How to read Wikipedia articles in simple English?

Tips on how to search for Wikipedia articles which are written in simple English language and are much more easier to understand, especially for people who do not know English at a first language.

I often read Wikipedia for finding some interesting facts. Most times it is to get some basic background about certain things. Most articles will include a lot of information like the correct way to pronounce certain words.

It also has links to a particular query’s ambiguous meanings. This can be a little too much for children or for people who do not know English as their first language.

Getting Wikipedia articles in simple English

  • Let’s say I am reading an article about India on Wikipedia. The URL will be  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India .
  • To get the same article in simple English just replace “en” with “simple”.
  • So the URL will be http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/India.

This gives the same content in simplified English which does remove a lot of information which people might not really be interested in. Special thanks to Mani Karthik for this tip.

I do not think most people will find Wikipedia articles are too difficult to understand. But this is really useful if you are learning English or for students who might find the language of a particular article too difficult.

Do you think Wikipedia needs more such filters? Do drop in your comments?

Links: Wikipedia | Simple English

6 Comments

Mahesh October 26, 2010

Thank you very much. I cannot understand hard english, you have donw a great job. I was really searching this type of article and finally found it. Now, I will be able to read and understand WikiPedia Articles.

Aditya Kane October 26, 2010

Happy to know this will help you. 🙂

Virtual Avatar October 29, 2010

This is really helpful, thanks for sharing. I sometimes let the kids use wikipedia for research. We use a thesaurus or a dictionary to understand the article more, but thru this they will are able to understand the information without my help. 🙂

EV SSL November 1, 2010

It is very informative post. It is very useful for people like me who wants to know more about different countries and languages and facing problem to understand in English. And it is also helpful for people who don’t want it.
Thank You..

Aditya Kane November 2, 2010

Yes, you are right. This is useful for someone who just does not want that added information. 🙂

huzaifa January 21, 2011

Thnx Aditya it really helps, it makes cluttered looking para into more readable format.