LANGUAGE

Technical

Hardest Languages to Learn

This list features the languages that are considered the hardest languages to learn.

RANK	LANGUAGE	LANGUAGE FAMILY	TIME NEEDED TO LEARN	DESCRIPTION
1	Mandarin	Sino-Tibetan	88 weeks (2,200 hours)	Tonal language with thousands of characters; writing and pronunciation are challenging.
2	Cantonese	Sino-Tibetan	88 weeks (2,200 hours)	Even more tonal than Mandarin; significant dialect variation; complex characters.
3	Arabic	Semitic	88 weeks (2,200 hours)	Complex script, multiple dialects, guttural sounds, and rich grammar.
4	Japanese	Japonic	88 weeks (2,200 hours)	Uses three writing systems (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji) and complex grammar.
5	Korean	Koreanic	88 weeks (2,200 hours)	Unique writing system (Hangul) is logical, but grammar and honorifics are complex.
6	Finnish	Uralic	44 weeks (1,100 hours)	Extremely complex grammar with 15 grammatical cases; vocabulary unrelated to English.
7	Hungarian	Uralic	44 weeks (1,100 hours)	Agglutinative grammar with many cases; vocabulary very different from English.
8	Icelandic	Germanic	44 weeks (1,100 hours)	Preserves old Norse grammar; complex inflection and archaic vocabulary.
9	Georgian	Kartvelian	44 weeks (1,100 hours)	Unique script, complex phonology, agglutinative grammar.
10	Polish	Slavic	44 weeks (1,100 hours)	Complex grammar with seven cases, consonant clusters, and difficult pronunciation.
11	Russian	Slavic	44 weeks (1,100 hours)	Cyrillic alphabet, complex case system, verb aspects, and pronunciation challenges.
12	Hindi	Indo-Aryan	44 weeks (1,100 hours)	Uses Devanagari script; complex verb conjugation and noun gender.
13	Bengali	Indo-Aryan	44 weeks (1,100 hours)	Uses Bengali script; complex verb forms and pronunciation challenges.
14	Turkish	Turkic	44 weeks (1,100 hours)	Agglutinative grammar, vowel harmony, and sentence structure unfamiliar to English speakers.
15	Mongolian	Mongolic	44 weeks (1,100 hours)	Cyrillic (in Mongolia) or traditional script; agglutinative grammar and complex phonology.

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References

Rosetta Stone, 2023. The complete list of language difficulty rankings. [online] Available at: https://blog.rosettastone.com/the-complete-list-of-language-difficulty-rankings/ [Accessed 1 December 2025]. GeeksforGeeks, 2023. Hardest languages in the world. [online] Available at: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/hardest-languages-in-the-world/ [Accessed 1 December 2025]. LeapScholar, 2023. Most difficult and hardest languages in the world. [online] Available at: https://leapscholar.com/blog/most-difficult-and-hardest-language-in-the-world/ [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Unbabel, 2023. Unbabel translates the 10 hardest languages to learn so you don’t have to. [online] Available at: https://unbabel.com/unbabel-translates-the-10-hardest-languages-to-learn-so-you-dont-have-to/ [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Berlitz, 2023. Hardest languages to learn for English speakers. [online] Available at: https://www.berlitz.com/blog/hardest-languages-to-learn-english-speakers [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Kochiva, 2023. Most difficult languages in the world. [online] Available at: https://kochiva.com/blog/most-difficult-languages-in-the-world/ [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Shiksha, 2023. Hardest language in the world. [online] Available at: https://www.shiksha.com/studyabroad/hardest-language-in-the-world-articlepage-149383 [Accessed 1 December 2025]. FarandWide, 2023. Hardest languages to learn. [online] Available at: https://www.farandwide.com/s/hardest-languages-learn-c25c2cdffbd247e0 [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Foreign Service Institute (FSI), n.d. Foreign language training: Language difficulty ranking. [online] Available at: https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/ [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Eberhard, D.M., Simons, G.F. and Fennig, C.D., eds., 2022. Ethnologue: Languages of the World (25th ed.). SIL International. [online] Available at: https://www.ethnologue.com [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Omniglot, n.d. Writing systems and languages of the world. [online] Available at: https://www.omniglot.com [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Wikipedia contributors, 2024. Mandarin Chinese. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Wikipedia contributors, 2024. Arabic language. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Wikipedia contributors, 2024. Japanese language. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_language [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Wikipedia contributors, 2024. Cantonese. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Wikipedia contributors, 2024. Hungarian language. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_language [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Wikipedia contributors, 2024. Finnish language. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_language [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Wikipedia contributors, 2024. Navajo language. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_language [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Wikipedia contributors, 2024. Taa language. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taa_language [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Wikipedia contributors, 2024. Vietnamese language. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_language [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Wikipedia contributors, 2024. Icelandic language. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_language [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Wikipedia contributors, 2024. Greek language. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language [Accessed 1 December 2025]. Wikipedia contributors, 2024. Basque language. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_language [Accessed 1 December 2025].

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Hardest Languages to Learn

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