Modern English, sometimes calledNew English (NE)^[2] orpresent-day English (PDE) as opposed toMiddle andOld English, is the form of theEnglish language that has been spoken since theGreat Vowel Shift inEngland, which began in the late14th century and was completed by the17th century.

With some differences in vocabulary, texts which date from the early 17th century, such as the works ofWilliam Shakespeare and theKing James Bible, are considered Modern English texts, or more specifically, they are referred to as texts which were written inEarly Modern English or they are referred to as texts which were written inElizabethan English. Throughcolonization, English was adopted in many regions of the world by theBritish Empire, such asAnglo-America, theIndian subcontinent,Africa,Australia andNew Zealand.

Modern English has manydialects spoken in many countries throughout the world, sometimes collectively referred to as theEnglish-speaking world. These dialects include (but are not limited to)American,Australian,British (containingAnglo-English,Scottish English andWelsh English),Canadian,New Zealand,Caribbean,Hiberno-English (includingUlster English),Indian,Sri Lankan,Pakistani,Nigerian,Philippine,Singaporean, andSouth African English.

According to theEthnologue, there are almost one billion speakers of English as a first or second language.^[3] English is spoken as a first or a second language in many countries, with most native speakers being in theUnited States, theUnited Kingdom,Australia,Canada,New Zealand andIreland. It "has more non-native speakers than any other language, is more widely dispersed around the world and is used for more purposes than any other language". Its large number of speakers, plus its worldwide presence, have made English acommon language (lingua franca) "of the airlines, of the sea and shipping, of computer technology, of science and indeed of (global) communication generally".^[4]

Modern English evolved fromEarly Modern English which was used from the beginning of theTudor period until theInterregnum andStuart Restoration in England.^[5] By the late 18th century, theBritish Empire had facilitated the spread of Modern English through its colonies and geopolitical dominance. Commerce, science and technology, diplomacy, art, and formal education all contributed to English becoming the first truly global language. Modern English also facilitated worldwide international communication. English was adopted in North America, India, parts of Africa, Australia, and many other regions. In the post-colonial period, some newly created nations that had multipleindigenous languages opted to continue using Modern English as the official language to avoid the political difficulties inherent in promoting one indigenous language above another.^[6][7]

The following is an outline of the major changes in Modern English compared to its previous form (Middle English), and also some major changes in English over the course of the 20th century. Note, however, that these are generalizations, and some of these may not be true for specific dialects:

• "like", "same as", and "immediately" are used asconjunctions.^[8]
• "The" becomes optional before certain combinations ofnoun phrases andproper names.^[8]

• Loss of distinction in most dialects between "whom" and "who" in favour of the latter.^[8]
• The elevation ofsingular they to some formal registers.^[8]
• Placement of frequencyadverbs beforeauxiliary verbs.^[8]

• Regularisation of someEnglish irregular verbs.^[8]
• Revival of the present ("mandative")English subjunctive.^[8]
• "Will" preferred to "shall" to mark thefuture tense in the first person.^[8]
• Do-support for the verb "have".^[8]
• Increase inmulti-word verbs.^[8]
• Development ofauxiliary verbs "wanna", "gonna", "gotta" in informal discourse.^[8]
• Usage ofEnglish progressive verbs in certain present perfect and past perfect forms.^[8]

Up until the American–British split (1600–1725), some major phonological changes in English included:

• Initial cluster reductions, like of /ɡn, kn/ into /n/: makinghomophones of gnat and nat, and not and knot.
• Themeet–meat merger in most dialects: making the words "meat", "threat" and "great" have three different vowels, although all three words once rhymed.
• Thefoot–strut split: so that "cut" and "put", and "pudding" and "budding" no longer rhyme; and "putt" and "put" are no longer homophones.
• Thelot–cloth split: the vowel in words like "cloth" and "off" is pronounced with the vowel in "thought", as opposed to the vowel used in "lot".

After theAmerican-British split, further changes to English phonology included:

• Non-rhotic (/ɹ/-dropping) accents develop in theEnglish of England, Australasia, and South Africa.
• Happy-tensing: finallax [ɪ] becomes tense [i] in words like "happy". Absent from some dialects.
• Yod-dropping: theelision of /j/ in certain consonant clusters, like those found in "chute", "rude", "blue", "chews", and "Zeus".
• Wine–whine merger from the reduction of /ʍ/ to /w/ in all national standard varieties of English, except Scottish and Irish.
• InNorth American and Australasian English, /t, d/ are reduced to an alveolar tap between vowels, realised as [t̬] or [ɾ].
• Cot–caught merger the merger of /ɔ/ and /ɑ/ to /ɑ/ in some dialects ofGeneral American.

• disuse of theT–V distinction (thou,ye). Contemporary Modern English usually retains only the formal second-person personal pronoun, "you" (ye), used in both formal and informal contexts.
• use of auxiliary verbs becomes mandatory ininterrogative sentences.
• "less", rather than "fewer", is used forcountable nouns.^[8]
• ForEnglish comparisons, syntactic comparison (more) is preferred to analytic comparison (-er).^[8]
• Usage of theSaxon genitive ('s) has extended beyond human referents.^[8]

Changes in alphabet and spelling were heavily influenced by the advent of printing and continental printing practices.

• The letterthorn (þ), which began to be replaced byth as early as Middle English, finally fell into disuse. In Early Modern English printing, thorn was represented with the Latiny, which appeared similar to thorn in blackletter typeface(𝖞). The last vestige of the letter was inligatures of thorn, y^e (thee), y^t (that), y^u (thou), which were still seen occasionally in theKing James Bible of 1611 and in Shakespeare's folios.
• The lettersi andj, previously written as a single letter, began to be distinguished; likewise foru andv. This was a common development of theLatin alphabet during this period.

Consequently, Modern English came to use a purelyLatin alphabet of 26 letters.

• History of English
• International English

• English atEthnologue