The Hardest Languages to Learn

Who doesn’t love a challenge? Whether it’s climbing the highest mountain, solving the thorniest problem, or studying the hardest languages to learn – people enjoy pushing our limits. If you’re a budding polyglot looking for a truly formidable language to tackle, you’re in the right place.

Let’s explore the five hardest languages to learn for English speakers, and see just what makes them so difficult. Are you up to the challenge?

Factors That Make a Language Difficult to Learn

Are there really any easy or hard languages? Every day, very young children the world over learn languages that adults consider the hardest languages to learn. Some languages certainly have far more complex verb conjugations, grammar, and writing systems than others – but it isn’t a language’s rules that make it hard to learn. It’s how those rules differ from the language rules you have already mastered that makes some languages difficult to learn.

So, we have listed the hardest languages to learn for English speakers, specifically. Some of the features that land a language on our list include:

Unfamiliar writing system – Some languages don’t use the Latin alphabet or have no alphabet at all. Some write from right to left or even top to bottom.
Significant grammatical differences – Noun cases, complex verb conjugations, or grammatical structures that don’t exist in English.
Unfamiliar sentence structure – Word order that feels unnatural to English speakers, like Subject-Object-Verb structure, such as saying, “The cat milk drinks” in Korean instead of “The cat drinks milk.”
Complicated pronunciation – Unfamiliar sounds, tone-based meanings, or tricky rules.

Just as the easiest languages for English speakers to learn are those most similar to English, the most difficult languages are the most different. Now, let’s see how these differences combine in the hardest languages to learn.

The Most Challenging Languages to Learn for English Speakers

Based on grammatical complexities and insights shared by the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State, we have listed the five hardest languages to learn for English speakers. Read on to discover your next challenge!

Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese tops our list of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn. With well over a billion speakers, it is also the most spoken language in the world!

So, let’s see what makes Mandarin Chinese such a difficult language to learn:

Writing system – Mandarin uses thousands of characters (Hanzi) representing words or concepts rather than an alphabet.
Tonal language – Mandarin has four tones that completely change word meanings. Mispronounce mā, má, mǎ, or mà, and you might call your mother a horse!
Grammar differences – Mandarin has no verb conjugations, tenses, plurals, or articles, but its unique word order feels unusual. For instance: 我在面包店吃面包 translates as “I at bakery eat bread.”

Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)

Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) serves as a unified language bridging many dialects and is one of the hardest languages to learn:

Wiring system – Arabic is written right to left, letters change shape based on their position within a word, and most vowels are omitted. Wtht vwls, rdng nd wrtng cn b tgh!
Multiple dialects – MSA is used in formal writing and media, but everyday conversations occur only in regional dialects that vary dramatically.
Root-based vocabulary – MSA words are based on three-letter roots that change meanings and forms. For example, the root k-t-b relates to writing, leading to the words kitāb (book), kutub (books), kātib (writer), and maktab (office).

Japanese

Richly beautiful and deeply complex, Japanese is widely considered one of the hardest languages in the world:

Writing system – Japanese has three writing systems, each with different characters. Kanji alone has thousands of characters.
Complex grammar – Japanese uses postpositions instead of prepositions, omits pronouns based on context, and has no future tense.
Politeness levels – Verbs and vocabulary can change depending on whether you’re speaking formally or informally.
Word order – Unlike English, the Japanese word order is Subject-Object-Verb, and that confusing is – それは紛らわしいです。

Korean

Although Korean is a hard language to learn for English speakers, it attracts many enthusiastic learners due to the incredible popularity of Korean pop culture. Its challenges include:

Honorifics and formalities – Korean has intricate speech levels that change based on the social relationships between speakers.
Pronunciation – There are 10 vowels(!) and just 14 consonants. Yet double consonants (ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ) sound subtly differently and can completely change a word’s meaning.
Word Order – Like Japanese, Korean uses a Subject-Object-Verb word order that can feel unnatural to English speakers.

Hungarian

Rounding out our list of the hardest languages to learn, Hungarian is a complex and beautifully expressive language entirely unrelated to English.

Complex grammar – Hungarian is agglutinative, meaning the words are built from prefixes and suffixes that change meaning.
No prepositions – In English, we would say with a friend or from the store. In Hungarian, instead of adding a preposition, word endings change to demonstrate these meanings — and there are 18 different endings to learn!
Vowel harmony – Hungarian words change based on their vowel sounds, and endings must match the word’s existing vowels. For example, the suffix meaning “with” has different forms: házzal (with a house) and emberrel (with a person), depending upon the vowels in the root word.

Overcoming Challenges in Learning Difficult Languages

Tackling the hardest languages to learn is challenging but not an impossible task. The Pimsleur Method™ is designed to help you learn new languages the same way you learned your native tongue – by listening and speaking first. It encourages the best ways to learn a language, including immersing yourself in it through radio, TV, movies, and conversations. Rather than studying complicated grammar rules, you’ll pick up structure and vocabulary through conversation-based learning.
No matter how hard your chosen language may be, if you’re excited about it – it’s the best one for you to learn. Ready for a challenge? Pimsleur makes it easier than you think!