UPSC Prelims 1999·GS1·geography·human and economic geography

The language spoken by the largest number of people in the world is

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Last updated 23 May 2026, 3:31 pm IST
  1. AHindi
  2. BEnglish
  3. CMandarinCorrect
  4. DSpanish

Explanation

While English is the most widely spoken language when including non-native speakers, Mandarin Chinese has historically been the correct answer in many competitive exams, including those patterned after UPSC, because it has the largest number of native speakers. In the context of standard GS textbooks and traditional census data often cited in exams, Mandarin is recognized as the language spoken by the largest population globally due to the demographic size of China. However, current linguistic databases like Ethnologue now often place English at the top when total speakers are counted, but Mandarin remains the standard answer for the most native speakers.
geography: The language spoken by the largest number of people in the world is
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