Why is english the biggest of all languages if you see to in how many countries you can speak it and be understood, why not spanish, french, german etc. etc.?
by 
the_swede
ANSWERS: 10
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The British Empire was/is the largest empire in the world, we spanned a quarter of the land on Earth and a quarter of the population in 1921. We became powerful around the scientific and industrial revolution, in fact we became quite powerful during the reign of King Henry VIII because we got rid of the restrictions imposed by Catholicism and allowed scientists from all over the globe somewhere to blossom (Copernicus for example was Polish but he came to England to study astronomy), and with our increased population of scientists we had most of the best inventions of the time. This is why English is everywhere, we took it everywhere we ruled. With a quarter of the globe knowing this language it was the everywhere and has remained because we have gone over the cusp of industry. The first global empire was the Portugese but they didn't have the technology that we had at our height of power.
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The British colonized alot of countrys, from America to India and Austrailia to Africa. "The sun nerver set on the British Empire" :-) The empire has gone, the language remains.
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You'd be surprised how many countries especially around Asia you can get by if you speak French, on islands, in particular. I think if you spoke English and French with a smattering of Spanish you could get by almost anywhere.
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Actually, more people speak Chinese, but the answer to your question is not just historical. It's also the fact that you can do more in English than in other languages. No disrespect intended to Easter Islanders, but even if their stone statues turned out to be worth a billion dollars each they couldn't launch a communications satellite without learning a different language. In some disciplines, everything that's important is either composed in English or translated into English. And in many areas, such as Europe, either you learn English or you learn five other languages. Finally, English is a fairly simple language--there is less grammar to memorize than in other languages. If a Chinese wishes to talk to a Japanese or Korean or both, they will all just learn English.
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Chinese and Hinustani are both used by more people than English. The reason English is spread around the world is cause of Anglo-American imperialism. The history of British colonialism and American corporatism around the world. The power of the American media, in particular Hollywood movies, also plays a big part.
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The most spoken language in the world is Manderin which is the main language of China, the second most spoken language is English and the third is Cantonese (again Chinese). The reason English is chosen over French, Spanish or German (ect) is that the countries that speak English as a first language far out number those of any other language when you take international importance into consideration. An example, South America, if you visit it it is best to speak spanish, yet portuguese is the language spoken by most people. The reason for this? Only Brazillians speak Portuguese.
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English is the most widespread language in the World, most Countries have English as a second language. It is the language of commerce, travel and the internet, for example all pilots must be able to communicate in English. Chinese is spoken by more people, but the question is how many non-Chinese people speak Chinese and how many Chinese speak English? Why? because of the British Empire, the largest empire in the history of humankind.
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mandarin chinese is the most used language in the world
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As on today English is the only Language which has the acceptance in most of the Countries. It will take many more years for other languages to reach the status of English.
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Spanish, French, German, Latin as well as many others had their moments in history. English is the dominant lanuage, perhaps since WWII. England began the rise of the English language by military conquests and colonization. My personal opinion was that French and Ferman were very competive languages in science and technology. With the outcome of WWII, the US with the English language clearly dominated science and technology. Briefly, it appeared that Japanese might take over due to their dominance in trade in the 1960 to 90's. Now it could become Chinese. English may remain dominant for a few centuries, but nothing is eternal. Latin has te record, I believe. Perhaps as much as 1500 years.
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