World English · WoE
A simpler, more regular English.
English became the world’s shared language by accident of history — and it is one of the harder languages to learn well. World English is a careful revision that keeps what works and regularizes what doesn’t, so people anywhere can learn it with far less effort.
How a word is written should tell you how it is said.
The idea in ten seconds
Take ordinary English, then delete the exceptions. Every change is transparent — you can still read it at a glance.
She has taken the children to see the mice.
She taked the childs to see the mouses.
She is a good doctor.
She be good doctor.
Have you seen my keys?
?You seed mes keys?
See it carry real weight
“…that these dead shall not die in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
The Gettysburg Address, in World English
The best test of the reform is a text you already know by heart. We rendered the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in World English by the book — every line applying the published rules, with not one abolished form left in. See what changes, and how much doesn't.
What it aims to be
Four goals, in the project’s own words.
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Regular
Rules apply consistently, with as few exceptions as possible.
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Predictable
Know the rule and you can produce and read new forms — nobody has to teach you each one.
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Easier
Less to memorize, fewer traps, a gentler learning curve.
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Readable
To someone who already knows English, it still looks and reads like English. An evolution, not a cipher.
What comes first
Language exists for communication, so World English orders its priorities plainly: ease clarity entertainment. Where they conflict, the earlier one wins — which is why it trades away idiom and flourish. One constraint bounds all three: it must stay legible as English. An evolution, not a cipher.
The main rules at a glance
A few of the load-bearing changes. Each links into the full specification.
All verbs are regular
go → goed, take → taked. About 200 irregular verbs disappear; one -ed rule replaces the list.
No third-person “-s”
he go, she try. One present-tense form for every person.
M4All plurals are regular
childs, foots, mouses. Add -s, always — no irregular or borrowed plurals.
One article
Just the, for known things. Indefinite things take no article. No a/an.
G1A leaner tense system
Three tenses, no perfect. Still true? Use present. Finished? Use past. The question has one answer.
G6Simple questions
A leading ? and rising pitch. No do-support, no inversion, invariant tag right?
O1One spelling
color, center, realize. One dialect, the shorter and more phonetic form.
P1Spelling predicts sound
A simple respelling key — ING-glish — so you can say any word from how it is written.