English/Introduction
| English Wikibook (edit) |
| General: Introduction - Grammar |
| Parts of speech: Nouns - Verbs - Adjectives - Adverbs - Pronouns - Conjunctions - Prepositions - Interjections |
| Parts of the sentence: Subjects - Predicates |
| Word functions: Subjects - Predicates - Direct Objects - Indirect Objects - Objects of the Preposition |
| Types of sentences: Simple Sentences - Complex Sentences |
| Types of Phrases: Adjective - Adverb - Noun |
| Types of Clauses: Adjective - Adverb - Noun |
| Other English topics: Gerunds - Idiomatic Phrases - Spelling - Vocabulary - Punctuation - Syntax - Appositives - Phonics - Pronunciation |
Introduction to English
English is thought to be one of the most important languages in the world. There are many reasons why English is so important. One of the reasons is that English is spoken as the first language in many countries. There are 104 countries where English is spoken as the first language.
Although English is the language of so many countries, more people in the world speak Mandarin Chinese as their first language. Mandarin Chinese is spoken in sixteen countries.
Even in countries where English is not the native language, people use it for business and tourism. English is used for these purposes in most countries. English is considered the business language. English is the official language of the United Nations. English is also the official language of airlines and airports. All airline pilots that fly to other countries must be able to speak English.
There are different kinds of English like British English, Canadian English and American English. These are not separate languages. They are dialects. A dialect is the way people in a particular place speak their native language. In one place, people might have a name they like to use for something that is not used in another place. For example: In Britain, they call the building where a motion picture is watched a cinema. In America, they call it a theater. This is just a different way of talking about the same thing. Both of the words cinema and theater are English words, and can be used to describe a building where motion pictures are watched, so both of these words are correct. It is important to remember that any form of English that you learn is good. There are no better versions of English. There are only different ones.
For grammar discussion, you may go to the next page.