Learning a new language is an exciting journey, although some languages are more challenging for English speakers. Below, we explore the 18 most difficult languages for English speakers to learn.
Navajo
Navajo, spoken by 170,000 people in New Mexico and Arizona, has tricky grammar, strange word order, and tonal sounds that are hard for English learners to understand. In Navajo, objects are described in verbs, there are no adjectives, and it has few loanwords. Linguists describe this Native American language as a “hopeless maze of irregularities.” It was so tricky that the U.S. Marines used it as a secret code during the Second World War.
Icelandic
Icelandic, spoken by about 330,000 people, is challenging for English speakers despite being related to the much easier Norwegian. One reason is that its spelling, with 32 letters, including unique ones like þ and ð, can be pretty difficult. The grammar is also challenging because of the many word endings, verb conjugations, and the existence of a middle voice in addition to active and passive. In addition, Icelanders prefer coining new words instead of borrowing, adding to its complexity for learners.
Finnish
Finnish is spoken by 5 million people, mainly in Finland, but also by minorities in Norwegian, Swedish, Russian, and Estonian regions. It belongs to the Uralic language family and has a unique vowel harmony system, making pronunciation and word formation quite complex. Finnish grammar involves adding affixes to the word stem (a process called agglutination) to show different grammatical features.
Greek
Greek, the oldest Indo-European language still used today, is spoken by around 13 million people in Greece and Cyprus. Learning Greek can be tough for English speakers because of its complicated grammar and three noun genders. Its alphabet has 24 non-Latin letters, which can make pronunciation tricky. However, about 5% of English words, like democracy, dinosaur, and galaxy, come from Greek, so at least vocabulary shouldn’t be very difficult.
Arabic
Arabic is a Semitic language spoken by nearly 300 million people in the Middle East and northern Africa. Every aspect of the language is likely to be challenging for English speakers, from its right-to-left script to its complex pronunciation and grammar. The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters, with only three vowels, each with five variations.
Farsi
Farsi is a Persian language spoken by 77 million people in several countries in the Middle East and Central Asia. It’s among the oldest languages still spoken and used today, which is why Iranian people can easily read poems from 1700 years ago. Learning Farsi can be challenging for English speakers because of its Arabic script and right-to-left reading. However, part of Farsi’s basic vocabulary is similar to English. For instance, tondar means “thunder,” and pedar is “father.”
Turkish
Turkish is spoken by around 88 million people in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and parts of Europe and belongs to the Altaic language family. Turkish is an agglutinative language, meaning words are formed by adding suffixes. On the other hand, there are no gender-specific pronouns and no distinction between female and male nouns. Its 29-letter alphabet, based on the Latin script, and phonetic nature make spelling and pronunciation easier for English speakers.
Hindi
Hindi is an old Sanskrit language spoken by over 366 million people, mainly in India but also in Mauritius, Nepal, Fiji, and Pakistan. Hindi uses the Devanagari script, which might take English speakers a while to learn. Also, even though Hindi is phonetic, English learners may need to familiarize themselves with many sounds. English has borrowed many words from Hindi, including nirvana, yoga, shampoo, pajamas, and karma.
Thai
Thai, sometimes called Siamese, is spoken by about 60 million people in Thailand. It can be tough for English speakers due to its tonal nature, which has five tones. This means that understanding context relies on recognizing intonation. Thai uses a unique script with six diphthongs, 18 vowels, and 44 consonants. On the bright side, grammar is simple, and there are loanwords from various languages in its vocabulary.
Vietnamese
Vietnamese is part of the Austroasiatic language family and is spoken by 76 million people in Vietnam. Like Thai, its pronunciation is quite challenging, with six tonal variations and vowel combinations forming new sounds. However, Vietnamese grammar is simple since there are no gender nouns, verb conjugations, or plural rules. Also, the alphabet is Latin, so it’s approachable to English learners.
Mandarin
Mandarin Chinese is the official language of China, Singapore, and Taiwan. It has 918 million native and nearly 200 million non-native speakers. Like Vietnamese and Thai, Mandarin is a tonal language featuring four tones. Written Chinese is quite complex, using thousands of characters. However, a Romanized system called Pinyin simplifies learning by transcribing Chinese characters into the Latin script.
Japanese
Japanese is part of the Japonic language family and is mainly spoken by 128 million people in Japan. Unlike many other Asian languages, Japanese is not tonal. However, learning it is still difficult because of its complex writing system, which includes thousands of characters called “kanji.” Japanese also has an alphabet for foreign words and a polite speech system called “Keigo.”
Korean
Korean is spoken by 80 million people in both South and North Korea. Its alphabet, “Hangul,” was created in 1443 and is still used today. It consists of only 24 symbols, 14 of which are consonants and 10 vowels. However, its word order (subject-object-verb) and double vowel and consonant sounds might need to be revised for English speakers.
Albanian
Albanian is spoken by around 7.5 million people across Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece, and Montenegro. Although it is an Indo-European language, it is quite unique, borrowing from Latin, Greek, and extinct languages like Illyrian. Learning it can be difficult for English speakers because of its complex grammar, including noun cases and genders.
Serbian
Serbian, spoken by about 12 million people, mainly in Serbia, is a Slavic language with influences from other Slavic languages, such as Turkish and Italian. English speakers find it hard because of its seven tenses, gendered words, and two scripts. In fact, the Serbian language is unique in Europe because it uses both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets interchangeably.
Russian
Russian is spoken by 260 million people in Russia and former Soviet Union countries like Azerbaijan and Belarus. As a Slavic language, it’s similar to Serbia, Polish, and Ukrainian, often clustering consonants in words. Russian is difficult for English speakers because of its Cyrillic alphabet, distinct vocabulary, unpredictable pronunciation, and complex grammar.
Bulgarian
Another Slavic language, Bulgarian, is spoken by about 8 million native speakers, mainly in Bulgaria. Like Russian, it uses the Cyrillic alphabet with 30 letters, including unfamiliar ones like “ь.” Bulgarian words are unlikely to sound familiar to English speakers unless they know some Russian. Its grammar can also be challenging as it includes nine tenses.
Hungarian
Hungarian stands out from other European languages as it belongs to the Uralic language family. Spoken by 13 million native speakers, mainly in Hungary, it features complex grammar, using case suffixes and postpositions instead of prepositions. With 14 vowels and consonant clusters, Hungarian pronunciation can be quite difficult for English learners.
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