Basic English

Basic English is a designed language written by Charles Kay Ogden. The idea of Basic English is to use the basic words we use in everyday talking to explain more complex thoughts.

Basic English ("British American Scientific International Commercial") includes 850 of these basic words. Of the 850 words, 600 are nouns, or names of things. Most of these can be learned by using a picture method. 150 are adjectives and descriptive words. The last 100 words are some verbs and conjunctions (words that help put sentences together).

Rules of word use

The word use of Basic English is like full English but the rules fill one chapter rather than a whole book. 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.

1. 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.
2. There are four wordends to change each of the 300 nouns: -"ER" and -"ING", and the two adjective wordends, -"ING" and -"ED".
3. Make qualifiers from adverbs with the wordend -"LY".
4. Talk about amounts with "MORE" and "MOST." Use and know -"ER" and -"EST."
5. Make opposite adjectives with "UN"-
6. Make questions with opposite word order, and "DO".
7. Operators and pronouns conjugate as in normal English.
8. Make combined words from two nouns (for example "milkman" or "wordend") or a noun and a directive (sundown).
9. Measures, numbers, money, months, days, years, clock time, and international words are in English forms.
10. 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.

References

• Ogden, C. K. (1940). General Basic English Dictionary. London: Evans Brothers Limited. ISBN 0874713625.

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