Нова українська школа: методика навчання англійської мови у 3-4 класах закладів загальної середньої освіти на засадах компетентнісного підходу - Крістіна Карпюк 2020

1.2. What is English?
1. Mini-Encyclopaedia

English is a West Germanic language that was first used in early medieval England. It takes its name from the Angles - one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to this particular area. This language has developed over the period of more than 1400 years and nowadays it is used worldwide which makes it a global lingua franca.

Just like any other language, it has its distinctive pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and all other language aspects. For instance, very often one sound in English can be spelled in more than one way (e.g., /і:/ - ’knees’ or ’believe’) which makes it sometimes difficult to read and write. Another example can be made in grammar: in English, there are various tenses that express certain times, like Present Continuous or Past Perfect, whereas in many other languages, like Ukrainian, there are no such things and people only use certain lexis and context in order to be more specific about the time (e.g., «now», «back then», etc).

Certainly, English has a rich vocabulary with its own words that are never used elsewhere as well as those which are borrowed from other languages like French (e.g., «bouquet», «machine», etc). Some of its words, however, have become international and are used in other languages. For example, «manager» (English) - «el manager» (Spanish) - «менеджер» /'menedʒer/ (Ukrainian) and so on.