Basic Elements of Language
What does a language contain within itself? What are the fundamental elements that make up a language? How many languages are spoken in the world today? Which language is the world language today? What is computer language?
All these questions’ answers bring us closer to both our native language and the languages we learn.
- Today, there are around 2800 different languages spoken in the world.
- English, spoken by approximately 800 million people, is also the native language of about 360 million people.
- Chinese is the native language of around 900 million people.
- Approximately 80% of computer language is English.
As you may remember, in the initial lessons of our website, we explained the concept of English word order. Let’s briefly review:
1. A language consists of various nouns within itself. These nouns can be singular or plural.
- bat, cat, dog (animals)
- nice, beautiful, big (adjectives)
- laptop, car, table (things)
- Izmir, London, Berlin (places)
- boy, girl (people)
2. Pronouns can be used in place of nouns:
- I – I am a teacher
- you – You are a student
- she(female) – She is a student
- he (male) – He is a student
- we – We are students
- they – They are students
- it (inanimate and animals) – It is a dog
3. Adjectives introduce a noun. In English, adjectives usually come before the noun. Adjectives do not take plural suffixes (nice – nices x).
Examples:
nice dog
hard question
different way
4. Verbs (actions) and states are fundamental elements of a language. They can be used in past, present, and future forms.
Examples:
I speak English (Present)
I spoke English in the class yesterday (Past)
I will speak English in the ‘Free Speech’ Lesson tomorrow (Future)
I like speaking English (State verb = like)
5. The verb ‘be’ is the most basic verb in English. It has three forms in subjects: am, is, and are.
- I am a teacher
- She is a student
- We are students
6. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or whole sentences.
- slowly – yavaşca
- carefully – dikkatlice
- luckily – şans eseri
Examples:
I always drive slowly
She speaks slowly
7. English sentence order:
Subject + Verb + Object
I like apple.
She likes apple.
We like apple.