Locale En Gb

Reference data for the English (Great Britain) locale — endonym English (Great Britain), written in the Latin script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

• BCP 47 tag: en-GB
• ISO 639-1: en
• ISO 639-3: eng
• Script: Latn (Latin)
• Region: GB (United Kingdom)
• Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 59,300,000
• L2 (additional): 4,400,000
• L1+L2 (total): 63,700,000

Base locale

This is a regional variant of Locale En 001 (English), the base/macro locale for this language.

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: one, other (2 forms).

• one — i = 1 and v = 0 (e.g. 1)
• other — everything else (e.g. 0, 2~16, 100, 1000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Apply Locale En 001 and use these British conventions.

• Spelling: -ise is standard in most British publishing (Oxford style prefers -ize), -our ("colour", "behaviour"), -re ("centre"), "licence" (noun) and "license" (verb), "programme" for a plan but "program" for software, "grey", "catalogue", "cheque".
• Punctuation: single quotation marks first in many publications (the Guardian style uses them), with double inside; punctuation goes outside the closing mark unless it belongs to the quotation; the serial comma is used only when it prevents ambiguity; no period after "Mr" and "Dr".
• Dates and numbers: day/month/year ("17 October 2026"), 24-hour clock in timetables, decimal point and comma thousands separator, £ before the number, metric with some imperial in daily use (miles, pints).
• Vocabulary: "mobile", "lorry", "lift", "flat", "holiday", "autumn", "post" for mail, "whilst" is acceptable but formal.
• Tone: understatement and politeness; "sorry" and "please" are frequent, and hard-sell language sounds pushy. GOV.UK promotes plain, short sentences.

Common pitfalls

• Using US spellings (color, organize) and month-first dates in UK copy.
• Overusing exclamation marks or superlatives, which read as American hype.
• The general pitfalls in Locale En 001 also apply.

Learn more

• Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
• Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
• Microsoft Writing Style Guide (https://learn.microsoft.com/style-guide/welcome/)
• GOV.UK style guide (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/style-guide)
• The Guardian and Observer style guide