The top 3 biggest languages, based on total speakers (native + non-native), are English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi, with English leading significantly due to its global use as a second language, while Mandarin Chinese has the most native speakers, followed by Spanish and Hindi.
The 5 most spoken languages in the world
1. Chinese — 1.3 Billion Native Speakers. Numbers vary widely — Ethnologue puts the number of native speakers at 1.3 billion native speakers, roughly 900 million of whom speak Mandarin — but there's no doubt it's the most spoken language in the world.
There's no single "hardest" language, but Mandarin Chinese is consistently ranked #1 for English speakers due to its tonal nature (four tones change word meanings) and complex logographic writing system requiring thousands of characters. Other top contenders often cited include Arabic (right-to-left script, complex sounds, grammar) and Japanese (multiple writing systems like Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana, plus honorifics). The difficulty depends heavily on your native language, with languages like Tibetan, Estonian, and Polish also challenging learners with unique grammar or cases.
The top 10 easiest languages to learn, according to experts
Once you know the alphabet, you can read any Russian word, even if pronouncing it correctly is another challenge. Chinese writing is a different beast. To be literate, you need to know around 3,000 unique characters, each with its own pronunciation and meaning.
Mexico has 69 official languages, including Spanish and 68 indigenous languages like Nahuatl and Maya, recognized for their cultural significance, making it one of the most linguistically diverse nations, though other countries like South Sudan also have 69 languages.
Historians and linguists generally agree that Sumerian, Akkadian and Egyptian are the oldest languages with a clear written record. All three are extinct, meaning they are no longer used and do not have any living descendants that can carry the language to the next generation.
When Bolivia adopted its 2009 constitution, 37 languages were elevated to “official” status.
Powell Alexander Janulus (born 1939) is a Canadian polyglot who lives in White Rock, British Columbia, and entered the Guinness World Records in 1985 for fluency in 42 languages.
Indeed, while some languages might have more entries in a standard dictionary, linguists and historians often crown Arabic as the undisputed richest language in the world due to its unique root system and massive lexical volume.
Thirteen percent of the global population is trilingual. A person who can speak four or more languages is multilingual. Only three percent of people around the world can speak over four languages. Less than one percent of people worldwide are proficient in many languages.
English is the number one international language (lingua franca), boasting around 1.5 billion total speakers, making it dominant in global business, technology, and tourism, even though Mandarin Chinese has more native speakers. While Mandarin is the largest by native speakers, English's vast number of second-language users cements its role as the primary global communication tool, followed by Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, and Spanish in overall speaker numbers.
10 Fastest Growing Languages in the World Right Now
Here are (in no particular order) the 10 most beautiful languages in the world, according to Busuu's experts
Sanskrit is considered to be the mother of all languages because many of the world's languages, including English, Latin, and Greek, have borrowed words and grammar rules from Sanskrit. The language has also had a profound influence on the development of Indian languages such as Hindi, Bengali, and Tamil.
UNESCO is giving credit where credit is due: Chinese is officially the most difficult language in the world. To give you an idea of the complexity of this language: The written form gives no clues as to pronunciation… And pronunciation and intonation completely change the meaning of a word.
The Adamic language, according to Jewish tradition (as recorded in the midrashim) and some Christians, is the language spoken by Adam (and possibly Eve) in the Garden of Eden.
Papua New Guinea has the most languages in the world – over 800. Indonesia isn't far behind with over 700. Languages are spread unequally throughout the world.
Any language without native speakers alive is considered a dead language. That means the last person who spoke that language is either dead or has learned a new language and abandoned their mother tongue. Dead languages are studied, used in limited contexts, and can possibly be saved from becoming extinct.
The 7-Letter Russian Spelling Rule dictates that after the consonants г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, щ, you must write и (not ы) and у (not ю), even though the sounds might seem to call for the other vowel, due to these consonants being 'hard' or 'unpaired'. This rule ensures consistent spelling in endings, like using -и for plural nouns (книги - books) or -и in adjectives (русский - Russian), preventing common errors for learners.
There's no single "number one" easiest language, as it depends on your native tongue, but for English speakers, Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans, Spanish, and Italian are consistently ranked as very easy due to similar Germanic roots (Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans) or shared Latin vocabulary (Spanish, Italian) with English, plus simple grammar and pronunciation. The truly easiest language is the one you're most motivated to learn and find engaging content in, as personal interest drives acquisition.
Yes. Russian is beautiful, powerful, and rich in metaphor, with grammar that challenges and rewards you. It's also a major world language, still used in global business, diplomacy, and culture.