English language

English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in Anglo-Saxon England in the early Middle Ages. It is now the third most widely used language in the world, behind Mandarin and Spanish

It is spoken in many countries around the world. Anglosphere countries include the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and a number of Caribbean nations. There are about 375 million native speakers (people who use English as their first language),^[5] which is the largest after Mandarin and Spanish. About 220 million more people use it as their second language. It is often used in work and travel, and there are at least a billion people who are learning it. This makes English the second most spoken language, and the most international language in the world.

English has changed and developed over time.^[6] The most obvious changes are the many words taken from Latin and French. English grammar has also become very different from other Germanic languages, without becoming much like Romance languages. Because nearly 60% of the vocabulary comes from Latin, English is sometimes called the most Latin of the Germanic languages, and is often mistaken for being a Romance language.