What are the most difficult languages in the world and why. The most difficult and easiest languages to learn
Learning new languages opens up a huge number of additional opportunities and prospects. Some languages are easier to learn, while others require some effort.
And there are those that only a very purposeful, patient and diligent person can master. Is that who you are? Well, then here are 25 languages that are ready to challenge you and test your nerves!
25. Tagalog
The Austronesian language Tagalog is spoken by about a quarter of the Filipino population. Due to complex grammatical rules and unconventional sentence structure, it is quite difficult to master.
24. Navajo
It is one of the Southern Athabaskan languages. Navajo is native to the southwestern United States. Between 120 and 170 thousand people speak it. Navajo has nothing in common with either the Romano-Germanic or Latin languages. The lack of common ground makes it difficult to study. Navajo writing is typically written in the Latin alphabet.
23. Norwegian
The national language of Norway is one of the main ones in the Nordic Council. Norwegian belongs to the North Germanic group of languages and is mutually intelligible with Swedish, Danish and other Scandinavian dialects (such as Icelandic or Faroese, for example).
22. Persian
Refers to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is used mainly in Afghanistan and Iran, Tajikistan and other countries under Persian influence. In total, about 110 million people use it worldwide.
21. Indonesian
For many centuries, it has been considered the main business language throughout the entire Indonesian archipelago. Indonesian is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world.
20. Dutch
This West Germanic language is spoken by people in the Netherlands, Suriname and Belgium, some areas of Europe and the USA. Today, Dutch has official status in Curacao, Aruba, and Sint Maarten. The language is closely related to English and German, but Dutch does not use the umlauts of the latter as grammatical markers.
19. Slovenian
Belongs to the group of South Slavic languages. Slovenian is spoken by more than 2.5 million people around the world, most of whom still live in Slovenia. This language is one of 24 official working languages recognized throughout the European Union.
18. Afrikaans
Afrikaans is spoken by natives of Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. It is considered an offshoot of several different Dutch dialects. So Afrikaans can rightfully be considered a daughter of the Dutch language.
17. Danish
Official language of Denmark. More than 6 million people communicate on it. Danish belongs to the North Germanic group of languages and is descended from Old Norse. It is used by 15 - 20% of the population of Greenland. Danish is mutually intelligible with Swedish and Norwegian.
16. Basque
The language of the Basque Country, stretching from northeast Spain to southwest France. It is spoken by about 27% of the total population of the Basque territories.
15. Welsh
One of the branches of the Celtic languages, used in Wales. Welsh is also called Cambrian.
14. Urdu
Better known as Modern Standard Urdu, which is associated with the Muslim population of Hindustan. Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. It is mutually intelligible with traditional Hindi, with which it even has similar grammar.
13. Hebrew
Hebrew belongs to the group of Afro-Asian languages. It was first used by the ancient Jews and Israelites in the 10th century BC. e. Despite their advanced age, they still communicate in Yiddish. It is official in Israel.
12. Korean
The official language of North and South Korea. More than 80 million people communicate on it. It is not easy for an amateur to decipher the grammatical structure and understand all the rules for constructing sentences. Koreans, as a rule, do not have problems with this.
The main language of adherents of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. It is a dialect of the ancient Indo-Aryan language. Sanskrit is included in the list of 22 scheduled languages of India.
10. Croatian
One of the official languages of the European Union. Croatian is derived from Serbo-Croatian and is based on the East Herzegovinian dialect, which is the basis for both Serbian and Bosnian.
9. Hungarian
One of the official languages of the European Union. It is used by members of Hungarian communities in Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, and Romania. Belongs to the family of Uralic languages.
8. Gaelic
Also known as Scottish Gaelic. It is a Celtic language spoken by many natives of Scotland.
7. Japanese
This East Asian language is the national language of Japan. It is used by more than 125 million people worldwide. Japanese is similar to Chinese in many ways and is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn.
6. Albanian
An Indo-European language spoken by residents of Kosovo, Bulgaria, and Macedonia. Albanian has much in common with German and Greek, but its vocabulary is much more extensive and varied.
5. Icelandic
Belongs to the Indo-European group of languages. It developed under conditions of minimal contact with other languages and dialects.
4. Thai
Better known as Siamese. Belongs to the Thai-Canadian group of languages. Almost half of Thai vocabulary comes from Pali, ancient Khmer or Sanskrit. Thai has a complex written alphabet.
3. Vietnamese
Officially recognized in Vietnam. The Vietnamese language has borrowed a lot from Chinese.
2. Arabic
It is a descendant of the ancient Arabic language. Learning Arabic does not mean being able to communicate fluently with native speakers. The fact is that the Arabic language has a lot of dialects, and they differ from each other almost as much as different languages! Because of this, it can be difficult for a person from Morocco, for example, to understand an interlocutor from Egypt, although they communicate in the same language.
1. Chinese
It is spoken by a fifth of the world's population, although it is considered the most difficult language to learn.
Have you just started learning a foreign language and have already encountered incredible difficulties?
Can't wade through the thorns of German, English or French grammar, phonetics and vocabulary without tears? Keep your nose up! Be glad that you are not faced with the task of conquering one of the most difficult languages in the world.
Russian – fifth place
Foreigners compare the study of the “great and mighty” to a nightmare. Even the Russian alphabet puts people in a state of panic. Many letters in Cyrillic look the same as in Latin, but sound completely different. The purpose of “b” and “b” is a sealed secret. But most often the stumbling block is “Y” and “Y”. Pronouncing these sounds is real torture for the uninitiated.
Words also raise questions. The most difficult ones to learn are homonyms. Although they are written the same, they have different meanings. Synonyms also do not stand aside - the verb “to go” alone has about 50 identical concepts! And the consonance of some words and changes in stress can distort the meaning of the phrase and cause an awkward situation.
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Having mastered the kaleidoscope of letters and words, the unfortunate ones find themselves in the wonderful world of 6 cases, 2 conjugations and 3 declensions. Keeping all the rules in your head is already a feat, but mastering the exceptions deserves a medal.
Hungarian – fourth place
The grammar of the Hungarian language is almost inaccessible to mere mortals. It is fraught with unpleasant surprises:
- 25 cases (in some sources - 18);
- The presence of 6 tense verb forms, including the imperative mood for the first person.
- Unusual morphology. What Russian speakers express with prepositions, Hungarians attach to words with case endings.
- The gender of a noun is determined only by the meaning of the sentence or the word itself.
The Magyar alphabet consists of 40 letters (14 vowels and 26 consonants). A difficult point for Russians is the peculiarity of the pronunciation of symbols. So, “S” is read as “Ш”, “GY” - as “Дь”, “A” - as something between the Russian “О” and “А”.
Linguistics is also insidious. It’s hard not to faint when you see the word “megszentsеgtelenнthetetlensеgeskedеseitekеrt” in the text, which translates roughly as “in connection with your desire to maintain an impeccable reputation.”
Japanese – third place
The samurai language is a severe test for foreigners. Even for the Japanese, learning the rules of their native speech is difficult: children spend 10 out of 12 school years struggling with intricate kanji (hieroglyphs) and two alphabets that have their own alphabet. What can we say about those who grew up far from mysterious calligraphic signs!
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The good news is that Japanese morphology is simple and has a clear structure. Nouns and adjectives do not change, and verb forms are easy to learn. The bad news is the abundance of grammatical synonyms: methods of expressing time, condition and reason that are indistinguishable to the European ear.
A separate topic is the famous Japanese politeness. The polite inhabitants of the land of the rising sun use 50 types of greetings. A separate, carefully selected style of speech is provided for representatives of different ages, social status and financial status. One wrong word and you will find yourself on the list of notorious rude people.
No linguist can unequivocally answer the question of which language is the most difficult in the world. Here it is necessary to take into account several factors, among which your native language plays an important role, in what dialect you communicate with your family. Let's give a simple example: the Russian language will not be so difficult for a Ukrainian, but for a Chinese it may not be possible. Let's look at several languages, the most difficult ones.
Arabic
One of the most complex languages - the abundance of complex sounds is almost impossible to reproduce. Every word is difficult to pronounce, and the same letter can sound differently - it all depends on the location of the letter in the word. If, for example, you find consonant words in European languages, then in Arabic you are unlikely to encounter familiar intonations. We are accustomed to the fact that the verb is placed after the predicate, but here the verb is placed before it. In addition, the verb can be in three forms - plural, singular and dual. Try not to get confused by the thirteen present tense forms. In addition, do not lose sight of the fact that Arabic is written from right to left.
Russian language
Unprepared people may have difficulties with reproduction - if in many languages the stress falls on the same syllable, then in Russian it can be located anywhere in the word. Often stress radically changes the meaning of what is being said. The word seems to be one, but it can mean completely different things. Foreigners are often surprised by the richness and diversity of Russian speech. In addition, it is worth paying great attention to studying not only cases, numbers, tenses and declensions, but also the placement of commas and other punctuation marks.
Hungarian
There are thirty-five cases in this complex language. The Hungarian's speech is generously seasoned with all sorts of suffixes and expressive phraseological units. A huge number of consonants pronounced in the throat does not add ease of pronunciation. Even having comprehended the wisdom of the language, you will not learn to speak this language soon.
Chinese
One of the most difficult languages in the world is Chinese. The most ancient hieroglyphs must be drawn with care and attention - the slightest tilt of the dash or its absence changes the meaning of what is written. One single hieroglyph can express not only a word, but also an entire sentence. Looking at these intricate squiggles, you are unlikely to immediately guess how to pronounce them. In addition, homophones and tones influence the meaning of words and sentences.
Often, even for native Chinese people, Chinese literacy is too difficult. Today, the most complete dictionary contains about 90 thousand hieroglyphs, and each of them represents its own syllable. For example, the hieroglyph for a stuffy nose consists of 36 lines.
Japanese
Not inferior in complexity to Chinese. If you ever master the science of hieroglyphs, you are unlikely to be able to speak this language. There are three different writing systems in the Japanese language. Students are given several times more time to study this complex language - learning about fifteen thousand different hieroglyphs is no joke! And students in Japan study for twelve years. In order for a Japanese schoolchild to pass the final exam, he has to learn more than one and a half thousand hieroglyphs.
Polish
This language is more complex than it seems. Firstly, there are far fewer rules than exceptions, and only the most stubborn can remember them all. Despite the fact that there are as many letters in the alphabet as there are teeth in an adult, ideally, of course, there are much more sounds. Sometimes it is difficult to simply read a written word. There seem to be few cases, only seven, but in order to understand them, you will first have to learn to understand the spoken language of the Poles, and then master the rules. When speaking Polish, pay great attention to pronunciation, otherwise you risk being misunderstood. By the way, when you hear a seemingly familiar word, you may be surprised that it means something completely different from what you are used to.
Bak language
This complex language of the world is spoken by some French people and the population of northern Spain. This language is not related to any known group of languages - neither living nor dead. Difficulty may arise when trying to understand and remember the twenty-four cases. New words are formed by adding morphemes. Words are connected to each other through case endings. A system of inclinations, among which there is, for example, potential.
Tuyuk language
It is rare to meet a person who speaks this complex language. It is mainly distributed in the eastern Amazon. Despite the fact that the language has frankly few sounds and letters, the very construction of words and phrases can cause difficulties. A person speaking this language can pronounce a complex sentence by saying just one word. This language is characterized by a complex system of verb endings, changing which can explain to the interlocutor both the action and the explanation to him, and a lot of other important information.
Navajo language
Another complex language is the language of two hundred thousand Indians. This complex language, spoken by residents of Arizona and the southwestern United States, has four vowels, but the consonants have a unique pronunciation. Often Europeans are simply unable to reproduce such sounds. There are no numbers in the Navajo language, and nouns have no declensions. But verbs have many faces. During the war that took place in the middle of the last century, this language was used when it was necessary to convey important information - none of the codebreakers could make out a single word from the reports.
Icelandic
One of the most ancient languages in the world contains words that have long been forgotten. This is precisely its main difficulty - the words are so old that only regular communication with people who speak this language from the cradle can help lift the veil of antiquity over them. To study this most difficult language in the world, books and reference books alone will not be enough. Just try to pronounce the word - Eyjafjallajökull. One of the volcanoes lives under such a “simple” name.
Let's talk about languages today. You’re not a stupid guy and you understand exactly what languages we’re talking about now. You probably remember how at university they told you about the importance of language in the lives and history of people. We cannot argue with the statements of the teachers; on the contrary, we subscribe to their words.
We want to tell you about the most difficult languages not only for Russian speakers, but also for English speakers. Damn, sorry, but this word is difficult to replace with anything, so you have to constantly use it. Learning a language is the best way to connect with someone from another part of the world. If you know at least the basics of the local dialect, you will feel many times more confident than that guy for whom spoken speech is incomprehensible nonsense.
So, back to enlightenment: today you will learn about some of the most difficult languages. Let's get started.
1. Arabic
Compared to English, this is truly a living hell. Are you having trouble learning a language that has been taught since school? Then you won't be able to master Arabic. In addition to a completely incomprehensible alphabet for you, consisting of unfamiliar symbols, you will be faced with the opposite direction of reading and a complex pronunciation model.
2. Japanese
Various Asian dialects have a certain level of difficulty for Russian speakers. In addition to the new alphabet, they all have one feature that makes them difficult for an unprecedented person. In the case of the Japanese language, you must master thousands of characters in order to express yourself more or less normally. This is because Japanese has three separate writing systems, each with its own alphabet. In addition to these complexities, the Japanese language includes a structure that is responsible for addressing peers and older people, whom it is customary to address with due respect, therefore, you need to talk to them differently.
3. Chinese
Chinese is a unique language because grammatical structure and the tone of the speaker matter greatly. In some languages, if you have a basic knowledge of grammatical structure, you could get away with it. However, with the Chinese, confusion in grammar can put you in an awkward position. In addition, the writing system and language system are different from the reading and spelling systems. So it will be quite difficult to survive in China if you don't end up in an area with at least English speakers.
4. Greek
We hasten to please you: Greek is less difficult for Russian speakers than the top three languages that we have already mentioned. But there are other aspects that may be a problem for you if you decide to learn this language. Not everyone has difficulties with the alphabet. However, what confuses many people is the tension required for the other person to understand what you are saying. Incorrect placement of tension in the voice changes the meaning of the word and phrase entirely.
5. Estonian
Estonian is ranked fifth on our list due to its complex structure, which is a big problem in many other European countries that have their own language system. All this depends on the influence of other neighboring languages.
6. Finnish
Like many European languages, Finnish persists within the country itself, influencing the growth of the corresponding manner of the language. In addition, for many people Finnish and Estonian can be perceived as close relatives in their speech and grammatical patterns. Of course, Finnish is a little easier to learn, unlike Estonian.
7. Thai
Taking a short detour from European languages, we find ourselves in Thailand. Thai can be described as being of medium difficulty compared to the top of our list. When learning Thai, you will encounter difficulties in pronunciation. Grammar rules are similar to those in English, but pronunciation and speaker tone are the most important and most challenging for beginners.
8. Norwegian
At the end of our list, let's return to Europe, or more precisely, to Norway. Norwegian is the last language on our list for this reason. It is a language that is easy to learn in various group courses and in formal settings. However, the fact that Norwegian is primarily spoken only in Norway makes it the final language on our list because Norwegian speakers use a less formal form of communication than what is taught to you in classes. By the way, this is a problem with any course. Because of this, not every guy in Norway will understand what you are talking about. This is the same if someone addressed you on the street in Old Russian.
Language is a complex system of signs, which includes sounds and words, and for each nation it is unique and inimitable. Any language has its own characteristics, so to learn one of them, you need to try very hard - there are no simple and easy languages. We present to you the most difficult languages to learn, but which you can still master.
10. Icelandic
Icelandic is the most difficult to pronounce. It is considered the most ancient, and many linguistic units are used only by the native inhabitants of Iceland. No one except native speakers can convey the truly unique sound of words: phonetics contains sounds that, as they say, can break your tongue when pronounced.
9. Finnish
How about 15 cases and several hundred finite forms of the verb? But hot Finnish guys learn this at school. The only thing that makes a language simpler is the exact correspondence of the spelling of a word to its phonetics, that is, both we write and pronounce. Interestingly, Finnish does not have a future tense, but there are several forms of the past tense.
8. Navajo
Navajo is an Indian tribe. During World War II, this language was specially taught to American soldiers, who used it to transmit codes. In Navajo, verb forms are formed and modified by persons through the addition of prefixes, and in addition to vowels and consonants, there are special 4 tones: rising and falling, high and low. Navajo is gradually being forgotten by young Indians: there are no dictionaries, and young people are gradually switching to English.
7. Hungarian
If you can crack 15 cases of Finnish like nuts, then try to master 35 cases of Hungarian and very long and drawn-out vowels. If this doesn’t seem enough, then here’s a countless number of suffixes and the same number of stable expressions unique to Hungarian. To somehow facilitate the study, there are only 2 forms of time for you: past and future.
6. Eskimo
The present tense of the verb alone in the Eskimo language has 63 forms, and each noun has more than 200 case forms, which are formed by changing the ending of the word, prefix and suffix. The Eskimo language, listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most difficult sign system, is very figurative: for example, we simply say “Internet,” but an Eskimo will say “travel through layers.”
This is one of the official Dagestan languages, which is also noted in the Book of Records. It has 46 cases and not a single preposition. Postpositions are used instead. The Tabasaran language has 3 dialects. In general, the language includes many borrowings from Persian, Arabic, Azerbaijani and Russian.
Basque is spoken by a few residents of the south of France and the north of Spain. In dictionaries you can count approximately half a million words and dialects. The Basque language was also used by cunning American intelligence officers who participated in World War II, transmitting secret information to headquarters.
3. Russian
Yes, yes, our native language is in third place in terms of difficulty to learn. The main difficulty for foreigners in studying our “great and mighty” is the emphasis. For example, in French the stress always falls on the last syllable, but in ours the stress can be placed absolutely anywhere in the word. Sometimes the meaning of the word itself depends on which syllable is stressed, for example, Organ and organ. The Russian language is very rich in synonyms: one lexical unit can have several dozen synonyms. By the way, a huge variety of fonts have been developed for our language, and you can see the 25 best of them.
2. Arabic
One letter in Arabic can have 4 spellings, depending on its location in the word. There are no lowercase letters in this language, and the rules prohibit breaking words with hyphenation. The most important thing is that vowel sounds are not displayed when writing, and words are written from right to left. Almost all languages of the world have two numbers: singular and plural, but in Arabic there is a third number - dual. Here, each word has its own special pronunciation, and there are none that are pronounced the same. This is due to the fact that each individual sound has 4 tones, and its pronunciation is affected by the place it occupies in the word.
1. Chinese
We all know that in writing the Chinese use hieroglyphs, of which there are more than 87 thousand, and how they are written is incredibly important: the meaning of the word will depend on the degree of pressure and the length of any stroke. Moreover, one “letter” of a hieroglyph can mean a separate word, or even a whole sentence, and the graphic symbol does not carry a phonetic load.
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