- English is a West Germanic Language.
- The English language spread with the growth of the British Empire, becoming the dominant 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 250000 different words listed in the Oxford English Dictionary.
- English incorporates words from a large number of different languages. Many of these words have French, Old Norse 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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