English is the leading world language.
imagesource: http://www.flanderstoday.eu
The number of non-native or second language speakers of English now outnumber those of primary or native speakers of English.
In many cases, non native speakers use English as a "practical tool” and also as a “working language”.
Non native speakers are those people whose mother tongue is non English.
Important role of English is of a lingua franca or common second language.
The ‘power’ of English was initially based on political and military factors, most notably the expansion of the British Empire. As they expanded the British empire, the English language got developed in those countries.
Facts:
English vocabulary borrows heavily from other languages — particularly Latin, Greek and French.
The Oxford English Dictionary runs to 23 volumes and 615,000 words. The equivalent German dictionary contains 180,000.
English is always a bottom up approach. Implicitly that there’s a quality to the English language which is different from German or French or Chinese. That quality is approachability, usefulness, adaptability.
The only ‘official’ status for a specific word is inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary.
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https://medium.com/english-language-faq/why-did-english-become-the-global-language-9bbc14b532cd
Source: snippets are created through refering original article.