The Hardest (and Easiest) Languages to Learn, Ranked by FSI Hours
All 75 languages the US State Department’s FSI teaches, ranked hardest to easiest by its official class-hour estimates — used verbatim, no scores of our own. Click any column header to re-sort by category, hours, writing system or family; click a language for its full page.
Browse by tier: Category I · Category II · Category III · Category IV · or calculate your own study hours →
| # | Language | FSI category | Class hours | Writing system | Language family |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arabic | Category IV | ~2200 | Arabic | Afroasiatic (Semitic) |
| 2 | Cantonese | Category IV | ~2200 | Chinese (Traditional) | Sino-Tibetan (Sinitic) |
| 3 | Japanese | Category IV † | ~2200 | Kanji + Kana | Japonic |
| 4 | Korean | Category IV | ~2200 | Hangul | Koreanic |
| 5 | Mandarin Chinese | Category IV | ~2200 | Chinese (Simplified/Traditional) | Sino-Tibetan (Sinitic) |
| 6 | Albanian | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Indo-European (Albanian) |
| 7 | Amharic | Category III | ~1100 | Ge'ez (Fidel) | Afroasiatic (Semitic) |
| 8 | Armenian | Category III | ~1100 | Armenian | Indo-European (Armenian) |
| 9 | Azerbaijani | Category III | ~1100 | Latin / Perso-Arabic | Turkic (Oghuz) |
| 10 | Bengali | Category III | ~1100 | Bengali-Assamese | Indo-European (Indo-Aryan) |
| 11 | Bosnian | Category III | ~1100 | Latin / Cyrillic | Indo-European (Slavic) |
| 12 | Bulgarian | Category III | ~1100 | Cyrillic | Indo-European (Slavic) |
| 13 | Burmese | Category III | ~1100 | Burmese (Brahmic) | Sino-Tibetan |
| 14 | Croatian | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Indo-European (Slavic) |
| 15 | Czech | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Indo-European (Slavic) |
| 16 | Estonian | Category III † | ~1100 | Latin | Uralic (Finnic) |
| 17 | Finnish | Category III † | ~1100 | Latin | Uralic (Finnic) |
| 18 | Georgian | Category III † | ~1100 | Georgian (Mkhedruli) | Kartvelian |
| 19 | Greek | Category III | ~1100 | Greek | Indo-European (Hellenic) |
| 20 | Gujarati | Category III | ~1100 | Gujarati (Brahmic) | Indo-European (Indo-Aryan) |
| 21 | Hebrew | Category III | ~1100 | Hebrew | Afroasiatic (Semitic) |
| 22 | Hindi | Category III | ~1100 | Devanagari | Indo-European (Indo-Aryan) |
| 23 | Hungarian | Category III † | ~1100 | Latin | Uralic (Ugric) |
| 24 | Icelandic | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Indo-European (Germanic) |
| 25 | Kannada | Category III | ~1100 | Kannada (Brahmic) | Dravidian |
| 26 | Kazakh | Category III | ~1100 | Cyrillic / Latin | Turkic (Kipchak) |
| 27 | Khmer | Category III | ~1100 | Khmer (Brahmic) | Austroasiatic (Khmer) |
| 28 | Kurdish | Category III | ~1100 | Latin / Perso-Arabic | Indo-European (Iranian) |
| 29 | Kyrgyz | Category III | ~1100 | Cyrillic | Turkic (Kipchak) |
| 30 | Lao | Category III | ~1100 | Lao (Brahmic) | Kra-Dai (Tai) |
| 31 | Latvian | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Indo-European (Baltic) |
| 32 | Lithuanian | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Indo-European (Baltic) |
| 33 | Macedonian | Category III | ~1100 | Cyrillic | Indo-European (Slavic) |
| 34 | Marathi | Category III | ~1100 | Devanagari | Indo-European (Indo-Aryan) |
| 35 | Mongolian | Category III † | ~1100 | Cyrillic / Mongolian | Mongolic |
| 36 | Nepali | Category III | ~1100 | Devanagari | Indo-European (Indo-Aryan) |
| 37 | Pashto | Category III | ~1100 | Perso-Arabic | Indo-European (Iranian) |
| 38 | Persian | Category III | ~1100 | Perso-Arabic | Indo-European (Iranian) |
| 39 | Polish | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Indo-European (Slavic) |
| 40 | Punjabi | Category III | ~1100 | Gurmukhi / Shahmukhi | Indo-European (Indo-Aryan) |
| 41 | Russian | Category III | ~1100 | Cyrillic | Indo-European (Slavic) |
| 42 | Serbian | Category III | ~1100 | Cyrillic / Latin | Indo-European (Slavic) |
| 43 | Sinhala | Category III | ~1100 | Sinhala (Brahmic) | Indo-European (Indo-Aryan) |
| 44 | Slovak | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Indo-European (Slavic) |
| 45 | Slovenian | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Indo-European (Slavic) |
| 46 | Somali | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Afroasiatic (Cushitic) |
| 47 | Tagalog | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) |
| 48 | Tamil | Category III | ~1100 | Tamil (Brahmic) | Dravidian |
| 49 | Telugu | Category III | ~1100 | Telugu (Brahmic) | Dravidian |
| 50 | Thai | Category III † | ~1100 | Thai (Brahmic) | Kra-Dai (Tai) |
| 51 | Turkish | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Turkic (Oghuz) |
| 52 | Turkmen | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Turkic (Oghuz) |
| 53 | Ukrainian | Category III | ~1100 | Cyrillic | Indo-European (Slavic) |
| 54 | Urdu | Category III | ~1100 | Perso-Arabic (Nastaliq) | Indo-European (Indo-Aryan) |
| 55 | Uzbek | Category III | ~1100 | Latin / Cyrillic | Turkic (Karluk) |
| 56 | Vietnamese | Category III † | ~1100 | Latin (Chu Quoc Ngu) | Austroasiatic (Vietic) |
| 57 | Xhosa | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Niger-Congo (Bantu) |
| 58 | Zulu | Category III | ~1100 | Latin | Niger-Congo (Bantu) |
| 59 | German | Category II | ~900 | Latin | Indo-European (Germanic) |
| 60 | Haitian Creole | Category II | ~900 | Latin | French Creole |
| 61 | Indonesian | Category II | ~900 | Latin | Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) |
| 62 | Malay | Category II | ~900 | Latin | Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) |
| 63 | Swahili | Category II | ~900 | Latin | Niger-Congo (Bantu) |
| 64 | Afrikaans | Category I | ~600-750 | Latin | Indo-European (Germanic) |
| 65 | Catalan | Category I | ~600-750 | Latin | Indo-European (Romance) |
| 66 | Danish | Category I | ~600-750 | Latin | Indo-European (Germanic) |
| 67 | Dutch | Category I | ~600-750 | Latin | Indo-European (Germanic) |
| 68 | French | Category I † | ~600-750 | Latin | Indo-European (Romance) |
| 69 | Galician | Category I | ~600-750 | Latin | Indo-European (Romance) |
| 70 | Italian | Category I | ~600-750 | Latin | Indo-European (Romance) |
| 71 | Norwegian | Category I | ~600-750 | Latin | Indo-European (Germanic) |
| 72 | Portuguese | Category I | ~600-750 | Latin | Indo-European (Romance) |
| 73 | Romanian | Category I | ~600-750 | Latin | Indo-European (Romance) |
| 74 | Spanish | Category I † | ~600-750 | Latin | Indo-European (Romance) |
| 75 | Swedish | Category I | ~600-750 | Latin | Indo-European (Germanic) |
† FSI flags this language as usually harder than the others in its category. Rank order: FSI category (hardest first), then A–Z — FSI publishes tiers, not a per-language ordering.
The hardest: FSI Category IV (~2200 hours)
Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese — the 5 languages FSI budgets the most time for, at about 2200 class hours (~88 weeks full-time). Under FSI’s older five-tier scale this group was rated Category V — the “super-hard” languages. This Category IV (“super-hard”) figure of roughly 2,200 class hours assumes about half of that time is spent studying in-country, in an immersive environment — without immersion, plan for longer.
The easiest: FSI Category I (~600-750 hours)
Afrikaans, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, French, Galician, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish — 12 languages at about 600-750 class hours (~24-30 weeks full-time). Within the tier, FSI flags French, Spanish as usually somewhat harder than the rest. A Indo-European (Germanic) language written in the Latin alphabet, Afrikaans is a good example of what puts a language in this tier — see is Afrikaans hard to learn?
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Common questions
What is the hardest language to learn for English speakers?
By the US State Department FSI's estimate, the 5 Category IV languages — Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese — at about 2200 class hours to professional working proficiency. That figure also assumes roughly half the time is spent studying in-country.
What is the easiest language to learn for English speakers?
FSI's Category I is the lowest-hours tier: 12 languages (including Afrikaans, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, French) at about 600-750 class hours — though FSI flags French, Spanish as usually somewhat harder within the tier.
Where do these difficulty rankings come from?
Every figure is the US State Department Foreign Service Institute's published estimate of class hours a native English speaker needs, used verbatim across all 75 languages FSI teaches — no scores of our own.
Class hours are the canonical FSI figures, from the US State Dept FSI list (public domain), used verbatim and last verified June 2026. How we compile and re-verify this data. Speaker counts, language-family and region data from Wikipedia (Ethnologue figures), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.