The export of cultural trade is an important embodiment of a country’s soft power and international influence, and language plays an important role in cultural trade. Using international data from 2010-2022, this paper empirically examines the relationship between language distance, language ability and cultural trade. The results show that language distance impedes the export of cultural products, but language ability effectively alleviates the impeding effect of language distance. At the same time, language ability can effectively alleviate the obstructing effect of language distance on cultural trade in the context of higher market openness, free trade agreement signing with China and high export complexity. Further research finds that language ability can better mitigate the obstructive effect of language distance on core cultural trade, while the use of digital technology weakens the mitigating effect of language ability on language distance, but the mitigating effect is more significant in countries with low digital technology. Therefore, we should actively and accurately mitigate the negative impact of language factors in different scenarios, and further improve the competitiveness of cultural trade.