousin, Moldovan. The standard dialect, Dacoromanian, can be heard in Romania itself, while those living in Greece or Albania may speak the Aromanian dialect.
| Vulgar Latin | Romanian | English |
| que | ce | what |
| matre | mamă | mother |
| videre | vedea | see |
| bono | bun | good |
Is English a Romance language?
While English has many words with Latin roots, English is not a Romance language. Like German, Dutch, and Swedish, English is a Germanic language, meaning it evolved from a Proto-Germanic ancestor language.
However, English does use many cognates and loanwords from Romance languages, including:
- guitar (from the Spanish guitarra)
- piano (from the Italian piano)
- restaurant (from the French restaurant)
- pastrami (from the Romanian pastrami)
English also uses Latin words in everyday speech. For example, the Latin word verbatim is a common legal term meaning “exactly the same,” and vice versa means “reverse the positions” in English.
Key takeaways about Romance languages
So what are the Romance languages? These Latin-derived languages are some of the most common spoken in the world—and when you’ve learned one, the next one is much easier to pick up.
- Romance languages refer to “Roman languages” and are derived from Vulgar Latin.
- The five main Romance languages are Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian.
- Romance languages typically use the Latin alphabet, grammatical gender, and subject-verb-object sentence order.
- Italian is the closest language to Latin, while Romanian and French use influences from other languages on top of their Latin roots.
- English is not a Romance language, but it does include influences from Romance languages and from Latin itself.
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