March 11, 2026, 11:26 am | Read time: 4 minutes
Is there a language you don’t speak but find its sound particularly inviting and warm? Many people feel this way, as a new survey by a language learning platform shows. The study also explores what factors influence the emotions that hearing a language evokes in people. Learn more about it at TRAVELBOOK, and especially: which language most participants consider the friendliest in the world.
“Hey, how are you?” At first glance, one might assume that English–the world’s most widely spoken lingua franca–is also perceived as particularly friendly. This is partly because the language is strongly associated with everyday, casual greetings. However, the survey by the language learning platform Preply reached a different conclusion.
Study Structure
The survey included 3,608 people from six countries (the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, and Japan). The goal was to find out what emotions people associate with the sound of different languages. Participants rated ten of the world’s most important languages in categories such as friendly and romantic.
The Friendliest Language in the World: Portuguese
When asked which language sounds the friendliest, 34 percent of respondents named Portuguese. The study’s organizers attribute this to the melodic sound with many open vowels, which many people find warm and inviting. Additionally, countries where Portuguese is spoken are often associated with sunshine, vacations, hospitality, and a relaxed lifestyle.
Spanish (33 percent) and Italian (29 percent) follow in second and third place. The top three, all Romance languages, are associated with warmth, openness, and accessibility.
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Why People Perceive Languages Emotionally
The perception of language depends not only on the meaning of the words but also on the sound. In linguistics, this is referred to as emotional prosody, the ability to derive feelings from pitch, rhythm, emphasis, and melody of the voice. Studies show that the brain often processes these acoustic signals before the content of the words is understood.
These insights provide a possible explanation for why people perceive certain languages as friendly, melodic, or inviting based solely on their sound. This is precisely where the Preply survey comes in.
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Further Observations of the Study
Another interesting observation from the survey was that about 59 percent of respondents claimed to behave differently or show different sides of their personality depending on the language. This could mean that people adapt their behavior or expression to the language they are speaking or hearing. For example, they may appear more open, friendly, or formal, depending on the linguistic and cultural associations they have with that language.
This principle is also evident in the perception of romance in languages. Unsurprisingly, French scored the highest here: 54 percent of survey participants described it as the most romantic language in the world–a result that confirms a widespread cultural cliché. Italian followed in second place with 43 percent, and Spanish ranked third with 22 percent. Again, it is the Romance languages that are associated with passion, elegance, and emotional expression.
Forty-one percent of respondents named English as the most practical language in the world, which is certainly related to its aforementioned role as the primary lingua franca. Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic were most often perceived as complex.
How Did German Fare?
Compared to globally dominant languages like English, Spanish, or French, German plays a lesser role in the perception of respondents. When asked about the friendliest languages, German received only 7 percent of the votes; overall, it is less frequently associated with emotionally positive traits. Detailed percentage values are not available for all categories surveyed. However, the newspaper “The Portugal News” reports that a high proportion of survey participants perceive German as the harshest language. At the same time, it is considered one of the most powerful languages.
One should not overestimate the results. The sample size was relatively small, with around 3,600 participants, and limited to only six countries. Therefore, the observations mainly reflect cultural perceptions within certain regions and cannot be generalized to the entire world.