The language spoken by the most people. Ten most spoken languages on the planet
The rapidly changing world around, sung by Makarevich, opens its arms wide to both the adventure-seeking traveler and the polyglot in need of communication. For those wishing to successfully combine two roles, we advise you to put on comfortable sneakers and stock up on greetings from the most common languages of the world, which will definitely come in handy. The route has been set, the visa has been received, all that remains is to remind yourself of the difference between “trip” and “journey” and hit the road with a light heart!
10. French. 129 million people
The first place from the end is occupied by the language of love and romance - French. When going for an iconic photo with the Eiffel Tower in the background, don’t forget to smile mysteriously and say “Bonjour” to a random passerby. It is not a fact, of course, that they will answer you, because the heart of France is oversaturated with tourists from all over the world, speaking any languages. But in Belgium, Canada, Rwanda, Cameroon and Haiti they will appreciate the friendliness shown and will greet you in return. In these countries, French is often spoken or even the official language.
9. Malay-Indonesian. 159 million people
As Captain Obvious would correctly point out, this language is native to the inhabitants of Malaysia and Indonesia. The neighboring states amaze not only with the beauty of nature and the hospitality of the local population, but also with the abundance of dialects, the most popular of which is Indonesian. There are, of course, fewer dialects than there are Indonesian islands (no less than 13,000), but they are all united by both the hot sun and the root language. Across two major regions of Indonesia, the same familiar Malay-Indonesian language is heard in Malaysia. Arriving in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, greet the customs officer in Indonesian with “selamat pagi” (selamat pagi) and travel to paradise on the island of Borneo.
8. Portuguese. 191 million people
The inhabitants of little Portugal owe the spread and popularization of Portuguese to their national heroes - the navigators Vasco da Gama and Prince Henry the Navigator. The spirit of adventure and a fair wind took them and their native language to the other side of the world, namely to Brazil, Angola, Macau, Mozambique and Venezuela. This was a very successful cultural exchange and a contribution to the future of Portuguese, since now the population of Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language, is many times larger than the population of Portugal itself. By the way, the first Portuguese word heard on the shores of South America was “hello” - “bom dia”.
7. Bengali. 211 million people
Home to the sparkler and the tiger, Bangladesh has more than 120 million speakers of Bengali. You don’t need to be a great mathematician or geographer to ask a reasonable question: how is it that the number of native speakers of a language exceeds the population of its country of origin? Surrounded by overpopulated India, Bangladesh is not at all opposed to the use of Bengali by Hindus. To greet anyone in Bengali, simply say “Ei Je.”
6. Arabic language. 246 million people
Arabic is the language of the countries of the Middle East, where the main religious book of Muslims, the Koran, is held in special esteem and respect. Is it worth clarifying that it is written in Arabic? Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt have the largest number of Arabic speakers, add to them millions of Muslims around the world and you get the formula for the growth of popularity and prosperity of the Arabic language, which became the sixth official language of the UN in 1974. The greeting in Arabic sounds difficult to pronounce: “Al salaam a’alaykum” (al salaam aalaikum).
5. Russian language. 277 million people
Russian is spoken not only in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other post-Soviet countries, but also in any multilingual company within a couple of hours where two Russian-speaking people communicate. This informal rule has been proven by many years of practice. Foreigners can only humble themselves and learn how to say “hello” to the great and mighty. Russian is one of the six UN languages and is widely spoken throughout the world, traveling with many millions of Russian emigrants.
4. Spanish. 392 million people
Spanish navigators turned out to be even more successful than the Portuguese, rewarding the native populations of Central and South America, Cuba and some regions of the United States with native Spanish. By the way, in the modern United States, Spanish is not a weak competitor to English, as if reminding of the need to repay debts for previously borrowed “tornado”, “bonanza”, “patio” and other words. The Spanish language will appeal to all the Olgas and Helgas on planet Earth, because “hello” in Spanish sounds like “hola”.
3. Hindustani. 497 million people
Yes, yes, this is the official name of the language of multi-billion-dollar India, which includes a considerable number of dialects and dialects (the most common of which is Hindi). Indian Bollywood produces many more Hindi films in a year than all American Hollywood directors dreamed of in 10 years. Brought by the British as a souvenir, their native language also firmly took root on the Hindustan Peninsula, acquiring the status of an auxiliary official one, to some extent competing with Hindustani. Greet the good-natured Hindus in their own way by folding your arms over your chest and nodding your head, saying “namaste.”
2. English language. 508 million people
The language, which is spoken all over the world, unfortunately, does not have enough native speakers to take the laurels of the winner. Residents of the USA, England, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe and the Caribbean consider it native. Most likely, you, who are reading this article now, feel some kind of family connection with English. Let's take this opportunity and informally greet each other in our favorite English and enroll our neighbor, mother and cousin in courses with the hope of becoming a leader in English in a few years.
1. Mandarin Chinese. More than 1 billion people
It's no secret that “made in China” is found much more often than “I love you”. China's population wins this competition due to population size. By the way, English is breathing down the back of Chinese in the homeland of the triumphant language. Learning Mandarin is not at all easy; each word can be pronounced in four different tones, which certainly confuses beginners. However, more than a billion people were able to do this, even you can handle it. Let's start the training with the greeting “ni hao” (ni hao), the second part of which should be pronounced as one syllable, making wave-like manipulations of the voice, lowering it in the middle of the syllable and raising it at the end.
Here is the entire list of the most popular languages in the world. From there you can choose the best foreign language for you and start learning.
Probably many of you are surprised or even upset by the second place of the English language in this ranking. Don't worry - lovers of Italian and German are in an even more difficult situation. Better channel your energy into productive channels by learning new words or conquering grammar points. English always has something to surprise you, we have a selection that will expand your horizons of knowledge and eyes after reading, we promise!
Culture
The development of oral communication skills can probably be considered one of the most significant achievements in the field of human relationships on our planet. Moreover, since humanity first began to develop the language of communication, many variations and varieties of different languages have appeared, while the process of modification of this tool of communication continues today. Information about the number of languages on our planet is extremely contradictory, but according to some data their number exceeds six thousand. However, the following ten languages are used on our planet by the largest number of people (the number of people for whom a particular language is native is presented in brackets).
10. German (90 million people)
The German language belongs to the so-called Indo-European family of languages, the Germanic branch (in fact, like English). The German language is used mainly in Germany, having the status of an official language there. However, German is also an official language in Austria, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg; he is also one of the official languages of Belgium(along with Dutch and French); one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with French, Italian and the so-called Swiss Romansh); as well as the official language of part of the population of the Italian city of Bolzano. In addition, it is known that small groups of citizens living in countries such as Poland, Denmark, Hungary and the Czech Republic also communicate in German.
9. Japanese (132 million people)
The Japanese language belongs to the category of the so-called Japanese-Ryukyu languages (which also includes the Ryukyu language itself, which is spoken on the island of Okinawa as part of the group of islands of the same name). Most people whose native language is Japanese live in Japan. However, people for whom Japanese is also their native language can be found in Korea, the United States of America, Europe... Japanese is the official language in Japan, but it also has official status in one of the states in the Republic of Palau - an island state in the western Pacific ocean.
8. Russian language (144 million people)
Russian belongs to the East Slavic subgroup of languages in the Slavic group, which also includes Belarusian and Ukrainian languages. The vast majority of Russian-speaking people for whom Russian is their native language live, of course, in the Russian Federation, where Russian, in fact, has the status of an official language. Besides, it is a well-known fact that a large number of Russian-speaking people live in Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other republics of the former Soviet Union (and not only). It is noteworthy that in this top ten most widely used languages, Russian is the only language that uses the Cyrillic alphabet.
7. Portuguese (178 million people)
Portuguese belongs to the Romance group of languages. As is the case with other languages of this group, Latin is considered one of the predecessors of the Portuguese language. Portuguese is considered an official language in Portugal and Brazil, where he lives the vast majority of the world's population speaking it. In addition, Portuguese is considered the official language in Angola, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Uruguay and Argentina. Today, Portuguese is one of the four most frequently studied languages (according to some sources, about 30 million people study it).
6. Bengali (181 million people)
The Bengali language (or Bengali language) belongs to the so-called Indo-Aryan branch, along with languages such as Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. Most people who speak this language live in the Republic of Bangladesh, where Bengali is the official language. Moreover, people speak it who live in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. This language is also spoken by some people living in Europe, the United States of America and even Saudi Arabia. The Bengali language is characterized by a rich literary tradition. In addition, the concept of Bengali nationalism is widely known in the world. The basis of Bengali writing is related to the basis of Sanskrit and Hindi writing.
5. Arabic (221 million people)
Arabic belongs to the so-called Semitic family of languages, which includes languages of the Arabian subgroup such as Syriac and Chaldean (now a dead language). Arabic is the most spoken language in the Middle East and North Africa. It is official in 26 countries of the world. It is also spoken in Israel. In addition, in Europe, as in North America, there are a lot of people who speak Arabic. As you know, the holy book of all Muslims in the world, the Koran, was written in this language. To write Arabic, it uses the Arabic alphabet.
4. Hindi language (242 million people)
Hindi is a member of the Indo-European family of languages and belongs to the Indo-Aryan group (as does the Urdu language). This language has many dialects, but its official forms are the so-called Standard Hindi and Standard Urdu. However, these two forms can sometimes be quite difficult to distinguish from each other. Hindi is known to is the official language of India, while Urdu is the official language in Pakistan. Hindi and Urdu are spoken in parts of Europe and North America, where large numbers of people from India and Pakistan now live. To write in these languages, the Hindi alphabet and the Arabic alphabet are used (this fact indicates the influence that Islam had on Urdu).
3. English (328 million people)
English, like German, belongs to the West Germanic group of languages. The roots of this language are considered to be Anglo-Saxon (so-called Old English). Much of English was borrowed from Latin and French due to the Norman conquerors. Despite the fact that the birthplace of this language is the British Isles, the largest proportion of people who speak English currently lives in the United States of America(more than 309 million English-speaking citizens). English is spoken in 53 countries around the world, where it is one of the official languages. These countries include Canada, South Africa, Jamaica, New Zealand, Australia and, of course, the UK. English is also spoken in many countries in the Pacific region, and in India it is considered almost another official language.
2. Spanish (329 million people)
Spanish is a member of the Indo-European family of languages and belongs to the Romance group. This language has quite a lot in common with the Portuguese language. Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages on our planet; it has been given the status of an official language in more than 20 countries of the world; Moreover, Spanish is considered official in almost every state of Latin America, excluding Brazil, Belize and so on. It is also known that a huge number of people whose native language is Spanish have moved to the United States of America. This is why Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the American Southwest. Additionally, Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (along with English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and French).
1. Mandarin (845 million people)
Essentially, it is Mandarin Chinese, although many people who do not know the nuances call this dialect Mandarin. In fact, it is just one of many dialects of the Chinese language, which also includes Cantonese and other dialects belonging to the so-called Sino-Tibetan family. Mandarin is the most widely spoken dialect in China. being at the same time the official language of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. It is also one of the four official languages of Singapore (except English, Malay and Tamil). Large influxes of immigrants from China and Taiwan have resulted in Mandarin being spoken by many people in the United States and Europe. At the same time, the Mandarin dialect uses two writing systems - traditional Chinese and the so-called simplified Chinese.
Mankind's speech skills have evolved over many centuries. There is still no reliable data that reveals the secrets of the origin of speech communications. Language statistics show that some types of speech have long disappeared, while others are actively spreading and becoming in demand.
History of origin
The role of languages in the world is very great. With their help, communication between people is carried out. Today more than 6 thousand types of speech are known. However, no one can say for sure how they appeared.
There are many theories about the origin of speech communications. Some believe that everything happened as a result of evolution. Others believe that this skill was given by God. However, existing theories do not provide comprehensive answers to the questions. For example, evolutionists cannot explain how the simplification of speech communications occurred. After all, the most ancient languages of the world (Latin, Sanskrit) are much more complex than modern ones.
This pattern contradicts the principles of the theory of biological evolution. Among the various versions, modern science about the languages of the world most accepts the theory of gestures. According to scientists, people constantly developed and improved the sign system. They began to use gestures, and sounds were added in the process. However, the vocabulary was not rich.
So, there are many versions - from creation by God to sudden emergence. Each of them has the right to exist. But no one knows exactly what contributed to the spread of languages in the world.
Number of media
Language statistics include 6–7 thousand types of speech. Many of them are spoken by only a small part. Scientists classify types of speech into groups according to their characteristics. The similarity of languages implies the same sound, similar words. One of the main ones is the genealogical group.
The number of languages in the world is constantly decreasing. On average, one species disappears every two weeks. As a result, the number of forgotten languages is gradually increasing. What are the statistics of languages in the world? 80% of the world's population speaks 80 languages. The rest are distributed among the remaining inhabitants of the planet.
The uneven distribution of types of speech among them threatens complete extinction. According to UNESCO, 50 types of speech are under threat in Europe alone. Globalization also contributes to the decline.
The most densely populated region in terms of the number of speakers of different types of speech is Papua (New Guinea). Many tribes live here. Moreover, the region’s territory is smaller in area than Ukraine. About 6 million people live in Papua. Language statistics list from 800 to 1000 dialects common among tribes.
The most common
The most common are:
- Chinese– ranks first in the TOP 10, as it is used by 1.3 billion people in 35 countries. Chinese language is one of the most ancient in the world. It has 85,568 characters. It is also considered the most difficult language in the world.
- English- second most common. It is official in the UK, India, Canada, Ireland. It ranks 1st among the most popular languages in the world. It is used by about 600 million people in 106 countries. It also leads in the number of words - 490 thousand. However, a person’s vocabulary is no more than 60 thousand words. Knowledge of English in the modern world helps many people get well-paid jobs. International business is also conducted on it.
- Hindi– takes third place. Language statistics include 490 million speakers in 4 countries.
- Spanish– the language is used in 31 countries. It is considered official in the European Union and the UN. Spanish is the easiest language in the world. It is spoken by about 437 million people.
- Arab– it is used by 290 million people in 58 countries. The Arabic language is spreading rapidly throughout the world thanks to the Quran. Until 1924, the Arabic alphabet was used in Kabardian. Today its carriers are especially in demand on. Most energy negotiations avoid this type of speech.
- Russian– the most popular in the Russian Federation and Europe. It is used by about 270 million people in 17 countries.
French is ranked 10th in the world. The number of speakers is 150 million people in 53 countries. It is also considered one of the most beautiful. From the list you can see how many languages are spoken most in the world.
Certain languages are spreading and becoming popular in different countries of the world. The main factors are political and economic influence, as well as ease of study. This is how they gradually become international languages of the world. The graph shows what type of speech websites on the Internet use:
State standards
Among the official languages of the world, English ranks first. Official languages in other countries of the world:
The most ancient dialects
It is technically impossible to identify the most ancient existing languages of the world. They were used long before writing appeared on earth. List of the most ancient languages in the world (some are no longer used):
Statistics on foreign language learning around the world show that Spanish, English, French and Italian are among the most popular. At the same time, after English they often study German. It is usually used in business communication. Among the studied languages of the world, Russian is also recommended.
The list of easy languages of the world also includes Turkish. One of the new types of speech was Esperanto. It was created by Warsaw ophthalmologist Lazar Markowicz in 1887.
Unusual types of speech
Gestures are among the most unusual languages in the world. They are used mainly by people who are hard of hearing. In Iceland, sign language is considered the official language. Language statistics show that there are several types of such speech. For example, American and English are very different from each other.
There are also funny languages of the world. For example, Chalkatongo-Mixtec. There is no difference between interrogative and affirmative sentences. The peculiarity of Berik (Papuan) is that when something is said, it is necessary to indicate where and when it was done. The phrase “I was in the store” in lordly would be “I was in the store after lunch.”
What place does Russian take?
Russian is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. It is also used as a worker - UN, UNESCO. It is included in the list of the richest languages in the world. However, not all speakers use Russian words correctly.
This language is spoken in 17 countries around the world. It is considered state for Russians, Belarusians, Kyrgyz, as well as residents of Ingushetia. In Kyrgyzstan, the language is used by about 48% of the population. Most technical terms in Ingush are borrowed from Russian. Along with the Chechen language, it is widespread in the North Caucasus. It ranks sixth in terms of the number of speakers.
What are the statistics of the Russian language in the world? There are about 270 million people who speak it. Of these, 137.5 million speakers live in Russia.
Russian is also well known in Ukraine and Latvia. Language statistics show that 92% of Ukrainians and 81.2% of Lithuanians are fluent in Russian. Interesting Facts:
- The alphabet is similar to the Latin version.
- Has a word with three letters "E" - long-necked.
- The English use the English phrase “Yellow-blue bus” to teach “I love you” in Russian.
- There are no original Russian words starting with the letter “A”.
The great importance of the Russian language in the world lies not only in its widespread use. It is also applied in international relations. Great literary works make the Russian language even more popular in the world. This contributes to the spread of the culture of the Russian people.
Study methods
What is the best language in the world? No one can give a definite answer. Language statistics highlight only the most popular ones. One of the most popular is English.
There are also different methods to study them. You can study with a teacher or study on your own. The main thing is to practice every day. There are many that provide the necessary training materials. Audio courses are also sold to help solve pronunciation problems. And by country it will only consolidate the knowledge gained.
Language is the main way of communication between people and this article presents the most popular, widespread and in demand languages of the peoples of the world.
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14. French
Even though this language is not among the ten most widespread languages in the world, in our short presentation it takes an honorable 14th place, opening our ranking. The French language, in addition to being one of the most widespread, is also one of the most beautiful languages in the world, which is very often called the language of love, just as the capital of France, the city of Paris, is called the city of love. This language is part of the Romance group of languages and has the status of an official language in 29 countries, in particular Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Monaco and, of course, France. It is one of the six official languages of the UN and is spoken in a number of African countries and former French colonies. According to some estimates, French is spoken by about 250 million people around the world, but 75 million speak it as a native language.
Many people learn French because of its beauty, others learn it because it is a fairly popular language in Europe and knowledge of such a language will be useful for work and travel. This language is not very difficult to learn as a foreign language. Of course, French will be easier for some, more difficult for others, but many agree that in terms of difficulty of learning it is somewhere between German and Spanish.
13. Korean
Korean is the native language of approximately 78 million people, is the official language of South Korea and the DPRK, and is partially spoken in China, Japan, the United States and Russia. This language is not very popular and not many people study it in other countries. However, in terms of the number of native speakers, it takes an honorable 13th place in our ranking of the most common languages on earth. Most researchers classify it as an isolated language, that is, a language that is not included in any known language family. However, some believe that the Korean language may be part of a hypothetical Altaic family. According to some linguists, the Korean language may have some degree of relatedness to the Japanese language.
Some people think Korean is easier to learn than Japanese and Chinese, but the grammar in Korean is still more difficult, in their opinion. Chinese and Japanese languages are studied mainly for romantic reasons, out of a desire to get closer to the culture of the East and learn about the centuries-old history of the region. Korean is taught mainly to earn money.
12. German
German is the most popular and in-demand language in Europe after English, and many people learn it not for cultural reasons or for travel, but for doing business and business negotiations. German is the official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Belgium. This language is native to 100 million people, and there are more than 120 million native speakers. The German language is part of the Germanic group, like English, but the German language is considered much more complex than English, like some other languages.
Beginners learning a language are frightened by words that are 2-3 times longer than their counterparts in other languages, many tenses, regular and irregular verbs conjugated differently, the presence of a definite and indefinite article, and genders of nouns that do not always match. However, the German language cannot be called one of the most difficult languages of the world, since with the right approach it can be studied without any problems, like any other European language.
11. Javanese
There are so many languages in the world, but not many of our citizens even know about the existence of this language, not to mention the fact that the Javanese language is one of the most widespread. The language is spoken by about 105 million people and is spoken mainly on the Indonesian island of Java and several neighboring islands. It is the largest Austronesian language in terms of speakers. This is a fairly developed language that has a rich literary tradition with different genres of poetry and prose, and many varieties of theatrical genres. Despite the fact that almost half of the Indonesian population actively uses the Javanese language in everyday life, it, like all other existing languages in the country, does not have official status.
10. Punjabi
This language belongs to the Indo-Aryan languages of the Indo-European language family and is one of the official languages of India. Punjabi is the language of the Punjabis and Jats, ethnic groups in India. The language is spoken in the eastern part of Pakistan, as well as in some parts of India. There are approximately 112 million Punjabi speakers in the world. There are approximately 105 million native speakers living in Pakistan and India. While the rest live in countries such as the UK, Canada, UAE, USA, etc. Among the features of the language, one can highlight the fact that it is a tonal language. In tonal languages, the height of a stressed syllable changes its meaning. In Punjabi, a stressed syllable can have three different pitches. This is very unusual for Indo-European languages.
9. Japanese
Ninth place in our list of the most common and popular languages in the world is occupied by another language from Asia. There are 130 million native speakers of this language. Japanese is studied mainly for two reasons. Firstly, the language is studied for doing business, since Japan is one of the strongest economies in the world. Secondly, Japan has a rich and interesting culture that attracts thousands of people and sooner or later makes them interested in the country's language. Japanese is by no means an easy language. One of the main difficulties in learning this language is the hieroglyphs, which came from Chinese, but have changed slightly over time as the language developed.
In Japanese, almost all hieroglyphs have not one, but two or more sounds, depending on the words in which they are used. Today in Japan, about two and a half thousand hieroglyphs are the most commonly used, while in China at least 3,500 hieroglyphs are used. Japanese is a simpler language compared to Korean and Chinese, but Japanese grammar is very complex. There are no tones in Japanese, but there are two alphabets. The Hiragana alphabet is the basic alphabet, used for purely Japanese words, grammatical markings, and sentence endings. Katakana is another Japanese alphabet and is used for words of foreign origin and names.
8. Russian
Russia is one of the most important countries in the world, occupying a vast territory where many people live. The country's rich, vibrant and vibrant culture and beautiful cities attract many foreigners who are also interested in the “mighty” Russian language. There are about 160 million people for whom Russian is their native language. In total, there are about 260 million Russian speakers. Russian is the official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It is the most widespread Slavic language in the world and the most widespread language in Europe in terms of the number of native speakers. Russian is one of the working languages of the UN. It is quite difficult to learn, its grammar is complex but logical. Russian can be called one of the simple “complex” languages.
Many foreigners choose French or German because they are common in Europe. People choose Russian when they want to experience Russian culture, when they have Russian friends with whom they want to speak their language, when they move to live or work in Russia. Basically, people study Russian because they like it, like, in general, any other language. You cannot learn a language through force, it must interest and attract, there must be a desire to learn it.
7. Bengali
The language of Bengalis, one of the languages of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is widespread and is the official language in Bangladesh and India. There are about 190 million people for whom it is their native language and about 260 million people who speak it. Some aspects of the language are often different in India and Bangladesh. The letter in most cases fully matches the pronunciation. The written language is based on Sanskrit and does not always take into account the changes and mergers of sounds that have occurred in the language over time. The history of the Bengali language dates back at least a thousand years, as evidenced by both the dating of the first literary monuments and linguistic reconstruction data.
6. Portuguese
Portuguese is the mother tongue of approximately 230 million people, and the total number of speakers is approximately 260 million. It is the official language in Portugal, Brazil, Angola and some other countries. Most of the native speakers live in Brazil. The Portuguese language is comparable in difficulty to learning to Spanish, French and Italian, as it is in the same group of Romance languages. There are two main varieties of the language, European Portuguese and Brazilian, as well as a number of varieties in African and Asian countries, differing from each other at the level of phonetics, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. African countries use the European version of Portuguese with a large number of lexical borrowings from African languages.
5. Arabic
Arabic is spoken in 60 countries around the world, such as Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt and Libya, and is official in 26 of them. One of the working languages of the UN and belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic family of languages. The number of native speakers of the language exceeds 245 million people, and the total number of people speaking it is more than 350 million. Arabic is of great importance in the political and economic spheres, in the fields of energy and security. This is a very popular language and people who know it will always be able to find a good job. Arabic is one of the five most difficult languages in the world; there are many dialects of Arabic that differ significantly from each other.
4. Hindi
The language is one of the 23 official languages of India and is also spoken in Pakistan and Fiji. There are 260 million people who speak Hindi as their mother tongue, and the total number of Hindi speakers is approximately 400 million. At the colloquial level, Hindi is virtually indistinguishable from India's other official language, Urdu. The latter is distinguished by a large number of Arabic and Persian borrowings, as well as the fact that it uses the Arabic alphabet, while the traditional Hindi script is the Devanagari syllabary. English is one of the official languages of India, but, nevertheless, according to some sources, Hindi is quite a promising language and it can become one of the most popular languages by 2050.
3. English
The top three of our list of the most popular and widespread languages opens with English, which is the most common language for learning as a foreign language. This language is native to 350 million people, and the total number of speakers is about 1.4 billion. English is one of the working languages of the UN, the official language of Australia, New Zealand, USA, England, Canada and some other countries. The English language in the modern world plays a huge role in many areas of life, from politics and business, to culture and travel. This is explained by the colonial policy of the British Empire in the 19th century and the global influence of the United States of America at the present time.
English is also considered one of the easiest languages to learn, if not the easiest. However, this language also has its difficulties. In many countries around the world, English is taught in schools almost from primary school as a foreign language.
2. Spanish
In second place is a very beautiful language, which is official in Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba and most countries in South America. Spanish is very similar to Italian and Portuguese, as it is in the same Romance group with them. Approximately 420 million people speak Spanish as their native language, and there are about 500 million speakers around the world. It is the most widely spoken Romance language, with 9/10 of its speakers living primarily in the Western Hemisphere. It is a fairly easy language to learn, which, in addition to the Spanish culture and beauty of the language, adds to the desire of foreigners to learn Spanish.
There are several dialects of the Spanish language, but Castilian is considered the true, original Spanish language. Castilian, Catalan, Basque and Galician dialects are common in Spain, while in South America there are five main dialect groups. The first group is used primarily in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Mexico. The second is in Peru, Chile and Ecuador. The third is in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The fourth group is the Argentine-Uruguayan-Paraguayan variant, which includes Eastern Bolivia. The fifth group is conventionally called Mountain Latin American Spanish. This language is spoken by the inhabitants of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Andes of Colombia and Venezuela, Quito (the capital of Ecuador located at an altitude of 2800 m), the Peruvian mountain range and Bolivia.
1. Chinese
The Chinese language is a collection of very different dialects, and therefore is considered by most linguists as an independent language branch, consisting of separate, although related, language and dialect groups. In fact, Chinese is made up of many other languages. But at the same time, the hieroglyphs are the same. The writing of basic characters has become much simpler since the mid-20th century, after the reform in China. The unified Chinese language is called Mandarin or simply Mandarin, which is called Putonghua in China. The Chinese language has 10 dialect groups and seven main traditional dialects.
Many people consider Chinese to be the most difficult language to learn, more difficult than Japanese and Arabic. Mainly because it uses over 3,000 characters, which are noticeably more difficult to write than Japanese or Korean. The use of tones in a language also makes it difficult to learn. Despite all the difficulties of learning, Chinese remains one of the most promising and popular languages in the world. It is the mother tongue of 1.3 billion people and has more than 1.5 billion speakers. China is one of the strongest countries in many areas, one of the largest in terms of territory and the largest in population. Nowadays, the Chinese language is very popular and interesting, both for doing business and for understanding the most ancient culture on the planet.
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