Portal:English

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The English Portal

can be defined as "the West Germanic language that is the official language of England and many other countries that have been under British influence or control". Modified forms of English are spoken over a wider area than this - for example, the 'Japanese English' spoken by Japanese speakers of English - and even an individual speaker's use of the language can be described as an 'English'.

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Selected article

English grammar is the study of rules governing the use of the English language. Grammars of English can be either prescriptive or descriptive. Prescription sets rules for language, while description simply records the way a language is spoken and written. This article aims to be primarily descriptive. As experts disagree about many parts of English grammar, what follows is only one analysis among many.

English is simpler than some languages in that it has no grammatical gender, and plurals and tenses are mostly regular. On the other hand, one of its many complexities is the use of the progressive tense (i.e., -ing), which is unique, subtle, and basic to everyday expressions...

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Selected biography

William Shakespeare (baptised April 26, 1564 – died April 23, 1616)^[1] was an English poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language, as well as one of the greatest in Western literature, and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.^[2] He wrote about thirty-eight plays and 154 sonnets, as well as a variety of other poems. Already a popular writer in his own lifetime, Shakespeare's reputation became increasingly celebrated after his death and his work adulated by numerous prominent cultural figures through the centuries.

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References

^ Dates use the Julian Calendar. Under the Gregorian calendar, Shakespeare died on May 3.
^ Encyclopædia Britannica article on Shakespeare, MSN Encarta Encyclopedia article on Shakespeare, Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia article on Shakespeare. Accessed Feb. 26, 2006.

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Did you know...

...that of all the world's languages (over 2,700) English is arguably the richest in vocabulary; and that the Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words, and a further half-million technical and scientific terms remain uncatalogued?

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Things you can do

The initial aim of this portal is to provide information about:

World Englishes
History of the English language
Composition studies
Rhetoric
Technical communication (includes grammar and punctuation)

Because there is so much work to be done, and the general direction of this portal is not completely clear, it could be hard for others to get involved at this stage. However, at the moment, you can check out the list of Category:Language stubs, because those articles are related to at least some of what will be in this portal, and many of them need to be expanded.

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