What is Good English?

There are different kinds of English, ranging from the formal to¹ the colloquial. The kind of English we use² may depend on the occasion we use it, the person we are addressing or the type of writing we are engaged on. Thus, good English is correct English appropriate to a certain level of communication.

Different degrees of education and different social situations produce different levels of usage. They are classified as standard English, non-standard English, colloquial English and differ in constructions, pronunciation and vocabulary. One might even say that there is no difference in factual meaning between “He took his sister to the pictures” and “He taken his sister to the pictures”, but we recognize the first sentence as standard English, and the second as non-standard, incorrect English.

Non-standard English is the English used by the people with little or no education, it is nearly always spoken, seldom written, except in fiction which reproduces this type of speech. It is characterized by the misuse of words, the use of non-standard words, and the corruption of what is now considered a correct or conventional grammatical form. Another characteristic of non-standard English is its limited vocabulary. Slang is an important part of non-standard English and, indeed, of language in general. Most slang is, however, by its very nature³, short-lived.

Within the area of standard English three levels are generally recognized now: they are called formal English, informal English and colloquial English.

Formal English is the English, more often written than spoken, used by highly educated people in formal situations. One finds examples of formal English in scholarly articles and theses, in formal letters and public addresses⁴, and poetry. Contractions and colloquial expressions are avoided in formal style, grammar and usage are generally conservative. A wide and exact vocabulary is an important characteristic of formal English.

Informal English is the English most commonly written or spoken by educated people. Lectures for unspecialized audiences, informal essays, business letters and most current novels, short stories and plays are written in informal English. In vocabulary and sentence style informal English is less formal and elaborate than formal English, its sentences being shorter and simpler.

Colloquial English is conversational English, more often spoken than written. It has short sentences and casual constructions and vocabulary of the everyday relaxed speech of educated people. Colloquial English is personal and familiar in tone.

Notes:

1.ranging from ... to – от ... до

2.English we use – английский язык, которым мы пользуемся

3.by its very nature – по самой своей природе

4.public addresses – публичные выступления

Varieties of English

English is not a single language, it varies according to forms of communication (spoken or written), speech situations (formal – informal), functional styles (language of science – literary language), geographical areas (British English (BE) – American English (AE)).

In writing we usually have time to plan our message, to think about it carefully and revise it if necessary. The language of science belongs mostly to formal written communication, it is usually objective¹, precise and unemotional. Some of the common features of the language of science are passive constructions, sentences beginning with introductory “it” (e.g. It is important to remember.)

Formal language is the type of language we use publicly for some serious purpose, for example, in official reports and business letters. Informal language is the language of private conversation, of popular newspapers, of personal letters. In English there are many differences of vocabulary between formal and informal language. Much of the vocabulary of formal English is of French, Latin and Greek origin. Many phrasal and prepositional verbs are characteristic of informal style:

находить, открывать	to discover/to find out
записывать	to write/to put down
исследовать	to investigate/to look into

English is spoken as a native language by nearly three hundred million people. The varieties of English used in the USA and Great Britain are the most important in terms of² population and influence.

The British first came to the American continent at the beginning of the 17-th century. As time went on Americans began to use different English words for the same things. For example, instead of “petrol” Americans use “gas”, instead of “child” they use “kid”. One of the differences is the spelling of words. Americans stopped using “u” in words like “colour”, “honour”, but the British kept using it. The grammatical differences between two varieties of English are not very great. Here is one example:

I have got a sister. – BE

Have you got a sister? - BE

Do you have a sister? - AE

There are many suggestions to simplify English by changing the spelling system. But people think that there are too many problems connected with the change of the spelling rules.

Notes:

1.it (the language of science) is objective – он

(язык науки) беспристрастен

2.in terms of – с точки зрения

12. Read the text and name all the differences between British and American English.