Basic English

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Basic English is a made-up language written by Charles Kay Ogden. The idea of Basic English is to use easy words to explain harder thoughts.

Basic English ("British American Scientific International Commercial") has 850 basic words. Of the 850 words, 600 are names of things. Most of the words can be learned using pictures. 150 are words to describe things (adjectives and adverbs). The last 100 words are verbs and conjunctions. Verbs are words that show actions, and conjunctions are words that help put sentences together.

1 Rules of word use
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Rules of word use

The word use of Basic English is like full English, but the rules are much more simple, and there are fewer exceptions. Not all meanings of each word are allowed.

Ogden's rules of grammar for Basic English help people use the 850 words to talk about things and events in a normal way.

Make plurals with an "S" on the end of the word. If there are special ways to make a plural word, such as "ES" and "IES", use them.
There are four word endings to change each of the 600 nouns: -"ER" and -"ING", and the two adjective word endings, -"ING" and -"ED".
Make qualifiers from adverbs by adding -"LY".
Talk about amounts with "MORE" and "MOST." Use and know -"ER" and -"EST."
Make opposite adjectives with "UN"-
Make questions with opposite word order, and "DO".
Operators and pronouns conjugate as in normal English.
Make combined words from two nouns (for example "milkman") or a noun and a directive (sundown).
Measures, numbers, money, months, days, years, clock time, and international words are in English forms.
Use the words of an industry or science. For example, in this grammar, some special words are for teaching languages, and not part of Basic English: grammar, plural, conjugate, noun, adjective, adverb, qualifier, operator, pronoun, and directive.