"The thing that struck me when I put together this list was that 90% of the top 100 words were one syllable, and that a large proportion were actually from Old English, meaning the basic words we use all the time in basic sentences are from before the Norman Conquest, " he said.

BBC: NEWS | UK | The popularity of 'time' unveiled

Words can also be translated to and from English using ten built-in translation dictionaries.

ENGADGET: Sony's new Reader Wi-Fi is the world's lightest 6-inch e-reader with multitouch screen (update: powered by Android)

In a dictionary that Christopher Koonooka translated from Yupik to English, there are words describing wavy ice, shore fast ice, small cakes of ice, and thin ice overlapped like shingles.

NPR: Climate Changes Lives of Whalers in Alaska

Extracts from "Metro" were first published in English by Words Without Borders, an online magazine for international literature, in 2008.

CNN: Egypt's banned graphic novel to be published in English

As Viktor Navorski, a stolid, jazz-loving bachelor from Eastern Europe, Tom Hanks speaks only a few words of English and walks with his feet turned out in a rapid waddle.

NEWYORKER: The Terminal

One might add that before English settlers came to America, their language had absorbed words from many different places, too.

FORBES: Four Easy Ways For Republicans To Attract Immigrant Voters

You only need to read the words that Terry Butcher, the English central defender, used to describe the famous goal from Diego in Mexico 86 to the magazine FourFourTwo.

FORBES: Is Lionel Messi The Best Of All Time?