English

Indo-European family · Germanic branch · Eurasia

English is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give', all 18 other Indo-European languages coded have the value “Indirect-object construction”; English has “Mixed”.

No language in the atlas has more of the profile features coded than English.

On Polar Questions, WALS codes English as “Interrogative word order”, a value held by 13 of the 955 languages coded, Spanish and German among them.

The order English uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast English with Swedish or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with English, rarest first.

The PerfectFrom possessive7 of 222
Weight-Sensitive StressRight-oriented: The antepenultimate is involved27 of 500
Adjectives without NounsMarked by following word7 of 124
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection'We' and 'I' identical12 of 200
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate NegationNegative indefinites show mixed behaviour13 of 206
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsLong vowel + Coda: long vowels or closed syllables35 of 500
Presence of Uncommon Consonants'Th' sounds40 of 567
Relativization on SubjectsRelative pronoun12 of 166

Inside the Indo-European family

English matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 101 of the 144 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (70%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks 13th from the top.

Where English breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	English	Most relatives
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	M-T pronouns, paradigmatic (9 of 9)
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is syncretic for core cases only	Core and non-core (9 of 10)
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction (5 of 5, Germanic branch)
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	Only indirect evidentials (4 of 4, Germanic branch)

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with English; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Swedish Indo-European53 of 63
Danish Indo-European36 of 43
Dutch Indo-European52 of 66
German Indo-European98 of 134
Norwegian Indo-European40 of 52

Outside the Indo-European family, the best match is Abipón (Guaicuruan), with 41 of 63 features alike.

The rest of the profile

WALS codes English for 144 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 129 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value English shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 16

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Low	58 of 564
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, but not initially	87 of 469
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Fixed Stress Locations	No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress)	220 of 502
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
Rhythm Types	Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong	153 of 323
Tone	No tones	307 of 527
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Reduplication	No productive reduplication	55 of 368
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	2-3 categories per word	24 of 145
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Consistently dependent-marking	46 of 236
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is dependent-marked	63 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is syncretic	60 of 198
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 of 162
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection	monoexponential TAM	127 of 160
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 26

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Cases	2 case categories	23 of 261
Number of Genders	Three	26 of 257
The Associative Plural	Associative plural absent	37 of 236
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	Gender distinctions in 3rd person singular only	61 of 378
Ordinal Numerals	First, second, three-th	61 of 321
Indefinite Articles	Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'	102 of 534
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking	53 of 261
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic assignment	53 of 257
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related for all demonstratives	52 of 225
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Identity	76 of 322
Distributive Numerals	No distributive numerals	62 of 251
Indefinite Pronouns	Generic-noun-based indefinites	85 of 326
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally similar, not involving interrogative expression	33 of 116
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	Sex-based gender system	84 of 257
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always obligatory	133 of 291
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Mixed: Several patterns in the same language	14 of 168
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Highly differentiated	77 of 138
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	131 of 234
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for both possibility and necessity	36 of 207
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	Suppletion according to tense	36 of 193
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Verbal constructions	65 of 240
The Past Tense	Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction	94 of 222
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Genitive and Noun	Both orders occur with neither order dominant	96 of 1,249
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN)	373 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
Position of Polar Question Particles	No question particle	355 of 884
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	Verb-object-oblique (VOX)	210 of 500
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)	542 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 23

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Obligatory pronouns in subject position	82 of 711
Comparative Constructions	Particle Comparative	22 of 167
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of only the A argument	73 of 378
Predicative Possession	Have-Possessive	63 of 240
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Sequential type but no purposive type	35 of 118
Nominal and Locational Predication	Identical	117 of 386
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No zero realization of third person S forms	181 of 380
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb	187 of 379
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310

Complex sentences 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Obliques	Relative Pronoun Strategy	13 of 112
Purpose Clauses	Balanced/deranked	30 of 170
Reason Clauses	Balanced/deranked	37 of 169
'When' Clauses	Balanced/deranked	39 of 174
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Basic Colour Categories	More than 10 categories	11 of 119
M in First Person Singular	m in first person singular	53 of 230
Number of Non-Derived Basic Colour Categories	6 categories	29 of 119
Green and Blue	Green and blue	30 of 120
Tea	Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te	84 of 230
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
Red and Yellow	Red and yellow	98 of 120
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings	71 of 143