second language

English

Noun

second language (plural second languages)

1. A language that is spoken by someone but is not their mother tongue.

   My second languages are Italian and German.

   • 2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 105:

     Vocabulary is a vital component of educational success in both first and second language contexts.

Derived terms

• second-language acquisition

 

Related terms

• first language
• foreign language

Translations

language spoken other than the mother tongue

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 第二語言／第二语言 (zh) (dì-èr yǔyán), 外語／外语 (zh) (wàiyǔ)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: toinen kieli, muu kieli
• French: première langue (fr) f
• Galician: segunda lingua f
• German: Zweitsprache (de) f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: andrespråk (no) n

  Nynorsk: andrespråk n

• Portuguese: segunda língua f
• Southern Sami: mubpien-gïele
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: andraspråk (sv) n