Hey everybody, welcome to this A1 English listening practice video. You can use this video to practice your listening and comprehension as I speak. And remember to sign up for our $1 Listening Practice seminars at polyglaza.com, and download our free Listening Time podcasts so you can practice your listening skills.

大家好，欢迎观看初级英语听力视频。你可以用这个视频练习英语听力和理解能力。别忘了点赞、关注、评论一键三连。

So today I’m gonna talk about the English language. This is an important topic for all of you because you’re all learning English in this video, I’m gonna give you some interesting facts about the English language. This should be fun.

今天我想聊聊英语。这是个对大家都很重要的话题，因为大家都通过这个视频学英语。我将告诉大家一些关于英语的有趣的事情。

Okay, so the first thing I wanna talk about is how many people speak this language? Well, almost 400 million people speak English as their first language. These people are native English speakers. Most of these speakers are in the US, of course, but there are many other English speaking countries. Obviously, countries like the UK, Australia, Canada and Ireland speak English, but there are also a lot of other countries where people speak English. For example, English is the major language of Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and other countries too. There are a lot of English speaking countries. Also, many people around the world speak English as their second language. In every country, there are people who are learning English.

首先我想聊聊到底有多少人在使用英语。大约有4亿人的母语是英语。这些人大部分在美国，当然，还有其他说英语的国家。显然，英国、澳大利亚、加拿大和爱尔兰都说英语，还有其他一些国家也说英语。例如，英语是伯利兹、圭亚那、牙买加、巴哈马以及其他国家的主要语言。有很多说英语的国家。此外，世界各地还有很多人将英语作为第二语言。每个国家，都有人正在学习英语的人。

As a teacher, I’ve taught students from over 80 different countries. Cool. We don’t know exactly how many people speak English as a second language, but there are a lot.

作为一名教师，我教过来自80多个不同国家的学生。屌不屌。我们不知道确切有多少人将英语作为第二语言，但有很多人。

Okay, now let’s talk about the history of English. The first form of English appeared in the 5th century AD. Today we call this early English “Old English”. Old English was very different from modern English. I can’t understand Old English. In the 11th century, Old English became “Middle English”. Middle English is a little closer to modern English, but it’s still very different. Finally, modern English began at the end of the 14th century, but English continues to change. So today’s English looks a little different from the English of the past few centuries.

好的，现在让我们谈谈英语的历史。英语的第一个形式出现在公元5世纪。今天我们称这种早期英语为“古英语”。古英语与现代英语非常不同。我无法理解古英语。在11世纪，古英语变成了“中古英语”。中古英语与现代英语稍微接近一些，但它仍然非常不同。最后，现代英语在14世纪末开始，但英语仍在继续变化。所以今天的英语与过去几个世纪的英语看起来略有不同。

Another important thing to know about English is that other languages have influenced it a lot. So, which languages? Well, for example, some experts say that almost 30% of English words come from Latin and almost 30% of English words come directly from French. That means that almost 60% of modern English words come from Latin or French. That’s a big influence. Also, around 6% of English words come from Greek. And there are many words from other languages too.

另一个需要了解的英语重要事实是，其他语言对它的影响很大。那么，是哪些语言呢？嗯，例如，一些专家说，大约30%的英语单词来自拉丁语，大约30%的英语单词直接来自法语。这意味着几乎60%的现代英语单词来自拉丁语或法语。这是一个很大的影响。此外，大约6%的英语单词来自希腊语。而且还有很多其他语言的单词。

But what language family does English belong to? English is a Germanic language. That means English is related to languages such as German, Dutch, and Swedish. However, English speakers can’t understand these other languages. If I hear German or Dutch, I don’t understand anything. English is related to these languages, but they’re very different. For example, Americans who only speak English can usually understand much more Spanish than German. That seems strange because English and Spanish are not related, but English and German are related.

但是英语属于哪个语言系？英语是一种日耳曼语系的语言。这意味着英语与德语、荷兰语和瑞典语等语言有关联。然而，说英语的人并不能理解这些其他语言。如果我听到德语或荷兰语，我什么都听不懂。英语与这些语言有关，但它们非常不同。例如，只说英语的美国人通常能理解更多的西班牙语而不是德语。这似乎很奇怪，因为英语和西班牙语没有关系，但英语和德语却有关系。

The reason why English speakers can understand many words from Spanish, French or Italian is because these languages have many cognates. Cognates are words that have the same origin. For example, in English, we have the word patience, and in Spanish, this word is basencia. These words look very similar because they’re cognates. So if an English speaker hears the Spanish word “paciencia”, they can probably understand the meaning.

英语使用者能够理解许多西班牙语、法语或意大利语的词汇，是因为这些语言有许多同源词。同源词是指有相同起源的词。例如，在英语中，我们有“耐心”这个词，在西班牙语中，这个词是“basencia”。这些词看起来非常相似，因为它们是同源词。所以如果一个英语使用者听到西班牙语单词“paciencia”，他们很可能能理解其含义。

Okay, one last interesting thing about English is that it has many words. Some people say that English is the language with the most words. I think this is probably, true because English has taken many words from other languages, like I said before.

好的，关于英语最后一个有趣的事实是，它有很多词汇。有些人说英语是词汇量最多的语言。我认为这可能是真的，因为正如我之前所说，英语从其他语言中借用了很多词汇。

All right, now I’m gonna ask you some questions about the video to see if you understood. Write your answers in a comment down below.

好的，现在我要问你一些关于视频的问题，看看你是否理解了。把你的答案写在下面的评论中。

No. 1, when did Old English appear?

No. 2, what language family does English belong to?

No. 3, what are cognits?

Okay, before we go, remember to sign up for our $1 Listening Practice seminars in download our free Listening Time podcasts to practice your listening skills. And of course, subscribe to the channel, click on the bell and follow us on Instagram. I’ll see you next time.