English language factsheet
Around 1.35 billion people speak English globally, making it one of the most spoken languages worldwide as of 2021.
English was first spoken in early medieval England, and has eventually become the leading language of international discourse in the 21st century.
It belongs to the West Germanic group of the Indo-European language family, along with German, Frisian and Dutch (Netherlandic, Flemish).
Five interesting facts about the English language:
1. There are hundreds of new words added to the English language every year.
2. The sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses all 26 letters of the English alphabet.
3. More people in the world have learned English as a second language than there are native English speakers.
4. The first English dictionary was written in 1755.
5. Shakespeare added over 1,000 words to the English language.
Experts in English translation services
If you would like to work with a professional translation agency for the translation of your documents from and into English, please do get in touch with the award-winning team at Surrey Translation Bureau.
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Surrey Translation Bureau
As an award-winning ISO certified translation agency in the UK, we offer language services to corporates, professional organisations, public bodies, individuals and other translation agencies. We have experience translating across almost all world languages and work with specialists in a wide range of fields including medical, legal, technical, marketing, financial, science, the EU and environment.
STB’s mission today is to provide high-quality and customised language solutions for any client – whatever their size – who wants to thrive in the dynamic global market or who simply wants to communicate more effectively with their customers and suppliers overseas.