Easy Language or Plain Language: What’s the Difference?

A German energy provider gets a request from a residential home for people with learning disabilities: does it have information about the new monthly payment in Easy Language? The team answers right away. “Sure, we rewrote everything in Plain Language last year.” A few days later, the home writes back. The texts are friendlier than before, but still too hard for the residents to understand.

This mix-up is common. In German, the two concepts are called Leichte Sprache (Easy Language, also known as easy-to-read) and Einfache Sprache (Plain Language). The names sound almost identical, the goals are similar, and teams often use them interchangeably in meetings, tenders and even on websites. In fact, they are two different concepts with different audiences, their own rulebooks and different requirements for the writing process.

This article shows you how the two differ, which rules and standards now exist, where Easy Language is required by law in Germany and how your team can decide which approach makes sense for a product. The examples focus on German, but the distinction applies to many languages.

Why understandable language is a UX issue

Text is interface. Buttons, error messages, form hints, pricing descriptions and cancellation confirmations are all made of language. When people don’t understand a text, they fail at the task, just as they would with a button they can’t find.

The German LEO 2018 study by the University of Hamburg shows how many people are affected. It found that around 6.2 million adults aged 18 to 64 in Germany have low literacy. That’s 12.1 percent of German-speaking adults. They can read and write individual sentences at most, but not connected texts, not even short ones. Slightly more than half of them (52.6 percent) speak German as their first language. Low literacy is not a niche issue, and it doesn’t only affect people who are learning the language.

On top of that, there are people with learning disabilities, with dementia or recovering from a stroke, Deaf people for whom written German is a second language next to sign language, and anyone who is stressed, distracted or tired. Every sentence someone has to read twice adds to their cognitive load, the mental effort a task requires.

Easy Language and Plain Language are two answers to this problem. But they tackle it in different places.

Easy Language: fixed rules for a clearly defined audience

Easy Language is a strongly simplified form of a language with fixed rules. It is aimed primarily at people with learning disabilities. In German, many self-advocacy organizations deliberately use the term Lernschwierigkeiten (learning difficulties) instead of “intellectual disability”.

Where the rules come from

Easy Language grew out of the self-advocacy movement. In Germany, the Netzwerk Leichte Sprache (Easy Language Network) has existed since 2006 and became a registered association in 2013. Its rulebook, last reissued in 2022, was the main reference in practice for a long time. At European level, Inclusion Europe published the “Information for all” standards in 2010, which describe easy-to-read rules for several European languages.

Since March 2025, the German standards body DIN has offered DIN SPEC 33429, “Guidance for German Easy Language”. It covers the word, sentence and text level, visual design, media formats, the production process and the qualifications of everyone involved. The document is available free of charge from DIN Media. One important point: a DIN SPEC is not a full standard. It is developed faster and by smaller working groups, and like all standards it is a recommendation, not a law.

Typical rules

The Netzwerk Leichte Sprache rulebook is very specific. A few examples:

• Words: familiar words, always the same word for the same thing, verbs instead of nouns, no genitive, no subjunctive, no idioms. Long German compound words are split with hyphens, for example “Bundes-Gleichstellungs-Gesetz” (Federal Equality Act).
• Sentences: short sentences with only one statement each, avoiding subordinate clauses where possible.
• Numbers: digits instead of written-out numbers, and large numbers and percentages are better paraphrased.
• Layout: large, clear font, left-aligned text, each sentence on a new line, no hyphenation at line breaks, images to support understanding.

Perhaps the most important point comes at the end of the rulebook: Easy Language texts are checked by people from the target group. They are the experts on whether a text is understandable. A text only counts as finished once the reviewers have understood it.

What Easy Language does to the content

Easy Language doesn’t just simplify wording. It simplifies content, too. An Easy Language text focuses on the essentials, explains terms right in the text and adds examples. What can be left out is agreed with the reviewers. That’s why an Easy Language text is often longer than the original, even though it contains less information.

Plain Language: understandable for many, without cutting content

Plain Language sits between Easy Language and everyday standard language. It avoids jargon, nested sentences and bureaucratic phrasing, but it remains continuous prose. Subordinate clauses are allowed, and above all, Plain Language keeps all the information from the source text.

For a long time there was no binding rulebook for Plain Language in German. That has changed. The international standard ISO 24495-1 from 2023 sets out governing principles and guidelines for plain language. Germany adopted it as DIN ISO 24495-1 in March 2024. It is language-neutral and essentially asks: can readers find what they need, understand it and use it? DIN 8581-1, published in May 2024, applies these principles to German. It covers word choice, sentence structure, layout and images, and it calls for testing with the target audience to check comprehension.

DIN 8581-1 makes one clarification worth noting: people with cognitive impairments are explicitly not the target audience of Plain Language. The standard deliberately draws a line between itself and Easy Language. Plain Language is meant for a broad audience, such as people with low literacy, people with German as a second language and simply anyone who wants to grasp a text quickly.

The differences at a glance

The following overview sums up the key differences. It is based on the rulebooks and on the comparison published by DIN Media.

• Audience: Easy Language is aimed primarily at people with learning disabilities. Plain Language is aimed at a broad audience, explicitly not at people with cognitive impairments.
• Content: Easy Language reduces content to the essentials. Plain Language keeps all the information.
• Sentence structure: Easy Language uses short main clauses, each sentence on its own line. Plain Language stays in continuous prose with short sentences, and subordinate clauses are possible.
• Rules: In German, Easy Language follows the Netzwerk Leichte Sprache and DIN SPEC 33429. Plain Language follows DIN ISO 24495-1 and DIN 8581-1.
• Review: With Easy Language, people from the target group check every text. With Plain Language, the standard recommends testing with readers.
• Accessibility: Easy Language counts as an accessibility measure. Plain Language improves comprehension for many people but doesn’t replace Easy Language.

You will sometimes see a classification based on the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Germany’s Federal Agency for Civic Education roughly maps Easy Language to levels A1 and A2 and Plain Language to level B1. That’s a useful rule of thumb, but not an official definition. None of the rulebooks sets a binding CEFR level.

A before and after example

The difference is easiest to see in an actual text. Take a typical notice from an energy provider’s customer portal. The examples below are English renderings of German originals.

Standard language:

The adjustment of your monthly installment amount is made on the basis of your consumption in the preceding billing period, taking into account the price change taking effect on January 1. Should you wish a different amount to be set, you may request this in the customer portal up until the due date.

Plain Language:

From January, you will pay a new monthly installment. We calculated it from how much energy you used last year. Our prices also change on January 1. If you want to pay a different amount, you can change it in the customer portal. You can do this until the day the installment is due.

Easy Language:

You pay money for electricity every month.
This money is called: installment.
From January, the installment is different.
Because: Electricity costs more.
You can change the installment.
You can do this on the internet.
On our website.

The Plain Language version contains all the information from the original, including the deadline. The Easy Language version focuses on the essentials and explains the term “installment” directly. The deadline and the basis for the calculation are missing. In a real project, the team would discuss with the reviewers whether the deadline matters enough to the audience to add it back, for example with a specific date. Both examples were written for illustration and have not been checked by a review group.

The form of address matters too. In German, the Netzwerk Leichte Sprache recommends the formal “Sie” for adults and allows the informal “du” for children or people the reader knows well. If your product normally uses the informal form, that doesn’t automatically carry over to your Easy Language version.

Where Easy Language is required in Germany, and where it isn’t

Public bodies

For federal public bodies, the situation is clear. Under Section 4 of the German Barrier-Free Information Technology Ordinance (BITV 2.0), they must provide explanations in German Sign Language and in Easy Language on the homepage of their website. According to Annex 2, this covers the main content of the site, guidance on navigation, an explanation of the key points of the accessibility statement and references to further information in these formats.

In addition, Section 11 of the German Disability Equality Act (BGG) requires public authorities to communicate with people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities in simple, understandable language. On request, they should explain notices, forms and other documents in a simple and understandable way. If that isn’t enough, they should provide the explanation in Easy Language. The federal states and municipalities have their own laws.

Private companies

There is no general obligation for private companies to offer Easy Language. Still, understandability is becoming more binding. Germany’s Accessibility Act (BFSG), which implements the European Accessibility Act, requires websites and apps within its scope to be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. For consumer banking services, the accompanying ordinance goes further: under Section 17 of the BFSGV, information about how the service works must not exceed CEFR level B2. You’ll find more on what the BFSG means for websites and apps in The BFSG in Practice.

B2 is considerably more demanding than Easy Language, and more demanding than the rule of thumb for Plain Language. If you write explanations in Plain Language, you will usually stay well below this limit. On the other hand, an explanation at B2 level is not enough to reach people with learning disabilities.

The WCAG address the topic as well. Success Criterion 3.1.5 “Reading Level” calls for supplemental content or a more readable version when a text requires reading ability beyond lower secondary education, roughly seven to nine years of school. The criterion is Level AAA, so neither the BFSG nor the BITV requires it as a minimum standard. It still works well as a benchmark for good writing.

Which approach fits your product?

For many teams the real question isn’t “Easy Language or Plain Language?” but “Where do we use which?”. Three scenarios show what the answer can look like.

Scenario 1: The SaaS application

A team builds accounting software for freelancers. The audience is broad, and many people use the tool on the side and under time pressure. Here, Plain Language pays off as a principle for the whole product: in microcopy, error messages, help texts and emails. A separate Easy Language version is usually unnecessary, because people with learning disabilities are not part of the core audience. That’s a product decision the team should make deliberately and be able to justify.

Scenario 2: A utility’s customer portal

A municipal utility runs a portal for electricity, water and district heating. Its customers include practically the entire population of a city, including residential homes, assisted living facilities and older people. A combination makes sense here: Plain Language for all standard texts plus Easy Language pages for the most important tasks, such as “How do I read my bill?”, “What do I do when I move?” or “What happens if I can’t pay?”.

Scenario 3: A federal agency’s website

A German federal agency has no choice: the content required by Section 4 BITV 2.0 must be available in Easy Language and sign language. Beyond that, its standard texts benefit from Plain Language. A 2026 guide from the German federal committee on accessible information technology recommends bundling Easy Language content on a dedicated subpage. The link to it should sit in the visible top area of the page and be available on every page, for example in the utility navigation. A link only in the footer is explicitly not recommended. For labeling, the guide suggests the text “Leichte Sprache” together with an icon, such as the one from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs or Inclusion Europe’s European easy-to-read logo.

How to introduce Easy Language and Plain Language in your team

1. Clarify your audiences

Check who actually uses your product or should be able to use it. Do support tickets, usage data or user research suggest that people struggle with your texts? Are people with learning disabilities part of your audience? Is there a legal requirement?

2. Make Plain Language the default

Plain Language isn’t an extra. It’s good UX writing. Anchor a few principles in your style guide: short sentences, active verbs, familiar words, one term per thing. Review new texts as routinely as spacing and colors. A list of terms that always stay the same across your product helps a lot.

3. Work with experts on Easy Language

Easy Language is a craft of its own. Good texts are written by trained translators and checked by people from the target group. Plan budget and time for this, and start with the most important content instead of trying to translate the entire website.

4. Test with real readers

Whether a text is understandable only becomes clear in testing. That applies to both approaches. For Plain Language, short usability tests are often enough, with tasks like “Find out the deadline for changing your installment.” If the person can answer the question, the text works.

5. Think about findability and layout

An Easy Language page is useless if nobody finds it. Place the entry point where people can see it and label it clearly. Follow the layout rules from the rulebooks: a large enough font, left-aligned text, short lines, clear images. Many of these points overlap with general accessibility requirements that go beyond contrast and font size.

Common mistakes

Calling Plain Language Easy Language. If you label a link “Easy Language” and offer simplified prose behind it, you let down exactly the people who depend on real Easy Language.

Publishing without review. An Easy Language text that nobody from the target group has read is a guess. Texts simplified with AI tools need this review too.

Writing childishly instead of simply. Easy Language is for adults. Cutesy wording or picture-book illustrations come across as condescending.

Dropping technical terms entirely. People need some terms in everyday life, such as “installment”, “cancellation” or “right of withdrawal”. It’s better to use the term and explain it right away. That way, readers recognize it when it shows up in a letter or on a form.

Forgetting the layout. A well-translated Easy Language text loses a lot when it appears in justified text with hyphenation and in small, gray type.

Conclusion

Easy Language and Plain Language are not synonyms. Easy Language is an accessibility measure for people with learning disabilities, with fixed rules, reduced content and review by the target group. Plain Language makes texts more understandable for a broad audience without leaving anything out, and in Germany it is now standardized through DIN ISO 24495-1 and DIN 8581-1.

For most digital products, Plain Language is the right default for all texts. Easy Language comes on top when people with learning disabilities are part of your audience or when the law requires it. Keeping the two apart helps you make better decisions, plan more realistically and ultimately reach more people.

Checklist

• Audiences and legal requirements clarified (BITV 2.0, BGG, BFSG and BFSGV in Germany)
• Plain Language anchored as a principle in the style guide
• Consistent terms defined for key features
• Most important content selected for Easy Language
• Easy Language texts written by experts and checked by people from the target group
• Comprehension tested with real readers
• Entry point to Easy Language placed visibly and labeled clearly
• Layout follows the rulebooks: large font, left-aligned, no hyphenation

Sources

• DIN Media: DIN SPEC 33429:2025-03, Empfehlungen für Deutsche Leichte Sprache (in German)
• DIN Media: DIN 8581-1:2024-05, Plain language, Application for the German language, Part 1
• DIN Media: Leichte und Einfache Sprache (in German)
• ISO: ISO 24495-1:2023, Plain language, Part 1: Governing principles and guidelines
• Netzwerk Leichte Sprache: Die Regeln für Leichte Sprache, 2022 edition (PDF, in German)
• Inclusion Europe: Information for all, European standards for making information easy to read and understand
• University of Hamburg: LEO 2018, Leben mit geringer Literalität (in German)
• News4teachers: Millionen Erwachsene können nicht richtig Deutsch lesen und schreiben, 2019 (in German)
• Section 4 BITV 2.0 (in German)
• Section 11 BGG (in German)
• Section 17 BFSGV (in German)
• W3C: Understanding Success Criterion 3.1.5 Reading Level
• Federal Agency for Civic Education: Inklusion oder Exklusion durch Leichte Sprache?, 2016 (in German)
• Federal committee on accessible IT: Leichte Sprache auf Websites, guide, 2026 (PDF, in German)