Xem thêm: linguistic communication, speech, speech communication, spoken communication, spoken language, voice communication, oral communication, terminology, nomenclature, linguistic process, speech, lyric, words
language noun
1 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.
2 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.
More information about LANGUAGE
excellent, 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 interpreters
a command/knowledge of ~ He has a poor command of English.
in ~ What is ‘apple’ in French?He addressed me in his best Portuguese.
n.
he taught foreign languages
the language introduced is standard throughout the text
the speed with which a program can be executed depends on the language in which it is written
his speech was garbled
he uttered harsh language
he recorded the spoken language of the streets
legal terminology
biological nomenclature
the language of sociology
he didn't have the language to express his feelings
language sets homo sapiens apart from all other animals
his compositions always started with the lyrics
he wrote both words and music
the song uses colloquial language
