The World of Languages · Indo-European
English
The world's most widely spoken language when you count learners: a Germanic language with a huge Latin and French vocabulary.
- 372 million native speakers
- 1.49 billion speakers in total
- Latin script
- Official in 90 countries
Where English is spoken
Tap or hover over a country. Colours show the language's status, based on Unicode CLDR territory data (population estimates mix sources and years).
Top countries by speakers
- United StatesOfficial language · 328M (96%)
- IndiaOfficial language · 268M (19%)
- PakistanOfficial language · 126M (50%)
- NigeriaOfficial language · 125M (53%)
- PhilippinesOfficial language · 76M (64%)
- United KingdomOfficial language · 67M (98%)
- GermanyWidely spoken · 54M (64%)
- EthiopiaWidely spoken · 51M (43%)
- TanzaniaOfficial language · 47M (69%)
- EgyptWidely spoken · 39M (35%)
- CanadaOfficial language · 33M (86%)
- SudanOfficial language · 31M (61%)
Key numbers
- Native (L1) speakers
- 372 million
- Second-language (L2) speakers
- 1.12 billion
- Total speakers
- 1.49 billion
- Source
- Ethnologue (2026), via Wikipedia
English at a glance
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family that emerged in early medieval England and has since become a global lingua franca. The language is named after the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Britain after the end of Roman rule. English is the most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the global influence of the British Empire (succeeded by the Commonwealth of Nations) and the rise of the United States. It is the most widely learned second language in the world, with more second‑language speakers than native speakers. However, English is only the third‑most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
From the Wikipedia article English language (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Name in English
- English
- Family
- Indo-EuropeanClassical Indo-EuropeanGermanicNorthwest GermanicWest GermanicNorth Sea GermanicAnglo-FrisianAnglicLater AnglicMiddle-Modern EnglishMacro-English
- Writing system
- Latin alphabet (26 letters)
- Direction
- Left to right
- Official in
- United States, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Philippines, United Kingdom, Tanzania, Canada, Sudan, Australia, South Africa, Malawi, Cameroon, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Madagascar, Ireland, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Liberia, Eritrea, Hong Kong SAR China, South Sudan, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Rwanda, Botswana, Uganda, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, Gambia, Mauritius, Eswatini, Fiji, Guyana, Solomon Islands, Lesotho, Belize, Malta, Bahamas, Barbados, Vanuatu, Namibia, Guam, St. Lucia, Kiribati, Grenada, Jersey, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Isle of Man, Antigua & Barbuda, U.S. Virgin Islands, Marshall Islands, Dominica, Guernsey, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos Islands, Micronesia, St. Kitts & Nevis, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Sint Maarten, Tonga, Gibraltar, Anguilla, Nauru, Cook Islands, Burundi, St. Helena, Samoa, British Indian Ocean Territory, Montserrat, Falkland Islands, Palau, Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Tokelau, Niue, Tuvalu, Diego Garcia, Sark, U.S. Outlying Islands, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Pitcairn Islands
- Codes
- ISO 639-3
eng· Glottologstan1293· Q1860 - Writing sample
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights…”
Linguistic profile
The FSI difficulty scale measures languages for English speakers, so English itself isn't rated.
Feature values from the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS Online, CC BY 4.0).
The English script
Latin alphabet (26 letters). Tap a character to hear it (your device reads the letter name or sound).
Standard letters from Unicode CLDR exemplar characters.
Useful English phrases with pronunciation
Numbers 1–10
- one
- two
- three
- four
- five
- six
- seven
- eight
- nine
- ten
Days of the week
- Mon Monday
- Tue Tuesday
- Wed Wednesday
- Thu Thursday
- Fri Friday
- Sat Saturday
- Sun Sunday
Everyday words
- water water
- cat cat
- dog dog
- coffee coffee
- beer beer
- bread bread
- book book
Phrases and words checked against Wiktionary; days and months from Unicode CLDR. Audio uses your browser's built-in English voice when available.
Dialects and varieties
British English (Southern England)
England
Non-rhotic: the r in “car” is usually not pronounced. Vocabulary: flat, lift, lorry.
General American
United States
Rhotic: “car” keeps its r. Vocabulary: apartment, elevator, truck.
Scottish English
Scotland
“wee” for small, “aye” for yes; the r is often tapped or rolled.
Australian English
Australia
Loves shortening words: “arvo” (afternoon), “brekkie” (breakfast).
Indian English
India
“prepone” means to move a meeting earlier, the opposite of postpone.
Irish English
Ireland
“craic” means fun, news or good company: “What’s the craic?”
Hear the dialects
Fun words, untranslatables
serendipity
Finding something good by happy accident. The word was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754.
petrichor
The earthy smell after rain falls on dry ground. It was coined by two Australian scientists in 1964.
mondegreen
A misheard song lyric or phrase. It was coined by the writer Sylvia Wright in 1954.
defenestration
The act of throwing someone out of a window.
Curious facts
- English has no official regulator. There is no academy deciding what is correct; dictionaries describe usage.
- The Great Vowel Shift (roughly 1400–1700) changed how long vowels were pronounced after spelling had begun to settle. That is a major reason English spelling and pronunciation often disagree.
- A widely cited 1973 study (Finkenstaedt and Wolff) estimated that about 29% of English words come from French and another 29% from Latin. That is why English has pairs like cow/beef and pig/pork.
- “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is a pangram: it uses every letter of the alphabet.
- English has more second-language speakers than native speakers, according to Ethnologue.
Famous English-speaking voices
Singers & musicians
Writers & poets
Film & TV
Other famous figures
Descriptions from Wikidata; photos from Wikimedia Commons under the licences shown.
English culture now
Harry Potter
Series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling
Friends
American television sitcom (1994–2004)
Stranger Things
American television series (2016–2025)
The Eras Tour
2023–2024 concert tour by Taylor Swift
Rickrolling
Internet meme and prank
Doctor Who
British science fiction TV series (1963–2025)
Learn English on YouTube
Free lessons from teachers and channels with English courses. Videos load only when you press play.
The story of the language
Quick quiz: how well do you know English?
Where to learn English
English Content Portal
English videos, with smooth progress from teachers' channels to native content.
LangMagicThe Endless Book
Read text you can understand, in the style of your favourite author and genre. About 30 languages.
LangMagicLangMagic Speak
Speaking lessons built around your topics, from materials you choose.
LangMagicLangMagic Meet
A virtual meeting platform built for language lessons, with follow-up exercises.
FreeWikibooks: Subject:English language
Free, open textbook
FreeOmniglot: English
Script, pronunciation and useful phrases
FreeWiktionary: English dictionary
Free multilingual dictionary
Sources
- Speaker numbers: Ethnologue (2026), via Wikipedia.
- Countries, populations, alphabets, days and months: Unicode CLDR 46.
- Classification: Glottolog 5.3. Grammar features: WALS Online.
- Introduction: Wikipedia, English language (CC BY-SA 4.0). People and culture: Wikipedia and Wikidata. Images: Wikimedia Commons.
- Writing sample: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1, from the Unicode UDHR collection. Phrases and words: Wiktionary. Difficulty: US Foreign Service Institute.
- Map: Natural Earth via world-atlas (public domain).