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| Speakers (first language): | About 380 million |
| Speakers (second language): | 150 million to 1 billion |
| Spoken in: | A number of countries throughout the world |
| Ranking (native): | 3-4 |
| Official language in: | Most Commonwealth countries, European Union, many others |
| Language family: | Indo-European -> Germanic -> West-Germanic -> Anglo-Frisian -> Anglic -> English |
| Similar/Related to: | German |
| Script: | Latin |
| ISO-639-1: | en |
| ISO-639-2: | eng |
| ISO/DIS 639-3: | eng |
Ever since the mid-20th Century, the English language has been the lingua franca (ironically) for pretty much all international affars. Though not the most widely spoken language, (counting only native speakers), you have a much better chance of communicating with anyone if you know English.
Due to the Internet, English now has an even greater influence world-wide. So much that it has started to effect other languages.
Olny srmat poelpe can read thsi I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on !!
For those who didn't get that, the paragraph says:
"Only smart people can read this I couldn't believe that I could
actually understand what I was reading. The phenomenal power of the
human mind, according to a researcher at Cambridge University, it
doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only
important thing is that the first and last letter be in the right
place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without
a problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter
by itself, but the word as a whole. Amazing huh? yeah and I always
thought spelling was important! if you can raed tihs psas it on !!"