Frequently Asked Questions

I. Simplish

• 1. Why Simplish?
• English is the main language for Science, Technology, business and even amusement providing 2/3 of the material in Internet. It is a language with a range of words of about 100,000 words and which only a small group of the people in the world speaks well. Now, learning English has need of a great amount of time, hard work and money, which is why although many people speak enough to get by in trips, be clear about films and read everyday material, still many people do not have a wide enough range of words to be clear about more complex material, such as about science or technology. For Europeans, this is not so bad because all European languages have the same Greek or Latin root for many words, so they can be clear about a large part of the words used anyway. However, for the 2/3 of the people of the world who come from Asia, this is a serious problem because their language roots are totally without relation to English.



• 2. Why should I use Simplish?
• Last year alone, 5 million graduates in science and technology came out of Indian and Chinese universities, and many of them need to be able to read and be clear about reports, books and the like all done in English. The natural answer to this problem would seem to be to make tools giving sense of words between natural languages. However, these are quite bad for anything but the simplest text. To put ideas in other languages is hard for a great number of reasons, including the being without a one-to-one word match among languages, the existence in every language of different words that mean the same thing, and the fact that natural language rules are hard; they do not adjust to a set of rules right in every detail that would be a help in going straight to word-to-word matching. It is toward working out these troubles that many artificial-intelligence research efforts have been directed, and their limited success is proof of the complexity of the problem.



• 3. What is the purpose of this tool?
• The purpose of Simplish is to automatically reduce the range of words from Standard English and into a reduced-range form of English in order to make use of that everyday level of English knowledge so many people have. This is the purpose of the simplish tool:
  
  To support good communication between Nations, particularly to do with science or technology, by automatically changing words from Standard English and into a more readable form.
  
  With this range of words, the general looks and being short, it does not seem the writing of a writer, but is clear and right in taking care of details. A great advantage that this method has over any other approach is that, after attempting to do the changes to the material using natural language processing, if where there is still a word with more than one possible sense, the original word can be left in and the text can still be read. It might be that the reader is not certain about that word and will have to look it up, but most of the writing will have been made more easily read than the original writing and it will be together with a detailed account of more than 25,000 words from science and technology detailed in this reduced range of words. It is of value saying that, if a person has a limited range of words, sites such as the wikipedia or the Encyclopedia Britannica are of little use because they use standard English to give an account of the sense of words so that it leaves the reader still short of being able to be clear about what is in a bit of writing.



• 2. What is Basic English?
• Basic English is another attempt at devising a simpler form of a language, as proposed by Charles Ogden. The fact that it is possible to say almost everything we normally desire to say with 1,000 words, makes Basic English attractive. Above 1,000 words, we are at the level of speaking regular English. The normal range of words for a person is put between 300 words and the 12,000 of the normal person at university, though a highly-educated person can often speak more than 50,000 words. The rules of language of this reduced-range English is like Standard English except the rules are short rather than a whole book. There are fewer exceptions. In this way the learner is not troubled by a great number of forms and endings which are not regular, and the outcome is simple natural English in which there is room for addition but no need for change later.



• 5.Can you please list the basic range of words now in use?
• We are making progress with this work and we are constantly making better the basic range of words but these are the words a person needs to be clear about as at April 2008:
  
  Basic words:
  
  a able about account acid across act addition adjustment advertisement agreement after again against air all almost among amount amusement and angle angry animal answer ant any apparatus apple approval arch argument arm army art as at attack attempt attention attraction authority automatic awake baby back bad bag balance ball band base basin basket bath be beautiful because bed bee before behavior belief bell bent berry between bird birth bit bite bitter black blade blood blow blue board boat body boiling bone book boot bottle box boy brain brake branch brass bread breath brick bridge bright broken brother brown brush bucket building bulb burn burst business but butter button by cake camera canvas card care carriage cart cat cause certain chain chalk chance change cheap cheese chemical chest chief chin church circle clean clear clock cloth cloud coal coat cold collar color comb come comfort committee common company comparison competition complete complex condition connection conscious control cook copper copy cord cork cotton cough country cover cow crack credit crime cruel crush cry cup current curtain curve cushion cut damage danger dark daughter day dead dear death debt decision deep degree delicate dependent design desire destruction detail development different digestion direction dirty discovery discussion disease disgust distance distribution division do dog door doubt down drain drawer dress drink driving drop dry dust ear early earth east edge education effect egg elastic electric end engine enough equal error even event ever every example exchange existence expansion experience expert eye face fact fall false family far farm fat father fear feather feeble feeling female fertile fiction field fight finger fire first fish fixed flag flame flat flight floor flower fly fold food foolish foot for force fork form forward fowl frame free frequent friend from front fruit full future garden general get girl give glass glove go goat gold good government grain grass great green grey/gray grip group growth guide gun hair hammer hand hanging happy harbor hard harmony hat hate have he head healthy hearing heart heat help here high history hole hollow hook hope horn horse hospital hour house how humor I ice idea if ill important impulse in increase industry ink insect instrument insurance interest invention iron island jelly jewel join journey judge jump keep kettle key kick kind kiss knee knife knot knowledge land language last late laugh law lead leaf learning leather left leg let letter level library lift light like limit line linen lip liquid list little less least living lock long loose loss loud love low machine make male man manager map mark market married match material mass may meal measure meat medical meeting memory metal middle military milk mind mine minute mist mixed money monkey month moon morning mother motion mountain mouth move much more most muscle music nail name narrow nation natural near necessary neck need needle nerve net new news night no noise normal north nose not note now number nut observation of off offer office oil old on only open operation opinion opposite or orange order organization ornament other out oven over owner page pain paint paper parallel parcel part past paste payment peace pen pencil person physical picture pig pin pipe place plane plant plate play please pleasure plough pocket point poison polish political poor porter position possible pot potato powder power present price print prison private probable process produce profit property prose protest public pull pump punishment purpose push put quality question quick quiet quite rail rain range rat rate ray reaction red reading ready reason receipt record regret regular relation religion representative request respect responsible rest reward rhythm rice right ring river road rod roll roof room root rough round rub rule run sad safe sail salt same sand say scale school science scissors screw sea seat second secret secretary see seed selection self send seem sense separate serious servant sex shade shake shame sharp sheep shelf ship shirt shock shoe short shut side sign silk silver simple sister size skin skirt sky sleep slip slope slow small smash smell smile smoke smooth snake sneeze snow so soap society sock soft solid some son song sort sound south soup space spade special sponge spoon spring square stamp stage star start statement station steam stem steel step stick sticky still stitch stocking stomach stone stop store story strange street stretch stiff straight strong structure substance sugar suggestion summer support surprise such sudden sun sweet swim system table tail take talk tall taste tax teaching tendency test than that the then theory there thick thin thing this though thought thread throat through thumb thunder ticket tight till time tin tired to toe together tomorrow tongue tooth top touch town trade train transport tray tree trick trouble trousers true turn twist umbrella under unit up use value verse very vessel view violent voice waiting walk wall war warm wash waste watch water wave wax way weather week weight well west wet wheel when where while whip whistle white who why wide will wind window wine wing winter wire wise with woman wood wool word work worm wound writing wrong year yellow yes yesterday you young
  
  The General Scientific words used are:
  
  absorption active adjacent age alternative application arc area arrangement axis break bubble capacity case cell column component compound continuous cross decrease deficiency deposit determining device difference difficulty direct disappearance discharge disturbance electronics elimination environment equation evaporation exact experiment explanation focus friction fusion generation groove guard imaging impurity individual internet interpretation investigator joint latitude layer length link longitude mean melt mixture nucleus origin path pressure projection proof reference relative reproduction resistance research rigidity rock rot rotation screen seal section sensitivity shadow shear shell similarity solution spark specimen stimulus strain strength stress substitution successive supply surface technology thickness thrust tool transmission transparent
  
  Finally, the international words we assume a person is clear about are:
  
  alcohol aluminum automobile bank bar beef beer calendar chemist check chocolate chorus cigarette club coffee colony dance engineer gas Google hotel influenza informatics internet jeans kiosk lava madam nickel opera orchestra park passport patent piano police post program propaganda radio restaurant sport taxi tea telephone terrace theater tobacco university whisky zinc

to the top

II. Files and Uploads

• 1. What different file formats do you support ?
• We currently support .pdf .doc and .txt file formats



• 2. What's the maximum size of files that I can upload ?
• Currently on the free Simplish service you can upload a maximum of 1 MB of data per file. If you signup for an account with Simplish though you can upload files up to 100 MB in size.

to the top