These words and many more! There are about million native Hindi speakers, which makes it the third most spoken language in the world. 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? This is great news for native English speakers.
For Spanish appears to be the easiest foreign language for English speakers to learn! Fun fact: About 45 per cent of modern English words are of French origin.
Spoken across different parts of the world — think everywhere from the rest of France and parts of Canada to a handful of African countries, including Senegal and Madagascar — the French language has spread its roots far and wide. Language family: Semitic, a sub-family of Afro-Asiatic. Fun fact: Arabic has at least 11 words for love, each of them expressing a different stage in the process of falling in love.
With million native speakers, Arabic is the sixth most spoken language in the world, and the only one in our top twelve that is written from right to left. It has also heavily influenced European languages like Spanish and Portuguese: some words sound exactly the same.
The word coffee, for example, comes from the Arabic word qahwa. Language family: Indo-Aryan, a sub-family of Indo-European. Bengali, known to many English speakers around the world as Bangla, is mostly spoken in Bangladesh and India and is considered by some to be the second most beautiful language after French. Every consonant has a vowel sound built in, which is quite unusual for Westerners. It gets even better: different marks change the default vowel sound of a word and therefore also the meaning!
Language family: East Slavic, a sub-family of Indo-European. Sundanese is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by about 39 million people mainly in western Java in Indonesia.
It is the third most-spoken language in Indonesia. Swabian , a Germanic language closely related to German, Bavarian, and Dutch, is spoken by over , people, mainly in the Swabia region of southwestern Germany, as well as in parts of Hungary, and Romania.
The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 12 million. Swedish is a North Germanic language, closely related to Norwegian and Danish spoken by over 9 million people. Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a quarter of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by the majority.
Its standardized form, officially named Filipino, is the national language of the Philippines, and is one of two official languages alongside English. Taiwanese Hokkien is the Hokkien dialect of Min Nan as spoken by about 70 percent of the population of Taiwan. Tajik is the main language of Tajikistan, closely related to Farsi and Kurdish. Since the late s, it is written using a variant of the Cyrillic script. Telugu is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and the union territories of Puducherry by 75 million Telugu people.
The Tibetic languages are a cluster of Tibeto-Burman languages descended from Old Tibetan, spoken across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas. Cherokee Tsalagi belongs to the Iroquoian language family. The Cherokee language is unique among Native American languages in that it is both a written and spoken language. Tsonga is a Bantu language spoken by the Tsonga people totalling 12 million people mainly in South Africa, but also Mozambique and Eswatini.
Tswana is a Bantu language spoken by about 4. The majority of speakers, about 3. Turkish is a Turkic language believed to be of the Altaic language family spoken mainly in Turkey , Northern Cyprus, Cyprus and other countries of the former Ottoman Empire by about 88 million people. Ukrainian is an Eastern Slavic language spoken mainly in Ukraine by about 51 million people. Urdu is the official national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is a member of the Indo-Aryan group within the Indo-European family of languages and is mutually intelligible with Hindi.
Uzbek is a Turkic language that is the official national language of Uzbekistan spoken by around 27 million people. Vietnamese is an Austroasiatic language spoken mainly in Vietnam , where it is the national and official language, by about 82 million people. Welsh is a Brittonic language of the Celtic language family spoken natively in Wales, and by some in England.
Xhosa is a Nguni Bantu language with click consonants and is one of the official languages of South Africa. It is spoken as a first language by approximately 8. Yiddish is the historical language of the Ashkenazi Jews originating during the 9th century in Central Europe.
Belonging to the Indo-European language family, it is spoken by 1. Yoruba is a pluricentric language spoken in West Africa with the number of speakers estimated between 30 and 40 million.
It is a language spoken principally in Nigeria and Benin, with communities in Sierra Leone, Liberia, other parts of Africa. It is one of the official languages of South Africa spoken by about 10 million people mainly in Zululand and northern Natal in South Africa and also other places in Africa such as Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Eswatini. American Sign Language is a complete, natural language that has the same linguistic properties as spoken languages, with grammar that differs from English, expressed by movements of the hands and face.
British Sign Language is a sign language used in the United Kingdom as the first or preferred language of some deaf people. The language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands, body, face, and head. Esperanto is an artificially constructed language and belongs to no linguistic family, with most of its vocabulary coming from the Romance languages.
This phonetic language is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Klingon is a language that was made for the Klingons in the Star Trek movie. It is a constructed language, and not one that developed naturally. Only a few people can speak the Klingon language well enough to talk in it. Minionese spoken by the minions of the Despicable Me movie series appears to be a polyglot language which borrows words and grammatical rules from many different languages.
Extra brownie points if you can speak several languages… Let me know in the comments. September 1, June 1, January 7, Your email address will not be published.
New Here? Start here. Welcome to A Rai of Light! A home for extraordinary people around the world. If you've ever felt like there must be more to life, this site is for you. Out of a love for travel, writing, photography, sharing stories and a desire to inspire others , I created this space to connect with other like-minded individuals.
Along the way, I share my journey and strategies on Travel , Art and Life. Which countries can you visit on a Schengen visa in Right now. Edinburgh Travel Guide. Everything you need to know about visiting. Flying Tips: 13 things NOT to do on an airplane. Did you know that the 21st of November is World Hello Day? Breton demat de-mat Breton is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language spoken in Brittany in the northwest of France. Chichewa moni bambo to a male moni mayi to a female moni moni onse mooni-mooni-on-se is used as a general greeting to everyone.
Croatian Say hello in Croatian: bok bohk dobar dan — good day Croatian or Hrvatski is a South Slavic language spoken mainly in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, some parts of Serbia, and the neighbouring countries by about 5. Danish hej Hai — casual hi hallo ha-loh — hello Danish is a Scandinavian language and the only official language of the Kingdom of Denmark. Dzongkha How to say hello in Dzongkha: kuzu-zangpo la koo-zoo-zang-poh-la Dzonkha or Bhutanese is the sole official and national language of the Kingdom of Bhutan.
Fijian bula mbula Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family. Informal often used with close friends and family. Fun greeting that should only be used with friends, family, and children. Frisian hello in Frisian is goeie GOO-ee The Frisian languages are a closely related group of Germanic languages, spoken by about , Frisian people, who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.
German hallo — informal tag tahg — casual guten tag goo-ten tahk — formal good day German Deutsch is the official language of both Germany and Austria and one of the three official languages of Switzerland. Gujarati namaskaar namaste nah-mah-steh kem cho kem-choh Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat and spoken predominantly by the Gujarati people. Hausa sannu san-NU Hausa language, the most important indigenous bridge language in West and Central Africa, spoken as a first or second language by about 40—50 million people.
Hmong nyob zoo Hmong is a Hmong-Mien language spoken by about 2. Italian ciao chow Ciao is informal and reserved only for close friends and for people you already know. Kyrgyz salamatsyzby sah-lam-aht-seez-bee — formal salam sah-lam — casual Kyrgyz is a member of the Kipchak branch of the Turkic language family spoken by over 4 million speakers mainly in Kyrgyzstan, and also in China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Turkey. Latin salve sal-way salvete sal-way-tay is used when talking to more than one person.
Limburgish hallau hoi daag Limburgish is a member of the East Low Franconian group of the Germanic languages considered a variety of German or Dutch by many people. Lingala mbote mboh-teh — hello Lingala is a Bantu language spoken throughout the northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a large part of the Republic of the Congo by over 70 million people.
Luganda ki kati chi kati — informal hi oli otya to one person muli mutya to a group Luganda , a Bantu language,is an official language of Uganda along with English and Swahili. Malagasy salama sah-lAHm-ah — hello manao ahoana man-ow ah-ohn-ah — how is it Malagasy is the national language of Madagascar belonging to the Austronesian Malayo-Polynesia family of languages spoken by 25 million people.
Malay hello he-loh — hello hai hai — casual hello selamat tengahari suh-lah-mat teng-a-haari — good afternoon selamat pagi suh-lah-mat puh-guee — good morning Malay Bahasa Melayu is an Austronesian language spoken as the sole official language of Malaysia and Brunei. Mongolian How to say hello in Mongolian: sain baina uu sain bai-na OO — formal sain uu say-noo — casual Mongolian is the official language of Mongolia and both the most widely-spoken and best-known member of the Mongolic language family.
Neapolitan Hello in Neapolitan: cia cha Neapolitan is a Romance language of the Italo-Dalmatian group spoken across much of southern Italy by 6 million people. Northern Sotho dumela doo-MAY-lah when addressing a single person. Norwegian Say hello in Norwegian: hei hay — informal hi Hallo — formal hello god dag goo dahg — good day halla — the slag version if you want to chill with the cool kids Norwegian norsk is a Germanic language derived from Old Norse spoken primarily in Norway by over 5 million people where it is the official language.
Samoan talofa tah-low-fah Samoan is the official language spoken in the Samoan Islands, which is made up of the Independent State of Samoa and the American Samoa. Sesotho dumela doo-meh-lah when speaking to one person dumelang doo-meh-lang when speaking to more than one. Shona mhoro Shona , one of the most widely spoken Bantu languages, is the main language in Zimbabwe.
Somali Salaam alaykum Somali , an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by over 16 million people, is an official language of Somalia, a national language in Djibouti, and a working language in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. O-laa You can use hola in both formal and informal settings, at any time of day or night. To be time-specific, you can use: buenos dias — good morning buenas tardes — good afternoon buenas noches — good night Spanish is the second most widely used language in the world natively spoken by more than million people including Spain, most of Central and South America, Mexico and the USA.
Well it depends why he wants to learn the language. Eight hundred lemmas will help you speak a language in a day-to-day setting, but to understand dialogue in film or TV you'll need to know the 3, most common lemmas.
And if you want to get your head around the written word - so novels, newspapers, excellently-written BBC articles - you need to learn 8, to 9, lemmas. If you want to find out what it would be like to restrict your native tongue to the most common 1, words, Theo Sanderson has created a site where you can test your linguistic skills or lack thereof. Good luck, or as the Italians would enigmatically say "in bocca al lupo! You can listen to the latest edition of More or Less, and others from the series, online and via the programme podcast.
Critical window for learning a language. BBC: Learning English. Image source, Getty Images. Simply learning a number of key words can improve a person's ability to communicate in a foreign language. So how many words do we know? The secrets to learning a language quickly Critical window for learning a language BBC Future: The amazing benefits of being bilingual. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Language can be broken down into word families called lemmas.
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