Top 10 Hardest Languages to Learn

1. Arabic

   

   The thing no one realizes about Arabic that makes it harder than any other language is that everything feels backwards. Just look at an Arabic book. They read in the opposite direction from almost every other language. They also speak in a different sentence structure.

   If I were to say, "The green ball hit the wall when I saw it," in Arabic it might come out more like, "I saw the wall when the green ball hit it." That might not be exact, but the word order often feels reversed.

   On top of that, it has a new alphabet, different grammar, and many other unique rules.

   I'm fully Arabic, and I have no family that doesn't speak Arabic. I really find it difficult. I'm labeled as an English first-language student, and everyone (my family) expects me to be the greatest in Arabic.

   In fact, I can speak in my accent (informal Arabic), but I will never be able to speak formal Arabic with anyone in any situation. I strongly agree with your opinion about the letters and their pronunciation. As someone who was taught Arabic and is surrounded by people who speak Arabic since I was a young child, I still don't know how to pronounce some of them.

2. Mandarin

   

   I've spent countless years and thousands of hours completely dedicated to learning Mandarin Chinese. The people who don't think it's very hard are English speakers who have never attempted to learn a new language.

   With all my countless hours of practice, I literally can't even understand natives. If you think Chinese can't be that bad, take ten entire years out of your life to learn it, and you'll see it's much harder than you think. Although the tones and grammar are logical and easy, the writing system is so tedious to learn (even with simplified characters) that it takes years to learn even a basic sentence, let alone write one.

   It takes forever to write a single character, and many characters have different things in common but can have completely different pronunciations. Plus, the speaking can be very difficult because sometimes the meaning of the sentence depends on tones, and there aren't many sounds that can be made in Chinese. So many words sound nearly identical, which makes not only learning the writing system extremely challenging but also the speaking system.

   Learning one is hard enough, but learning both at the same time will take years out of your life. If you want to learn Chinese, go ahead. But be warned, unless you are immersed in the language, it will take you years to master.

3. Japanese

   

   Currently learning Japanese. Pronouncing the words themselves isn't that hard, but the writing is a killer. Hiragana isn't too bad. There are 46 basic symbols, and depending on the words you're writing, you sometimes add little symbols at the top or write a normal symbol but smaller next to a bigger symbol to change the pronunciation slightly.

   But once you try to learn Katakana, it gets so much harder. It's similar to Hiragana, except many Katakana symbols look exactly like Hiragana symbols but are pronounced completely differently. Plus, you don't even know when to use Hiragana and when to use Katakana. And don't even get me started on kanji...

4. Finnish

   

   I really want to learn Finnish. My family tells me there is no use because almost no one speaks Finnish, and the ones that do speak English as well. Finnish is very hard, however. I can sing a couple of songs in Finnish, but only because I've listened to them so many times.

   The songs are called Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan (Death Makes an Artist), Taikatalvi (Enchanted Winter), and Erämaan Viimeinen (The Last of the Wilds). All come from the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish.

   Finland is totally beautiful and has a much better climate than more southern regions. It is really cold but hot in the summer. I wish to move to Helsinki. Though the language, Finnish, that they speak there is incredibly hard and very advanced.

5. Hungarian

   

   Hungarians are considered the worst in foreign languages within the EU. This is primarily due to the fact that learning foreign languages for Hungarians is as challenging as it is for foreigners to learn Hungarian.

   Please note that while Hungarian is widely regarded as one of the most difficult official languages in Europe, it is not the most difficult when compared to numerous isolated languages.

   As an English speaker, this language defies everything that makes sense to me. There are so many noun cases, and it's difficult to learn to pronounce. Sentence structures seem to have a mind of their own, at least as far as I can tell as a beginner.

6. Polish

   

   I am from Austria, but I can speak Polish because my parents are from Poland. When I compare Polish and German, I have to say that Polish is really more difficult. However, I love the moment when my friends try to read a Polish sentence. It sounds so funny.

   Also, it sounds so beautiful when you know how to pronounce everything. And when you can speak Polish, you understand more languages than when you speak German. In the end, I can just say that German is easy and cool, Polish is a little bit difficult but beautiful and very useful!

   Polish is really easy to speak once you've gotten the hang of it.

   But when I was a first-time Polish speaker, I couldn't understand the writing. Everything looked like random letters, since English speakers usually have vowels between certain letters that the Polish language doesn't.

7. Russian

   

   Russian is one of the hardest languages in the world. Its irregular, unmarked stress and how the pronunciation changes depending on stress make it the hardest Slavic language.

   There are literally hundreds of different forms a word can take. Adjectives, nouns, pronouns, gender, and more must change and conform to the six or seven cases. No other language can claim this, not even agglutinative languages like Finnish and Hungarian, where most noun cases are simply prepositions turned into postpositions, making no changes to agree with other words.

   It is simply one of the few languages with the most word forms, thereby increasing the room for error. Not many other languages can claim this.

8. German

   

   I'm learning German right now. It may not be as hard as other languages because it's very straightforward, but it can be difficult. It's probably harder for me than for other people because I know a lot of Spanish, and Spanish is really simple compared to German.

   I agree! I am from Germany, and even many people whose native language is German have problems with it.

   Masculine, feminine, and neutral switching all over again, and huge words impossible to pronounce.

9. English

   

   Even though English is my native language, I'm looking at it from more of an objective standpoint, considering its general complexity. The thing about English is that it's one of the simplest to get into and understand the basics, but the more you learn, the harder it gets.

   With most languages, once you get the ball rolling and understand the concepts, they get easier. With English, it's the opposite. The more you learn, the more you realize how many exceptions there are to literally everything and how complex the language can really get.

   The only thing I can complain about in this language is the pronunciation of words. Seriously, English words make no sense when pronouncing them.

   I hope I'm not the only one irritated by something like this.

10. Latin

    

    This is the language from which the Romance languages came. It is hard because there are accusative, genitive, ablative, and dative forms. The plurals are really complex since it has 5 declensions.

    The lack of resources makes the language hard, although it depends on your determination.

The Newcomers
11. ?

    Amharic

    

    Amharic is kind of similar to Arabic, but it's still baffling to learn.

12. ?

    Burmese

    

    Its verbs are long and hard to memorize, and the education system here doesn't focus on understanding.

The Contenders

13. Icelandic

    

    Not many really speak it, but it's a little complex for the average Germanic language as this language is really old.

    The language sounds really ancient, especially when...

    I find Icelandic a very interesting language, as it rejects loanwords from other languages. People who speak it can understand Old Norse and Old Icelandic.

    That being said, the archaic grammar makes this 50 times more difficult.

14. Greek

    

    It is very difficult, and people who think they can speak it just think so...

    Who learns this language? People just study the mythology. I only know how to say, I love you.

15. Korean

    

    How are French and German harder than Korean? I tried learning it once, and the pronunciations and letters are too difficult.

    I'm trying to learn Korean, but the person saying it on Google speaks the words too fast, so I can't really learn it. There are a lot of words that become confusing for me.

    I'm half Korean. I think Korean grammar is too complex and it has too many irregular forms.

16. Vietnamese

    

    The tones are what's hard because, unlike Chinese, where they have tone character symbols alone and a total of five tone characters, Vietnamese has six. What is even weirder is that it has a tone mark on top of another accent, which is very confusing and difficult to pronounce with that letter.

    Vietnamese is hard. This should be number 2 because there are a lot of accents. They even have two different accents on one letter, and it is very tricky to pronounce it. Even spelling it in the Vietnamese language is hard. Too hard.

17. Thai

    

    The script is super hard. There are so many consonant and vowel repeats, and you have to remember how to use each. The pronunciation of the tones and the vowel length is just very hard as it requires a unique pitch.

    The grammar may be simple, but it is extremely irregular. The sentence structure changes a lot in each topic. I'm Thai, and I think this is a very hard language. It is near impossible to master unless Thai is your first language.

    I have really experienced the Thai language. It has a hard script and romanization.

18. Latvian

    

    As a native speaker, Latvian is one of the most ridiculous languages ever with its massive list of grammar rules and sometimes just nonsensical reasoning behind why things are like this or that. Oh, and don't forget the few words that have drastically different meanings, or some kid is gonna make fun of you across the street. But otherwise, it's quite a pretty language.

    It's like Lithuanian if it were more simple, and it's still difficult.

19. Hindi

    

    My native language is Persian. I really love Hindi, especially because of the cultural interaction with Iran and between our nations, but it's a really hard language.

    You might get used to the writing system, but Hindi has a lot of grammar, harsh pronunciation, and three genders. Although I already knew many words because they originated from English, Persian, or Arabic, learning this language has become really frustrating. I just don't recommend learning Hindi.

    It's interesting to know that many Indians don't speak Hindi either because it's hard to learn. I have five Indian friends, and none of them speak Hindi. Hindi isn't the only official language of India.

20. Hebrew

    

21. Basque

    

    Basque is the only European language not related to another language. It's hard.

22. French

    

    I am Canadian with Japanese origins. I really enjoyed learning French. Yes, it's a difficult language to start learning, but once you speak a bit, you always progress. I don't really know if I have any accent, but when I've been in Paris, everyone was kind to me. French people adore when you speak their language, and they do love accents. Now in Montreal, I fell in love with such a pretty and charming French girl.

    I know French is definitely not the hardest, but its spelling and pronunciation are very demanding. I just want to say that it is the hardest Romance language. The majority of the words you say have loads of silent letters and such. However, French doesn't compare to Arabic!

23. Cantonese

    

    There is literally no way it can be down at 54 at the time of writing. This language is kind of like Chinese except they added an additional 5 tones, more characters, and what's written doesn't even match what's said sometimes.

    Cantonese is even more difficult than Mandarin Chinese since it has 9 tones instead of 4. In Cantonese, the written word may not match what is said.

    I'm Chinese, and I don't know how to read and write it in traditional yet! I'm never gonna learn it.

24. Turkish

    

    I'm also a native speaker who lives in Turkey. However, sometimes my mind can be confused because of the Turkish words! I've learned how to speak English one year ago, and it was really easier.

    Why do they bother with the Latin alphabet? It would have been better if it switched to Arabic script instead.

25. Danish

    

    It's next to impossible to guess the pronunciation of words just from the spelling. Tons of different vowel sounds that sound the same to the untrained ear. Very few non-native speakers can use the soft 'd' correctly, even after decades of daily practice.

    Super easy grammar, but dictionaries are useless unless they have pronunciations. One of the hardest to pronounce languages ever. This language should be way higher up on the list.

26. Romanian

    

27. Czech

    

    This should be higher up on the list. Czech is definitely one of the hardest languages out there. There are so many ways to say one thing.

    One of the hardest languages in the world.