"Foreign languages are very important for everybody at present. Nowadays in times of globalization knowledge of foreign language is necessary in my opinion. We have many reasons for studying them. Knowledge of foreign language is a big advantage when we travel abroad, looking for a job or meeting new people.
English is definitely the world language. English is an official language of 44 countries. Approximately 400 million people speak English as their first language. About the same number use it as an official language. All in all one billion people across the world use English. It´s mother tongue in the English speaking countries as the UK, the USA, Canada or New Zealand. It´s the second language in former British colonies as India, Pakistan…

English belongs to a family of Indo-European languages. English is one of Germanic languages.
It is derivated form three languages - from Old German, Old Norse and French.
We can divide development of English into three periods. The first one is Old English. It was language of Vikings and Saxons, so it was mixture of German and Scandinavian languages. In this period Beowulf was written. Beowulf is heroic poem written by unknown writer in the 8th century.
The second period is Middle English. In this period lived Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote The Canterbury Tales which are great example of Middle English. There were new continuous tenses and English had 9 cases.
New English is modern European language. It has about 990 000 words at present. Usual people in England know about 13 000 words and they are able to use them (for example William Shakespeare knew about 30 000 words).

There are many types of English which differ in pronunciation, spelling, vocabularies and grammar.
I would like to compare British and American English.
These two versions of English are the results of the different historical development of England and America. British English is sometimes called King´s English, because it´s classy.
1) Vocabulary: there are the great differences in vocabulary. These differences are important, because our ignoring them may lead to unpleasant misunderstanding. There are many differences in the names of foodstuffs, shop and clothing.

American English x British English
A pie is called a cake
An automobile is called a car
Candies are called sweets
The first floor is called ground floor
check is called bill
cookies are called biscuits
bill is called banknote
gas is called petrol
pants is called trousers
store is called shop
general store is called department store

2) Spelling: American words are usually shorter. The ending “our” is written “or” in American English.
For example colour is written as color in American English.
The ending “re” is written “er” in American English. For example centre is written as center in
American English.
The “l” isn’t doubled in such word as traveller, travelling, jewellery in American English.
3) Grammar: the differences in grammar are also few. For example most American says: “Do you
have? He just left. We saw the film. I don´t have.” Where an English man would say: “Have you
got? He has just left. We have seen the film. I haven´t got.”
4) Pronunciation: In pronunciation the British don´t use “r”. American English is more
understandable for us, because the accent is not so strong."

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