Language acts as a bridge for communication and development among the peoples of the world. Language forms the backbone of communal existence. There are over 7000 languages spoken in the world with different sounds & history. Some languages are most spoken than others depending on the the statistical variable you choose to focus on; like the number native speakers or the number of people that speak that language as a second language.
1. English (1,132 million speakers)
Native speakers: 379 million
Non-native speakers: 753 million
Language family: Germanic, a sub-family of Indo-European
Related to: German, Dutch, Frisian
Fun fact: The English word “goodbye” was originally a contraction of “God be with ye”.
With over 1,130 million native speakers, English is the most spoken language in the world.
It’s also the official language of the sky – all pilots have to speak & identify themselves in English.
English is the official language of the largest number of countries and the lingua franca in the world.
Modern English has been heavily influenced by many different languages; the vocabulary is constantly developing and expanding.
2. Mandarin Chinese (1,117 million speakers)
Native speakers: 918 million
Non-native speakers: 199 million
Language family: Sino-Tibetan
Related to: Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese
3. Hindi (615 million speakers)
Fun fact: Research suggests that you’ll only need around 2,500 characters to be able to read almost 98 percent of everyday written Chinese.
In terms of native speakers alone, Mandarin Chinese is by far the second most spoken language in the world.
native speakers: 342.2 M
non-native speakers: 258.3M
Language family: Indo-Ayran, a sub-family of Indo-European
Related to: Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali
Fun fact: If you’re an English speaker, you probably already know some Hindi. Do words like ‘guru’, ‘jungle’, ‘karma’, ‘yoga’, ‘bungalow’, ‘cheetah’ and ‘avatar’ ring a bell? These words (& many more!) have been borrowed from Hindi.
Hindi is highly influenced by Sanskrit and named after the Persian word hind, which means – quite literally – “Land of the Indus river”.
Hindi is one of the official languages of India, the soon-to-be most populous country in the world.
4. Spanish (534 million speakers)
Native speakers：475 million
Non-native speakers: 74 million
Language family: Romance, a sub-family of Indo-European
Related to: French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian
Fun fact: The first modern novel and the second most translated book after the Bible was written in Spanish. Which novel? It’s Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, of course!
Spanish is the official language of 23 countries & territories, the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union and many other international organizations.
5. French (280 million speakers)
Native speakers: 80 million
Non-native speakers: 194 million
Language family: Romance
Related to: Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian
Fun fact: About 45 per cent of modern English words are of French origin.
French is the official language of 29 countries and many international organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union.
6. Arabic (274 million speakers)
Native speakers: 0
Non-native speakers: 274 million
Language family: Semitic, a sub-family of Afro-Asiatic
Related to: Hebrew, Amharic, Aramaic
Fun fact: Arabic has at least 11 words for love, each of them expressing a different stage in the process of falling in love.
Arabic is the official language of 27 states, second only to English and French. It is the lingua franca of the Arabic world & one of the languages used by many countries that no longer exist today.
7. Bangla/Bengali (265 million speakers)
Native speakers: 234 million
Non-native speakers: 39 million
Language family: Indo-Aryan, a sub-family of Indo-European
Related to: Hindu, Punjabi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali
Fun fact: While the Bengali script is relatively unknown in the West, but it’s actually the fifth most widely used writing system in the world!
The Bengali alphabet is particularly interesting.
8. Russian (258 million speakers)
Native speakers: 154 million
Non-native speakers: 104 million
Language family: East Slavic, a sub-family of Indo-European
Related to: Ukrainian, Belarusian
Fun fact: Due to Russia’s presence in space technology, it is a requirement for foreign astronauts to know a certain amount of Russian (as if becoming an astronaut wasn’t already difficult enough!).
One of the most spread out languages (with around 155 million native speakers living across the world), the eighth most spoken language in the world is Russian.
Russian is one of the six working languages of the United Nations, the only official language of Russia, as well as one of the official languages of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
9. Portuguese (234 million speakers)
Native speakers: 232 million
Non-native speakers: 25 million
Language family: Romance, a sub-branch of Indo-European
Related to: Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian
Fun fact: Until recently, the letters “k”, “w“ and “y” were not part of the Portuguese alphabet. In 2009, a new agreement was signed to standardise spelling forms across different variations.
Portuguese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world after English & Spanish.
10. Indonesian (199 million speakers)
Native speakers: 43 million
Non-native speakers: 156 million
Language family: Austronesian
Related to: Malay, Javanese, Sundranese, Madurese etc.
Fun fact: Along with Malay, it’s up there in the list of most polite languages in the world’s Eastern region.
Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) is a standardized Malay language. Prior to its standardization, Malay had circulated as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries.