Foreign Languages

  • 20 out of 45 (44%) presidents spoke a second language.
  • The most popular foreign language was Latin - 14
  • John Quincy Adams had proficiency in the most languages - 8.
  • * Was not fluent.
  • + Martin Van Buren was a native Dutch speaker. He was the only president who was not raised with English as his first language.

Rank#President# Presidents
1Latin14
2John Adams
3Thomas Jefferson
4James Madison
6John Quincy Adams
8Martin Van Buren*
9William Henry Harrison
10John Tyler
11James K. Polk
15James Buchanan
19Rutherford B. Hayes
20James A. Garfield
21Chester A. Arthur
31Herbert Hoover
32Franklin D. Roosevelt*
2Greek9
3Thomas Jefferson
4James Madison
6John Quincy Adams*
10John Tyler
11James K. Polk
15James Buchanan
19Rutherford B. Hayes
20James A. Garfield
21Chester A. Arthur
3French7
2John Adams
3Thomas Jefferson
5James Monroe
6John Quincy Adams
9William Henry Harrison*
26Theodore Roosevelt
32Franklin D. Roosevelt
4German5
6John Quincy Adams
26Theodore Roosevelt
28Woodrow Wilson
32Franklin D. Roosevelt
42Bill Clinton*
5Spanish4
3Thomas Jefferson
6John Quincy Adams*
39Jimmy Carter*
43George W. Bush*
6Italian3
3Thomas Jefferson
6John Quincy Adams*
26Theodore Roosevelt*
7Dutch2
6John Quincy Adams*
8Martin Van Buren+
8Arabic1
3Thomas Jefferson*
8Chinese1
31Herbert Hoover*
8Hebrew1
4James Madison
8Russian1
6John Quincy Adams*
-English only25
1George Washington
7Andrew Jackson
12Zachary Taylor
13Millard Fillmore
14Franklin Pierce
16Abraham Lincoln
17Andrew Johnson
18Ulysses S. Grant
22 & 24Grover Cleveland
23Benjamin Harrison
25William McKinley
27William H. Taft
29Warren G. Harding
30Calvin Coolidge
33Harry S. Truman
34Dwight D. Eisenhower
35John F. Kennedy
36Lyndon B. Johnson
37Richard M. Nixon
38Gerald R. Ford
40Ronald Reagan
41George H. W. Bush
44Barack Obama
45 & 47Donald J. Trump
46Joe Biden

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