英語(yǔ)那些事兒

English Language Facts

English is a West Germanic[日耳曼語(yǔ)的]Language.

The English language spread with the growth of the British Empire, becoming the dominant[支配的]language in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia.

The growing global influence of the US has further increased the spread of English.

Today English is probably the most widely spoken language in the world, with many people learning it as a second or foreign language. It is estimated that there could be as many as 1.5 billion total English speakers worldwide.

With over 800 million native speakers, Chinese Mandarin is the most spoken native language, followed by Spanish and English.

The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

English is one of six official languages of the United Nations, as well as French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese Mandarin.

English has a huge vocabulary, with over 250,000 different words listed in the Oxford English Dictionary.

English incorporates[混合]words from a large number of different languages. Many of these words have French, Old Norse[斯堪的納維亞語(yǔ)的]or Dutch origins.

Many scientific words used in the English language come from Latin or Greek.

English is written in the Latin alphabet (also known as the Roman alphabet).

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