Did you know?
Click any word in a definition or example to find the entry for that word
What's your English?
Our 'What's your English?' campaign takes a trip around the English-speaking world, a world that is growing all the time. Country by country, a month at a time, we are asking English language users, learners, experts, artists, bloggers, tweeters, people who live there: What's your English?
We are collecting snapshots of English as it is spoken today by millions of people all over the world. We are celebrating English as a language without borders, itself made up of many other languages and still borrowing words and phrases all the time.
So, wherever you are, however you use it, we'd love to hear your answer to the question:
What's your English?
You can do this by joining in on conversations on the blog, on Facebook and on Twitter (we're @macdictionary), adding a word to the Open Dictionary or writing a guest blog post. Also, if you would like to answer the What's your English? question with a video, please send us the link on YouTube and we might include it on our YouTube page, link to it from the blog and tweet about it.
This month …
We're on the move again, with the start of Australian English month in our What's your English? campaign. We'd love to hear your experiences of Aussie English, so why not get in touch? Writer and editor Jesse Karjalainen kicks off with the first guest post:
The Australian accent is famous the world over but, when it comes to the nuts and bolts of Australian English, not everyone is aware of how, exactly, it is different from other forms of English. The best way to explain this is to answer the question: how is it similar? … more
In August, we turned to Indian English, with some fascinating guest posts - take a look. Here's an excerpt from just one of them:
Indian English is a smorgasbord of peculiarities and personalities, and I have lately come to realize that all those years when I was basking in pride at my impeccable grammar and not insignificant vocabulary, I should have spent more time learning to inject "Indianisms" into my writing … more
July was dedicated to American English and what a month it was! You'll find a collection of guest posts on the subject here and a taster below from just one of them:
My story isn't so unusual. In a way, I'm a perfect American, just like that Italian-American from Michigan Madonna is a perfect American, with the half-British diction she's been mocked back home for after years of living in England. To move between accents and dialects is part of human language behavior. But to me it seems poignantly and particularly American, with physical movement and social aspiration so big part of the national story … more
June was the month of South African English. You can read some fantastic guest posts on the subject. Here's a short excerpt from one of them:
Growing up in a country where a reasonably large number of insects (and indeed arachnids) are able to cause severe discomfort if not serious illness, it was quite reasonable to give the word as unpleasant a sound as the beasties it represented. I've always considered that the English creepy-crawlies lacked something in its daintiness … more
More submissions
view entriesBlog
A must for anyone with an interest in the changing face of language. The Macmillan Dictionary blog explores English as it is spoken around the world today.
global English and language change from our blog