foreign language

English

Noun

foreign language (plural foreign languages)

1. A language that is not widely or officially spoken in a particular place.

   Irish courts will hear cases in English or Gaelic, but speakers of foreign languages must find an interpreter.

2. A language that is not one's native tongue.

   The children struggled in their Welsh lessons because they didn't have any experience of foreign languages.

Related terms

• second language
• foreign country

Translations

any language other than that spoken by the people of a specific place

• Albanian: gjuhë e huaj
• Arabic: لُغَة أَجْنَبِيَّة‏‎ f (luḡa ʾajnabiyya)
• Armenian: օտար լեզու (ōtar lezu)
• Azeri: xarici dil
• Basque: erdara (eu), erdera (eu)
• Belarusian: заме́жная мо́ва f (zamjéžnaja móva)
• Bulgarian: чужд ези́к m (čužd ezík)
• Catalan: llengua estrangera (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 外語, 外语 (ngoi⁶ jyu⁵), 外國語, 外国语 (ngoi⁶ gwok³ jyu⁵)

  Mandarin: 外語 (zh), 外语 (zh) (wàiyǔ), 外國語 (zh), 外国语 (zh) (wàiguóyǔ), 外文 (zh) (wàiwén)

• Czech: cizí jazyk m
• Danish: fremmedsprog n
• Dutch: vreemde taal c
• Esperanto: fremda lingvo
• Estonian: võõrkeel
• Finnish: vieras kieli
• French: langue étrangère (fr) f
• Georgian: უცხო ენა (ucxo ena)
• German: Fremdsprache (de) f
• Hebrew: שפה זרה‏‎ f (safá zara)
• Hindi: विदेशी भाषा f (videśī bhāṣā)
• Hungarian: idegen nyelv (hu)
• Icelandic: útlenska f
• Indonesian: bahasa asing (id)
• Irish: teanga iasachta f
• Italian: lingua straniera
• Japanese: 外国語 (ja) (がいこくご, gaikokugo)
• Kazakh: шет тілі (şet tili)
• Korean: 외국어 (ko) (oegugeo) (外國語 (ko)), 외어 (oeeo) (外語 (ko))
• Kurdish: zimanê biyanî (ku)
• Kyrgyz: чет тили (çet tili), чет элдик тили (çet eldik tili)

• Lao: ພາສາຕ່າງປະເທດ (phā sā tāng pa thēt)
• Latvian: svešvaloda f
• Lithuanian: užsienio kalba f
• Macedonian: стра́нски ја́зик m (stránski jázik)
• Malay: bahasa asing
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fremmedspråk n

• Old English: feorcumen m
• Persian: زبان خارجی‏‎ (zabân-e xâreji)
• Polish: język obcy (pl) m
• Portuguese: idioma estrangeiro m, língua estrangeira (pt) f
• Romanian: limbă străină f
• Russian: иностра́нный язы́к (ru) m (inostránnyj jazýk)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: страни језик m

  Roman: strani jezik m

• Slovak: cudzí jazyk m
• Slovene: tuji jezik m
• Spanish: lengua extranjera f
• Swedish: främmande språk (sv) n
• Tajik: забони хориҷӣ (zaboni xorijī)
• Tatar: чит тел (çit tel)
• Thai: ภาษาต่างประเทศ (paa-sǎa dtàang bprà-têet)
• Turkish: yabancı dil (tr)
• Turkmen: daşary ýurt dili
• Ukrainian: інозе́мна мо́ва f (inozémna móva)
• Uyghur: چەت تىلى‏‎ (chet tili)
• Uzbek: chet dil
• Vietnamese: ngoại ngữ (vi)
• Volapük: foginänapük
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can