How to refer to the different languages (idiomas) in Spanish
Each world language has it’s own name in Spanish. Learn about them all here!
In English, languages are generally treated as proper nouns. In other words, the first letter of the language name in English is written with upper case letters. By comparison, the language names are typically not be capitalized in Spanish (unless they are at the beginning of a sentence).
Languages are always written as masculine nouns (so, for example, “Arabic” would be “el árabe” and “French” would be “el francés”). In many instances, the name of the language is the same as the name of the nationality.
Names of different languages in Spanish
Here’s how you would say the most commonly spoken world languages in Spanish:
List of world languages in Spanish
| Language in English | Language in Spanish | Millions of speakers | Percentage of speakers worldwide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mandarin Chinese | chino mandarín | 955 | 14.10% |
| Spanish | español | 405 | 5.85% |
| English | inglés | 360 | 5.52% |
| Hindi | hindi | 310 | 4.46% |
| Arabic | arábica | 295 | 4.23% |
| Portuguese | portugués | 215 | 3.08% |
| Bengali | bengalí | 205 | 3.05% |
| Russian | ruso | 155 | 2.42% |
| Japanese | japonés | 125 | 1.92% |
| Punjabi | punjabi | 100 | 1.44% |
| German | alemán | 95 | 1.39% |
| Javanese | javanés | 82 | 1.25% |
| Wu | wu | 80 | 1.20% |
| Malay | malayo | 77 | 1.16% |
| Telugu | telugu | 76 | 1.15% |
| Vietnamese | vietnamita | 76 | 1.14% |
| Korean | coreano | 76 | 1.14% |
| French | francés | 75 | 1.12% |
| Marathi | marathi | 73 | 1.10% |
| Tamil | tamil | 70 | 1.06% |
| Urdu | urdu | 66 | 0.99% |
| Turkish | turco | 63 | 0.95% |
| Italian | italiano | 59 | 0.90% |
| Yue | yue | 59 | 0.89% |
| Thai | tailandés | 56 | 0.85% |
| Gujarati | gujarati | 49 | 0.74% |
| Jin | jin | 48 | 0.72% |
| Southern Min | min sur | 47 | 0.71% |
| Persian | persa | 45 | 0.68% |
| Polish | polaco | 40 | 0.61% |
| Pashto | pashto | 39 | 0.58% |
| Kannada | kannada | 38 | 0.58% |
| Xiang | xiang | 38 | 0.58% |
| Malayalam | malayalam | 38 | 0.57% |
| Sundanese | sundanese | 38 | 0.57% |
| Hausa | hausa | 34 | 0.52% |
| Odia | odia | 33 | 0.50% |
| Burmese | birmano | 33 | 0.50% |
| Hakka | hakka | 31 | 0.46% |
| Ukrainian | ucranio | 30 | 0.46% |
| Bhojpuri | bhojpuri | 29 | 0.43% |
| Tagalog | tagalo | 28 | 0.42% |
| Yoruba | yoruba | 28 | 0.42% |
| Maithili | maithili | 27 | 0.41% |
| Uzbek | uzbeko | 26 | 0.39% |
| Sindhi | sindhi | 26 | 0.39% |
| Amharic | amárico | 25 | 0.37% |
| Fula | fula | 24 | 0.37% |
| Romanian | rumano | 24 | 0.37% |
| Oromo | oromo | 24 | 0.36% |
| Igbo | igbo | 24 | 0.36% |
| Azerbaijani | azerbaiyán | 23 | 0.34% |
| Awadhi | awadhi | 22 | 0.33% |
| Gan | gan | 22 | 0.33% |
| Cebuano | cebuano | 21 | 0.32% |
| Dutch | holandés | 21 | 0.32% |
| Kurdish | kurdo | 21 | 0.31% |
| Serbo-Croatian | servocroata | 19 | 0.28% |
| Malagasy | madagascarí | 18 | 0.28% |
| Saraiki | saraiki | 17 | 0.26% |
| Nepali | nepalí | 17 | 0.25% |
| Sinhala | cingalés | 16 | 0.25% |
| Chittagonian | chittagonian | 16 | 0.24% |
| Zhuang | zhuang | 16 | 0.24% |
| Khmer | khmer | 16 | 0.24% |
| Turkmen | turkmen | 16 | 0.24% |
| Assamese | assamese | 15 | 0.23% |
| Madurese | madureses | 15 | 0.23% |
| Somali | somalí | 15 | 0.22% |
| Marwari | marwari | 14 | 0.21% |
| Magahi | magahi | 14 | 0.21% |
| Haryanvi | haryanvi | 14 | 0.21% |
| Hungarian | húngaro | 13 | 0.19% |
| Chhattisgarhi | chhattisgarhi | 12 | 0.19% |
| Greek | griego | 12 | 0.18% |
| Chewa | chewa | 12 | 0.17% |
| Deccan | deccan | 11 | 0.17% |
| Akan | akan | 11 | 0.17% |
| Kazakh | kazaja | 11 | 0.17% |
| Northern Min | min norte | 10.9 | 0.16% |
| Sylheti | sylheti | 10.7 | 0.16% |
| Zulu | zulú | 10.4 | 0.16% |
| Czech | checo | 10 | 0.15% |
| Kinyarwanda | kinyarwanda | 9.8 | 0.15% |
| Dhundhari | dhundhari | 9.6 | 0.15% |
| Haitian Creole | creole | 9.6 | 0.15% |
| Eastern Min | min dong | 9.5 | 0.14% |
| Ilocano | ilocano | 9.1 | 0.14% |
| Quechua | quechua | 8.9 | 0.13% |
| Kirundi | kirundi | 8.8 | 0.13% |
| Swedish | sueco | 8.7 | 0.13% |
| Hmong | hmong | 8.4 | 0.13% |
| Shona | shona | 8.3 | 0.13% |
| Uyghur | uyghur | 8.2 | 0.12% |
| Hiligaynon | hiligaynon | 8.2 | 0.12% |
| Mossi | mossi | 7.6 | 0.11% |
| Xhosa | xhosa | 7.6 | 0.11% |
| Belarusian | bielorruso | 7.6 | 0.11% |
| Balochi | balochi | 7.6 | 0.11% |
| Konkani | konkani | 7.4 | 0.11% |
Related resources:
How to say the names of countries in Spanish
If you want to be a Spanish pro, try to pronounce these Spanish tongue twisters.