Is Hungarian the most difficult language to learn?
The difficulty of languages can of course vary from person to person, as everyone has different abilities in language learning. On the other hand, even the linguists of TELC, which issues the international language exam, agree that some languages can be more challenging, especially for native English speakers. They even prepared a list of the most difficult languages, which includes Hungarian as well as Japanese, Finnish, Arabic, Mandarin and Polish.
“Hungarian is particularly difficult for English learners because words are formed completely differently, with phrases often combined to form a single word. For example, barátnőmmel means “with my female friend”. There are 18 case suffixes in Hungarian. In comparison, English has only three, and they still manage to baffle with their complexities. Add upon this complex grammar rules and cultural subtleties, and one can see that Hungarian is not an easy pick for the new language learner” - they wrote on the TELC website.