It is quite a struggle to learn a new language. Adults find learning a new language more difficult than children.
Any language learning would need attention of both your mind and time; that is what makes it really hard for adults to learn a foreign language. Put simply, it’s hard because it your brain has to construct new cognitive frameworks and it requires a consistent practice.
But there are other major factors that make language learning difficult but we are not going to discuss them here, rather we will discuss the top 50 hardest language as ranked in the year 2021.
Top 50 Hardest Languages in The World
Following is a list of 50 difficult languages to learn, ranked for the year 2021. Pick the ones you want to master.
| Language | Description |
| Tagalog | Tagalog is the language spoken by 1/4th of the total population of the Philippines. Its grammar and uncommon sentence structure rules make it pretty difficult to master. |
| Navajo | Navajo is one of the Southern Athabaskan languages and is spoken in the southwestern part of the United States |
| Norwegian | Norwegian is one of the variants of Scandinavian languages; It is the official language of Norway and widely spoken by 4,640,000 people |
| Persian | The Persian is an old language which belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran and other parts of middle-east. |
| Indonesian | Indonesian language is the common language of business in the entire Indonesian archipelago |
| Dutch | It is mostly spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname. It has around 22 million speakers around the world. |
| Slovenian | The Slovenian language is part of the South Slavic language group, which has 25-letter alphabet. |
| Afrikaans | Afrikaans is spoken by the natives of Namibia and South Africa, as well as Zimbabwe and Botswana. It is the 3rd most widely spoken language in South Africa. |
| Danish | Danish is a Scandinavian language spoken in Denmark and currently holds a minority language status. |
| Basque | It is the ancestral language of the Basque Country. It is the oldest European language still in use today. |
| Welsh | It is part of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages mainly spoken in Wales. It has 29 letters alphabet. |
| Urdu | Modern Standard Urdu, this language is normally associated with Muslims around the world. |
| Hebrew | It is a West Semitic language that belongs to the Afroasiatic language family and widely spoken in Israel. |
| Korean | Korean is the widely spoken language in North and South Korea. |
| Sanskrit | Sanskrit is considered the core language of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. You will many Vedic and ancient texts written in this language. |
| Croatian | Croatian is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language. It is the official language of Croatia spoken by 4.8 million people. |
| Hungarian | Hungarian is the official language of Hungary, this language is a European Union language that is spoken by the communities of Hungary and has around 13 million speakers. |
| Scottish | Scottish is a Celtic language that is spoken by 1.2 million natives of Scotland. |
| Japanese | This East Asian language is the national language of Japan with 128 million native speakers. |
| Albanian | Albanian is an Indio-European language spoken by 10 million people of Kosovo, Alabania, Bulgaria, and the Republic of Macedonia. |
| Icelandic | This North Germanic language is an Indo-European language spoken by about 314000 people. |
| Thai | It is the official national language of Thailand with 60.7 million active speakers. |
| Vietnamese | Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam which has over 82 million native speakers. |
| Arabic | It is a Semitic language of the Arabs, spoken by some 150 million people in a broad range of territories, stretching from the Middle East to the Horn of Africa |
| Chinese | The Chinese language takes many forms that are not mutually intelligible and about 1 billion speak it. |
| Polish | It is the official language of Poland and has around 50 million native speakers around the world. |
| Finish | It is an official language of Finland and also spoken in some parts of Sweden. It may look and sound a bit similar to English, however it is more closely related to Hungarian. |
| Mandarin | This is a tonal language which makes is extremely difficult to master. The pronunciation of Mandarin varies widely based on geographical and social lines. |
| Austronesian | These languages are widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan. There are around 385 million speakers of various Austronesian languages. |
| Hindi | It is the official language spoken in northern part of India and has around 600 million speakers. |
| Amharic | It is the most widely spoken language in Ethiopia |
| Armenian | It is used by an ethnic group native to the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia. |
| Azerbaijani | It is a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Azerbaijani people, who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan. |
| Bengali | It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam. |
| Czech | The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe |
| Esperanto | Esperanto is the world’s most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language |
| French | French is one of the world’s major languages and is widely spoken around different parts of the world. |
| Gaelic | Also known as Scottish Gaelic, this language is a Celtic language that is spoken by the natives of Scotland. |
| German | It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland |
| Italian | Italian is an official language of Italy and San Marino and is spoken fluently by the majority of the countries’ populations |
| Lithuania | Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe |
| Macedonian | Macedonia also called Macedon was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece |
| Malayalam | Malayalam is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala |
| Malaysian | Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country in Southeast Asia and one of the wealthiest and most developed countries |
| Mongolian | Mongolia, a nation bordered by China and Russia, is known for vast, rugged expanses and nomadic culture |
| Nepali | Nepali is an Indo-Aryan language of the sub-branch of Eastern Pahari |
| Portuguese | Relating to Portugal or its people or language |
| Romanian | Romania is a southeastern European country known for the forested region of Transylvania, ringed by the Carpathian Mountains |
| Spanish | Spanish is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial spoken Latin in the Iberian |
| Swahili | Swahili, also known by its native name Kiswahili, is a Bantu language and the native language of the Swahili people |
Keep exploring EnglishBix to learn various concepts of English.
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