English
English
English has borrowed words from over 350 other languages — "pyjamas" comes from Hindi, "chocolate" from Nahuatl (Aztec), and "robot" from Czech!
Lin says:
Hi there! I'm Lin! English is truly the world's great connector language — spoken on every continent, in the skies, at sea, and even in space! It is cheeky enough to borrow words from well over 350 other languages. Fancy a cup of tea? That word is from Chinese! How cool is that?
Quick Facts
Native Speakers
~380 million
Total Speakers
~1.5 billion
Language Family
Germanic (West)
Official in
67 countries
Discover English
English has borrowed words from over 350 other languages — "pyjamas" comes from Hindi, "chocolate" from Nahuatl (Aztec), and "robot" from Czech!
Native Speakers
~380 million native / 1.5 billion total
Did You Know?
The Oxford English Dictionary contains over 600,000 words — making English one of the largest vocabularies of any language.
English is studied as a foreign language by more people than any other language — over 1 billion learners worldwide.
English developed from Old English (Anglo-Saxon), then absorbed huge amounts of French after the Norman Conquest of 1066 — which is why English has so many double words like "pig/pork" and "cow/beef".
What Makes English Special?
Language of the Skies
All pilots and air traffic controllers worldwide must communicate in English — it is the official language of international aviation!
Language of Science
Over 50% of all scientific research papers are written in English, making it the global language of discovery.
A Borrowed Language
English is famous for borrowing — "pyjamas" from Hindi, "chocolate" from Nahuatl, "ketchup" from Malay, "robot" from Czech!
Keep Exploring the World!
Languages are windows into the world's cultures. Discover more languages and the countries where they are spoken.