Top 20 Languages with the Hardest Grammar for English Speakers

Published on February 23, 2024 at 12:36 pm by Talha Qureshi in Business, Economy, Lists, News

In this article, we will look at the top 20 languages with the hardest grammar for English speakers. If you want to skip our detailed analysis, you can directly go to the Top 5 Languages with the Hardest Grammar for English Speakers.

Chinese as a Language

Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese are among the toughest languages for English speakers to learn, particularly due to their complex grammar, writing, and pronunciation systems. Moreover, Mandarin Chinese is also one of the most spoken native languages in the world. According to data from Ethnologue, it is spoken by over 1 billion speakers around the globe. Mandarin is also one of the most commonly spoken and official dialects of Chinese, spoken by approximately 80% of the Chinese population. According to the European Business Review, the influence of the Chinese language is growing steadily across the globe. In addition, Chinese language education is part of the national education system of over 70 countries, particularly in Southeast Asia and Africa. The growing influence of the Chinese language is attributed to China’s economic power and the staggering number of Chinese speakers around the globe. You can look at the 17 Hardest Languages to Learn in the World for Non-English Speakers to read more about the hardest languages.

Economic Outlook of China

China is one of the largest economies in the world. According to a report by the World Trade Organization, China ranked 32nd on the list of the largest exporters 40 years ago and has shown significant growth since then. The Chinese economy has grown at the rate of 9.1% annually over the past four decades. As of 2024, China’s GDP stands at $18.56 trillion. Furthermore, based on purchasing power parity, China boasts one of the world’s largest shares of global GDP, at 19.05%.

Regarding GDP growth, the Chinese economy experienced slower-than-usual GDP growth of 3.2% in 2022. The slower growth is attributed to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, a decline in the housing market, and sporadic outbreaks of COVID-19. According to a report by the Bank of China, the GDP growth rates for 2023 were projected to be 3.6%, 5.3%, and 6.6%, based on pessimistic, baseline, and optimistic expectations. Moreover, 2023 was also marked as the first year of implementation of the strategic plan presented by the 20th CPC National Congress. Although the investment growth rates were expected to remain low for 2023, the fallout from COVID-19, recovering consumption rates, and pro-growth policies helped stabilize the economy. To read about Chinese stocks, you can also look at the 11 Most Promising Chinese Stocks According to Analysts and the 13 Best Chinese Stocks To Buy Right Now.

Business in China

Some of the top companies driving the Chinese economy include Tencent Holdings Limited (HKG:0700), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), and BYD (SHE:002594).

Tencent Holding Limited (HKG:0700) is a leading internet provider in China. The company also operates in the mobile, telecommunications, and online advertisement markets. Tencent Holding Limited (HKG:0700) has 17 functional subsidiaries, including but not limited to WeChat, Tencent Music Entertainment, and Tencent Gaming Buddy. On November 16, 2023, Tencent Holding Limited (HKG:0700) reported its global partnership with Visa Inc (NYSE:V) to facilitate remittances to digital wallets via Visa Direct. Digital wallet users are expected to exceed 5 billion by 2026, making it one of the fastest-growing financial instruments.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA), is a leading Chinese technology and e-commerce company. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA), through its subsidiaries, operates in seven market segments, including international commerce, China commerce, local consumer services, cloud services, and digital media and entertainment. Wall Street is positive on Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA). On February 8, JP Morgan analyst Alex Yao maintained an overweight rating on Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) and revised his price target to $105 from $110. Over the past 3 months, 15 Wall Street analysts have given a buy rating on Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA). Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) has an average price target of $101.49 and a high forecast of $137.10.

BYD (SHE:002594) is a leading Chinese conglomerate. BYD (SHE:002594) has established over 30 industrial parks globally and is a key player in the automotive and semiconductor industries. The company owns various subsidiaries, including but not limited to BYD Semiconductors, BYD Auto, and BYD Electronics. On December 29, 2023, BYD (SHE:002594) announced the successful acquisition of Jabil Inc (NYSE:JBL) through its subsidiary, BYD Electronics, for RMB14.92 billion. Jabil Inc (NYSE:JBL) is one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturing companies.

Learning the Chinese language can be helpful to tap into the economy of China. While Chinese is one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn, there are several others. With this context, let’s look at the top 20 languages with the hardest grammar for English speakers.

A close up macro image of someone using a mobile device to learn a new language.

Our Methodology

To compile the list of the top 20 languages with the hardest grammar for English speakers, we used the Foreign Services Institute data on Foreign Language Training. Foreign Services Institute categorizes languages into 4 broad categories based on the number of class hours required to learn a language. For this article, we used Category 3 and Category 4, which require 1,100 and 2,200 class hours for English speakers to learn.

The Foreign Services Institute does not give individual rankings for the languages. Therefore, we employed a consensus methodology to rank our languages. We shifted through the rankings of Berlitz, Busuu, Southwest Journal, Mango Languages, Far and Wide, and Solo Lingual to get a list of 40 languages with the hardest grammar for English speakers. We selected only those languages that belonged to Category 3 and Category 4 of the Foreign Services Institute data and appeared in at least 3 of our sources. Next, we ranked these languages based on their average rank among our sources. We used the number of mentions as a tie-breaker for instances where two or more languages had the same rank.

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