text: That depends. Most of the above answers referring to the roots of German and French are quite right--German is closer to English. On the other hand, having learned both languages (French is my second, German my third), I would like to remind you of one thing: the German grammatical system is quite complicated. German nouns can be one of three genders (masc., fem., and neuter), and there are also several cases (ie: genitive, ablative, nominative, accusative). In order to speak any semblance of good German, you have to know the genders of the nouns you are using, and also how these gender decline (ie, how they change when they change case, eg: der changes to den, etc.).\n\nHowever, if you have studied Latin (which also has declensions, etc) then German grammar will be a breeze. Otherwise, if I were you, I'd take French. \n\nGood luck!