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2006-06-30 19:10:44 · 50 answers · asked by rachel c 1 in Society & Culture Languages

50 answers

As a native language, by a narrow margin, Mandarin Chinese.

In fact, as people actually talk to each other, the language that more people understand than any other -- English (and it's growing in power as the evolving world language).

2006-06-30 19:13:31 · answer #1 · answered by urbancoyote 7 · 1 0

i cannot believe how confidently you people are asserting yourselves. the answer is CHINESE. chinese has more than TWICE AS MANY speakers as english (and that includes people who speak english as a second language).

it's sad. this is something easily looked up. all sources will give the same answer. and yet for some reason, at least half of the people who answered this question felt the need to blurt out whatever seemed reasonable to them without first checking.

for anyone who said that english is the most commonly spoken language in the world, here's what i want you to do. i want you to look it up first and see that you're wrong, and then make a mental note to try as hard as you can to refrain from opening your mouth ever again without first doing research. i want you to realize that you are the reason why the earth is clogged with so much misinformation. and then i want you to start doubting everything else that you believe, because it should be obvious to you now that you come to conclusions using very bad methods.



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this is a response to sidge who's about 5 comments below me. (i have to do it like this since they only let us answer once.)

chinese IS the most commonly SPOKEN language. i got these stats from a link that josh posted on page 1.

all chinese languages combined have over 1.1 billion native speakers. when you include those who speak it as a second language, the number goes up to over 1.3 billion.

mandarin alone has 874 million native speakers, and just over a billion speakers total.

english has 341 million native speakers, and 508 million speakers when we include all the people who speak it as a second language.

so,,,, just the native speakers of mandarin alone outnumber the total number of ALL people who speak english by over 350 million. so chinese definitely has the most speakers, no matter how you slice it.

the actual question is "what is the most commonly spoken language", not "which language has the most speakers". but are we to assume that people who speak english talk more than people who speak chinese? no, of course not. so unless you're including all the movies in english that are constantly being replayed, and counting that as "speaking", then i really don't see what america's being a super power has to do with anything.

please respond to this, sidge. i'd like for you to tell me if i'm misunderstanding you or the question.

also,,, i just gotta ask you what you meant when you said: "However, noone really uses Mandarin apart from the Chinese, so it is NOT the most commonly used language."

do chinese people not count or something? how does the fact that the chinese language is confined to china keep it from being the most commonly spoken???

2006-06-30 20:21:36 · answer #2 · answered by tobykeogh 3 · 0 0

This web site breaks down the number of language speakers by first and second language.
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/most_spoken_languages.htm
The top 11 languages by TOTAL language speakers (first and second language)
1. Mandarin Chinese - 1,052 million (1,345 million all dialects)
2. English - 508 million
3. Hindi (India) - 487 million
4. Spanish - 417 million
5. Arabic - 280 million
6. Russian - 277 million
7. Bengali - 211 million
8. Portuguese - 191 million
9. German - 128 million
10. French - 128 million
11. Japanese - 126 million

There are more than two speakers of Mandarin Chinese for every English speaker in the WORLD (including people who learned English as a second language). To get a perspective on the numbers, the total population of the US is expected to reach 300 million people this fall.

2006-06-30 19:19:41 · answer #3 · answered by Josh 3 · 0 0

It's Chinese-Mandarin
According to Guiness World Records 2006, Chinese, with 915 million speakers in the Mandarin dialect alone, is the most commonly spoken language in the world, outnumbering English speakers by 561 million.


I have non-asian friends who speak to me in mandarin on a day to day basis. It has become quite important in the business sphere and/or studies. This means that Mandarin is most common whether it's second or first language. Look up the more popular college courses, you'll find that Chinese (Mandarin) is taken by many.

2006-06-30 19:15:42 · answer #4 · answered by pingtinggege 3 · 0 0

By country, I think Spanish, by population, either Mandarin or Cantonese. Yes, Chinese is NOT a language. They have two languages commonly spoken in China. Mandarin and Cantonese. Of course, the universal language for Air, Naval, and Space operations is English.

2006-06-30 19:15:28 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Tobykeogh, you arrogant little smartass, English IS the most commonly spoken language in the world, in that it is the most widely used. It does not have the most NATIVE SPEAKERS though. I think that would be MANDARIN. There is no such langauge as CHINESE, they speak a varied range of dialects. So perhaps you are the one who needs to think before opening that irritatingly self-righteous little gob of yours.
However, noone really uses Mandarin apart from the Chinese, so it is NOT the most commonly used language.
French is the second most commonly used language, followed by spanish, I think.

2006-06-30 22:55:39 · answer #6 · answered by Sidge 2 · 0 0

English

2006-06-30 19:28:09 · answer #7 · answered by Sabyasachi 4 · 0 0

I remember seeing somewhere that Mandarin chinese is spoken by the most people, but english, which is the second most spoken language in the world, is the official language of the most countries.

2006-06-30 19:15:45 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

As a first language, it's Mandarin. As a second language, English is widely spoken and taught in many countries from the elementary school level. English is essentially the language of international commerce, which has helped to spread its use.

2006-06-30 19:32:03 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Mandarin. Used as the common trade language in China, which has about a billion people. Also used often as a speaking language for the Chinese.

Edit: Reading Sidge's response, I realise there are indeed two parts to this question- native speakers and plain old speakers. For daily use, I think it might be English. Note the word think.

2006-07-01 13:24:13 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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