• Jrockwar@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 hours ago
      Language Native Speakers Total Speakers Sources
      English ~380 million ~1.5 billion Wikipedia
      German ~76–95 million ~155–220 million Wikipedia
      Mandarin ~941 million–1.12 billion ~1.1–1.3 billion Wikipedia

      Well, it has 10x more speakers than German, but it still has fewer speakers than English and most of them are localised in a single country.

    • state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      6 hours ago

      Please stop being an obnoxious ass. English is the de-facto lingua franca of the world, acting like German is in any way comparable is just disingenuous.

          • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            4 hours ago

            The latter. Though given the downvotes, I think people are either not smart enough to get it, or too smart and think I don’t get it.

            • endeavor@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              4 hours ago

              You just said what everyone thinks when they hear ‘lingua franca’ for the first time.