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what are the most spoken languages in the world?
In the estimates of speakers by language there is a very large difference if we compare speakers by native language from speakers as a second language.
Top 10 most spoken native languages:
- Chinese: spoken by more than 900 million people as a native language, it is the most spoken language in the world.
- Spanish: around 450 million people worldwide speak Spanish as their mother tongue.
- English: more than 380 million people in the world speak English as their mother tongue.
- Hindi: spoken by more than 300 million people as a native language.
- Arabic: more than 280 million people speak Arabic as their mother tongue.
- Portuguese: with more than 200 million people speaking it as a mother tongue, the contribution of Brazil, Mozambique and Angola make Portuguese the sixth most widely spoken mother tongue.
- Bengali: around 200 million people speak it as their mother tongue.
- Russian: around 170 million people speak Russian as their mother tongue.
- Japanese: around 130 million people.
- Panyabi: around 100 million people, mostly in India and Pakistan, speak Panjabi as their mother tongue.
The 5 most spoken languages as a mother tongue and as a second language:
- English: an estimated 1.120 million people in the world speak English as a first or second language. More than 60% of people who speak English speak it as a second language.
- Chinese: around 1.1 billion people.
- Hindi: around 534 million people, almost twice as many as speak Hindi as their mother tongue.
- Spanish: it is estimated that more than 500 million people speak Spanish as a first or second language, with only 13% of these estimated to speak it as a second language.
- Arabic: more than 400 million people.
Language
Native speakers Second Language Total
English 380 mill.
740 mill. 1.120 mill.
Chinese 900 mill.
200 mill. 1.100 mill.
Hindi 300 mill.
234 mill. 534 mill.
Spanish 450 mill.
70 mill. 520 mill.
Arab 280 mill.
130 mill. 410 mill.
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AltaLingua es una agencia de traducción e interpretación de referencia que brinda servicios lingüísticos integrales para empresas en España y el mundo. AltaLingua cuenta con sistemas de gestión de calidad según las normas ISO 9001:2015, ISO 18587:2020 de servicios de posedición multilingüe y UNE-EN 17100:2015 de servicios de traducción.