European languagues quiz - answers

Click here to download the answers in PDF format.

1) How many official languages does the European Union have?

b) 23

Bulgarian, Irish and Romanian became the newest official languages on 1st January 2007.

2) When did Irish become an official European language?

c) 2007

Ireland joined the EU (or EEC) in 1973, but Irish did not become an official language until 2007.

3) Romanian is most similar to which of the following languages?

a) Italian

As its name suggests, Romanian is one of the 'Romance' languages.

4) Which of the following languages is not officially recognised in the UK?

a) Manx

According to the Home Office, the UK has eight officially recognised languages.

5) Which of the following languages has the greatest number of speakers?

c) Hungarian

Around 14 million people speak Hungarian as a first language.

6) "Dzien dobry" (pronounced 'jayn doh-bray') means "Hello" in which language?

b) Polish

Poland was the largest of the ten new member states that joined the EU in 2004.

7) How much of the world's population speak a European language as their mother tongue?

b) 26%

Europe 's colonial history means that its languages are widely-spoken.

8) Which language does the word "yoghurt" come from?

c) Turkish

The Turkish language has also given us the word "Tulip".

9) Which of the following European languages is not an official language of the African Union?

a) Spanish

The organisation's official languages are Arabic, English, French, Portuguese and Swahili.

10) Which is the only language in the world where all the nouns begin with a capital letter?

b) German

There are German-speaking communities the world over, including Namibia and Kazakhstan.

Click here to visit the official web site for the European Day of Languages

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