Basic English

"BE" redirects here. For the English language as used in the United Kingdom, see British English.

Basic English (Business Academic Scientific International Commercial) is a controlled language used to explain complex thoughts. It has 850 basic English words chosen by Charles Kay Ogden. Some articles in the Simple English Wikipedia use only Basic English.

In 1936 Ogden hired Otto and Marie Neurath to make International Picture Language as one of a group of eight books in Basic English.

Rules of word use

The word use of Basic English is simpler and more regular than the word use of normal English. In normal English, words often have a number of different meanings. To make Basic English easier, not all the meanings of a word are used.

Basic English uses Ogden's rules of grammar. Ogden's rules of grammar let people use the 850 words to talk about things and events simply.

1. -s / -es / -ies change singular nouns into plural nouns.
2. -ing / -ed change verbs into adjectives.
3. -ing / -er change verbs into nouns.
4. -ly changes adjectives into adverbs.
5. -er / -est or more / most describe amounts.
6. un- changes the meanings of adjectives into their opposites.
7. The opposite word order with do makes questions.
8. 'Operators' (verbs) and pronouns change as in normal English.
9. Make combined words (compounds) from two nouns (for example "milkman") or a noun and a direction ("sundown").
10. Measures, numbers, money, days, months, years, clock time, and international words are in English forms. E.g. Date/Time: 20 May 1972 at 21:00
11. 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: plural, conjugation, noun, adjective, adverb, qualifier, operator, pronoun, and directive.

Related pages

• Basic English 850 word list
  • Basic English alphabetical wordlist
  • Basic English ordered wordlist
    • Basic English picture wordlist – 200 Picturable words
• Basic English international wordlist
• Basic English compound wordlist
• Basic English combined wordlist
• Related resources
  • List of simple adjectives
  • List of simple verbs

References

• Ogden C.K. 1940. General Basic English dictionary. London: Evans Brothers. ISBN 0874713625
• The dictionary for Simple English

Other websites

• Ogden's Basic English
• Basic English Utility
• Automatic online simplifying and summarizing tool. - Detect language and convert to Basic English or summarize many documents into standard or Basic English, reading material and Basic English course included.