What Is The Most Common Language Spoken In Europe?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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English is still the most spoken language in the EU by far, with German now spoken by 36% of citizens and French spoken by 29% of the EU's new smaller population of 446 million people. Italian comes fourth at 18%, followed by 17% for Spanish.

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What are the 3 most commonly used languages in the EU?

All 24 official of the EU are accepted as working languages, but in practice only three – English, French, and German – are in wide general use, and of these, English is the most commonly used.

What are the 5 most spoken languages in Europe?

  1. Russian. Perhaps a surprise for many individuals, Russian tops this list as the most spoken language in Europe with roughly 140 million native speakers on the continent! ...
  2. German. ...
  3. French. ...
  4. Turkish. ...
  5. Italian. ...
  6. English. ...
  7. Spanish. ...
  8. Polish.

Is French or Spanish more useful in Europe?

Originally Answered: Spanish, French or German: which language exerts more influence on Europe? French definitely exerts the most influence in Europe , than german or even Spanish (although Spanish is spoken by more people). French is one of the UN languages and crucial for example for working in Politics in Europe.

What is the third most spoken language in Europe?

Rank Language Native Speakers (Level 1) 1 Russian 106,000,000 2 German 97,000,000 3 French 66,000,000 4 Italian 65,000,000

Is English widely spoken in Europe?

English is still the most spoken language in the EU by far , with German now spoken by 36% of citizens and French spoken by 29% of the EU's new smaller population of 446 million people. Italian comes fourth at 18%, followed by 17% for Spanish.

Is French or German more widely spoken?

In the world, there are roughly 200 million native speakers of German , while there are about 270 million native speakers of French, according to Eurobarometer.

Which is harder French or Spanish?

All in all, neither language is definitively more or less difficult than the other . Spanish is arguably somewhat easier for the first year or so of learning, in large part because beginners may struggle less with pronunciation than their French-studying colleagues.

Is Spanish spoken in Europe?

In Europe, Spanish is an official language of Spain , the country after which it is named and from which it originated. It is also widely spoken in Gibraltar and Andorra. Spanish is also spoken by immigrant communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany.

Is French or German harder?

German is more difficult as compared to french as french grammar french vocabulary is quite similar to English, so that makes it easier as well. So learn the language that interests you as it would be difficult to learn easy language if you are not interested.

Which language is easiest to learn?

  1. Afrikaans. Like English, Afrikaans is in the West Germanic language family. ...
  2. French. ...
  3. Spanish. ...
  4. Dutch. ...
  5. Norwegian. ...
  6. Portuguese. ...
  7. Swedish. ...
  8. Italian.

Is Russian the most spoken language in Europe?

Five languages have more than 50 million native speakers in Europe: Russian, French, Italian, German, and English. Russian is the most spoken native language in Europe ; and English has the largest number of speakers in total, including some 200 million speakers of English as a second or foreign language.

Should I learn Spanish or French first?

Spanish is the most useful so it should be first . Then it depends if you prefer Italian or French. I prefer Italian over French. , I've studied many languages and speak a few fluently.

Is German widely spoken?

Around 130 million people worldwide speak German as their mother tongue. German is the most widely spoken mother language and an official language in four countries in the European Union: Germany, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg. German is also an official language in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Where is English most spoken in Europe?

With a proficiency of 71.45%, the Netherlands is the country with the highest proficiency in English in all of continental Europe. Whether it's the similarities between English and Dutch, or some other factor, the population of this region can speak English at near-native levels.

Does Germany speak English?

Yes, Germans do speak English! However, most expats experience a high language barrier that is created around them as a result of limited German language skills. For expats, Germany acts as a platform to boost their careers.

Which country speaks worst English?

2021 Rank Country 2021 Proficiency Band 109 Rwanda Very Low Proficiency 110 Democratic Republic of Congo Very Low Proficiency 111 South Sudan Very Low Proficiency 112 Yemen Very Low Proficiency

Are French and Spanish similar?

For Spanish and French, their lexical similarity is about 75% . In comparison, Spanish and English have a lexical similarity of only 30-50%, and French and English of only 40-50%. That's because not only are the Spanish and French languages neighbors, but from the same family of romance languages.

Which country speak most English?

India is the most populous nation with English as its official language, with over 1 billion people.

Is English or French harder to learn?

Because as this post is going to explain, French is actually one of the easiest European languages to learn. In many ways, it's even easier than learning English! And as French is a world language, spoken by over 220 million people, learning French can give you access to a huge chunk of the world.

Is English a Romance language?

Despite a dictionary packed with Latin-derived vocabulary words, the English language can't officially tout itself as a Romance language. In fact, English is considered a Germanic language , putting it in the same family as German, Dutch, and Afrikaans languages.

Can Spanish understand French?

A Spanish person would be able to read and understand a lot of the written French, but having a conversation would be very difficult.

What is the #1 spoken language in the world?

Rank Language Total Speakers 1 English 1,132 million 2 Mandarin Chinese 1,117 million 3 Hindi 615 million 4 Spanish 534 million

What's the hardest language to learn?

Mandarin

As mentioned before, Mandarin is unanimously considered the toughest language to master in the world! Spoken by over a billion people in the world, the language can be extremely difficult for people whose native languages use the Latin writing system.

Is Latin Spanish or Italian?

Latin is the origin of some European languages e.g. French, Italian, Spanish etc (the Romance languages). However, Latin is closely related to other Indo European Languages and shares many words with the majority of present-day languages.

Is German easy to learn?

German might not be as familiar to English speakers as Spanish, but it's still one of the easiest languages to learn . Like Spanish, it's also a phonetic language, which makes pronunciation easy to figure out. ... All of these things can make learning German easier in the beginning.

What is the oldest European language?

Euskera is the oldest living language in Europe. Most linguists, experts and researchers say so.

What are Level 5 languages?

  • 0 – No Proficiency. At this lowest level, there is basically no knowledge of the language. ...
  • 1 – Elementary Proficiency. ...
  • 2 – Limited Working Proficiency. ...
  • 3 – Professional Working Proficiency. ...
  • 4 – Full Professional Proficiency. ...
  • 5 – Native / Bilingual Proficiency.

What is the most complex language?

With less than a thousand speakers, Tuyuca is considered the world's most complex language. It is named after the ethnic group whose people are its native speakers. It is spoken in a few areas of Brazil and Colombia. It has up to 140 noun classes and each of them are indicated by a different suffix and prefix.

What are the top 3 languages spoken in France?

Rank Language 1 French 2 German dialects (Alsatian, Lorraine Franconian, etc.) 3 Maghrebi Arabic 4 Occitan language (Languedocian, Gascon, Provençal, etc.)

Which is the best European language to learn?

Now might be the best time for you to pick up Portuguese as the best European language to learn. In perspective, Portuguese comes in at number six in the list of the top languages spoken around the world.

Is learning German useful?

German is a useful language to know . Around 130 million people consider German their native or second language and in 2015, it was estimated that 14.5 million people were learning German worldwide. Of all EU languages, German has the most native speakers. ... A vast amount of scientific literature is printed in German.

Is Spanish useful in Canada?

In addition to its two official languages, there are more than 200 languages spoken in Canada, from Blackfoot to Tagalog. One of the fastest growing, Spanish, however, is one that is increasingly important, not only for individuals, but also for business.

Is Italian or French more useful?

As far as practical considerations go, French is spoken in many more countries than Italian. It is more useful than Italian for traveling in, say, Canada, Belgium, much of Africa, and the South Pacific. Both languages are spoken in Switzerland.

Is French more useful than Spanish?

If you live in the United States or plan to travel throughout Latin America, Spanish is probably going to be much more useful to you. However, if you're in Canada, or planning to travel or do business there, knowing French is going to be more helpful — it's an official language of the country, after all.

Which language is closest to English?

The closest language to English is one called Frisian , which is a Germanic language spoken by a small population of about 480,000 people. There are three separate dialects of the language, and it's only spoken at the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.

What is the hardest language to learn for English speakers?

  1. Mandarin Chinese. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. ...
  2. Arabic. ...
  3. Polish. ...
  4. Russian. ...
  5. Turkish. ...
  6. Danish.

What person speaks the most languages?

Ziad Fazah , born in Liberia, brought up in Beirut and now living in Brazil, claims to be the world's greatest living polyglot, speaking a total of 59 world languages. He has been ‘tested' on Spanish television, where it was not clear just how well he could communicate in some of them.

Is Greek the oldest language in Europe?

The Greek language is the oldest language in Europe , spoken since 1450 years before Christ.

Does Ireland have language?

English and Irish (Gaeilge) are the official languages in the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland is where you'll hear the soft strains of Ullans (Ulster-Scots). You'll find Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) areas predominantly along the west coast, where Irish is widely spoken.

Which country speaks most languages?

Country # of languages 1. Papua New Guinea 820 2. Indonesia 742 3. Nigeria 516 4. India 427
Juan Martinez
Author
Juan Martinez
Juan Martinez is a journalism professor and experienced writer. With a passion for communication and education, Juan has taught students from all over the world. He is an expert in language and writing, and has written for various blogs and magazines.