native speakers
Born into the language
Native speakers are people who learned a language from birth or early childhood as their first language.
The term implies intuitive mastery—native speakers don't consult grammar rules; they simply know what sounds right.
The study surveyed 200 native speakers of Mandarin.
Linguists often use native speaker judgments as evidence for how a language works.
- accentRegional speech pattern
- language preservationMaintaining endangered native tongues
- regional dialectsGeographically distinct speech varieties
- heritage languageLanguage of one's ancestors
- languageSystem of symbolic communication
idiomatic · fluency · mother tongue · code-switching · dialect · grammar · diglossia · language barrier · lost in translation · broken English · oral tradition · language acquisition · pronunciation · bilingualism · foreign · tongue · culture · first language
- English SpeakersAmericans, British, American, Australians, Australian
- ESLgrammar lessons, vocabulary building, pronunciation practice, listening skills, speaking skills
- Mandarin learningpinyin, tones, characters, hanzi, Mandarin
- language learningvocabulary lists, lessons, acquisition, basic vocabulary, grammar books
- Spanish languagedialects, Spanglish, Latin America, Mexico, Caribbean
- cultural immersionhomestay, language exchange, study abroad, exchange student, host family
native speakersnon-native speakers
Those speaking learned languages
language learners · learners · ESL learners · adult learners · heritage speakers
native speakersnon-native speakers
Those speaking learned languages
outsiders · foreigners · immigrants · expatriates · newcomers
speak, native, speaker, innate, speakers, nativity, nonnative, nativist, natively