English

  English-language learner   (often abbreviated as   ELL ) is a term used in some English-speaking countries such as the   United States   and   Canada   to describe a person who is learning the   English language   and has a native language that is not English. Some   educational   advocates, especially in the United States, classify these students as non-native English speakers or emergent bilinguals. [ 1 ]   Various other terms are also used to refer to students who are not proficient in English, such as   English as a second language (ESL) , English as an additional language (EAL), limited English proficient (LEP), culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), non-native English speaker, bilingual students, heritage language, emergent bilingual, and language-minority students. The legal term that is used in federal legislation is 'limited English proficient'. [ 2 ] The models of instruction and  assessment  of...

 Many English words have changed their meaning over time – for example, “awful” used to mean ‘inspiring wonder’ and was a short version of “full of awe”, whereas ‘nice’ used to mean “silly”. The first English dictionary was written in 1755. The oldest English word that is still in use is “town”.

 The word “Goodbye” originally comes from an Old English phrase meaning “god be with you”. Etymologically, Great Britain means “great land of the tattooed”. There are seven ways to spell the sound ‘ee’ in English. This sentence contains all of them: “He believed Caesar could see people seizing the seas”.

 It is the only major language that doesn’t have any organisation guiding it – as opposed to the French Académie française, the Spanish Real Academia Española and the German Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung. These organisations are responsible for controlling the evolution of their respective language in terms of usage, vocabulary, and grammar. The most common adjective used in English is “good”. The most commonly used noun is “time”. The word “set” has the highest number of definitions.

 The original name for butterfly was flutterby. About 4,000 words are added to the dictionary each year. The two most common words in English are I and you. 11% of the entire English language is just the letter E. The English language is said to be one of the happiest languages in the world – oh, and the word “happy” is used 3 times more often than the word “sad”!

  English actually originates from what is now called north west Germany and the Netherlands. The phrase “long time no see” is believed to be a literal translation of a Native American or Chinese phrase as it is not grammatically correct. “Go!” is the shortest grammatically correct sentence in English. Find out some of the longest word in the English language.

  E’ is the most common letter in the English language  Did you know that the letter “e” in the English language is the most commonly used letter? It appears in approximately 11% of all words in the English language, which is about 6,000 more words than the runner-up letter, “A”. You probably use this letter a lot without even realizing it! It is the letter which is usually stuck on a keyboard and is also the second most popular key after the space bar. This letter appears in many common words like “time” and “be”, as well as in pronouns like “he”, “she”, “me”, and “we”, and tens of thousands of words that end in “-ed” and “-es”. 

 Shakespeare introduced more than 1700 words to the English language  William Shakespeare was a celebrated English playwright, poet, and actor during the late 16th and early 17th century. He created many new words and expressions for his plays and poems, of which 1,700 were added to the English language and are still used today! Some of the most popular words he created are:  Swagger (A Midsummer Night’s Dream): To walk confidently or proudly.  Fashionable (Troilus and Cressida): A characteristic or style during a period.  Bedroom (A Midsummer Night's Dream): A room for sleeping.  Gossip (The Comedy of Errors): Informal conversation about others.  Manager (Love's Labour's Lost): The person in charge or in control of things. 

 More than 800 words are added to the English dictionary every year  Did you know that a new word is created every 98 minutes? That means that more than 800 to 1,000 words are added to English dictionaries every year. This has been happening more for the last couple of years because the internet and technology has led to new words being created. Merriam-Webster even added 690 new words to its dictionary in September 2023. Some of the new words added to dictionaries around the world in 2023 were:  Rizz (noun), slang: Charm or romantic appeal.  Simp (verb), informal: Devotion or longing for something or someone.  Goated (adjective), slang: considered "greatest of all time."   Girlboss (noun) informal: An ambitious and successful woman (especially a businesswoman or entrepreneur).  Street date (noun), formal: the date a product is publicly released for sale. 

 English  Menu  Each letter in the English language is unique  Did you know that the English alphabet is derived from the Latin script alphabet, which was first used by ancient Romans? The English alphabet has 26 letters, both uppercase and lowercase forms. Old English was first written down with the Latin alphabet in the 7th century. Over time, some letters were added or removed, and by the 16th century, the current set of 26 letters had mostly settled:  A a • B b • C c • D d • E e • F f • G g • H h • I i • J j • K k • L l • M m • N n • O o • P p • Q q • R r • S s • T t • U u • V v • W w • X x • Y y • Z z 

 Over 30% of English words are derived from other languages  The origins of over 30% of words in the English language can be traced to French, Latin, Sanskrit, Japanese, Spanish and many more languages! For example:  Cheer (v.) from chiere [Old French]  Gravity (n.) from gravitas [Latin]  Avatar (n.) from avatarana [Sanskrit]  Tycoon (n.) from taikun [Japanese]  Albatross (n.) from alcatraz [Spanish] 

  Curiosity doesn’t always kill the cat         In order to improve rapidly, you should ask a lot of questions and resolve them. Don’t just read phrases. Ask why they are used in a particular way, whether other constructions are possible as well and don’t trust everything you read online. Of course, it is tempting to be content with the first answer that pops up on Google, but you’ll find more rewards if you show a bit of curiosity.