non-native speaker
non-native speaker noun: someone who has another native tongue than the language being used.
Noun
non-native speaker (plural non-native speakers)
- Someone who has another native tongue than the language being used.
- Although double modality is outside the scope of Standard English and is not addressed in the school syllabus, it is a widespread phenomenon which non-native speakers of English might find confusing and should at least be aware of.2019, Irina S. Lebedeva, Svetlana N. Orlova, “Semantics and pragmatics of the double modal ‘might could’”, in Training, Language and Culture, volume 3, number 2, →DOI
- Synonyms:
- allophone
- Antonyms:
- native speaker
Synonyms of non-native speaker
Antonyms
Forms of non-native speaker
| plural | non-native speakers |
|---|---|
| alternative initialism | NNS |
Origin of non-native speaker
From non-native + speaker or non- + native speaker.
Words formed from non-native speaker
Questions about non-native speaker
- What does non-native speaker mean?
- Non-native speaker means someone who has another native tongue than the language being used.
- What part of speech is non-native speaker?
- Non-native speaker is a noun.
- What is the plural of non-native speaker?
- The plural of non-native speaker is non-native speakers.
Words near non-native speaker in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: non-native speaker (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “non-native speaker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/non-native_speaker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.