[показать]Geographically, English is the most widespread language on earth. It is widely spoken on six continents, and is the official language, or one of the official languages, in 55 countries.
400-500 million people speak it as their native language (second only to Mandarin Chinese, which has about 700 million native speakers). In addition, roughly the same number speak English as their second language, or use it in their daily lives for business, study and so on.
In other words, one in every 6-7 people on our planet regularly uses some sort of English - and the percentage is growing all the time.
The following are a few of the many reasons why English is so widely spoken.
* English is the official language in many of Britain's former colonies, such as America, Australia and New Zealand.
* The economic power of Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, and of the US in the 20th century, helped to make English the language of world trade.
* Entertainment has helped to spread the use of English, because of the worldwide popularity of English-language films, TV programmes and pop music.