Wikipedia:Simple English Wikipedia
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Welcome to the Simple English Wikipedia, an easy-to-read online encyclopedia for people who are learning English. The Simple English Wikipedia's articles can be used to help with school homework or just for the fun of learning about new ideas. Non-English Wikipedias can also translate from the articles here.
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[edit] What is Simple English Wikipedia?
Articles in the Simple English Wikipedia use fewer words and easier grammar than the original English Wikipedia. The Simple English Wikipedia is also for people with different needs, such as students, children, adults with learning difficulties and people who are trying to learn English. Other people use the Simple English Wikipedia because its simple language helps them to understand unfamiliar topics or complex ideas.
When the Simple English Wikipedia began, the original English Wikipedia already had 150,000 articles, and seven other Wikipedias in other languages had over 15,000 articles. Since the other Wikipedias already have so many articles, most Simple English articles take articles from other Wikipedias and make them simple; they are not usually new articles.
This makes Simple English articles a good way to understand hard articles from the English Wikipedia. If someone cannot understand an idea in complex English, they can read the Simple English article. For this reason, people writing Simple English articles should put in "interwiki links" to and from the other Wikipedias. Also, it is good to always look at all versions in all languages, to get new ideas. Wikipedia needs this help to make it better.
"Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not" has a good list of things which we are not doing. These things are a little different from the things the original English Wikipedia does not do. For example, in the Simple English version it is more important to explain slang, idiom, and jargon. The Simple English Wikipedia also has some articles which are also in the Wiktionary.
Anyone can write in the Simple English Wikipedia, including high school students, people with learning disabilities, and people who are learning English. Simple English writers are very mixed, more so than at English Wikipedia, or at other Wikipedias. It is important to respect the different types of people who are writing articles in the Simple English Wikipedia, and to be friendly with people who are different. Remember that Wikipedia is a service which many communities use.
If you wish to write articles for the Simple English Wikipedia, read Wikipedia:How to write Simple English articles. See Wikipedia for a simple English introduction to the project in all languages, and Wikipedia:Useful for a list of pages that can help you more. You can ask questions at Wikipedia:Simple talk.
[edit] Simple English
Simple English is similar to English, but it only uses basic words.
We suggest that articles should use only the 1000 most common and basic words in English. They should also use only simple grammar, for example shorter sentences. Writers can also use a special system, for example Basic English. Of course, people can write original articles; these could be put in both this and the main Wikipedia (with a normal level of English). Usually, only about 2,000 words are enough to write a normal article.
Since some articles need more than 2000 different words, some complex articles use more words. But even very basic concepts (zero, one, two) are too difficult to explain with a small number of words.
For detailed writing about science, politics, or religion, articles sometimes need more words, but the English must be simple. Sometimes, an article uses more than 2000 words, maximum 3000, but it explains all the hard words. Articles need some complex words because of the article names in the original English Wikipedia, and to use normal words. Articles on scientific topics (Earth, etc.) usually need this.
There are no rules about vocabulary, tense or suffixes. Some articles use only Basic English (850 words), but this wiki has no strong rules about which words can be used, as E Prime does.
If a word is not simple or not used often here, explain it on a new page. This means that the Simple English Dictionary is part of the encyclopedia, not the Wiktionary.
