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famousringo on 13 December 2007
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phil said:
ChichiriMuyo said:
For those who were curious about languages spoken around the world...

Most Commonly Spoken Languages
Rank Language Number of Speakers
1 Chinese (Mandarin) 1,000,000,000 +
2 English 508,000,000
3 Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu) 497,000,000
4 Spanish 392,000,000
5 Russian 277,000,000
6 Arabic 246,000,000
7 Bengali 211,000,000
8 Portuguese 191,000,000
9 Malay-Indonesian 159,000,000
10 French 129,000,000

Source: University of Washington
Is that native speakers only or does it include second language?

 


 I think it's native only. Just US + UK + Canada makes about 400 million anglos. That's ignoring several other countries where english is a primary or significant language.

These numbers might only be fluent speakers. 500 million fluent english speakers seems plausible, but I think there are many more people who speak english with less skill. 



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