10 languages that are most used or spoken?

Question

I know English and Spanish are two of them. I know a couple more languages but I'm not sure if they are widely used or not.
Thanks

Answer 1

Some folks simply ask how many NATIVE speakers there are By this measure, Mandarin Chinese would easily be tops.

But if you look at ALL the uses of the language, the answer will be a bit different. This would include such things as the INTERNATIONAL importance of the language as a means for communication. By this scale, it is quite clear that English currently holds the top spot (and is far above Chinese in global influence), though completing the 'top ten' after that is tricky.

The debate hinges on which sort of scale or factor(s) you look at. Here is a page on which sets out several approaches to the question ---
http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm

The final two lists on that page are the most useful.

Rank by number of countries using:
1. English (115)
2. French (35)
3. Arabic (24)
4. Spanish (20)
5. Russian (16)
6. German (9)
7. Mandarin (5)
8. Portuguese (5)
9. Hindi/Urdu (2)
10. Bengali (1)
11. Japanese (1)

And "Most influential languages" based on a composite score
weighing six factors (number of primary speakers, number of secondary speakers, number and population of countries where used, number of major fields using the language internationally, economic power of countries using the languages, and socio-literary prestige --number of points given in parentheses):
1. English (37)
2. French (23)
3. Spanish (20)
4. Russian (16)
5. Arabic (14)
6. Chinese (13)
7. German (12)
8. Japanese (10)
9. Portuguese (10)
10. Hindi/Urdu (9)

Answer 2

10. French
Number of Speakers: 129 million
9. Malay-Indonesian
Number of Speakers: 159 million
8. Portuguese
Number of speakers: 191 million
7. Bengali
Number of speakers: 211 million
6. Arabic
Number of speakers: 246 million
5. Russian
Number of speakers: 277 million
4. Spanish
Number of speakers: 392 million
3. Hindustani
Number of speakers: 497 million
2. English
Number of speakers: 508
1. Mandarin
Number of speakers: 1 billion+

Surprise, surprise, the most widely spoken language on the planet is based in the most populated country on the planet. Beating second-place English by a 2 to 1 ratio

Answer 3

Unfortunately the figures for Mandarin are rubbish. A huge proportion of the Chinese peasantry cannot speak standard Mandarin, but this fact is ignored in China's language statistics.

Answer 4

I know that the top five in the world are Mandarin, Spanish, English, Arabic and French - I don't know in which order they are used (although Mandarin is #1, definitely).

I would guess that the next five would be Hindi, German, Russian...eh, I don't know.

Answer 5

Mandarin, English, Hindi, Spanish, French, Tamil, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, German - my guesses, in the order of highest usage.

Answer 6

Sign Language (For the Deaf & Hearing Impaired) Very important today on Plasma TV's
English
French
Italian
Russian
Chinese
Japanese
Greek
Polish
Dutch
Hindui

Answer 7

my answer is yes you can use it widely , you can use it any where at any job or place where you go! people will ask you a question or if you get a job that you need to speak spanish or english

Answer 8

besides english and spanish, there are french, german, italian, russian(seriously, the country even larger than u.s.), portugal, arabic(really), swedish, and from the far east, chinese(this country have more folks than u.s.) lol

Answer 9

Mandarin spoken by 1,051,000,000 people
English spoken by 510,000,000 people
Hindi spoken by 490,000,000 people
Spanish spoken by 425,000,000 people
Arabic spoken by 255,000,000 poeple
Russian spoken by 254,000,000 people
Portuguese spoken by 218,000,000 people
Bengali spoken by 215,000,000 people
Malay, Indonisian spoken by 175,000,000 people
French spoken by 130,000,000 people

Answer 10

english
chinese
arabic
spanish
french
russian
hindi
german
italian
japanese