English
English
is a Indo-European language
with approximately 380M speakers speakers.
It is written using the
Latin
script.
Its BCP 47 language code is en.
English is a West Germanic language that originated in early medieval England and has become the world's primary language of international communication, science, aviation, computing, and diplomacy. It spread globally through the British Empire and was further consolidated as a global lingua franca by the United States' cultural and economic dominance in the 20th century.
English has an exceptionally large vocabulary — estimated at over a million words — due to extensive borrowing from Latin, French, Germanic languages, and dozens of others. It is written with the Latin alphabet and is notable for its highly irregular spelling, which reflects the language's complex historical layers.
Writing Systems Used for English
Frequently Asked Questions
What alphabet or script does English use?
What direction is English written?
How many people speak English?
What language family does English belong to?
What is the language code for English?
Language Facts
- BCP 47 Code
- en
- ISO 639-3
- eng
- Status
- living
- Speakers
- 380M speakers
- Language Family
- Indo-European
- Scripts
- 1
- Primary Script
- Latin
Data sourced from Unicode CLDR and ISO 639-3. Last updated April 20, 2026.