How long
How long does it take to learn a language?
The honest answer is a range. It depends on the language, your daily time and what 'learned' means to you.
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Updated · by the 4ToSpeak team
Lesson preview
Step 4Estoy cansado.
I am tired.
- Order
- Translate
- Listen
- Speak
Say it out loud. Green landed, yellow was close.
Start freeHours by difficulty band
- Closest to English (Spanish, French, Italian): about 700 hours.
- Moderate (German, Indonesian, Swahili): about 900 hours.
- Harder (Russian, Turkish, Hindi, Greek): about 1,100 hours.
- Hardest (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic): about 2,200 hours.
What that means in calendar time
At 15 minutes a day you study about 90 hours a year, at 30 minutes about 180 and at an hour about 365. So 700 hours takes about two years at an hour a day, or four at 30 minutes. The figures follow the US Foreign Service Institute's groupings and are estimates.
Speaking comes sooner
Working proficiency is a high bar. A first conversation with greetings, questions and everyday requests takes weeks to a few months of daily practice, especially if you practise speaking from the start.
How many hours a day should I study a language?
Fifteen to sixty minutes of focused daily practice works for most people. Consistency matters more than length.
Can I learn a language in a year?
You can reach a strong conversational level in many languages with daily practice and speaking. Full working proficiency in a year needs more daily hours than most people have.
Related guides
Related answers
Planning
Can you learn a language in 3 months?
You can reach basic conversation in three months with daily practice, but not full fluency. See what is realistic, by language difficulty and daily time.
Read moreHow long
How long does it take to become fluent?
Fluency is a range, not a finish line. Conversational fluency takes months to a couple of years, depending on the language and daily practice.
Read moreVocabulary
How many words do you need to speak a language?
About 1,000 well-chosen words cover most everyday conversation, and a few thousand give comfortable fluency. See the numbers by stage and how to choose which words first.
Read moreResource
How long each language takes
Read more
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Now say it out loud
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