How to Use mother tongue in a Sentence

mother tongue

noun

• At each tap, the sound of her voice speaking her mother tongue emerges from the phone.
  — Time, 27 July 2023
• In a May 2019 survey, about a third of Ukrainians named Russian as their mother tongue.
  — Michael Bociurkiw, CNN, 18 Aug. 2022
• And as added bonus, native English speakers will be able to speak in their mother tongue.
  — Teen Vogue, 25 Mar. 2019
• At the chalk clutched in his hand, the letters of her mother tongue like withered bloodstains, but white, distinct on the blackboard.
  — Han Kang, The New Yorker, 30 Jan. 2023
• In my mother tongue, Marathi, salad is called koshimbir.
  — Annada D. Rathi, Washington Post, 9 Sep. 2020
• Her midwife gently coached her in their mother tongue, Inuktitut, as the morning sun cast a cool light across the floor.
  — Amber Bracken, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2020
• In New York, a poet who fled Odessa contemplates his mother tongue.
  — From Cnn Opinion, CNN, 2 Mar. 2022
• The Celts’ speech is of Indo-European origin (as are 445 of the world’s languages), but not much is known about the origins of the Iberians’ mother tongue.
  — National Geographic, 24 Nov. 2020
• And the store has not forgotten its essence: that Germanness shared by everyone who speaks the mother tongue and loves a great sausage.
  — Reggie Nadelson, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2020
• Now, this brave man, whose mother tongue was Russian, has become a victim of the Russian invasion of Ukraine -- a tragedy and a shame.
  — Jens Christian-Wagner, CNN, 23 Mar. 2022
• There’s one final touch: stapled onto each bag is a note written in the mother tongue of the person who will receive it.
  — Crystal Hana Kim, Glamour, 2 Nov. 2021
• Growing up on the western frontier of the Tang empire, Li Po spoke a Turkish dialect as his mother tongue.
  — Yunte Huang, WSJ, 11 Jan. 2019
• After all, as there is no such thing as a choice of mother tongue, there is no such thing as a choice of motherland, or, for that matter, of a mother.
  — Sigrid Nunez, The New York Review of Books, 27 May 2021
• People like her are rare and she's seen firsthand how Covid-19 is threatening her mother tongue.
  — Nicole Chavez, CNN, 5 Mar. 2021
• The English language was draped over the Dutch city of New Amsterdam long ago, but the earlier mother tongue still pokes through here and there.
  — Daniel Akst, WSJ, 29 Apr. 2021
• Or rather, knew their home country, understood their history, and could speak to them in their mother tongue.
  — Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, USA TODAY, 22 July 2021
• Conceived amid the bombs in Kabul, I was born and raised until age 7 in Fremont, and taught that my mother tongue, Farsi, was a foreign language.
  — Various Staff Writers, Special Correspondents, and Special Contributors, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 Dec. 2023
• Their goal is to vastly expand the amount of information available in their mother tongue.
  — NBC News, 6 Mar. 2015
• Our mother tongue, on the other hand, incites us to Captain Kirk-like bouts of impulsive passion.
  — Julie Sedivy, Discover Magazine, 30 May 2012
• Künstler, meaning artist in German, Deckard’s mother tongue, alludes to the concentration of artists and galleries in the area.
  — Markus Haas, San Antonio Express-News, 11 Jan. 2018
• Some find themselves in the unenviable position of being one of the few (or the only) speakers of their mother tongue.
  — Kat Eschner, Smithsonian, 21 Feb. 2017
• Newsflash: Trump’s grandparents and only one of his parents was born in the United States or spoke English as their mother tongue.
  — Lynn Yaeger, Vogue, 19 May 2019
• Hindi was, is, and always will be our mother tongue and national language.
  — Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz, 28 Apr. 2022
• The term refers to people whose mother tongue is Spanish or whose roots trace to a Spanish-speaking population.
  — Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ, 27 Sep. 2020
• The mother tongue of main islanders and outer islanders are so different that English is used as the common language.
  — National Geographic, 15 Aug. 2017
• Sojourner Truth wasn’t Southern, and English wasn’t even her mother tongue.
  — Cynthia Greenlee, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Feb. 2024
• Most films will be subtitled in English, though some shorter films will be presented in their mother tongue, Bell says.
  — Roger Catlin, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Feb. 2021
• Looking at how people process foreign languages, as opposed to their mother tongue, could be an option as well.
  — Jennifer Walter, Discover Magazine, 4 Sep. 2019
• This is the real life story of how this anarchic Belfast trio became the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save their mother tongue.
  — Mia Galuppo, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Feb. 2024
• Gutter language in many ways erodes our lovely mother tongue and demeans those individuals who use it.
  — Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 7 Mar. 2024

Last Updated: 20 Dec 2024