Reach the world with English
Today, around 510 million people speak English as a first or second language. This makes English the language with the third largest number of native and second language speakers after Chinese and Hindi.
What’s more, many countries teach English as the first foreign language in schools. When taking into account the large number of native speakers as well as those speaking it as a second or foreign language, English is the most spoken language on the planet.
It is spoken as a first language in the United Kingdom, the USA, Australia, Ireland, Canada and New Zealand – while it is spoken as a second language in over fifty countries and on all continents.
English is also the official language of most international organisations and, alongside German and French, one of the three most used working languages of the EU, used every day in communications between European institutions.
In English, differences in word use and spelling emerge between different regions where it is written and spoken. It is therefore important for the translation process to know in which region your text will later be published.
Two reasons why you cannot afford to leave out an English translation:
- English lets you reach an extraordinary number of people, as it is the language spoken in the most countries. The total number of people who speak English in one form or another is around 1.5 billion. That is around 20% of the world’s population.
- 76% of the inhabitants of the UK made an online purchase within a one-month period in the last quarter of 2016. That puts the UK in first place. The USA is in fifth place with 67%. Canada and Australia are two more English-speaking countries that landed in the top 10 of this ranking. So if you are involved in e-commerce, a translation into English is a must.
