Locale En Sg

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

Identifiers

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

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 1,800,000
• L2 (additional): 3,000,000
• L1+L2 (total): 4,800,000

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 Singapore conventions. Standard Singapore English follows British spelling, while the colloquial form (Singlish) is for speech and informal chat only.

• Spelling: British forms (-ise, -our, -re).
• Dates and numbers: day/month/year, decimal point and comma thousands separator, S$ for the Singapore dollar where it needs distinction.
• Tone: polite, efficient, and clear; the Plain English movement is influential in government writing.
• Names: keep Chinese, Malay, and Tamil names in the order and spelling the person uses.

Common pitfalls

• Writing Singlish particles ("lah", "leh") in formal copy.
• Using American spelling, or assuming the dollar means US dollars.
• 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/)
• Unicode CLDR locale data for date, number, and currency formats (https://cldr.unicode.org)