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noun system of communication ADJ. first, native She grew up in Spain, so her first language is Spanish. | foreign, second How many foreign languages does she speak? the teaching of English as a second language | original Most local cinemas show films in the original language, with German subtitles. | source, target (both technical) | ancient, classical, dead Latin is a dead language. | modern | common, shared | indigenous, local | official Belgium has two official languages. | national Portuguese is the national language of Brazil. | international | minority Some minority languages are dying out. | spoken, written She could speak some Chinese, but never studied the written language. | colloquial, everyday, informal | formal | flowery, literary, poetic | racist, sexist | sign Not all deaf people use sign language. | body, non-verbal You could tell from his body language that he was very embarrassed. | legal, technical, etc. | computer, programming VERB + LANGUAGE speak | understand | use | learn, study | master | be couched in, be expressed in | enrich idiomatic expressions that enrich the language LANGUAGE + NOUN acquisition, learning new methods of language learning | course, lesson PREP. in … ~ His letter was couched in very formal language. PHRASES command/knowledge/mastery of (a) language Her command of language is very advanced for a six-year-old. | use of language The writer's use of language reflects the personality of each character. offensive words ADJ. bad, crude, foul, obscene, offensive, strong using foul language VERB + LANGUAGE use | mind, watch The referee warned the players to mind their language.NOTElanguagesexcellent, fluent, good, perfect ~ He speaks fluent Japanese.bad, broken, poor~ I got by with broken Chinese and sign language.colloquial, idiomatic, non-standard, pidgin, standard ~ The inhabitants speak a kind of pidgin Spanish.spoken, written ~ My spoken Polish is better than my written Polish.business ~ She is doing a course in business English.original ~ The fable is translated from the original French.know, read, speak, understand, use ~ I am more comfortable using Spanish, if you don't mind.be fluent in ~ She was fluent in German, Urdu and Swahili.do, learn ~ I did German at school but I've forgotten most of it. I've been learning Arabic for four years.improve, practise ~ I spent a month in Rome to improve my Italian.master ~ I never really mastered Latin.translate sth into ~ He has translated her latest book into Korean.~ class, course, lesson I'm late for my Russian class.~ interpreter, speaker, a speaker of ~ the need for Gujarati interpretersa command/knowledge of ~ He has a poor command of English.in ~ What is ‘apple’ in French? He addressed me in his best Portuguese. SUBJECT
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language verbs speak a language • Can you speak a foreign language? use a language • The children use their native language at home. learn a language • Immigrants are expected to learn the language of their new country. master a language (= succeed in learning a language well ) • She had had a long struggle to master the Russian language. know a language • He had lived in Japan, but did not know the language. ADJECTIVES/NOUN + language a foreign language • He found learning a foreign language extremely difficult. the English/Japanese/Spanish etc language • She had some knowledge of the Spanish language. sb’s first/native language (= the language someone first learned as a child ) • His first language was Polish. a second language (= a language you speak that is not your first language ) • Most of the students learned English as their second language. modern languages (= languages that are spoken now ) • The school has a good modern languages department. a dead language (= a language that is no longer spoken ) • She didn’t see the point of learning a dead language. an official language (= the language used for official business in a country ) • Canada has two official languages: English and French. a common language (= a language that more than one person or group speaks, so that they can understand each other ) • Most of the countries of South America share a common language: Spanish. language + NOUN the language barrier (= the problem of communicating with someone when you do not speak the same language ) • Because of the language barrier, it was hard for doctors to give good advice to patients. a language student/learner • Language learners often have problems with tenses. a language teacher • a book for language teachers language teaching • recent developments in language teaching phrases sb’s command of a language (= someone’s ability to speak a language ) • Does he have a good command of the language?