Singapore is one of a number of different countries that have postcolonially adopted English as an official language and that continues to use English in a significant portion of its daily life. As such, English in Singapore, through constant use, has become its own linguistically distinct variety with a number of stabilized features that are different from Inner Circle varieties of English, such as Standard Southern British English (SSBE) or General American English (GA).

This paper will focus primarily on describing key features of Colloquial Singapore English (CSE), otherwise known as “Singlish”; I will also briefly touch upon the sociohistorical background of Singlish as well as the current social atmosphere surrounding the variety.