The most difficult languages in the world to learn

Prepare to put a serious study time if you are looking to master one of them.


If you think you pick up a little French or Spanish during your free time, you should know the type of work you enter inLearn other languages of the whole world. Serious on Hungarian learning? Or Navajo? Or Thai, which contains an alphabet composed of a tanging consonant 44 and 32 different vowels? Then you'd better be ready to study. To help you understand what you enter, we have compiled this list of the most difficult languages ​​to learn. And for the English words that you always change, checkThe 14 most difficult words to pronounce in the English language.

1
Arab

Arabic writing
Shutterstock / Colombo Nicola

Learn ArabicYou must learn a new alphabet and get used to reading from right to left. A large number of sounds in the tongue are difficult to control English speakers and grammar is packed with irregular verbs. Even if you manage to overcome all this, it is also a language with many, many dialects that vary considerably. So you may be able to put you in Jordan, but I have trouble in Kuwait.

For the English terms, you finally have perfect, here23 words you need to stop bad pronouncing.

2
Russian

Little boy writing Russian on blackboard
Shutterstock / VPALES

Russian is noted two of the three in difficulty by theInstitute of Foreign Services (FSI), which ranks languages ​​based on the duration of the learn of the native English speaker to learn it, so it is not as difficult as some of the other languages. However, there are roadblocks defined to become Russian, whose spelling is not always simple, it is full of vowels without familiarity to the speaker of English English and requires learning an alphabet entirely new to master.

3
Korean

Good morning written in Korean
Shutterstock / Eiko Tsuchiya

In terms ofLearning to read, Korean At a relatively simple alphabet that does not take too much time to learn, unlike the characters used in Chinese and Japanese writing systems, so you can start ringing words quickly enough. But be able to speak is a can of worms completely different, thanks to the fully different grammar of English and pronunciation that is responsible for rules difficult to control.

And for words, you should cut off your vocabulary right this second, checkStop using these sentences to ring instantly more intelligently.

4
Navajo

Sign for Navajo health center
Shutterstock / Underwesternsky

Navajo is quite difficult to understand thatTALKERS code in the Second World War Used the language to develop a code to communicate that the Germans would not be able to follow.

5
Finnish

Shutterstock / Nito

Finnish has a reputation To be a delicate language to learn and with good reason. The names have 15 different cases, while in English, they have only three: subjective, objectives, possessive. The language is in the family of finno-urgent languages, so it has no Latin or German influence to help you guess what something means.

The only thing that makes it a little easier is that this is written like that sounds in the same alphabet as English. In theory, the pronunciation is also quite simple, but it can be easy to hang on a long vowel and consonant sounds.

And for a certain useful wisdom of a "dead" language, here is40 Latin phrases if genius you will look like a master speaker.

6
Vietnamese

Hello translated into Vietnamese on paper
Shutterstock / Keitma

Unusual grammar, difficult pronunciation and six different tones doVietnamese a challenge For English speakers. So, how long does it take to master it?

Expect to spend about 1,100 hours of class to reach the control of speech and reading, according to the ISP.

7
Mongolian

Mongolian script
Shutterstock / Leah-Anne Thompson

The most difficult part ofMongol is the pronunciation. Once you have that, grammar is not so difficult, as long as you know Finnish. And the alphabet is a breeze, assuming you can read Russian. If you do not encounter these two criteria, however, it's a very difficult language to master.

For the English sayings you have not realized were offensive, check7 common sentences that you did not know how to have racist origins.

8
Hungarian

Hungarian menu board
Shutterstock / Jorn Pilon

Hungarian is a member of the same family of small languagesAs Finnish, the average English speaker will not find much familiarity in his vocabulary. It also has 18 cases and 14 vowels, which makes things very difficult.

The language also relies more strongly on idioms than other languages, so if you have left the sky with some selection sentences under your belt, you can feel like everyone speaks in jokes inside or A secret code.

9
Thai

Pepsi sign in Thai
Shutterstock / ArliftAz2205

It's not the grammar that will make you move when you aretry to learn ThaiIt is writing and pronunciation, which has five different tones and long and short vowels. The alphabet has a staggering consonant 44 and 32 vowels.

For more trivia and linguistic facts sent directly to your inbox,Sign up for our daily newsletter.

10
Icelandic

Sign that says
Shutterstock / Menno Schaefer

With four cases and three genders assigned to their words, as well as many letters unknown to English speakers, Icelandic is not a walk in the park to learn. Words can also be very long and decipher how to pronounce them can challenge intuition. It is frequently listed as one of theMore difficult languages ​​to learn For English speakers.

11
Estonian

Baggage airport sign in English and Estonian
Shutterstock / Julia Kuznetsova

Estonian is packed with overestable cases of 14 noun. In addition to this, the consonants and vowels have three distinct lengths: short, long and too long. But the pleasure does not stop there. Grammar is also responsible for exceptions requiring a ton of practice.

12
Georgian

Sign that says
Shutterstock / GTW

Georgian has his own writing system that no other language uses. And many letters seem surprisingly similar. For example, ვ, კ, პ, ყ, ფ, ფ, ყ and ც are all different letters that you might have trouble distinguishing between if you are new in the game. The pronunciation is also quite difficult for native Anglophones .

13
Czech

No Admittance Czech Sign
Shutterstock / M-on

Declination in Czech It's its own special nightmare, but you do not even need to worry about this before passing beyond the seemingly insurmountable obstacle that properly pronouncing the words correctly. On the one hand, each letter has only one pronunciation of all time. On the other hand, Čtvrtek means Thursday and control how each of these sounds works together will take you a moment.

This is useful if you talk about another slave language, but otherwise it will be a challenge.

14
Albanian

Albanian books street sale
Shutterstock / Smith371

Alphabet of 36 letters from Albania should tell you in this attempt to master this language will be a wild walking. In addition, grammar is filled with exceptions to the rule you will need to remember.

15
Turkish

Sign reading
Shutterstock / Lucky Eyes

Turkish is an agglutinous language, which means, in raw terms, that complex words are formed by sticking tricks on without changing the previous stuff at all. It is quite stranger to anglophones, but if you speak Japanese, Korean or Finish (who are all too on this list), you will not have a lot of trouble seizing.

16
Polish

Polish English dictionary
Shutterstock / 1000 Photos Words

Compared to the finno-ugric languages ​​on the list (Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian),The seven cases you need to face In Polish, does not seem to be intimidating too much. The pronunciation is what will get you. There are many sounds that are just not present in English and require a lot of practice to master.

17
Greek

Greek carvings at Ephesus temple
Shutterstock / Abdelsalam

The most obvious obstacle toGreek learning is the alphabet. Grammar can also be a little delicate, with unusual conjugations, many rules and sexospecific names. And pronunciation requires some practice because there are sounds that have no equivalent in English. There is a reason "it's Greek for me" is a common idiom to express confusion, after all.

18
Mandarin

Mandarin Chinese written in notebook
Shutterstock / Danielcastromeia

Mandarin is one of the few languages Classified as the most difficult to learn for English speakers by the Institute of Foreign Services. The alphabet is composed of very elaborate characters; The language is tonal; There are many idioms and the ability to say that language does not help you to read it. Knowing how to read, he can not even help learn to write it. It's not for the low heart.

19
Japanese

Japanese characters on wood
Shutterstock / Luftikus

The first obstacle tolearn Japaneseis the writing system, which will not provide you with no clues unless you talk Chinese also. Grammar seems to be very simple, but the Japanese also use particles, which are markers for parts of speech that have no English equivalent.

20
Cantonese

Cantonese flashcard that reads
Shutterstock / Eiko Tsuchiya

Tones in Mandarin make it a challenge for the English speakers, but Cantonese has twice So many tones like Mandarin-eight in total. Due to its pictorial writing system, you will not be able to learn to read phonetically. In addition, as Mandarin is the simplified version of Cantonese and is widely used throughout continental China, there is simply not so many resources for learning Cantonese.


19 magical destinations that inspired Disney
19 magical destinations that inspired Disney
Kim Kardashian says that this storyteller has made it afraid to leave his house
Kim Kardashian says that this storyteller has made it afraid to leave his house
The star of "Wednesday" Jenna Ortega refused to say this line in the Netflix series and the fans love it for that
The star of "Wednesday" Jenna Ortega refused to say this line in the Netflix series and the fans love it for that