As an English speaker, learning a new language can be hard. You must wonder what are the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
This article will list the top 18 hardest languages to learn for English speakers. So you can decide which language to learn next.
Top 18 Hardest Languages To Learn For English Speakers
English is known to be an easy language to learn comparatively. So, for most English speakers learning a different language can be hard.
Many different factors can make a language difficult to learn.
Some languages may be more difficult for English speakers. That is due to the differences in grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary.
Here is a list of 18 of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
1. Mandarin Chinese:
Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world. It has over a billion native speakers.
However, it is also one of the most difficult languages for English speakers. That is due to its complex tonal system and grammatical structure.
Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language. It means a word’s meaning can change depending on the tone used.
It also has a complex writing system. Based on characters instead of an alphabet.
These characteristics make Mandarin Chinese a very hard language to learn.
2. Arabic:
Arabic is another notoriously difficult language for English speakers to master.
It has a complex grammatical structure with cases and moods and a unique writing system.
Arabic is spoken by over 300 million people worldwide. And it is the official language of 26 countries.
However, Arabic has its own alphabet. That makes it difficult for English speakers to read and write.
In addition, Arabic has many different dialects. It makes communication between Arabic speakers from different regions difficult.
3. Japanese:
Japanese is Japan’s official language and is widely spoken in Taiwan and South Korea.
It is a member of the unique and challenging Japanese-Ryukyuan language family. It is for its complex writing system.
For example, it includes three different alphabets (kanji, hiragana, and katakana). It also has a large number of loanwords from other languages.
That makes it difficult for English speakers to learn. In addition, many loanwords from other languages can be difficult to pronounce.
4. Russian:
Of all the Slavic languages, Russian is perhaps one of the hardest for English speakers to learn.
The grammar is complex, and the pronunciation can be difficult. Especially for those unfamiliar with the Cyrillic alphabet.
Russian is known for its difficulties in pronunciation and grammar rules.
The Russian language has six different case endings. Which are important to memorize for each gender and two numbers (singular and plural).
These complexities of the Russian language make it tedious to learn.
5. Hungarian:
Hungarian is another difficult language due to its unique grammar rules.
It has 18 grammatical cases that must be memorized for each noun and complicated rules for word order.
Additionally, Hungarian uses many Slavic loanwords. It makes it difficult for English speakers to understand.
Hungarian is not related to any Indo-European languages. Meaning it has a different grammar, vocabulary, and sound system than English.
Vocally, it has 14 vowel sounds. It can be difficult for English speakers to distinguish.
The language also has 33 consonants. Including eight that get pronounced differently than they are in English.
For example, “s” is always pronounced as /ʃ/, regardless of where it appears in a word.
The most challenging aspect of Hungarian for English speakers is an intricate system of suffixes.
These suffixes get added to words to indicate grammatical information. Such as whether a word is plural or how it should get conjugated.
Unfortunately, there are more than 200 different suffixes in Hungarian!
These complexities are novel to English speakers. Hence making Hungarian hard to learn for them.
6. Korean:
Korean is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn. It is due to its unique alphabet (Hangul) and intricate Honorifics system.
That uses different speech forms depending on the speaker’s social relationship with the listener.
Korean has a very different grammar structure from English. Plus, it uses a different alphabet.
Korean is also a tonal language, meaning how a word gets pronounced can change its meaning.
Pronunciation of Korean is the hardest part to conquer for English speakers.
7. Finnish:
Finnish belongs to the small Finlandic language family. It includes only a handful of other languages.
These get spoken in parts of Scandinavia and Russia. Finnish has 15 grammatical cases and complicated rules for word order and derivation.
These complicated rules make Finish one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
8. Hebrew:
Hebrew is one of the oldest languages. It has a rich history and culture, influencing many other languages.
Unfortunately, it is also one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
That is because it is a Semitic language. It means it has a completely different grammar and syntax than English.
Also, Hebrew uses a completely different alphabet making it difficult to read and write.
However, Hebrew is not impossible to learn. With dedication and practice, English speakers can become proficient.
Many resources are available to help learners, including online courses, apps, and books. With a little effort, Hebrew can be a rewarding and fulfilling language to learn.
9. Czech:
Czech is a West Slavic language spoken by around 10 million people. It’s closely related to Slovak and, to a lesser extent, Polish and Sorbian.
Czech has a long and complex history, which has impacted its development as a language.
Because of its complex grammar and vocabulary. Czech is one of the hardest languages to learn, for English speakers.
10. Norwegian:
Norwegian is one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
It is a Dane-Germanic language spoken by some 5 million people in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.
Norwegian has two official written forms. These are the Bokmål (“book language“) and Nynorsk (“new Norwegian“).
Bokmål is more commonly used—about 85% of the population uses it as their primary written language. Nynorsk gets used more in rural areas.
Norwegian grammar is similar to Germanic languages, such as Swedish and Danish.
However, Norwegian has many more irregular verbs than English, German or Dutch.
Two grammatical genders are masculine and feminine. And all nouns get assigned one of these genders.
These differences can make it hard for English speakers to learn Norwegian.
11. Danish:
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people. Principally in Denmark and Southern Schleswig’s southern region in northern Germany.
Minorities also speak it in the north of Sweden, Norway, and Iceland.
Danish is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Swedish. Standard Danish (rigsdansk) is the language based on dialects spoken around Copenhagen’s capital.
Even though it is a Germanic language like English. Danish is still one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
12. Hindi:
Hindi is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn. Largely because it is not related to English.
Hindi is a member of the Indo-European language family. Which includes English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Hindi’s close relative, Urdu.
Hindi has complex grammar, with many rules and exceptions. It also has a large vocabulary.
Many words of Hindi are borrowed from Sanskrit and other languages.
In addition, Hindi is written in Devanagari script. Which can be challenging for English speakers to read.
These things make Hindi one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
13. Polish:
If you’re an English speaker, learning Polish will be one of the most difficult languages for you to pick up.
Polish is a Slavic language, which means it’s related to Russian, Czech, and Slovakian.
Unlike other European languages. Polish has kept many of its original features throughout history.
There are a few familiar words and grammar rules for English speakers to help you along the way.
One of the most difficult things about learning Polish is its pronunciation.
The Polish alphabet consists of 32 letters, nine unique to the language. That can make it difficult to know where to start pronouncing a word.
Additionally, Polish has several words with multiple meanings. So you’ll need to choose the right one when speaking carefully.
If you’re up for the challenge, though, learning Polish can be a rewarding experience. Spoken by over 38 million people worldwide.
It’s a valuable asset if you want to do business in Central or Eastern Europe.
With some dedicated effort, you can be on your way to speaking Polish like a native in no time!
14. Icelandic:
Icelandic is one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers. That is because its grammar is very different from English.
Its vocabulary is largely derived from Old Norse-Icelandic. That is a North Germanic language, like Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Faroese.
All of these languages are more or less mutually intelligible.
A speaker of one can often understand speakers of others without much difficulty. They also share a great deal of vocabulary with English.
Icelandic is different in one very important respect. It has undergone far fewer changes than any other Germanic language. Since the time of the settlement.
This means Icelandic speakers today can still read and understand the Old Norse sagas. It was written in the 12th and 13th centuries.
It also means that Icelanders can still sing the traditional songs called rímur. Which dates back to the 14th century or earlier.
Icelandic is one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn. Since it hasn’t changed for long.
The grammar is complex, and pronunciation can be difficult for foreigners to master.
15. French:
French is one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
According to the Foreign Service Institute, it can take up to 88 weeks (or 2,200 hours) of study to reach proficiency.
That puts it on par with other difficult languages like Russian and Arabic.
However, some aspects of French make it a little easier to learn than other languages.
For one thing, it has relatively simple grammar. Compared to languages like German or Russian.
Additionally, many French words are similar to English ones. So you’ll already have a head start when learning vocabulary.
Still, French is a challenging language that will take a lot of time and effort to master.
But if you’re willing to do the work. You’ll get rewarded with one of the world’s most beautiful and useful languages.
16. German:
While German is one of the easiest languages for a native speaker of another language to learn. It is also one of the hardest for English speakers to learn.
German is a hard language for English speakers because it differs from English.
For example, German has three genders (male, female, and neuter), and there are no articles (a, an, the) in German.
It would help if you also were very careful when conjugating verbs. Since there are many irregularities.
These qualities make German one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
17. Greek:
Greek is one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers. That is because of all the different verb tenses.
There are over 60 different verb tenses! The good news is that once you learn the different verb tenses, you can use them in any order.
Another difficult thing about Greek is its alphabet. The alphabet has 24 letters, 7 of which are vowels. That can make it difficult to sound out words.
Greek also has a lot of cognates with English words, which can be both a good and a bad thing.
On the one hand, it can make it easier to guess the meaning of a word. But, on the other hand, it can also lead you to decipher the wrong meaning.
Overall, Greek is a challenging but rewarding language to learn. If you’re up for the challenge, many resources are available to help you get started.
18. Cantonese:
Cantonese is a language within the Chinese family. It originated from the city of Guangzhou and its surrounding area in southeastern China.
It is the traditional prestige dialect of Yue Chinese. Approximately 66 million people speak Cantonese worldwide.
About 37 million of these live in Guangdong Province in southeastern China.
Small groups also speak Cantonese in ethnic Chinese communities. Such as Southeast Asia, North America, and Australia.
Yet Cantonese stands to be one of the hardest languages to learn. Especially for English speakers.
Factors That Make A Language Hard To Learn or English Speakers
English speakers often have difficulty learning other languages. Especially those that are very different from English
Learning a new language can be hard. Especially if the difference between your native language and the target one is a lot.
Many different factors can make a language difficult to learn for English speakers. Some of these include:
1. The Complexity Of The Grammar Rules:
Many factors contribute to how difficult a language is to learn. The complexity of the grammar rules is one such factor.
English, for example, has very simple grammar rules compared to other languages.
That makes learning new languages harder for English speakers. As they have to worry about mastering complicated grammar rules.
2. The Number Of Loanwords From Other Languages:
One huge factor in how hard a language is to learn is the number of loanwords from other languages.
If a language has absorbed many words from English or other languages. It will be much easier for an English speaker to learn.
On the other hand, if a language has resisted borrowing words from other tongues, it will be much harder.
Some languages are very “pure” in this respect. Icelandic, for example, has changed very little in the last thousand years.
So it still looks and feels very different from English. But, on the other hand, other languages have borrowed so heavily from English.
That makes them indistinguishable. Mandingo, for instance, has been so influenced by English. Speakers of the two languages can easily understand each other.
3. The Pronunciation Of Unfamiliar Sounds:
Pronunciation is also an important factor that can make a language hard.
Unfamiliar sounds can be hard to produce because you have never used them before.
Some of the tonal languages rely heavily on the sounds produced. A single mistake in pronunciation can change the whole meaning.
For Example, Korean is difficult to learn for English speakers. That is because it has unfamiliar sounds and tones.
Most languages use the same alphabet as English but with different sounds. But Korean has a completely different alphabet.
So to pronounce words correctly, you must memorize a whole new set of symbols and sounds.
4. The Use Of Different Writing Systems:
The different writing systems and alphabets can be hard to learn.
Some languages have different writing styles from English. Namely, languages like Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese and Japanese characters.
There are even languages written in an alphabet you’ve never heard of!
Unfortunately, it cannot be easy to learn. Especially if you’re not used to seeing a language written in a different script.
Final Thoughts:
Some other languages also fall under the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
Languages that are divergent from English are the hardest to learn. In terms of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary.
However, these difficulty rankings can vary depending on different things. Like an individual’s learning style, motivation, and prior experience with learning languages.
Although with enough effort and hard work. You can learn any language you want.
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