Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
Name	English
Familycolor	Indo-European
Pronunciation
Region	(see below)
Speakers	First language: 309–400 million Second language: 199 million–1.4 billionOverall: 500 million–1.8 billion
Fam2	Germanic
Fam3	West Germanic
Fam4	Anglo–Frisian
Fam5	Anglic
Script	English alphabet (Latin script)
Nation	54 countries27 non-sovereign entitiesUnited NationsEuropean UnionCommonwealth of Nations CoE NATO NAFTA OAS OIC PIF UKUSA
Iso1	en |iso2eng |iso3eng |lingua52-ABA
Map	Anglospeak.svg
Mapcaption	,
Notice	IPA }}

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria. Following the economic, political, military, scientific, cultural, and colonial influence of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from the 18th century, via the British Empire, and of the United States since the mid-20th century, it has been widely dispersed around the world, become the leading language of international discourse, and has acquired use as ''lingua franca'' in many regions. It is widely learned as a second language and used as an official language of the European Union and many Commonwealth countries, as well as in many world organizations. It is the third most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

Historically, English originated from the fusion of languages and dialects, now collectively termed Old English, which were brought to the eastern coast of Great Britain by Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) settlers by the 5th century – with the word ''English'' being derived from the name of the Angles. A significant number of English words are constructed based on roots from Latin, because Latin in some form was the ''lingua franca'' of the Christian Church and of European intellectual life. The language was further influenced by the Old Norse language due to Viking invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries.

The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to heavy borrowings from Norman-French, and vocabulary and spelling conventions began to give the superficial appearance of a close relationship with Romance languages to what had now become Middle English. The Great Vowel Shift that began in the south of England in the 15th century is one of the historical events that mark the emergence of Modern English from Middle English.

Owing to the significant assimilation of various European languages throughout history, modern English contains a very large vocabulary. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' lists over 250,000 distinct words, not including many technical or slang terms, or words that belong to multiple word classes.

Significance

Modern English, sometimes described as the first global lingua franca, is the dominant language or in some instances even the required international language of communications, science, information technology, business, seafaring, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. Its spread beyond the British Isles began with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late 19th century its reach was truly global . Following British colonisation from the 16th to 19th centuries, it became the dominant language in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The growing economic and cultural influence of the US and its status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's spread across the planet. English replaced German as the dominant language of science Nobel Prize laureates during the second half of the 20th century (compare the Evolution of Nobel Prizes by country).

A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level (see English language learning and teaching). It is one of six official languages of the United Nations.

One impact of the growth of English is the reduction of native linguistic diversity in many parts of the world. Its influence continues to play an important role in language attrition. Conversely, the natural internal variety of English along with creoles and pidgins have the potential to produce new distinct languages from English over time.

History

English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Old Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers from various parts of what is now northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. Up to that point, in Roman Britain the native population is assumed to have spoken the Celtic language Brythonic alongside the acrolectal influence of Latin, from the 400-year Roman occupation.

One of these incoming Germanic tribes was the Angles, whom Bede believed to have relocated entirely to Britain. The names 'England' (from ''Engla land'' "Land of the Angles") and ''English'' (Old English ''Englisc'') are derived from the name of this tribe—but Saxons, Jutes and a range of Germanic peoples from the coasts of Frisia, Lower Saxony, Jutland and Southern Sweden also moved to Britain in this era.

Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Great Britain but one of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate, and it is in this that the poem ''Beowulf'' is written.

Old English was later transformed by two waves of invasion. The first was by speakers of the North Germanic language branch when Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless started the conquering and colonisation of northern parts of the British Isles in the 8th and 9th centuries (see Danelaw). The second was by speakers of the Romance language Old Norman in the 11th century with the Norman conquest of England. Norman developed into Anglo-Norman, and then Anglo-French – and introduced a layer of words especially via the courts and government. As well as extending the lexicon with Scandinavian and Norman words these two events also simplified the grammar and transformed English into a borrowing language—more than normally open to accept new words from other languages.

The linguistic shifts in English following the Norman invasion produced what is now referred to as Middle English, with Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbury Tales'' being the best known work.

Throughout all this period Latin in some form was the ''lingua franca'' of European intellectual life, first the Medieval Latin of the Christian Church, but later the humanist Renaissance Latin, and those that wrote or copied texts in Latin commonly coined new terms from Latin to refer to things or concepts for which there was no existing native English word.

Modern English, which includes the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible, is generally dated from about 1550, and when the United Kingdom became a colonial power, English served as the lingua franca of the colonies of the British Empire. In the post-colonial period, some of the newly created nations which had multiple indigenous languages opted to continue using English as the lingua franca to avoid the political difficulties inherent in promoting any one indigenous language above the others. As a result of the growth of the British Empire, English was adopted in North America, India, Africa, Australia and many other regions, a trend extended with the emergence of the United States as a superpower in the mid-20th century.

Classification and related languages

The English language belongs to the Anglo-Frisian sub-group of the West Germanic branch of the Germanic family, a member of the Indo-European languages. Modern English is the direct descendant of Middle English, itself a direct descendant of Old English, a descendant of Proto-Germanic. Typical of most Germanic languages, English is characterised by the use of modal verbs, the division of verbs into strong and weak classes, and common sound shifts from Proto-Indo-European known as Grimm's Law. The closest living relatives of English are the Scots language (spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Ireland) and Frisian (spoken on the southern fringes of the North Sea in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany).

After Scots and Frisian come those Germanic languages that are more distantly related: the non-Anglo-Frisian West Germanic languages (Dutch, Afrikaans, Low German, High German), and the North Germanic languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese). With the (partial) exception of Scots, none of the other languages is mutually intelligible with English, owing in part to the divergences in lexis, syntax, semantics, and phonology, and to the isolation afforded to the English language by the British Isles, although some, such as Dutch, do show strong affinities with English, especially to earlier stages of the language. Isolation has allowed English and Scots (as well as Icelandic and Faroese) to develop independently of the Continental Germanic languages and their influences over time.

In addition to isolation, lexical differences between English and other Germanic languages exist due to heavy borrowing in English of words from Latin and French. For example, compare "exit" (Latin), vs. Dutch ''uitgang'', literally "out-going" (though ''outgang'' survives dialectally in restricted usage) and "change" (French) vs. German ''Änderung'' (literally "alteration, othering"); "movement" (French) vs. German ''Bewegung'' ("be-way-ing", i.e. "proceeding along the way"); etc. Preference of one synonym over another also causes differentiation in lexis, even where both words are Germanic, as in English ''care'' vs. German ''Sorge''. Both words descend from Proto-Germanic *''karō'' and *''surgō'' respectively, but *''karō'' has become the dominant word in English for "care" while in German, Dutch, and Scandinavian languages, the *''surgō'' root prevailed. *''Surgō'' still survives in English, however, as ''sorrow''.

Despite lexical borrowing, English retains classification as a Germanic language due to its structure and grammar. Non-native words are incorporated into a Germanic system of conjugation, declension, and syntax (For example, the word ''reduce'' is borrowed from Latin ''redūcere''; however, in English we say "I reduce"/"I reduced"/"I will reduce" rather than "redūcō"/"redūxī"/"redūcam"). Furthermore, in English, all basic grammatical particles added to nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are Germanic. For nouns, these include the normal plural marker ''-s''/''-es'', and the possessive markers '' -'s'' and ''-s' ''. For verbs, these include the third person present ending ''-s''/''-es'' (e.g. ''he stands''/''he reaches'' ), the present participle ending ''-ing'', the simple past tense and past participle ending ''-ed'', and the formation of the English infinitive using ''to'' (e.g. "''to'' drive"; cf. Old English ''tō'' drīfenne). Adverbs generally receive an ''-ly'' ending, and adjectives and adverbs are inflected for the comparative and superlative using ''-er'' and ''-est'' (e.g. ''fast/faster/fastest''), or through a combination with ''more'' and ''most''. These particles append freely to all English words regardless of origin (''tsunamis; communicates; to buccaneer; during; bizarrely'') and all derive from Old English. Even the lack or absence of affixes, known as zero or null (-Ø) affixes, derive from endings which previously existed in Old English (usually ''-e, -a, -u, -o, -an,'' etc.), that later weakened to ''-e'', and have since ceased to be pronounced and spelt (e.g. Modern English "I sing" = ''I sing-Ø'' < ''I singe'' < Old English ''ic singe''; "we thought" = ''we thought-Ø'' < ''we thoughte(n)'' < Old English ''wē þōhton'').

Although the syntax of English is somewhat different from that of other West Germanic languages with regards to the placement and order of verbs (for example, "I have never seen anything in the square" = German ''Ich habe nie etwas auf dem Platz gesehen'', and the Dutch ''Ik heb nooit iets op het plein gezien'', where the participle is placed at the end), English syntax continues to adhere closely to that of the North Germanic languages, which are believed to have influenced English syntax during the Middle English Period (e.g., Danish ''Jeg har aldrig set noget på torvet''; Icelandic ''Ég hef aldrei séð neitt á torginu''). As in most Germanic languages, English adjectives usually come before the noun they modify, even when the adjective is of Latinate origin (e.g. ''medical emergency, national treasure''). Also, English continues to make extensive use of self-explaining compounds (e.g. ''streetcar, classroom''), and nouns which serve as modifiers (e.g. ''lamp post, life insurance company''), traits inherited from Old English (See also Kenning).

The kinship with other Germanic languages can also be seen in the tensing of English verbs (e.g. English ''fall/fell/fallen/will or shall fall'', West Frisian ''fal/foel/fallen/sil falle'', Dutch ''vallen/viel/gevallen/zullen vallen'', German ''fallen/fiell/gefallen/werden fallen''), the comparatives of adjectives and adverbs (e.g. English ''good/better/best'', West Frisian ''goed/better/best'', Dutch ''goed/beter/best'', German ''gut/besser/best''), and the large amount of cognates (e.g. English ''wet'', Scots ''weet'', West Frisian ''wiet'', Swedish ''våt''; English ''send'', Dutch ''zenden'', German ''senden''; English ''meaning'', Swedish ''mening'', Icelandic ''meining'', etc.). It also gives rise to false friends (e.g. English ''time'' vs Norwegian ''time'', meaning "hour"; English ''gift'' vs German ''Gift'', meaning "poison"), while differences in phonology can obscure words that really are related (''tooth'' vs. German ''Zahn''; compare also Danish ''tand''). Sometimes both semantics ''and'' phonology are different (German ''Zeit'' ("time") is related to English "tide", but the English word, through a transitional phase of meaning "period"/"interval", has come primarily to mean gravitational effects on the ocean by the moon, though the original meaning is preserved in forms like ''tidings'' and ''betide'', and phrases such as ''to tide over'').

Many North Germanic words entered English due to the settlement of Viking raiders and Danish invasions which began around the 9th century (see Danelaw). Many of these words are common words, often mistaken for being native, which shows how close-knit the relations between the English and the Scandinavian settlers were (''See below: Old Norse origins''). Dutch and Low German also had a considerable influence on English vocabulary, contributing common everyday terms and many nautical and trading terms (''See below: Dutch and Low German origins'').

Finally, English has been forming compound words and affixing existing words separately from the other Germanic languages for over 1500 years and has different habits in that regard. For instance, abstract nouns in English may be formed from native words by the suffixes "‑hood", "-ship", "-dom" and "-ness". All of these have cognate suffixes in most or all other Germanic languages, but their usage patterns have diverged, as German "Freiheit" vs. English "freedom" (the suffix "-heit" being cognate of English "-hood", while English "-dom" is cognate with German "-tum"). The Germanic languages Icelandic and Faroese also follow English in this respect, since, like English, they developed independent of German influences.

Many French words are also intelligible to an English speaker, especially when they are seen in writing (as pronunciations are often quite different), because English absorbed a large vocabulary from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest, and directly from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (e.g. inflectional endings, use of old French spellings, lack of diacritics, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning of so-called false friends: for example, compare "library" with the French ''librairie'', which means bookstore; in French, the word for "library" is ''bibliothèque''. The pronunciation of most French loanwords in English (with the exception of a handful of more recently borrowed words such as ''mirage'', ''genre'', ''café''; or phrases like ''coup d’état'', ''rendez-vous'', etc.) has become largely anglicised and follows a typically English phonology and pattern of stress (compare English "nature" vs. French ''nature'', "button" vs. ''bouton'', "table" vs. ''table'', "hour" vs. ''heure'', "reside" vs. ''résider'', etc.).

Geographical distribution

Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects").

Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined and measured. Linguistics professor David Crystal calculates that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.

The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), United Kingdom (61 million), Canada (18.2 million), Australia (15.5 million), Nigeria (4 million), Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), and New Zealand (3.6 million) 2006 Census.

Countries such as the Philippines, Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English'). Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world.

Countries in order of total speakers

96% 125,344,736 79,000,000 59,600,000 48,800,000 25,246,220 18,172,989

Country	Comment
United States of America	251,388,301	|	215,423,557	35,964,744	262,375,152	Source: US Census 2000: Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2000, Table 1. Figure for second language speakers are respondents who reported they do not speak English at home but know it "very well" or "well". Note: figures are for population age 5 and older
India	|	12%	226,449	86,125,221 ''second'' language speakers. 38,993,066 ''third'' language speakers	1,028,737,436	Figures include both those who speak English as a ''second language'' and those who speak it as a ''third language''. 2001 figures. The figures include English ''speakers'', but not English ''users''.
Nigeria	|	53%	4,000,000	>75,000,000	148,000,000	Figures are for speakers of Nigerian Pidgin, an English-based pidgin or creole. Ihemere gives a range of roughly 3 to 5 million native speakers; the midpoint of the range is used in the table. Ihemere, Kelechukwu Uchechukwu. 2006. "A Basic Description and Analytic Treatment of Noun Clauses in Nigerian Pidgin." ''Nordic Journal of African Studies'' 15(3): 296–313.
United Kingdom	|	98%	58,100,000	1,500,000	60,000,000	Source: Crystal (2005), p. 109.
Philippines	|	58%	3,427,000	43,974,000	84,566,000	Total speakers: Census 2000, text above Figure 7. 63.71% of the 66.7 million people aged 5 years or more could speak English. Native speakers: Census 1995, as quoted by Andrew González in The Language Planning Situation in the Philippines, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 19 (5&6), 487–525. (1998). Ethnologue lists 3.4 million native speakers with 52% of the population speaking it as an additional language.
Canada	|	85%	17,694,830	7,551,390	29,639,030	Source: 2001 Census – Knowledge of Official Languages and Mother Tongue. The native speakers figure comprises 122,660 people with both French and English as a mother tongue, plus 17,572,170 people with English and not French as a mother tongue.
Australia	|	92%	15,581,329	2,591,660	19,855,288	Source: 2006 Census. The figure shown in the first language English speakers column is actually the number of Australian residents who speak only English at home. The additional language column shows the number of other residents who claim to speak English "well" or "very well". Another 5% of residents did not state their home language or English proficiency.

Countries where English is a major language

English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey, Guyana, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jamaica, Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In some countries where English is not the most spoken language, it is an official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines (Philippine English), Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given equal status in South Africa (South African English). English is also the official language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and Cocos Island) and of the United States (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands), and the former British colony of Hong Kong. (See List of countries where English is an official language for more details.)

English is not an official language in the United States. Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. Although falling short of official status, English is also an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of the United Kingdom, such as Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cyprus, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates.

English as a global language

Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the ''lingua franca'' of the modern era, and while it is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural property of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications. English is an official language of the United Nations and many other international organisations, including the International Olympic Committee.

English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union, by 89% of schoolchildren, ahead of French at 32%, while the perception of the usefulness of foreign languages amongst Europeans is 68% in favour of English ahead of 25% for French. Among some non-English speaking EU countries, a large percentage of the adult population can converse in English – in particular: 85% in Sweden, 83% in Denmark, 79% in the Netherlands, 66% in Luxembourg and over 50% in Finland, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, and Germany.

Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world, and English is the most commonly used language in the sciences with Science Citation Index reporting as early as 1997 that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries.

This increasing use of the English language globally has had a large impact on many other languages, leading to language shift and even language death, and to claims of linguistic imperialism. English itself is now open to language shift as multiple regional varieties feed back into the language as a whole.

Dialects and regional varieties

The expansion of the British Empire and—since World War II—the influence of the United States have spread English around the world. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creole languages and pidgins.

Several educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the world,. In the United Kingdom much emphasis is placed on Received Pronunciation, an educated dialect of South East England. General American, which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) that have had either close association with the United States, or a desire to be so identified. In Oceania, the major native dialect of Australian English is spoken as a first language by the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Australian continent, with General Australian serving as the standard accent. The English of neighbouring New Zealand as well as that of South Africa have to a lesser degree been influential native varieties of the language.

Aside from these major dialects, there are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several subvarieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's Académie française; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed.

Scots has its origins in early Northern Middle English and developed and changed during its history with influence from other sources, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from Standard English, causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute, although the UK government now accepts Scots as a regional language and has recognised it as such under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. There are a number of regional dialects of Scots, and pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English.

English speakers have many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For the most distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English, and for a complete list of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Within England, variation is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than grammar or vocabulary. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of ''lexical attrition'' has led most of this variation to die out.

Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creole languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words.

Constructed varieties of English

Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners.

E-Prime excludes forms of the verb ''to be''.

English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language.

Manually Coded English constitutes a variety of systems that have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English.

Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas. There is also a tunnelspeak for use in the Channel Tunnel.

Simplified Technical English was historically developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals and is now used in various industries.

Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words.

Phonology

Vowels

It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Length is not phonemic in most varieties of North American English.

!International Phonetic Alphabet

IPA !	word
monophthongs
	bd
	bd
	bd
	bd
	bx
	ped
	br
	gd
	bed
	bd
	bd
	Ros's
	ross
colspan="2" style="text-align:left; background:#dedede"	diphthongs
	bed
	bde
	cr
	c
	b
	b
	f

Notes for vowels

Consonants

This is the English consonantal system using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

!	bilabial consonant>Bilabial	labiodental consonant>Labio-dental	interdental consonant>Dental	alveolar consonant>Alveolar	postalveolar consonant>Post-alveolar	palatal consonant>Palatal	velar consonant>Velar	Labial-velar consonant>Labial-velar	glottal consonant>Glottal
nasal consonant>Nasal
Stop consonant>Plosive
affricate consonant>Affricate
fricative consonant>Fricative
flap consonant>Flap					style="text-align:center;" | is an allophone of and in unstressed syllables in North American English and Australian English. This is the sound of ''tt'' or ''dd'' in the words ''latter'' and ''ladder'', which are homophones for many speakers of North American English. In some accents such as Scottish English and Indian English it replaces . This is the same sound represented by single ''r'' in most varieties of Spanish.|group=cn|name=c2}}
approximant consonant>Approximant
lateral consonant>Lateral

Notes for consonants

Voicing and aspiration

Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given: Voiceless plosives and affricates (, , , and ) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable compare ''pin'' and ''spin'' , ''crap'' and ''scrap'' .

* In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well.

* In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated.

Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects.

Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: ''tap'' , ''sack'' . Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) examples: ''sad'' , ''bag'' . In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position.

Supra-segmental features

Tone groups

English is an intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically; for example, to convey surprise or irony, or to change a statement into a question.

In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups, or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. For example:

: ''Do you need anything?'' : ''I don't, no'' : ''I don't know'' (contracted to, for example, or ''I dunno'' in fast or colloquial speech that de-emphasises the pause between 'don't' and 'know' even further)

Characteristics of intonation—stress

English is a strongly stressed language, in that certain syllables, both within words and within phrases, get a relative prominence/loudness during pronunciation while the others do not. The former kind of syllables are said to be ''accentuated/stressed'' and the latter are ''unaccentuated/unstressed''. Stress can also be used in English to distinguish between certain verbs and their noun counterparts. For example, in the case of the verb ''contract'', the second syllable is stressed: ; in case of the corresponding noun, the first syllable is stressed: . Vowels in unstressed syllables can also change in quality, hence the verb ''contract'' often becomes (and indeed is listed in Oxford English Dictionary as) . In each word, there can be only one principal stress, but in long words, there can be secondary stress(es) too, e.g. in ''civilisation'' , the 1st syllable carries the secondary stress, the 4th syllable carries the primary stress, and the other syllables are unstressed.

Hence in a sentence, each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). The stressed syllable is called the nuclear syllable. For example:

: ''That | was | the | best | thing | you | could | have | done!''

Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words ''best'' and ''done'', which are stressed. ''Best'' is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable.

The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example:

: ''John'' had not stolen that money. (... Someone else had.) : John ''had not'' stolen that money. (... Someone said he had. or... Not at that time, but later he did.) : John had not ''stolen'' that money. (... He acquired the money by some other means.) : John had not stolen ''that'' money. (... He had stolen some other money.) : John had not stolen that ''money''. (... He had stolen something else.)

Also

: ''I'' did not tell her that. (... Someone else told her) : I ''did not'' tell her that. (... You said I did. or... but now I will) : I did not ''tell'' her that. (... I did not say it; she could have inferred it, etc) : I did not tell ''her'' that. (... I told someone else) : I did not tell her ''that''. (... I told her something else)

This can also be used to express emotion:

: ''Oh'', really? (...I did not know that) : Oh, ''really''? (...I disbelieve you. or... That is blatantly obvious)

The nuclear syllable is spoken more loudly than the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. In this opposition between falling and rising pitch, which plays a larger role in English than in most other languages, falling pitch conveys certainty and rising pitch uncertainty. This can have a crucial impact on meaning, specifically in relation to polarity, the positive–negative opposition; thus, falling pitch means, "polarity known", while rising pitch means "polarity unknown". This underlies the rising pitch of yes/no questions. For example:

: ''When do you want to be paid?'' : ''Now?'' (Rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: "Can I be paid now?" or "Do you desire to pay now?") : ''Now.'' (Falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: "I choose to be paid now.")

Grammar

English grammar has minimal inflection compared with most other Indo-European languages. For example, Modern English, unlike Modern German or Dutch and the Romance languages, lacks grammatical gender and adjectival agreement. Case marking has almost disappeared from the language and mainly survives in pronouns. The patterning of strong (e.g. ''speak/spoke/spoken'') versus weak verbs (e.g. ''love/loved or kick/kicked'') inherited from its Germanic origins has declined in importance in modern English, and the remnants of inflection (such as plural marking) have become more regular.

At the same time, the language has become more analytic, and has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect.

Vocabulary

The English vocabulary has changed considerably over the centuries.

Like many languages deriving from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), many of the most common words in English can trace back their origin (through the Germanic branch) to PIE. Such words include the basic pronouns ''I'', from Old English ''ic'', (cf. German ''Ich'', Gothic ''ik'', Latin ''ego'', Greek ''ego'', Sanskrit ''aham''), ''me'' (cf. German ''mich, mir'', Gothic ''mik, mīs'', Latin ''mē'', Greek ''eme'', Sanskrit ''mam''), numbers (e.g. ''one'', ''two'', ''three'', cf. Dutch ''een'', ''twee'', ''drie'', Gothic ''ains'', ''twai'', ''threis (þreis)'', Latin ''ūnus, duo, trēs'', Greek ''oinos'' "ace (on dice)", ''duo, treis''), common family relationships such as mother, father, brother, sister etc. (cf. Dutch ''moeder'', Greek ''meter'', Latin ''mater'', Sanskrit ''matṛ''; ''mother''), names of many animals (cf. German ''Maus'', Dutch ''muis'', Sanskrit ''mus'', Greek ''mus'', Latin ''mūs''; ''mouse''), and many common verbs (cf. Old High German ''knājan'', Old Norse ''knā'', Greek ''gignōmi'', Latin ''gnoscere'', Hittite ''kanes'';'' to know'').

Germanic words (generally words of Old English or to a lesser extent Old Norse origin) tend to be shorter than Latinate words, and are more common in ordinary speech, and include nearly all the basic pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, modal verbs etc. that form the basis of English syntax and grammar. The shortness of the words is generally due to syncope in Middle English (e.g. OldEng ''hēafod'' > ModEng ''head'', OldEng ''sāwol'' > ModEng ''soul'') and to the loss of final syllables due to stress (e.g. OldEng ''gamen'' > ModEng ''game'', OldEng ''ǣrende'' > ModEng ''errand''), not because Germanic words are inherently shorter than Latinate words (the lengthier, higher-register words of Old English were largely forgotten following the subjugation of English after the Norman Conquest, and most of the Old English lexis devoted to literature, the arts, and sciences ceased to be productive when it fell into disuse. Only the shorter, more direct, words of Old English tended to pass into the Modern language.) Consequently, those words which tend to be regarded as elegant or educated in Modern English are usually Latinate. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is considered at times to be either pretentious or an attempt to obfuscate an issue. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language", considered an important scrutinisation of the English language, is critical of this, as well as other perceived misuses of the language.

An English speaker is in many cases able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: ''come'' or ''arrive''; ''sight'' or ''vision''; ''freedom'' or ''liberty''. In some cases, there is a choice between a Germanic derived word (''oversee''), a Latin derived word (''supervise''), and a French word derived from the same Latin word (''survey''); or even words derived from Norman French (e.g., ''warranty'') and Parisian French (''guarantee''), and even choices involving multiple Germanic and Latinate sources are possible: ''sickness'' (Old English), ''ill'' (Old Norse), ''infirmity'' (French), ''affliction'' (Latin). Such synonyms harbor a variety of different meanings and nuances. Yet the ability to choose between multiple synonyms is not a consequence of French and Latin influence, as this same richness existed in English prior to the extensive borrowing of French and Latin terms. Old English was extremely resourceful in its ability to express synonyms and shades of meaning on its own, in many respects rivaling or exceeding that of Modern English (synonyms numbering in the thirties for certain concepts were not uncommon). Take for instance the various ways to express the word "astronomer" or "astrologer" in Old English: ''tunglere, tungolcræftiga, tungolwītega, tīdymbwlātend, tīdscēawere''. In Modern English, however, the role of such synonyms has largely been replaced in favour of equivalents taken from Latin, French, and Greek. Familiarity with the etymology of groups of synonyms can give English speakers greater control over their linguistic register. See: List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English, Doublet (linguistics).

An exception to this and a peculiarity perhaps unique to a handful of languages, English included, is that the nouns for meats are commonly different from, and unrelated to, those for the animals from which they are produced, the animal commonly having a Germanic name and the meat having a French-derived one. Examples include: ''deer'' and ''venison''; ''cow'' and ''beef''; ''swine''/''pig'' and ''pork''; and ''sheep''/''lamb'' and ''mutton''. This is assumed to be a result of the aftermath of the Norman conquest of England, where an Anglo-Norman-speaking elite were the consumers of the meat, produced by lower classes, which happened to be largely Anglo-Saxon, though this same duality can also be seen in other languages like French, which did not undergo such linguistic upheaval (e.g. ''boeuf'' "beef" vs. ''vache'' "cow"). With the exception of ''beef'' and ''pork'', the distinction today is gradually becoming less and less pronounced (''venison'' is commonly referred to simply as ''deer meat'', ''mutton'' is ''lamb'', and ''chicken'' is both the animal and the meat over the more traditional term ''poultry''. (Use of the term ''mutton'', however, remains, especially when referring to the meat of an older sheep, distinct from ''lamb''; and ''poultry'' remains when referring to the meat of birds and fowls in general. Use of the term ''swineflesh'' for ''pork'', is also widespread, especially in religious contexts)

There are Latinate words that are used in everyday speech. These words no longer appear Latinate and oftentimes have no Germanic equivalents. For instance, the words ''mountain'', ''valley'', ''river'', ''aunt'', ''uncle'', ''move'', ''use'', ''push'' and ''stay ("to remain")'' are Latinate. Likewise, the inverse can occur: ''acknowledge'', ''meaningful'', ''understanding'', ''mindful'', ''behaviour'', ''forbearance'', ''behoove'', ''forestall'', ''allay'', ''rhyme'', ''starvation'', ''embodiment'' come from Anglo-Saxon, and ''allegiance'', ''abandonment'', ''debutant'', ''feudalism'', ''seizure'', ''guarantee'', ''disregard'', ''wardrobe'', ''disenfranchise'', ''disarray'', ''bandolier'', ''bourgeoisie'', ''debauchery'', ''performance'', ''furniture'', ''gallantry'' are of Germanic origin, usually through the Germanic element in French, so it is oftentimes impossible to know the origin of a word based on its register.

English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and often imports new words and phrases. Examples of this phenomenon include contemporary words such as ''cookie'', ''Internet'' and ''URL'' (technical terms), as well as ''genre'', ''über'', ''lingua franca'' and ''amigo'' (imported words/phrases from French, German, Italian, and Spanish, respectively). In addition, slang often provides new meanings for old words and phrases. In fact, this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage.

Number of words in English

The ''General Explanations'' at the beginning of the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states:

The current FAQ for the ''OED'' further states: }}

The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages such as French (the Académie française), German (Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung), Spanish (Real Academia Española) and Italian (Accademia della Crusca), there is no academy to define officially accepted words and spellings. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science, technology and other fields, and new slang is constantly developed. Some of these new words enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might or might not be widely considered as "English".

The ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' 2nd edition ''(OED2)'' includes over 600,000 definitions, following a rather inclusive policy:

}}

The editors of ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged'' (475,000 main headwords) in their preface, estimate the number to be much higher. It is estimated that about 25,000 words are added to the language each year.

The Global Language Monitor announced that the English language had crossed the 1,000,000-word threshold on 10 June 2009. The announcement was met with strong scepticism by linguists and lexicographers, though a number of non-specialist reports accepted the figure uncritically. However, in December 2010 a joint Harvard/Google study found the language to contain 1,022,000 words and was expanding at the rate of 8,500 words per year. The findings came from the computer analysis of 5,195,769 digitised books. The difference between the Google/Harvard estimate and that of the Global Language Monitor is about thirteen thousandth of one percent.

Comparisons of the vocabulary size of English to that of other languages are generally not taken very seriously by linguists and lexicographers. Besides the fact that dictionaries will vary in their policies for including and counting entries, what is meant by a given language and what counts as a word do not have simple definitions. Also, a definition of word that works for one language may not work well in another, with differences in morphology and orthography making cross-linguistic definitions and word-counting difficult, and potentially giving very different results. Linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum has gone so far as to compare concerns over vocabulary size (and the notion that a supposedly larger lexicon leads to "greater richness and precision") to an obsession with penis length.

Word origins

One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words that are Germanic (mostly West Germanic, with a smaller influence from the North Germanic branch) and those that are "Latinate" (derived directly from Latin, or through Norman French or other Romance languages). The situation is further compounded, as French, particularly Old French and Anglo-French, were also contributors in English of significant numbers of Germanic words, mostly from the Frankish element in French (see ''List of English Latinates of Germanic origin'').

The majority (estimates range from roughly 50% to more than 80%) of the thousand most common English words are Germanic. However, the majority of more advanced words in subjects such as the sciences, philosophy and mathematics come from Latin or Greek, with Arabic also providing many words in astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry.

1st 1,000 97% 3% 0 0

+ Source of the most frequent 7,476 English words		1st 100	|	2nd 1,000	then on
Germanic	|	57%	39%	36%
Italic	|	36%	51%	51%
Hellenic	|	4%	4%	7%
Others	|	3%	6%	6%
Source:

Numerous sets of statistics have been proposed to demonstrate the proportionate origins of English vocabulary. None, as of yet, is considered definitive by most linguists.

A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old ''Shorter Oxford Dictionary'' (3rd ed.) was published in ''Ordered Profusion'' by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows:

''Langue d'oïl'', including French and Old Norman: 28.3%

Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24%

Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English; does not include Germanic words coming from the Germanic element in French, Latin or other Romance languages): 25%

Greek: 5.32%

No etymology given: 4.03%

Derived from proper names: 3.28%

All other languages: less than 1%

A survey by Joseph M. Williams in ''Origins of the English Language'' of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics:

French (langue d'oïl): 41%

"Native" English: 33%

Latin: 15%

Old Norse: 2%

Dutch: 1%

Other: 10%

French origins

A large portion of English vocabulary is of French or Langues d'oïl origin, and was transmitted to English via the Anglo-Norman language spoken by the upper classes in England in the centuries following the Norman Conquest. Words of Norman-French origin include ''competition'', ''mountain'', ''art'', ''table'', ''publicity'', ''police'', ''role'', ''routine'', ''machine'' and ''force''. As a result of the length of time they have been in use in English, these words have been anglicised to fit English rules of phonology, pronunciation and spelling.

Some French words were adopted during the 17th to 19th centuries, when French was the dominant language of Western international politics and trade. These words can normally be distinguished because they retain French rules for pronunciation and spelling, including diacritics, are often phrases rather than single words, and are sometimes written in italics. Examples include façade, table d'hôte and affaire de cœur. These words and phrases retain their French spelling and pronunciation because historically their French origin was emphasised to denote the speaker as educated or well-travelled at a time when education and travelling was still restricted to the middle and upper classes, and so their use implied a higher social status in the user. ''(See also: French phrases used by English speakers)''.

Old Norse origins

Many words of Old Norse origin have entered the English language, primarily from the Viking colonisation of eastern and northern England between 800–1000 CE during the Danelaw. These include common words such as ''anger, awe, bag, big, birth, blunder, both, cake, call, cast, cosy, cross, cut, die, dirt, drag, drown, egg, fellow, flat, flounder, gain, get, gift, give, guess, guest, gust, hug, husband, ill, kid, law, leg, lift, likely, link, loan, loose, low, mistake, odd, race (running), raise, root, rotten, same, scale, scare, score, seat, seem, sister, skill, skin, skirt, skull, sky, stain, steak, sway, take, though, thrive, Thursday, tight, till (until), trust, ugly, want, weak, window, wing, wrong'', the pronoun ''they'' (and its forms), and even the verb ''are'' (the present plural form of ''to be'') through a merger of Old English and Old Norse cognates. More recent Scandinavian imports include ''angstrom, fjord, geyser, kraken, litmus, nickel, ombudsman, saga, ski, slalom, smorgasbord, and tungsten''.

Dutch and Low German origins

Many words describing the navy, types of ships, and other objects or activities on the water are of Dutch origin. ''Yacht'', ''skipper'', ''cruiser'', ''flag'', ''freight'', ''furlough'', ''breeze'', ''hoist'', ''iceberg'', ''boom'', ''duck'' ("fabric, cloth"), and ''maelstrom'' are examples. Other words pertain to art and daily life: ''easel'', ''etch'', ''slim'', ''staple'' (Middle Dutch ''stapel'' "market"), ''slip'' (Middle Dutch ''slippen''), ''landscape'', ''cookie'', ''curl'', ''shock'', ''aloof'', ''boss'', ''brawl'' (''brallen'' "to boast"), ''smack'' (''smakken'' "to hurl down"), ''shudder'', ''scum'', ''peg'', ''coleslaw'', ''waffle'', ''dope'' (''doop'' "dipping sauce"), ''slender'' (Old Dutch ''slinder''), ''slight'', ''gas'', ''pump''. Dutch has also contributed to English slang, e.g. ''spook'', and the now obsolete ''snyder'' (tailor) and ''stiver'' (small coin).

Words from Low German include ''bluster, cower, dollar, drum, geek, grab, lazy, mate, monkey, mud, ogle, orlop, paltry, poll, poodle, prong, scurvy, smug, smuggle, trade''.

Writing system

Since around the 9th century, English has been written in the Latin alphabet, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; it has grown to vary significantly from the phonology of the language. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken.

Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. Some phonics spelling advocates claim that English is more than 80% phonetic. However, English has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the letter sequence ''ough'' can be pronounced in 10 different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging.

It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. "English-speaking children take up to two years more to learn reading than do children in 12 other European countries."(Professor Philip H K Seymour, University of Dundee, 2001) "[dyslexia] is twice as prevalent among dyslexics in the United States (and France) as it is among Italian dyslexics. Again, this is seen to be because of Italian's 'transparent' orthography." (Eraldo Paulesu and 11 others. Science, 2001)

Basic consonant sound-letter correspondence

t, th ''(rarely) thyme, Thames''

IPA	Alphabetic representation
	p
	b
	| th ''thing'' ''(African American, New York)''
	d
	c ''(+ a, o, u, consonants)'', k, ck, ch, qu ''(rarely) conquer'', kh ''(in foreign words)''
	g, gh, gu ''(+ a, e, i)'', gue ''(final position)''
	m
	n
	n ''(before g or k)'', ng
	f, ph, gh ''(final, infrequent) laugh, rough''
	v
	th ''thick, think, through''
	th ''that, this, the''
	s, c ''(+ e, i, y)'', sc ''(+ e, i, y)'', ç often c ''(façade/facade)''
	z, s ''(finally or occasionally medially)'', ss ''(rarely) possess, dessert'', word-initial x ''xylophone''
	sh, sch (some dialects) ''schedule'' (plus words of German origin), ti (before vowel) ''portion'', ci/ce (before vowel) ''suspicion'', ''ocean''; si/ssi (before vowel) ''tension'', ''mission''; ch ''(esp. in words of French origin)''; rarely s/ss before u ''sugar'', ''issue''; chsi in ''fuchsia'' only
	medial si (before vowel) ''division'', medial s (before "ur") ''pleasure'', zh ''(in foreign words)'', z before u ''azure'', g ''(in words of French origin) (+e, i, y) genre'', j ''(in words of French origin) bijou''
	kh, ch, h ''(in foreign words)''
	h ''(syllable-initially, otherwise silent)'', j ''(in words of Spanish origin) jai alai''
	ch, tch, t before u ''future'', ''culture''
	j, g ''(+ e, i, y)'', dg ''(+ e, i, consonant) badge, judg(e)ment''
	r, wr (initial) ''wrangle''
	y ''(initially or surrounded by vowels)'', j ''hallelujah''
alveolar lateral approximant	l	l
	w
	wh (''pronounced'' hw)

Written accents

Unlike most other Germanic languages, English has almost no diacritics except in foreign loanwords (like the acute accent in ''café''), and in the uncommon use of a diaeresis mark (often in formal writing) to indicate that two vowels are pronounced separately, rather than as one sound (e.g. ''naïve, Zoë''). Words such as ''décor'', ''café'', ''résumé''/'''', ''entrée'', ''fiancée'' and ''naïve'' are frequently spelled both with or without diacritics.

Some English words retain diacritics to distinguish them from others, such as ''animé, exposé, lamé, öre, pâté, piqué,'' and ''rosé'', though these are sometimes also dropped (for example, ''résumé/'', is often spelt ''resume'' in the United States). To clarify pronunciation, a small number of loanwords may employ a diacritic that does not appear in the original word, such as ''maté'', from Spanish ''yerba mate'', or ''Malé'', the capital of the Maldives, following the French usage.

Formal written English

A version of the language almost universally agreed upon by educated English speakers around the world is called formal written English. It takes virtually the same form regardless of where it is written, in contrast to spoken English, which differs significantly between dialects, accents, and varieties of slang and of colloquial and regional expressions. Local variations in the formal written version of the language are quite limited, being restricted largely to minor spelling, lexical and grammatical differences between British, American, Canadian and Australian English.

Basic and simplified versions

To make English easier to read, there are some simplified versions of the language. One basic version is named ''Basic English'', a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book ''Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar'' (1930). The language is based on a simplified version of English. Ogden said that it would take seven years to learn English, seven months for Esperanto, and seven weeks for Basic English. Thus, Basic English may be employed by companies that need to make complex books for international use, as well as by language schools that need to give people some knowledge of English in a short time.

Ogden did not include any words in Basic English that could be said with a combination of other words, and he worked to make the vocabulary suitable for speakers of any other language. He put his vocabulary selections through a large number of tests and adjustments. Ogden also simplified the grammar but tried to keep it normal for English users. Although it was not built into a program, similar simplifications were devised for various international uses.

Another version, Simplified English, exists, which is a controlled language originally developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardised subset of English. Simplified English has a lexicon of approved words and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word ''close'' can be used in the phrase "Close the door" but not "do not go close to the landing gear".

See also

Changes to Old English vocabulary

English for Academic Purposes

English language in Europe

English language learning and teaching

Language Report

Lists of English words

Teaching English as a foreign language

''The Adventure of English'' (film)

''The Story of English''

References

Bibliographic

Cercignani, Fausto, ''Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation'', Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1981.

Kenyon, John Samuel and Knott, Thomas Albert, ''A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English'', G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA,1953.

}}

External links

Accents of English from Around the World (University of Edinburgh) Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world – instantaneous playback online

;Dictionaries

Collection of English bilingual dictionaries

dict.org

Dictionary of American Regional English

English language word roots, prefixes and suffixes (affixes) dictionary

Oxford's online dictionary

Merriam-Webster's online dictionary

Macquarie Dictionary Online

}}

Category:English languages Category:Languages of American Samoa Category:Languages of Antigua and Barbuda Category:Languages of Australia Category:Languages of Belize Category:Languages of Bermuda Category:Languages of Botswana Category:Languages of Cameroon Category:Languages of Canada Category:Languages of Fiji Category:Languages of Ghana Category:Languages of Grenada Category:Languages of Guam Category:Languages of Guyana Category:Languages of Hong Kong Category:Languages of India Category:Languages of Ireland Category:Languages of Jamaica Category:Languages of Kenya Category:Languages of Kiribati Category:Languages of Lesotho Category:Languages of Liberia Category:Languages of Malawi Category:Languages of Malaysia Category:Languages of Malta Category:Languages of Mauritius Category:Languages of Namibia Category:Languages of Nauru Category:Languages of New Zealand Category:Languages of Nigeria Category:Languages of Niue Category:Languages of Pakistan Category:Languages of Palau Category:Languages of Papua New Guinea Category:Languages of Rwanda Category:Languages of Saint Kitts and Nevis Category:Languages of Saint Lucia Category:Languages of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Category:Languages of Samoa Category:Languages of Seychelles Category:Languages of Sierra Leone Category:Languages of Singapore Category:Languages of South Africa Category:Languages of South Sudan Category:Languages of Sudan Category:Languages of Swaziland Category:Languages of the Bahamas Category:Languages of the British Virgin Islands Category:Languages of the Cayman Islands Category:Languages of the Gambia Category:Languages of the Marshall Islands Category:Languages of the Philippines Category:Languages of the Pitcairn Islands Category:Languages of the Solomon Islands Category:Languages of the United Kingdom Category:Languages of the United States Virgin Islands Category:Languages of the United States Category:Languages of Tokelau Category:Languages of Trinidad and Tobago Category:Languages of Uganda Category:Languages of Vanuatu Category:Languages of Zambia Category:Languages of Zimbabwe Category:Stress-timed languages Category:SVO languages

ace:Bahsa Inggréh af:Engels ak:English als:Englische Sprache am:እንግሊዝኛ ang:Nīƿu Englisc sprǣc ar:لغة إنجليزية an:Idioma anglés arc:ܠܫܢܐ ܐܢܓܠܝܐ roa-rup:Limba anglicheascã frp:Anglès ast:Inglés av:Ингилис мацӀ ay:Inlish aru az:İngilis dili bm:Angilɛkan bn:ইংরেজি ভাষা bjn:Bahasa Inggris zh-min-nan:Eng-gí map-bms:Basa Inggris ba:Инглиз теле be:Англійская мова be-x-old:Ангельская мова bcl:Ingles bar:Englische Sproch bo:དབྱིན་ཇིའི་སྐད། bs:Engleski jezik br:Saozneg bg:Английски език ca:Anglès cv:Акăлчан чĕлхи ceb:Iningles cs:Angličtina ny:Chingerezi co:Lingua inglese cy:Saesneg da:Engelsk (sprog) pdc:Englisch de:Englische Sprache dv:އިނގިރޭސި nv:Bilagáana bizaad dsb:Engelšćina et:Inglise keel el:Αγγλική γλώσσα eml:Inglés myv:Англань кель es:Idioma inglés eo:Angla lingvo ext:Luenga ingresa eu:Ingeles ee:Eŋlisigbe fa:زبان انگلیسی hif:English bhasa fo:Enskt mál fr:Anglais fy:Ingelsk fur:Lenghe inglese ga:An Béarla gv:Baarle gag:İngiliz dili gd:Beurla gl:Lingua inglesa gan:英語 gu:અંગ્રેજી ભાષા got:𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌶𐌳𐌰 hak:Yîn-ngî xal:Инглишин келн ko:영어 haw:‘Ōlelo Pelekania hy:Անգլերեն hi:अंग्रेज़ी भाषा hsb:Jendźelšćina hr:Engleski jezik io:Angliana linguo ig:Asụsụ Inglish ilo:Pagsasao nga Ingles bpy:ইংরেজি ঠার id:Bahasa Inggris ia:Lingua anglese ie:Angles iu:ᖃᓪᓗᓈᑎᑐᑦ/qallunaatitut os:Англисаг æвзаг xh:IsiNgesi zu:IsiNgisi is:Enska it:Lingua inglese he:אנגלית jv:Basa Inggris kl:Tuluttut kn:ಆಂಗ್ಲ krc:Ингилиз тил ka:ინგლისური ენა kk:Ағылшын тілі kw:Sowsnek rw:Icyongereza ky:Англис тили sw:Kiingereza kv:Англия кыв kg:Kingelezi ht:Angle ku:Zimanê îngilîzî lad:Lingua inglesa lbe:Ингилис маз lo:ພາສາອັງກິດ la:Lingua Anglica lv:Angļu valoda lb:Englesch lt:Anglų kalba lij:Lèngoa ingleise li:Ingels ln:Lingɛlɛ́sa jbo:glibau lmo:Ingles hu:Angol nyelv mk:Англиски јазик mg:Fiteny anglisy ml:ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് (ഭാഷ) mi:Reo Pākehā mr:इंग्लिश भाषा arz:انجليزى mzn:اینگلیسی زبون ms:Bahasa Inggeris cdo:Ĭng-ngṳ̄ mdf:Англань кяль mn:Англи хэл my:အင်္ဂလိပ်ဘာသာ nah:Inglatlahtōlli nl:Engels nds-nl:Engels cr:ᐊᑲᔭᓯᒧᐃᐧᐣ ne:अङ्ग्रेजी भाषा new:अंग्रेजी भाषा ja:英語 nap:Lengua ngrese ce:Ингалсан мотт frr:Aingelsch pih:Inglish no:Engelsk nn:Engelsk nrm:Angliais nov:Anglum oc:Anglés mhr:Англичан йылме uz:Ingliz tili pa:ਅੰਗ੍ਰੇਜ਼ੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ pi:आंगलभाषा pnb:انگریزی pap:Ingles ps:انګريزي ژبه koi:Инглиш кыв km:ភាសាអង់គ្លេស pcd:Inglé pms:Lenga anglèisa tpi:Tok Inglis nds:Engelsche Spraak pl:Język angielski pt:Língua inglesa kbd:Инджылыбзэ crh:İngliz tili ty:Anglès ro:Limba engleză rm:Lingua englaisa qu:Inlish simi rue:Анґліцькый язык ru:Английский язык sah:Ааҥл тыла se:Eaŋgalsgiella sm:Fa'aperetania sa:आङ्ग्लभाषा sg:Anglëe sc:Limba inglesa sco:Inglis leid stq:Ängelske Sproake st:Senyesemane sq:Gjuha angleze scn:Lingua ngrisa si:ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාව simple:English language ss:SíNgísi sk:Angličtina cu:Англїискъ ѩꙁꙑкъ sl:Angleščina szl:Angelsko godka so:Ingiriis (luqad) ckb:زمانی ئینگلیزی srn:Ingristongo sr:Енглески језик sh:Engleski jezik su:Basa Inggris fi:Englannin kieli sv:Engelska tl:Wikang Ingles ta:ஆங்கிலம் kab:Taglizit roa-tara:Lènga 'nglese tt:Инглиз теле te:ఆంగ్ల భాష th:ภาษาอังกฤษ tg:Забони англисӣ chr:ᎩᎵᏏ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ tr:İngilizce tk:Iňlis dili tw:English udm:Англи кыл bug:ᨅᨔ ᨕᨗᨋᨗᨔᨗ uk:Англійська мова ur:انگریزی ug:ئىنگىلىز تىلى za:Vah Yinghgoz vec:Łéngua inglexe vi:Tiếng Anh vo:Linglänapük fiu-vro:Inglüse kiil wa:Inglès (lingaedje) zh-classical:英語 war:Ininglis wo:Wu-angalteer wuu:英语 yi:ענגליש yo:Èdè Gẹ̀ẹ́sì zh-yue:英文 diq:İngılızki zea:Iengels bat-smg:Onglu kalba zh:英语

Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Isabella Leong
chinesename	梁洛施
jyutpingchinesename	Leong4 Lok3 Sze1
pinyinchinesename	Liáng Luòshī
birth name	Luisa Isabella Nolasco da Silva
ancestry	Zhongshan, Guangdong
origin	Macau
birth date	June 23, 1988
birth place	Macau
othername	Isabella LeongIsabella LeungLeung Lok-si
occupation	Actress/Singer
genre	Cantopop
instrument	Vocals
label	EEG (2004-2008)Trump Art (2008-2009)
yearsactive	2004–2009
partner	Richard Li (2008 - 2011)
children	Ethan Lee Cheung Tsz (李長治) (born 26 April 2009)twin sons (born June 2010)
goldenbauhiniaawards	Best New Performer2006 ''Isabella''
awards	}}

Isabella Leong Lok-Sze (born 23 June 1988 in Macau) is a Hong Kong-based actress and former singer.

Career

Her father was a descendant of a prominent Macanese family of Portuguese-English heritage, and her mother is Chinese. Leong dropped out of school at the age of 12 to join Emperor Entertainment Group as a teenage model.

She later turned to singing and released her debut album, ''Isabella'', at 16 years of age. ''Isabella'' did not achieve the success hoped for and Leong turned to acting instead. From 2005-2007, she made a string of films including ''The Eye 10'', ''Bug Me Not!'', ''Isabella'', ''Diary'', and ''Spider Lilies''.

Leong went on to land her first American film role in ''The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'', which was released in 2008.

EEG contract dispute

Emperor Entertainment Group filed a lawsuit in the High Court on 3 April 2008 to seek damages from Leong for breaking a 10-year contract which Leong's mother signed for her when she was only 12 years old. Leong filed a writ against the company on 27 April. In November 2008 the legal battle between Leong and EEG ended in an out-of-court settlement, with the star "free to pursue her career".

Personal life

In 2009, Leong gave birth to a son with Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, son of billionaire Li Ka-shing. For this, Leong was allowed to use Li Family mansions in San Francisco. The Li family also provided her with an entourage of care-givers, including five bodyguards, four full-time nannies and a personal attendant. Channel News Asia noted some speculation about a large pre-nuptial agreement.

A 100-day-old banquet was held for her son from July 9–11, 2009, for three consecutive days, with some of the city's celebrities like Stanley Ho and his second wife Lam Wan Ying, and Tsang Yam Pui and his wife having been spotted in attendance.

In June 2010, Leong gave birth to Li's twin sons in San Francisco.

In March 2011, Isabella announced that she and Richard Li have ended their relationship. They both declared that the split is amicable and that they will both take care of their children.

Discography

!Album #	!Album Information
!1st	''Isabella - First Album Versions A, B, C''	* Release Date : 3 September 2004	* Language : Cantonese	* Package Weight: 300 g	* Publisher : Emperor Entertainment Group (HK)	* Lyrics
!2nd	''I am Isabella (EP)''	* Release Date : 8 July 2005	* Language : Cantonese	* Package Weight: 260 g	* Publisher : Emperor Entertainment Group (HK)
!3rd	''To Find Love (EP)''	* Release Date : 8 July 2005	* Language : Cantonese	* Package Weight: 210 g	* Publisher : Emperor Entertainment Group (HK)	* Lyrics
!4th	''I am Isabella (Complete Version)''	* Release Date : 16 September 2005	* Language : Cantonese	* Subtitle : Traditional Chinese	* Package Weight: 380 g	* Publisher : Emperor Entertainment Group (HK)	* Other Information: CD + VCD	* Lyrics
!5th	''Say Goodbye... Luisa (DualDisc) (CD+DVD)''	* Release Date : 15 August 2006	* Language : Cantonese	* Subtitle : Traditional Chinese	* Package Weight: 210 g	* Publisher : Emperor Entertainment Group (HK)	* Lyrics

Publication

!Product
''Isabella Photo Album''	* Format : 80 Pages	* Language : Traditional Chinese	* Publisher : Megalink International Communications Ltd ISBN 9889813068	* Release Date : 12 August 2005
''EEG Artiste Crystal - Isabella''	* Release Date : 29 May 2006	* Package Weight: 510 g	* Publisher : Emperor Entertainment Group Showroom (HK)
''Post Card - Isabella''	* Release Date : 5 May 2005	* Package Weight: 20 g	* Publisher : Emperor Entertainment Group (HK)
''Isabella Artiste Profile''	* Release Date : 6 May 2005	* Package Weight: 20 g	* Publisher : Emperor Entertainment Group (HK)

Filmography

Year			! Role
2004	''Sunshine Heartbeat''赤沙印记＠四叶草２	Girl asking for fortune
rowspan="4">2005	''The Eye 10''<	見鬼 10
''Bug Me Not!''虫不知	Moon(小月)
''Dragon Squad''猛龍	Kong's daughter(江綽芝)
''A Chinese Tall Story''情癲大聖	2006	''[[McDull, the Alumni">Red Boy
rowspan="5">2006	''[[McDull, the Alumni''<	春田花花同學會
''Isabella (2006 film)	Isabella''伊莎貝拉	Cheung Bik-Yan(張碧欣)
''Dragon Tiger Gate''龍虎門	voice
''Diary (film)''妄想	Leung Wing Na/Ho Lai Yee(梁詠娜/何麗儀)
''The Knot''云水谣	Wang Xiao-rui(王曉芮)
rowspan="2">2007	''Simply Actors''<	戲王之王
''Spider Lilies (film)	Spider Lilies''刺青	Takeko (竹子)
rowspan="2">2008	Missing (2008 film)>Missing''深海尋人
''The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor''	Lin (小林)

Awards

'''Fantasporto (2006)

Best Actress for Isabella

'''Golden Bauhinia Awards (2006)

Best New Performer for Isabella

Nominations

'''Hong Kong Film Awards (2005)

Best New Performer for Bug Me Not

'''Hong Kong Film Awards (2007)

Best Actress for Isabella

'''Hong Kong Film Awards (2007)

Best Supporting Actress for Diary

'''Golden Bauhinia Awards (2007)

Best Supporting Actress for Diary

References

External links

EEG Isabella Leong Profile

Category:1988 births Category:Cantopop singers Category:Hong Kong actors Category:Hong Kong film actors Category:Hong Kong singers Category:Hong Kong people of British descent Category:Hong Kong people of Portuguese descent Category:Living people Category:Macanese people

de:Isabella Leong fr:Isabella Leong id:Isabella Leong it:Isabella Leong jv:Isabella Leong ja:イザベラ・リョン pt:Isabella Leong ru:Лионг, Изабелла vi:Lương Lạc Thi zh:梁洛施

Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
birth name	James Eugene Carrey
birth date	January 17, 1962
birth place	Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
occupation	Actor, comedian, singer, writer
years active	1979–present
spouse	(divorced) (divorced)
website	JimCarrey.com
signature	}}

James Eugene "Jim" Carrey (born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, singer and writer. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario. After gaining prominence in 1981, he began working at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles where he was soon noticed by comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who immediately signed him to open his tour performances. Carrey, long interested in film and television, developed a close friendship with comedian Damon Wayans, which landed him a role in the sketch comedy hit ''In Living Color'', in which he portrayed various characters during the show's 1990 season.

Having had little success in television movies and several low-budget films, Carrey was cast as the title character in ''Ace Ventura: Pet Detective'' which premiered in February, 1994, making more than $72 million domestically despite receiving mixed critical reception. The film spawned a sequel, ''Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls'' (1995), in which he reprised the role of Ventura. High profile roles followed when he was cast as Stanley Ipkiss in ''The Mask'' (1994) for which he gained a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, and as Lloyd Christmas in the comedy film ''Dumb and Dumber'' (1994).

Between 1996 and 1999, Carrey continued his success after earning lead roles in several highly popular films including ''The Cable Guy'' (1996), ''Liar Liar'' (1997), in which he was nominated for another Golden Globe Award and in the critically acclaimed films ''The Truman Show'' and ''Man on the Moon'', in 1998 and 1999, respectively. Both films earned Carrey Golden Globe awards. Since earning both awards, Carrey continued to star in comedy films, including ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas'' (2000) where he played the title character, ''Bruce Almighty'' (2003) where he portrayed the role of unlucky TV reporter Bruce Nolan, ''Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'' (2004), ''Fun with Dick and Jane'' (2005), ''Yes Man'' (2008), and ''A Christmas Carol'' (2009). Carrey has also taken on more serious roles including Joel Barish in ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' (2004) alongside Kate Winslet and Kirsten Dunst, which earned him another Golden Globe nomination, and Steven Jay Russell in ''I Love You Phillip Morris'' (2009) alongside Ewan McGregor.

Early life

Carrey was born in Newmarket, Ontario, the son of Kathleen (née Oram), a homemaker, and Percy Carrey, a musician and accountant. He has three older siblings, John, Patricia, and Rita. He was raised Roman Catholic. His mother was of French, Irish, and Scottish descent and his father was of French Canadian ancestry (the family's original surname was ''Carré''). After his family moved to Scarborough, Ontario, when Carrey was 14 years old, he attended Blessed Trinity Catholic School, in North York, for two years, enrolled at Agincourt Collegiate Institute for another year, then briefly attended Northview Heights Secondary School for the remainder of his high school career (all together, he spent three years in Grade 10).

Carrey lived in Burlington, Ontario, for eight years and attended Aldershot High School, where he once opened for 1980s new wave band Spoons. In a ''Hamilton Spectator'' interview (February 2007), Carrey remarked, "If my career in show business hadn't panned out I would probably be working today in Hamilton, Ontario at the Dofasco steel mill." When looking across the Burlington Bay toward Hamilton, he could see the mills and thought, "Those were where the great jobs were." At this point, he already had experience working in a science testing facility in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Career

Comedy

In 1979, under the management of Leatrice Spevack, Carrey started doing stand-up comedy at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, where he rose to become a headliner in February 1981, shortly after his 19th birthday. One reviewer in the ''Toronto Star'' raved that Carrey was "a genuine star coming to life." In the early 1980s, Carrey moved to Los Angeles and started working at The Comedy Store, where he was noticed by comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who signed the young comedian to open Dangerfield's tour performances.

Carrey then turned his attention to the film and television industries, auditioning to be a cast member for the 1980–1981 season of NBC's ''Saturday Night Live.'' Carrey was not selected for the position (although he did host the show in May 1996, and again in January 2011). Joel Schumacher had him audition for a role in ''D.C. Cab,'' though in the end, nothing ever came of it. His first lead role on television was Skip Tarkenton, a young animation producer on NBC's short-lived ''The Duck Factory,'' airing from April 12, 1984, to July 11, 1984, and offering a behind-the-scenes look at the crew that produced a children's cartoon. Carrey continued working in smaller film and television roles, which led to a friendship with fellow comedian Damon Wayans, who co-starred with Carrey as an extraterrestrial in 1989's ''Earth Girls Are Easy.'' When Wayans' brother Keenen began developing a sketch comedy show for Fox called ''In Living Color,'' Carrey was hired as a cast member, whose unusual characters included masochistic, accident-prone safety inspector Fire Marshall Bill, and masculine female bodybuilder Vera de Milo.

Film

Carrey made his film debut in ''Rubberface'' (1981), which was released as ''Introducing...Janet.'' Later that year, he won the leading role in Damian Lee's Canadian skiing comedy ''Copper Mountain,'' which included his impersonation of Sammy Davis Jr. Since the film had a less than one hour runtime consisting largely of musical performances by Rita Coolidge and Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins, it was not considered a genuine feature film. Two years later, in 1985, Carrey saw his first major starring role in the dark comedy ''Once Bitten,'' in the role of Mark Kendall, a teen virgin pursued by a 400-year-old female vampire, played by Lauren Hutton. After supporting roles in films such as ''Peggy Sue Got Married'' (1986), ''Earth Girls Are Easy'' (1988), and ''The Dead Pool'' (1988), Carrey did not experience true stardom until starring in the 1994 comedy ''Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,'' which premiered only months before ''In Living Color'' ended. ''Ace Ventura'' was panned by critics, and earned Carrey a 1995 Golden Raspberry Award nomination as Worst New Star. But the film was as embraced by fans as it was derided by critics. The Ventura character became a pop icon, and the film made Carrey a superstar. It was a commercial success, as were his two other starring roles from that year: ''The Mask'' and ''Dumb and Dumber''. In 1995, Carrey appeared as the Riddler in ''Batman Forever'' and reprised his role as Ace Ventura in ''Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.'' Both films were successful at the box office and earned Carrey multi-million-dollar paychecks. Carrey earned $20 million for his next film, ''The Cable Guy'' (directed by Ben Stiller), a record sum for a comedy actor. The film did not do well with critics, but Carrey quickly rebounded with the successful ''Liar Liar,'' a return to his trademark comedy style.

Carrey took a slight pay cut to play a more serious role to star in the critically praised science-fiction film ''The Truman Show'' (1998), a change of pace that led to forecasts of Academy Award nominations. Although the movie was nominated for three other awards, Carrey did not personally receive a nomination, leading him to joke that "it's an honor just to be nominated...oh no," during his appearance on the Oscar telecast. However, Carrey did win a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama and an MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance. That same year, Carrey appeared as a fictionalized version of himself on the final episode of Garry Shandling's ''The Larry Sanders Show'', in which he deliberately ripped into Shandling's character. In 1999, Carrey won the role of comedian Andy Kaufman in ''Man on the Moon.'' Despite critical acclaim, he was not nominated for an Academy Award, but again won a Best Actor Golden Globe award for the second consecutive year. In 2000, Carrey reteamed with the Farrelly Brothers, who had directed him in ''Dumb and Dumber,'' in their comedy, ''Me, Myself & Irene,'' about a state trooper with multiple personalities who romances a woman played by Renée Zellweger. The film grossed $24 million on its opening weekend and $90 million by the end of its domestic run.

In 2003, Carrey reteamed with Tom Shadyac for the financially successful comedy ''Bruce Almighty''. Earning over $242 million in the U.S. and over $484 million worldwide, this film became the second highest grossing live-action comedy of all time. His performance in ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' in 2004 earned high praise from critics, who again predicted that Carrey would receive an Oscar nomination; the film did win for Best Original Screenplay, and co-star Kate Winslet received an Oscar nomination for her performance. (Carrey was also nominated for a sixth Golden Globe for his performance). In 2004, he played the villainous Count Olaf in ''Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'', which was based on the popular children's novels of the same name. In 2005, Carrey starred in a remake of ''Fun with Dick and Jane'', playing Dick, a husband who becomes a bank robber after he loses his job. In 2007, Carrey reunited with Joel Schumacher, director of ''Batman Forever'', for ''The Number 23'', a psychological thriller co-starring Virginia Madsen and Danny Huston. In the film, Carrey plays a man who becomes obsessed with the number 23, after finding a book about a man with the same obsession. Carrey has stated that he finds the prospect of reprising a character to be considerably less enticing than taking on a new role. The only time he has reprised a role was with Ace Ventura. (Sequels to ''Bruce Almighty'', ''Dumb and Dumber'', and ''The Mask'' have all been released without Carrey's involvement.) As of December 2010, Carrey's films grossed over $2.3 billion in total.

Personal life

Family and relationships

Carrey has been married twice, first to former actress and Comedy Store waitress Melissa Womer on March 28, 1987; the two were divorced in late 1995. Their only child, a daughter named Jane Erin Carrey, was born on September 6, 1987, in Los Angeles County. After his separation from Womer in 1994, Carrey began dating his ''Dumb and Dumber'' co-star Lauren Holly. They were married on September 23, 1996; the marriage lasted less than a year. Carrey dated actress Renée Zellweger, whom he met on the set of ''Me, Myself & Irene,'' but their relationship ended with a broken engagement in December 2000.

In the May 2006 issue of ''Playboy Magazine'' (p. 48), it was mentioned that he was dating model Anine Bing. In December 2005, Carrey began dating actress and model Jenny McCarthy. They made their relationship public in June 2006. She announced on ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' on April 2, 2008, that the two were then living together, but had no plans to marry; as they do not need a "piece of paper." In April 2010, Carrey and McCarthy ended their near five-year relationship.

In Los Angeles on February 27, 2010, Carrey announced via his Twitter account that he had become a grandfather when his daughter Jane gave birth to her first child with musician husband Alex Santana, who performs in the band Blood Money under the stage name Nitro. He announced that his grandson's name was Jackson Riley Santana.

Carrey was believed to have been romantically linked to ''ANTM'' contestant Anchal Joseph.

Citizenship

Carrey received U.S. citizenship on October 7, 2004, and now maintains dual citizenship of both the U.S. and his native Canada, where he has had a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto since 1998.

Depression

Carrey discussed his bouts of depression in a November 2004 interview on ''60 Minutes''. Carrey has also launched public awareness campaigns, by way of internet videos which shed light on the political repression in Burma; especially that of Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he describes as a personal hero.

Friendship with Eckhart Tolle

Carrey is a great admirer and friend of author Eckhart Tolle, and in June 2009, Carrey gave an introduction for Tolle when together they headlined the first conference of the Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment.

Beliefs

Carrey has been a critic of the scientific consensus that no evidence links the childhood MMR vaccination to the development of autism, and wrote an article questioning the merits of vaccination and vaccine research for the ''Huffington Post''. With former partner Jenny McCarthy, Carrey led a "Green Our Vaccines" march in Washington, D.C., to advocate for the removal of toxins from children's vaccines, out of a belief that children had received "too many vaccines, too soon, many of which are toxic".

Filmography

Title	Year	Role	Notes
''The Sex and Violence Family Hour''	1980	Various roles
''All in Good Taste''	1981	Ralph Parker
! scope="row"	1983	Bobby Todd
! scope="row"	1984	Lane Bidlekoff
! scope="row"	1985	Mark Kendall
''Peggy Sue Got Married''	1986	Walter Getz
''The Dead Pool''	1988	Johnny Squares
! scope="row"	1989	Comedian
''Earth Girls Are Easy''	1989	Wiploc
''High Strung''	1991	Death
''Doing Time on Maple Drive''	1992	Tim Carter
! scope="row"	1992	The Exterminator	Voice role
''Ace Ventura: Pet Detective''	1994	Ace Ventura
! scope="row"	1994		London Critics Circle Film Award for Newcomer of the Year (also for ''Ace Ventura: Pet Detective'')Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic PerformanceNominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Dance Sequence (shared with Cameron Diaz)
''Dumb and Dumber''	1994	Lloyd Christmas	MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic PerformanceMTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (shared with Lauren Holly)Nominated - MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo (shared with Jeff Daniels)
''Batman Forever''	1995		Nominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Villain
''Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls''	1995	Ace Ventura
''The Cable Guy''	1996	Ernie "Chip" Douglas	Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie ActorMTV Movie Award for Best Comedic PerformanceMTV Movie Award for Best VillainNominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Fight (shared with Matthew Broderick)
''Liar Liar''	1997	Fletcher Reede	Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor - ComedyMTV Movie Award for Best Comedic PerformanceNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated - Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor
''The Truman Show''	1998	Truman Burbank
''Simon Birch''	1998	Adult Joe Wenteworth
! scope="row"	1999	Andy Kaufman / Tony Clifton	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or ComedyBoston Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActorNominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading RoleNominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor, Musical or Comedy FilmNominated - American Comedy Award for Funniest Actor (Leading Role)Nominated - Canadian Comedy Award for Film - Male PerformanceNominated - London Critics Circle Film Award for Actor of the Year (also for '' ''[[Me, Myself & Irene">How the Grinch Stole Christmas (film)
''[[Me, Myself & Irene''	2000	Officer Charlie Baileygates/Hank	Teen Choice Award for Wipeout Scene of the SummerNominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic PerformanceNominated - Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor - Comedy/Romance
! scope="row"	2000	The Grinch
! scope="row"	2001	Peter Appleton
! scope="row"	2003	The driver	2-minute short film
''Bruce Almighty''	2003	Bruce Nolan	Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie ActorTeen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor - ComedyMTV Movie Award, Mexico, for Most Divine Miracle in a MovieNominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic PerformanceNominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (shared with Jennifer Aniston)Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Chemistry (shared with Morgan Freeman)
''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind''	2004	Joel Barish	San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated - Saturn Award for Best ActorNominated - BAFTA Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading RoleNominated - People's Choice Award for Favorite Leading ManNominated - People's Choice Award for Favorite On-Screen Chemistry (shared with Kate Winslet)Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor, Musical or Comedy FilmNominated - Empire Award for Best ActorNominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
''Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events''	2004	Count Olaf	Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Bad GuyPeople's Choice Award for Favorite Funny Male StarNominated - MTV Movie Award for Best VillainNominated - Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie ActorNominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor: Action/Adventure/ThrillerNominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liar
! scope="row"	2005	Dick Harper	Nominated - Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie ActorNominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Actor: Comedy
''The Number 23''	2007	Walter Sparrow / Fingerling
! scope="row"	2008		Voice roleNominated - Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie
! scope="row"	2008	Carl Allen	MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic PerformancePeople's Choice Award for Favorite Funny Male StarNominated - Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie ActorNominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor: ComedyNominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Hissy FitNominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Rockstar Moment
''I Love You Phillip Morris''	2009	Steven Jay Russell
! scope="row"	2009	Ebenezer ScroogeGhost of Christmas PastGhost of Christmas PresentGhost of Christmas Yet to Come
! scope="row"	2011	Tom Popper

Television

! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1980	''The All-Night Show''	Various voices	(voice only)
1981	''Rubberface''	Tony Moroni	Television movie
		Jerry Lewis Impersonator	Television series (uncredited)
''The Duck Factory''	Skip Tarkenton	Television series
1989	''Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All''	Brad Peters	Television movie
1990	''In Living Color''	Various roles	Television series
1992	''Doing Time on Maple Drive''	Tim Carter	Television movie
1994	''Space Ghost Coast to Coast''	Himself	Television series (two episodes)
2011		"Finger Lakes guy"	Episode: "Search Committee"

Other accolades

|- |2001 | People's Choice Awards | Favorite Motion Picture Star in a Comedy | |- |2003 | rowspan="2"| Teen Choice Awards | rowspan="2"| Choice Comedian | |- |2004 | |- |rowspan=2| 2005 | People's Choice Awards | Favorite Funny Male Star | |- | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Comedian | |- |2006 | MTV Movie Awards | MTV Generation Award | |- |2009 | People's Choice Awards | Favorite Funny Male Star | |}

References

Further reading

External links

Category:1962 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century actors Category:20th-century writers Category:21st-century actors Category:Actors from Ontario Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Canadian comedians Category:Canadian expatriate actors in the United States Category:Canadian film actors Category:Canadian film producers Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States Category:Canadian impressionists (entertainers) Category:Canadian people of Scottish descent Category:Canadian stand-up comedians Category:Canadian television actors Category:Canadian television writers Category:Canadian voice actors Category:Franco-Ontarian people Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Burlington, Ontario Category:People from Newmarket, Ontario Category:People from Scarborough, Ontario Category:Anti-vaccination activists

ar:جيم كاري ast:Jim Carrey bn:জিম ক্যারি bs:Jim Carrey bg:Джим Кери ca:Jim Carrey cs:Jim Carrey cy:Jim Carrey da:Jim Carrey de:Jim Carrey et:Jim Carrey el:Τζιμ Κάρεϊ es:Jim Carrey eo:Jim Carrey eu:Jim Carrey fa:جیم کری fo:Jim Carrey fr:Jim Carrey ga:Jim Carrey gl:Jim Carrey ko:짐 캐리 hr:Jim Carrey id:Jim Carrey ia:Jim Carrey is:Jim Carrey it:Jim Carrey he:ג'ים קארי kn:ಜಿಮ್‌ ಕ್ಯಾರ್ರಿ ka:ჯიმ კერი sw:Jim Carrey la:Iacobus Carrey lv:Džims Kerijs lt:Jim Carrey hu:Jim Carrey mk:Џим Кери ml:ജിം ക്യാരി ms:Jim Carrey nah:Jim Carrey nl:Jim Carrey ja:ジム・キャリー nap:Jim Carrey no:Jim Carrey nn:Jim Carrey uz:Jim Carrey pms:Jim Carrey pl:Jim Carrey pt:Jim Carrey ro:Jim Carrey ru:Керри, Джим sq:Jim Carrey simple:Jim Carrey sk:Jim Carrey sr:Џим Кери sh:Jim Carrey fi:Jim Carrey sv:Jim Carrey ta:ஜிம் கேரி th:จิม แคร์รี่ย์ tr:Jim Carrey uk:Джим Керрі vi:Jim Carrey zh:占·基利

Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Ben Stiller
birth name	Benjamin Edward Stiller
birth date	November 30, 1965
birth place	New York City, United States
occupation	Actor, comedian, director, producer, screenwriter
years active	1975–present
spouse	Christine Taylor (2000–present; 2 children)
parents	Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara }}

Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller (born November 30, 1965) is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.

After beginning his acting career with a play, Stiller wrote several mockumentaries, and was offered two of his own shows, both entitled ''The Ben Stiller Show''. He began acting in films, and made his directorial debut with ''Reality Bites''. Throughout his career he has since written, starred in, directed, and/or produced over 50 films including ''Heavyweights'', ''There's Something About Mary'', ''Meet the Parents'', ''Zoolander'', ''Dodgeball'', ''Tropic Thunder'' and ''Greenberg''. In addition, he has had multiple cameos in music videos, television shows, and films.

Stiller is a member of the comedic acting brotherhood colloquially known as the Frat Pack. His films have grossed more than $2.1 billion domestically (United States and Canada), with an average of $73 million per film. Throughout his career, he has received several awards and honors including an Emmy Award, several MTV Movie Awards, and a Teen Choice Award.

Early life

Stiller was born in New York City. His father, Jerry Stiller, is Jewish; his mother, Anne Meara, who is of Irish Catholic background, converted to Reform Judaism after marrying his father (though the family celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas). Stiller's parents frequently took him on the sets of their appearances, including an appearance on ''The Mike Douglas Show'' when he was six. He admitted in an interview that he considered his childhood unusual: "In some ways, it was a show-business upbringing—a lot of traveling, a lot of late nights—not what you'd call traditional." His sister, actress Amy Stiller, has made appearances in many of his productions, including ''Reality Bites'', ''Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story'', and ''Zoolander''.

He displayed an early interest in film making and made Super 8 movies with his sister and friends. At 10 years old, he made his acting debut as a guest on his mother's television series ''Kate McShane''. In the late 1970s he performed with the New York City troupe NYC's First All Children's Theater, performing in several roles, including the title role in ''Clever Jack and the Magic Beanstalk.'' After being inspired by the television show ''Second City Television'' while in high school, Stiller realized that he wanted to get involved with sketch comedy.

Stiller attended the Cathedral School and graduated from the Calhoun School in New York in 1983. He started performing on the cabaret circuit as opening act to the cabaret siren Jadin Wong. Stiller then enrolled as a film student at the University of California, Los Angeles. After nine months, Stiller left school to move back to New York City. He made his way through acting classes, auditioning, and trying to find an agent.

Acting career

Early work

Stiller landed a role in the Broadway revival of John Guare's ''The House of Blue Leaves'', alongside John Mahoney; the production would garner four Tony Awards. During its run, Stiller produced a satirical mockumentary whose principal was fellow actor Mahoney. His comedic work was so well received by the cast and crew of the play that he followed up with a 10 minute short called ''The Hustler of Money'', a parody of the Martin Scorsese film ''The Color of Money''. The film featured him in a send-up of Tom Cruise's character and Mahoney in the Paul Newman role, only this time as a bowling hustler instead of a pool shark. The short got the attention of ''Saturday Night Live'', which aired it in 1987, and two years later offered him a spot as a writer. In the meantime, he also had a bit part in Steven Spielberg's ''Empire of the Sun''.

In 1989, Stiller wrote and appeared on a season of ''Saturday Night Live'' as a featured performer. However, since the show did not want him to make more short films for the show, he left after five episodes. He then put together ''Elvis Stories'', a short film about a fictitious tabloid focused on recent sightings of Elvis Presley. The film starred friends and co-stars John Cusack, Jeremy Piven, Mike Myers, Andy Dick, and Jeff Kahn. The film was considered a success, and led him to develop another film titled ''Back to Brooklyn'' for MTV.

''The Ben Stiller Show''

MTV was so impressed with ''Back to Brooklyn'' that they offered Stiller a 13-episode show in the experimental "vid-com" format. Titled ''The Ben Stiller Show'', this series mixed comedy sketches with music videos and parodied various television shows, music stars, and films. It starred Stiller, along with main writer Jeff Khan and Harry O'Reilly with occasional appearances by his parents Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, and sister Amy Stiller.

Although the show was canceled after its first season, it led to another show titled ''The Ben Stiller Show'' on the Fox Network in 1992. ''The Ben Stiller Show'' aired 12 episodes on Fox, with a 13th unaired episode broadcast by Comedy Central in a later revival. Among the principal writers on ''The Ben Stiller Show'' were Stiller and Judd Apatow, with the show featuring the ensemble cast of Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and Bob Odenkirk. Both Denise Richards and Jeanne Tripplehorn appeared as extras in various episodes. Throughout its short run, ''The Ben Stiller Show'' frequently appeared at the bottom of the ratings, even as it garnered critical acclaim and eventually won the Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Variety or Music Program" after it was canceled.

Directorial debut

After a few minor film roles in the early 1990s, such as ''Stella'', ''Highway to Hell'', and a cameo in ''The Nutt House'', Stiller devoted his time to writing, fund raising, recruiting cast members, starring in, and directing ''Reality Bites''. The film was produced by Danny DeVito (who later directed Stiller's 2003 film ''Duplex'' and produced the 2004 film ''Along Came Polly''). ''Reality Bites'' debuted as the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend and received mixed reviews.

He joined his parents in the family film ''Heavyweights'', in which he played two roles, and then had a brief uncredited role in Adam Sandler's ''Happy Gilmore''. Next, he had lead roles in ''If Lucy Fell'' and ''Flirting with Disaster'', before tackling his next directorial effort with ''The Cable Guy'' which starred Jim Carrey. Stiller once again was featured in his own film as twins. The film received mixed reviews, but was noted for paying the highest salary for an actor up to that point. Jim Carrey received $20 million for his work in the film. The film also connected Stiller with future Frat Pack members Jack Black and Owen Wilson.

Also in 1996, MTV invited Stiller to host the VH1 Fashion Awards. Along with SNL writer Drake Sather, Stiller developed a short film for the awards about a male model known as Derek Zoolander. It was so well received that Stiller developed another short film about the character for the 1997 VH1 Fashion Awards and finally remade the skit into a film.

Comedy career

In 1998, Stiller put aside his directing ambitions to star in ''There's Something About Mary'' alongside Cameron Diaz, which accelerated Stiller's acting career. That year he also starred in several dramas including ''Zero Effect'', ''Your Friends & Neighbors'', and ''Permanent Midnight''. Stiller was invited to take part in hosting the Music Video awards, for which he developed a parody of the Backstreet Boys and performed a sketch with his father, commenting on his current career.

In 1999, he starred in three films, including ''Mystery Men'', where he played a superhero wannabe called Mr. Furious. He returned to directing with a new spoof television series for Fox titled ''Heat Vision and Jack'', starring Jack Black, however, the show was not picked up by Fox after its pilot episode and the series was cancelled.

2000 would be a better year for Stiller as he starred in three more films including one of his most recognizable roles, as a male nurse named Greg Focker in ''Meet the Parents'' opposite Robert De Niro. The film was well-received by critics, grossed over $330 million worldwide, and spawned two sequels. Also in 2000, MTV again invited Stiller to make another short film and he developed ''Mission: Improbable'', a spoof of Tom Cruise's role in ''Mission: Impossible II'' and other films.

In 2001, Stiller would direct his third feature film, ''Zoolander'', which focused on the character Derek Zoolander (played by Stiller) that he developed for the VH1 Fashion Awards. The film featured multiple cameos from a variety of celebrities including Donald Trump, Paris Hilton, Lenny Kravitz, Heidi Klum, and David Bowie among others. The film was banned in Malaysia (as the plot centered on an assassination attempt of a Malaysian prime minister) while shots of the World Trade Center were digitally removed and hidden for the film's release after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

After Stiller worked with Owen Wilson in ''Zoolander'', they joined together again for ''The Royal Tenenbaums''. Over the next two years, Stiller continued with the lackluster box office film ''Duplex'' and several cameos in ''Orange County'' and ''Nobody Knows Anything!''. He also guest-starred on several television shows, including an appearance in an episode of the television series ''King Of Queens'' in a flashback as the father of the character Arthur (played by Jerry Stiller). He also made a guest appearance on World Wrestling Entertainment's WWE Raw.

In 2004, Stiller appeared in six different films, all of which were comedies, and include some of his highest grossing films. They include ''Starsky & Hutch'', ''Envy'', ''Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story'', an uncredited cameo in ''Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy'', ''Along Came Polly'', and ''Meet the Fockers''. While ''Envy'' only grossed $14.5 million worldwide, his most successful film of the year was ''Meet the Fockers'', which grossed over $516.6 million worldwide. In 2005, Stiller would begin his first attempt at a computer-animated film with ''Madagascar'', which performed so well at the box office that it resulted in a sequel released in 2008.

In 2006, Stiller had cameo roles in ''School for Scoundrels'', and ''Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny'', for which he served as executive producer. In December, Stiller starred in the lead role of ''Night at the Museum''. Although not a critical favorite, it earned over $115 million in ten days. In 2007, Stiller starred alongside Malin Åkerman in the romantic comedy ''The Heartbreak Kid''. The film earned over $100 million worldwide despite receiving mostly negative reviews. ''Tropic Thunder'', a film he directed, co-wrote, and co-produced, and in which he starred with Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black, was released on August 13, 2008. In May 2009, he starred with Amy Adams in the sequel ''Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian''. In 2010, Stiller made a brief cameo in Joaquin Phoenix's mockumentary ''I'm Still Here'' and played the lead role in the comedy-drama ''Greenberg''. Stiller again portrayed Gaylord 'Greg' Focker in ''Little Fockers'', the second sequel to ''Meet the Parents''. Stiller had planned to voice a character in ''Megamind'', but later dropped out while still remaining a producer.

Upcoming projects

For 2011, Stiller will join Eddie Murphy and Alan Alda in ''Tower Heist'' about a group of maintenance workers planning a heist in a residential skyscraper. Filming began in November 2010.

The Frat Pack

Stiller is the "acknowledged leader" of the Frat Pack, a core group of actors that has worked together in multiple films. The group includes Jack Black, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Steve Carell, and Paul Rudd. Stiller has been acknowledged as the leader of the group due to his multiple cameos and for his consistent use of the other members in roles in films which he produces and directs. He has appeared the most with Owen Wilson, in eleven films including: ''The Cable Guy'' (1996), ''Permanent Midnight'' (1998), ''Heat Vision and Jack'' (1999 television pilot), ''Meet the Parents'' (2000), ''Zoolander'' (2001), ''The Royal Tenenbaums'' (2001), ''Starsky & Hutch'' (2004), ''Meet the Fockers'' (2004), ''Night at the Museum'' (2006), and ''Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian'' (2009) and "Little Fockers" (2010). Of the 35 primary films that are considered Frat Pack films, Stiller has been involved with 20, in some capacity. He is also the only member of this group to have appeared in a Brat Pack film (''Fresh Horses'').

Personal life

Ben Stiller dated several actresses during his early television and film career, including Jeanne Tripplehorn, Calista Flockhart, and Amanda Peet. In May 2000, Stiller married Christine Taylor, whom he met while filming a never-broadcast television pilot for the Fox Broadcasting network called ''Heat Vision and Jack'', which starred Jack Black. The couple appeared onscreen together in ''Zoolander'', ''Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story'', and ''Tropic Thunder''. He and Taylor reside in Hollywood Hills and have a daughter, Ella Olivia, born April 10, 2002, and a son, Quinlin Dempsey, born July 10, 2005.

Stiller is a supporter of the Democratic Party and donated money to John Kerry's 2004 U.S. Presidential campaign. In February 2007, Stiller attended a fundraiser for Barack Obama and later donated to the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaigns of Democrats Obama, John Edwards, and Hillary Clinton. Stiller is also a supporter of several charities including Declare Yourself, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation. In 2010, Stiller joined Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Robin Williams, and other Hollywood stars in "The Cove PSA: My Friend is... ", an effort to stop the slaughter of dolphins and protect the Japanese population from the toxic levels of mercury found in dolphin meat.

In a 1999 interview with ''GQ'' and later in a 2001 interview with Hollywood.com, Stiller stated that he has bipolar disorder, an illness he said that ran in his family. In interviews in November and December 2006, Stiller claimed that this earlier interview's comment about the disorder was false. In one interview he clarified, "I said jokingly in ''GQ'' that I was, like, crazy, and it came out as: Ben Stiller, bipolar manic-depressive!"

Stiller frequently does impersonations of many of his favorite performers, including Bono, Tom Cruise, Bruce Springsteen, and David Blaine. In an interview with ''Parade'', he commented that Robert Klein, George Carlin, and Jimmie Walker were inspirations for his comedy career. Stiller is also a self-professed Trekkie and appeared in the television special ''Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond'' to express his love of the show, as well as a comedy roast for William Shatner. He frequently references the show in his work, and named his production company Red Hour Productions after the original ''Star Trek'' episode "The Return of the Archons".

Filmography

Actor

Year	! Film	! Role	! Notes
		Dainty
	Chris Honeywell
''Shoeshine''
1988	''Fresh Horses''	Tipton
		Lawrence Isabella
''Elvis Stories''	Bruce
''That's Adequate''	Chip Lane
1990		Jim Uptegrove
	''The Nutt House''	Pie Thrower	Cameo
	Pluto's Cook/Attila the Hun
1994	''Reality Bites''	Michael Grates	Also director
1995	''Heavyweights''	Tony Perkis/Tony Perkis Sr.
	''The Cable Guy''	Sam Sweet/Stan Sweet	Also director
	Mel
''If Lucy Fell''	Bwick Elias
''Happy Gilmore''	Hal L. (Nursing Home Orderly)
	''Permanent Midnight''	Jerry Stahl
''Your Friends & Neighbors''	Jerry
''There's Something About Mary''	Ted Stroehmann
''Zero Effect''	Steve Arlo
		Mark Clear
''Mystery Men''	Mr. Furious
''The Suburbans''	Jay Rose
	''Meet the Parents''	Gaylord 'Greg' Focker
''Keeping the Faith''	Rabbi Jake Schram
	Cop
	''The Royal Tenenbaums''	Chas Tenenbaum
''Zoolander''	Derek Zoolander	Also writer and director
		The Firefighter	Cameo
''Run Ronnie Run''	Himself
	''Nobody Knows Anything!''	Peach Expert	Cameo
	Alex Rose
''Pauly Shore Is Dead''	Himself	Cameo
	''Meet the Fockers''	Gaylord 'Greg' Focker
''Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy''	Arturo Mendes	Cameo
''Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story''	White Goodman
	Tim Dingman
	David Starsky
''Along Came Polly''	Reuben Feffer
	''Danny Roane: First Time Director''	Himself
	Alex	Voice only
''Sledge: The Untold Story''	Commander
	''Night at the Museum''	Larry Daley
''In Search of Ted Demme''	Himself
''Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny''	Guitar Center Guy	Cameo and producer
	Lonnie
2007		Eddie Cantrow
	''Tropic Thunder''	Tugg Speedman	Also writer and directorNominated - MTV Movie Awards
''[[Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa''	Alex	Voice only
	''Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian''	Larry Daley
''The Marc Pease Experience''	Jon Gribble
		Roger Greenberg
	Himself
''Megamind''	Bernard	Executive ProducerVoice-Role
''Little Fockers''	Gaylord 'Greg' Focker
		Ben Stiller	Exagerated Version of Himself, Cameo (uncredited)
''Tower Heist''	Josh Kovacs
''Bunnicula''	Edgar Allan Crow
	Himself	Cameo
	''Madagascar 3''	Alex	Voice only in production

Director and producer

Year			! Notes
1989	''Elvis Stories''	Director/Writer
1994	Reality Bites'' >
1996	''The Cable Guy''
1999	''Heat Vision and Jack''
2001	''Zoolander''
rowspan="2">2003	Duplex (film)>Duplex''
''Crooked Lines''	Executive producer
rowspan="2"		2004	Starsky & Hutch (film)>Starsky & Hutch''
''Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story''	Producer
2006	''Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny''
2007	Blades of Glory'' >
rowspan="2"	2008	''Date School''
''Tropic Thunder''	Director/Producer/Writer
2009	The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story'' >
2010	''Megamind''
2010	Submarine (2010 film)>Submarine''
2011	''30 Minutes or Less''

Television work

< ''The Ben Stiller Show'' ''Duckman'' ''NewsRadio'' ''Heat Vision and Jack'' ''Freaks and Geeks'' ''The Simpsons'' ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' ''Arrested Development (TV series) ''Extras (TV series) ''Phineas and Ferb'' ''Onion News Network''

Year			! Role	! Notes
1987	''Miami Vice''
rowspan="2">1990	''The Ben Stiller Show''	|	Himself	Director and writer
''Working Trash''	Freddy Novak
1992–1993	|	Himself	Director, producer, and writer
rowspan="2">1995	|	Harry Medfly	Voice only; single episode
''2 Stupid Dogs''	Tony Robbins-style character
1996	|	Vic	Single episode
1997	''Friends''
1998	''Space Ghost Coast to Coast''
rowspan="2"	1999	|	Strip Club DJ	Director and executive producer
''WWE Raw	WWF Raw Is War''	Himself
2000	|	Secret Service Agent	Single episode
2001	''Undeclared''
rowspan="3"	2002	|	Garth Motherloving	Voice only; single episode
''Prehistoric Planet''	Narrator
''The King of Queens''	Jerry
2004	|	Himself	Three episodes
2004–2006	Arrested Development'' ||	Tony Wonder	Four episodes
2005	Extras'' ||	Himself	Single episode
2007	Family Guy'' >
2008	''Sesame Street''
rowspan="3"	2010	|	Khaka Peu Peu	The Beak (Phineas and Ferb)>The Beak
''Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!''	Himself
''The Trip (2010 TV series)	The Trip''	Himself
2011	|	Himself	Single episode

Music videos

"Rollin' (Limp Bizkit song) "Bad Boy for Life" "Tribute (song) "Taylor (song) "Closer (Travis song)

Year			! Artist	! Role
1999	All Star (song)>All Star"	Smash Mouth
rowspan="2">2000	Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle)" ||	Limp Bizkit	Himself
"Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water"
2001	|	Sean Combs	P. Diddy's Neighbor
2002	Tribute" ||	Tenacious D	Himself
2004	Taylor" || Jack Johnson
2006	''Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!''
2007	Closer" ||	Travis (band)>Travis	Supermarket Manager

Awards and honors

Stiller was awarded an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Variety or Music Program"for his work on ''The Ben Stiller Show''. He has been nominated twelve times for the Teen Choice Awards and won once for "Choice Hissy Fit" for his work in ''Zoolander''. He also was nominated by the MTV Movie Awards thirteen times and won three times for "Best Fight" in ''There's Something About Mary'', "Best Comedic Performance" in ''Meet the Parents'', and "Best Villain" in ''Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story''. Princeton University's Class of 2005 inducted Stiller as an honorary member of the class during its "Senior Week" in April 2005. On February 23, 2007, Stiller received the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year award from Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals. According to the organization, the award is given to performers who give a lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment. On March 31, 2007, Stiller received the "Wannabe Award" from the Kids' Choice Awards. On May 31, 2009, Stiller received the MTV Generation Award, at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards. It is the ceremony's top honor.

References

Further reading

Bankston, John. ''Ben Stiller (Real-Life Reader Biography)''. Mitchell Lane Publishers, 2002. ISBN 1584151323.

Dougherty, Terri. ''Ben Stiller (People in the News)''. Lucent Books, 2006. ISBN 1590187237.

External links

Category:1965 births Category:Living people Category:Actors from New York Category:American Jews Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American film producers Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American screenwriters Category:American television actors Category:American television directors Category:American television writers Category:American voice actors Category:California Democrats Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish comedians Category:People from Manhattan Category:Film directors from New York City

ar:بن ستيلر bg:Бен Стилър ca:Ben Stiller cs:Ben Stiller cy:Ben Stiller da:Ben Stiller de:Ben Stiller es:Ben Stiller eu:Ben Stiller fa:بن استیلر fr:Ben Stiller ga:Ben Stiller ko:벤 스틸러 hr:Ben Stiller id:Ben Stiller is:Ben Stiller it:Ben Stiller he:בן סטילר ka:ბენ სტილერი csb:Ben Stiller la:Beniaminus Stiller lv:Bens Stillers lt:Ben Stiller hu:Ben Stiller mk:Бен Стилер arz:بين ستيلر nl:Ben Stiller ja:ベン・スティラー no:Ben Stiller pl:Ben Stiller pt:Ben Stiller ro:Ben Stiller ru:Стиллер, Бен sq:Ben Stiller simple:Ben Stiller sk:Ben Stiller sr:Бен Стилер sh:Ben Stiller fi:Ben Stiller sv:Ben Stiller tl:Ben Stiller th:เบน สติลเลอร์ tr:Ben Stiller uk:Бен Стіллер zh:班·史提勒

Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Larry the Cable Guy
birth name	Daniel Lawrence Whitney
birth date	February 17, 1963
birth place	Pawnee City, Nebraska, US
medium	Stand-upTelevisionFilmRadioBooks
nationality	American
active	1991–present
genre	Character comedy, Redneck comedy, Country comedy, Observational comedy, Satire
subject	Culture of the Southern United States, obesity, human sexuality, political correctness, self-deprecation, family, personal hygiene
influences	Steve Martin, Don Rickles, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, Jeff Foxworthy
influenced	Billy the Bass Man
spouse	Cara Whitney (2005–present; 2 children)
notable work	Blue Collar Comedy TourLarry McCoy in Delta FarceHimself in Larry the Cable Guy: Health InspectorLarry in Witless ProtectionMater in ''Cars'' and ''Cars 2''
website	Official site
religion	Christian }}

Daniel Lawrence Whitney (born February 17, 1963), better known by his stage name and character Larry the Cable Guy, is an American comedian, actor, and former radio personality.

He is one of the co-stars of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, a comedy troupe which also includes Bill Engvall, Ron White, and Jeff Foxworthy, with whom he has starred on ''Blue Collar TV''.

Larry the Cable Guy has released seven comedy albums, of which three have been certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of 500,000 copies. In addition, he has starred in three Blue Collar Comedy Tour-related movies, as well as in the films ''Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector'', ''Delta Farce'', and ''Witless Protection''. He has also provided the voice of Mater in the Disney/Pixar films ''Cars'' and ''Cars 2''. His catchphrase, ''Git-R-Done!'', is the title of his book.

On January 26, 2010, the TV channel History announced it was ordering a series starring Larry the Cable Guy, titled ''Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy'', in which the comedian explores the country, immersing himself in different lifestyles, jobs and hobbies. The first episode of the series aired on February 8, 2011.

Early life

According to a CMT bio, Whitney grew up on a pig farm in Pawnee City, Nebraska. Whitney went to college at the now defunct Baptist University of America. He credits his roommates from Texas and Georgia for developing his imitation Southern accent. He dropped out after his junior year after trying his hand at comedy.

Career

Radio career

Whitney started his career in radio as a disc jockey in Blue Springs, Missouri. He became known in the early 1990s when he made regular radio appearances via phone on programs such as ''The Ron and Ron Show,'' ''The Chris Baker Show'' on KOOO and KEZO's ''The Todd and Tyler Show'' in Omaha, Nebraska, as well as the ''Kirk, Mark, and Lopez'' morning show on WIYY in Baltimore, Maryland. He was also a frequent guest on the ''Johnny Dare and Murphy'' show on 98.9, KQRC, Kansas City. He also did appearances on WJRR in Orlando, Florida, on the Monsters in the Mid Day (presently the Monsters in the Morning), as he was a personal friend of BlackBean (Carlos Navarro) with whom he had done voice-over work. He was brought to New England on ''Greg and the Morning Buzz'' on WHEB 100.3 and WGIR 101.1 in Portsmouth and Manchester, New Hampshire, respectively, doing two commentaries a week.

Stand-up career

He became famous developing the Larry character, a personality that he now maintains throughout his stage act. The Larry character has a stereotypical redneck appearance, a thick Southern accent, recounts stories about his "family", and uses, among other common expressions, his own catchphrase "Git-R-Done!" A part of Whitney's routine is his affected Southern accent. He says in interviews and in his autobiographical book ''GIT-R-DONE'' that he deliberately "turns on" the accent both on and off stage, because he may forget it if he kept his normal accent intact. He uses catchphrase humor, including "Git-R-Done," "Lord, I apologize, and be with the starvin' Pygmies down there in New Guinea. Amen." and "I don't care who ya are, that's funny right there" after certain jokes. He appears in Nutrisystem commercials with Dan Marino. Marino delivers the catchphrase, "Git-R-Done," and is shown dressed in Whitney's trademark attire, including a pair of jeans, a cut off, untucked flannel shirt, and camouflage hat.

His first two comedy albums, ''Lord, I Apologize'' (2001), and ''The Right To Bare Arms'' (2005), have both been certified gold by the RIAA. A third album, ''Morning Constitutions'', and its accompanying TV special were released in 2007.

Other work

In 2006 he was approached by Comedy Central to voice a character for an as-yet-unnamed animated series. The show would involve his character as one of two owners of a small cable channel (the other, a high-classed, high-attitude woman). A half-hour pilot was ordered by the network, but has yet to air.

Whitney was roasted in a Comedy Central special on March 15, 2009. During the roast he can be heard greeting roasters out of character and in his normal speaking voice, as well as being called "Dan" by Bill Engvall.

On Tuesday, February 8, 2011 the premiere of his newest travelogue series, "Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy", debuted quite successfully on the History Channel. A total of 4.1 million viewers, 1.7 million adults 25-54, tuned in, nearly doubling the total for the "Top Shot" season 2 opener.

Personal life

Whitney resides in Lincoln, Nebraska. He married his wife Cara in 2005. They have two children together, a son, Wyatt (born August 2006), and a daughter, Reagan (born October 2007). In 2010, Whitney and his wife disclosed in an article that their son Wyatt has hip dysplasia.

His home town of Pawnee City, Nebraska has a street named after him. Whitney also donated money to buy new theatrical equipment for the local high school.

He is an avid Nebraska Cornhuskers fan and his signature camo hat has the Nebraska N emblazoned in it.

Radio shows

Whitney was a radio personality on:

KKAR 1290 AM in Omaha, Nebraska

KGDE 101.9 The Edge in Omaha, Nebraska

KEZO "Z-92" in Omaha, Nebraska

KQRC 98.9 FM "The Rock" in Kansas City

KMYZ "Z104.5 The Edge" in Tulsa, Oklahoma

WWRM 94.9 FM "Magic 94.9" in Tampa, Florida

WJRR 101One in Orlando, Florida

WDIZ in Panama City, Florida

WPLA "Planet Radio" 107.3 in Jacksonville, Florida

WIYY 97.9 "98 Rock" in Baltimore, Maryland

WPYX in Albany, New York

WHEB in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

KTPI-FM in Tehachapi, California

WPBZ 103.1 "The Buzz" in West Palm Beach, Florida

Blue Collar Radio on Sirius XM Radio

Discography

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions				! style="width:45px;"	! style="width:45px;"
		''[[Lord, I Apologize">Music recording sales certification
! style="width:45px;"	! style="width:45px;"	! style="width:45px;"
''[[Lord, I Apologize''		* Release date: October 30, 2001	* Label: Hip-O Records	1	53	—		Recording Industry Association of America>US: Gold
''A Very Larry Christmas''		* Release date: November 16, 2004	* Label: Warner Bros. Records	1	8	43		* US: Gold
''The Right to Bare Arms''		* Release date: March 29, 2005	* Label: Warner Bros. Records	1	1	7		* US: Gold
''Morning Constitutions''		* Release date: April 3, 2007	* Label: Warner Bros. Records	1	5	16
''Christmastime in Larryland''		* Release date: October 3, 2007	* Label: Warner Bros. Records	1	12	42
''On the Can''		* Release date: July 21, 2009	* Label: Warner Bros. Records	7	50	—
''Tailgate Party''		* Release date: September 22, 2009	* Label: Warner Bros. Records	1	19	71
''The Best of Larry the Cable Guy''		* Release date: November 16, 2010	* Label: Warner Bros. Records	4	72	—

Filmography

''Larry the Cable Guy: Git-R-Done'' (2003)

''Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie'' (2003)

''Blue Collar Comedy Tour: Rides Again'' (2004)

''Blue Collar TV'' (2004–2006) as various characters

''Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector'' (2006)

''Cars'' (2006) as Mater

''Blue Collar Comedy Tour: One For the Road'' (2006)

''Delta Farce'' (2007) as Larry

''Witless Protection'' (2008) as Deputy Larry Stalder

''Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales'' (2008–2011) as Mater

''Comedy Central Roast'' (2009)

''Larry the Cable Guy: Tailgate Party'' (2010)

''Cars 2'' (2011) as Mater

Notes

External links

Interview with Larry the Cable Guy about 'Cars 2'

Category:American stand-up comedians Category:People from Pawnee County, Nebraska Category:Entertainers from Nebraska Category:Warner Bros. Records artists Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:American voice actors Category:American video game actors Category:American film actors Category:American comedy musicians Category:American male singers Category:Actors from Nebraska

it:Larry the Cable Guy