The Top Ten Favourite Words in English of Non-Native Speakers

In November 2004, the British Council asked over 7,000 learners in 46 countries what they considered to be the most beautiful word in the English language. An online poll was also undertaken, and a further 35,000 votes were counted. Here are the results:

Are you a non-native speaker of English? Do you have a favourite word? Email it to us, explaining why it is your favourite: teacherkarenb @hotmail.com

Kev writes: I actually have more than one favourite word, but the best one is "extemporaneous". The reason is that, up until now, I have asked over twenty or more native speakers of English from age 14-50, and not a single soul knew what it meant. Only a handful of them knew that it is related to "time" from the "temp" part of the word.

Rosaria writes: "Knowledge."

Iyyappan writes: "My favourite word is 'success' as it is the word behind which the whole world is. Chant the word many times a day to develop a positive wave around you to work hard in the right direction."

Mursel writes: "My favourite word is 'cat' as it was my 6 year-old son's first word in English with perfect pronunciation."

1.	Mother
2.	Passion
3.	Smile
4.	Love
5.	Eternity
6.	Fantastic
7.	Destiny
8.	Freedom
9.	Liberty
10.	Tranquility