2007-07-09 05:34:36 · 30 answers · asked by $Lady L$ 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
I remember reading somewhere that its Chinese
2007-07-09 05:37:44 · answer #1 · answered by trish 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First one Mandarin Chinese (but it's not an easy question, because you can't say Chinese = 1200 Milions... Not all Chinese speak Mandarin !! There are MANY languages in China).
After Chinese, comes Spanish, which has approx 450 milion NATIVE speakers plus 50 million second language speakers.
After Spanish comes (proper) English, which is only spoken natively in UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, USA etc... (commonwealth sphere territories). It's spoken by approx 330 million native speakers.
There are some other countries where English is official also, or just used, but as a second language, so its quality is often poor (it's what some experts call, 2000 words English: Basic and usable to be understood, but far from native speakers quality).
French was probably somewhat widely spoken 200 years ago, but not today. Natively it's only spoken in France, Belgium, parts of Switzerland and Quebec (it's a marginal percentage of world population).
Anyway many african countries have it as a second or third language because of the former French colonies installed there.
2007-07-09 13:09:52 · answer #2 · answered by friguron 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The most widely spoken language is English. Chinese is used by a large population of people, but it is not the most widely spoken language. English is the most international language.
2007-07-09 14:16:42 · answer #3 · answered by pickles 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If you go by numbers then Mandarin Chinese is spoken most because of Chinese population. Otherwise English is most widely spoken all over the world.
2007-07-09 12:42:58 · answer #4 · answered by orange_slice 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The question is most widely which is English but more Chinese dialects have more people speaking them as a first language than English
2007-07-09 16:39:09 · answer #5 · answered by Scouse 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
By shear numbers, Chinese is probably the most widely spoken language in the world. However, English is commonly considered "the language of business" so it is used all over the world.
2007-07-09 12:39:07 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Numerically, Mandarin is spoken by more people than any other, but English would be the most "widespread", based on the number of countries around the world in which it is spoken. French is, I believe, fourth, after Spanish.
2007-07-09 14:10:47 · answer #7 · answered by GrahamH 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
As a first language Chinese. Then (and I'm surprised nobody mentioned this ) Spanish which is spoken by most of South America. Spain and a large population in USA.
English may come between the two of them.
2007-07-09 12:48:03 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
English
2007-07-09 12:42:00 · answer #9 · answered by Steve 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
The most WIDELY used is English. It is the language of
commerce! Not to be confused with the chinese which is just within China, although they have the largest population!
2007-07-09 12:52:18 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Mandarin Chinese
(Not Mandarin Orange)
2007-07-09 12:50:10 · answer #11 · answered by Kirlia 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋