The most common languages in the world vary depending on how they are measured. Mandarin Chinese has the most native speakers, but English has the most secondary speakers and is widely used in business and diplomacy. English is also the official language in over 50 countries. Portuguese is often in the top 10 most spoken languages, but it may have less influence than languages associated with socioeconomic power, such as Japanese and German.
The answer to the question of which languages are the most common is actually a bit complex. Thousands of languages are spoken around the world and a number of rubrics could be used to determine which are the most common. As a result, the estimates of the most common languages can sometimes vary considerably. As a general rule, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, English, Bengali and Arabic tend to occupy the top five spaces of the list, in varying order, but Hindi, Urdu, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, German and French also rank very high.
One way to look at the most common languages is to determine the number of native speakers. Mandarin Chinese wins this contest hands down, with over a billion native speakers as of 2005. Behind it, Hindi, Spanish and English have around 330 million native speakers each, and Bengali, Arabic and Russian have around 170 million native speakers.
However, just looking at the number of native speakers doesn’t give a complete picture. Many languages have a relatively small number of native speakers, but huge numbers of secondary speakers. English is a classic example, with people from all over the world learning English to do business, engage in diplomatic communications, and communicate with people from all over the world. While the top five languages remain fairly consistent once the number of secondary speakers is factored in, English usually jumps into second place, with nearly half a billion native speakers.
Another way to look at the most common languages around the world is where the languages are spoken. Some have large numbers of speakers, but are spoken in only a handful of countries. Others are spoken in numerous countries, and not just in numerous countries, but in nations all over the world, rather than in a group of nations limited to a small geographic region. English, for example, is the official language in over 50 countries around the world. English is also commonly the official language used by international organizations and international companies such as banks.
Some people also consider socioeconomic power when evaluating language use around the world. Portuguese, for example, is often in the top 10 most spoken languages, but the nations where this language is used are not widely associated with socioeconomic power, meaning the language may have less influence than languages such as Japanese and Portuguese. German, who are often ranked below Portuguese in terms of the number of speakers.
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