While there's no single "most popular," American English (AmE) is arguably the most influential globally due to media, technology, and business, making it widely heard, but Indian English and other varieties have huge speaker numbers, and British English (BrE) remains foundational, with most common words identical across major varieties. The most "popular" depends on whether you mean most heard (AmE), most speakers (India/US), or most influential (AmE/BrE) in media/business.
American English is sufficient enough to meet needs. It retains all of the core grammatical and vocabulary features that British English employs and has the benefit of being easier to learn and fairly straightforward, and being mutually intelligible across all Anglo nations.
Perhaps the two most iconic English varieties in the world are British and American accents. Both of them have a form of “general” accent which is perceived as more educated or correct than the other varieties, as if having an accent-free speech was a sign of social status.
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.
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.
The Geordie accent, spoken in and around Newcastle upon Tyne in northeastern England, is another that ranks high on the list of difficult-to-understand accents. Known for its distinctive use of diphthongs and non-standard grammar, Geordie can be a tough nut to crack for both native and non-native speakers alike.
Here are the most attractive accents in the world:
Australian English is closer to British English, especially when it comes to spelling. Words like "realise" and "organise" are spelled the same way in both Australian and British English, and both retain the "u" in words like "colour" and "favour."
As long as you're polite, feel free to say "Hi" or "Hello" as you normally would. Saying "Hello mate" is equivalent to saying "Hey dude", which is totally fine if you're friendly with the person.
Frisian is the closest language to English
The closest language to English is Frisian. This Germanic language is spoken by about 400,000 people in an area historically known as Frisia—now within the modern regions of Netherlands and Germany.
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.
20 Most Fluent English Speaking Countries In The World
"Oi" has been particularly associated with working class and Cockney speech. It is effectively a local pronunciation of "hoy" (see H-dropping), an older expression. A study of the Cockney dialect in the 1950s found that whether it was being used to call attention or as a challenge depended on its tone and abruptness.
Yeet is a slang word that functions broadly with the meaning “to throw,” but is especially used to emphasize forcefulness and a lack of concern for the thing being thrown. Yeet is also used as an interjection, most often to express excitement or enthusiasm.
Some people believe that RP (Received Pronunciation) is the most standard or general accent in British English. Many EFL (English as a Foreign Language) schools teach it because it is supposed to be the most “polished” pronunciation. It is typically referred to as “Queen's English” or “BBC English”.
Why does Lucifer have a British accent? (Obviously, it's because the actor does and they thought it would add an interesting touch, considering the show wouldn't get as much traction without his accent).
10 of the hardest English words to pronounce
She's said in interviews that she's tried to learn Spanish and French a few times but never did. There are videos of her saying a few words in at least Spanish, French , Japanese, German, Welsh, Gaelic, etc. during concerts or interviews but it's just memorized words.
Mexico has 69 official languages, including Spanish and 68 indigenous languages (like Nahuatl and Maya), making it incredibly linguistically diverse, though South Sudan is also listed with 69 living languages in some counts, showing many countries have rich linguistic diversity. While Mexico is famous for this, the number refers to recognized languages, with hundreds of variations and dialects existing within them.
Nineteen-year-old Mahmood Akram from India has amazed the world by mastering 400 languages while simultaneously pursuing multiple university degrees. His linguistic journey began early under the guidance of his father, a linguistics expert, and by the age of six, he had already surpassed his mentor's knowledge.