title: English language

text: An infinitive form, that uses the plain form of the verb and the preposition "to", is used for verbal clauses that are syntactically subordinate to a finite verbal clause. Finite verbal clauses are those that are formed around a verb in the present or preterite form. In clauses with auxiliary verbs, they are the finite verbs and the main verb is treated as a subordinate clause. For example, "he has to go" where only the auxiliary verb "have" is inflected for time and the main verb "to go" is in the infinitive, or in a complement clause such as "I saw him leave", where the main verb is "to see", which is in a preterite form, and "leave" is in the infinitive.


title: English language

text: English also makes frequent use of constructions traditionally called phrasal verbs, verb phrases that are made up of a verb root and a preposition or particle that follows the verb. The phrase then functions as a single predicate. In terms of intonation the preposition is fused to the verb, but in writing it is written as a separate word. Examples of phrasal verbs are "to get up", "to ask out", "to back up", "to give up", "to get together", "to hang out", "to put up with", etc. The phrasal verb frequently has a highly idiomatic meaning that is more specialised and restricted than what can be simply extrapolated from the combination of verb and preposition complement (e.g. "lay off" meaning "terminate someone's employment"). In spite of the idiomatic meaning, some grammarians, including , do not consider this type of construction to form a syntactic constituent and hence refrain from using the term "phrasal verb". Instead, they consider the construction simply to be a verb with a prepositional phrase as its syntactic complement, i.e. "he woke up in the morning" and "he ran up in the mountains" are syntactically equivalent.


title: English language

text: The function of adverbs is to modify the action or event described by the verb by providing additional information about the manner in which it occurs. Many adverbs are derived from adjectives by appending the suffix "-ly". For example, in the phrase "the woman walked quickly", the adverb "quickly" is derived in this way from the adjective "quick". Some commonly used adjectives have irregular adverbial forms, such as "good", which has the adverbial form "well".


title: English language

text: Modern English syntax language is moderately analytic. It has developed features such as modal verbs and word order as resources for conveying meaning. Auxiliary verbs mark constructions such as questions, negative polarity, the passive voice and progressive aspect.


title: English language

text: English word order has moved from the Germanic verb-second (V2) word order to being almost exclusively subject–verb–object (SVO). The combination of SVO order and use of auxiliary verbs often creates clusters of two or more verbs at the centre of the sentence, such as "he had hoped to try to open it".


title: English language

text: In most sentences, English only marks grammatical relations through word order. The subject constituent precedes the verb and the object constituent follows it. The example below demonstrates how the grammatical roles of each constituent are marked only by the position relative to the verb:


title: English language

text: An exception is found in sentences where one of the constituents is a pronoun, in which case it is doubly marked, both by word order and by case inflection, where the subject pronoun precedes the verb and takes the subjective case form, and the object pronoun follows the verb and takes the objective case form. The example below demonstrates this double marking in a sentence where both object and subject are represented with a third person singular masculine pronoun:


title: English language

text: Indirect objects (IO) of ditransitive verbs can be placed either as the first object in a double object construction (S V IO O), such as "I gave Jane the book" or in a prepositional phrase, such as "I gave the book to Jane".


title: English language

text: In English a sentence may be composed of one or more clauses, that may, in turn, be composed of one or more phrases (e.g. Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, and Prepositional Phrases). A clause is built around a verb and includes its constituents, such as any NPs and PPs. Within a sentence, there is always at least one main clause (or matrix clause) whereas other clauses are subordinate to a main clause. Subordinate clauses may function as arguments of the verb in the main clause. For example, in the phrase "I think (that) you are lying", the main clause is headed by the verb "think", the subject is "I", but the object of the phrase is the subordinate clause "(that) you are lying". The subordinating conjunction "that" shows that the clause that follows is a subordinate clause, but it is often omitted. Relative clauses are clauses that function as a modifier or specifier to some constituent in the main clause: For example, in the sentence "I saw the letter that you received today", the relative clause "that you received today" specifies the meaning of the word "letter", the object of the main clause. Relative clauses can be introduced by the pronouns "who", "whose", "whom" and "which" as well as by "that" (which can also be omitted.) In contrast to many other Germanic languages there are no major differences between word order in main and subordinate clauses.


title: English language

text: English syntax relies on auxiliary verbs for many functions including the expression of tense, aspect, and mood. Auxiliary verbs form main clauses, and the main verbs function as heads of a subordinate clause of the auxiliary verb. For example, in the sentence "the dog did not find its bone", the clause "find its bone" is the complement of the negated verb "did not". Subject–auxiliary inversion is used in many constructions, including focus, negation, and interrogative constructions.


title: English language

text: The verb "do" can be used as an auxiliary even in simple declarative sentences, where it usually serves to add emphasis, as in "I "did" shut the fridge." However, in the negated and inverted clauses referred to above, it is used because the rules of English syntax permit these constructions only when an auxiliary is present. Modern English does not allow the addition of the negating adverb "not" to an ordinary finite lexical verb, as in "*I know not"—it can only be added to an auxiliary (or copular) verb, hence if there is no other auxiliary present when negation is required, the auxiliary "do" is used, to produce a form like "I do not (don't) know." The same applies in clauses requiring inversion, including most questions—inversion must involve the subject and an auxiliary verb, so it is not possible to say "*Know you him?"; grammatical rules require "Do you know him?"


title: English language

text: Negation is done with the adverb "not", which precedes the main verb and follows an auxiliary verb. A contracted form of not "-n't" can be used as an enclitic attaching to auxiliary verbs and to the copula verb "to be". Just as with questions, many negative constructions require the negation to occur with do-support, thus in Modern English "I don't know him" is the correct answer to the question "Do you know him?", but not "*I know him not", although this construction may be found in older English.


title: English language

text: Passive constructions also use auxiliary verbs. A passive construction rephrases an active construction in such a way that the object of the active phrase becomes the subject of the passive phrase, and the subject of the active phrase is either omitted or demoted to a role as an oblique argument introduced in a prepositional phrase. They are formed by using the past participle either with the auxiliary verb "to be" or "to get", although not all varieties of English allow the use of passives with "get". For example, putting the sentence "she sees him" into the passive becomes "he is seen (by her)", or "he gets seen (by her)".


title: English language

text: Both yes–no questions and "wh"-questions in English are mostly formed using subject–auxiliary inversion ("Am I going tomorrow?", "Where can we eat?"), which may require "do"-support ("Do you like her?", "Where did he go?"). In most cases, interrogative words ("wh"-words; e.g. "what", "who", "where", "when", "why", "how") appear in a fronted position. For example, in the question "What did you see?", the word "what" appears as the first constituent despite being the grammatical object of the sentence. (When the "wh"-word is the subject or forms part of the subject, no inversion occurs: "Who saw the cat?".) Prepositional phrases can also be fronted when they are the question's theme, e.g. "To whose house did you go last night?". The personal interrogative pronoun "who" is the only interrogative pronoun to still show inflection for case, with the variant "whom" serving as the objective case form, although this form may be going out of use in many contexts.


title: English language

text: While English is a subject-prominent language, at the discourse level it tends to use a topic-comment structure, where the known information (topic) precedes the new information (comment). Because of the strict SVO syntax, the topic of a sentence generally has to be the grammatical subject of the sentence. In cases where the topic is not the grammatical subject of the sentence, it is often promoted to subject position through syntactic means. One way of doing this is through a passive construction, "the girl was stung by the bee". Another way is through a cleft sentence where the main clause is demoted to be a complement clause of a copula sentence with a dummy subject such as "it" or "there", e.g. "it was the girl that the bee stung", "there was a girl who was stung by a bee". Dummy subjects are also used in constructions where there is no grammatical subject such as with impersonal verbs (e.g., "it is raining") or in existential clauses ("there are many cars on the street"). Through the use of these complex sentence constructions with informationally vacuous subjects, English is able to maintain both a topic-comment sentence structure and a SVO syntax.


title: English language

text: Focus constructions emphasise a particular piece of new or salient information within a sentence, generally through allocating the main sentence level stress on the focal constituent. For example, "the girl was stung by a bee" (emphasising it was a bee and not, for example, a wasp that stung her), or "The girl was stung by a bee" (contrasting with another possibility, for example that it was the boy). Topic and focus can also be established through syntactic dislocation, either preposing or postposing the item to be focused on relative to the main clause. For example, "That girl over there, she was stung by a bee", emphasises the girl by preposition, but a similar effect could be achieved by postposition, "she was stung by a bee, that girl over there", where reference to the girl is established as an "afterthought".


title: English language

text: Cohesion between sentences is achieved through the use of deictic pronouns as anaphora (e.g. "that is exactly what I mean" where "that" refers to some fact known to both interlocutors, or "then" used to locate the time of a narrated event relative to the time of a previously narrated event). Discourse markers such as "oh", "so" or "well", also signal the progression of ideas between sentences and help to create cohesion. Discourse markers are often the first constituents in sentences. Discourse markers are also used for stance taking in which speakers position themselves in a specific attitude towards what is being said, for example, "no way is that true!" (the idiomatic marker "no way!" expressing disbelief), or "boy! I'm hungry" (the marker "boy" expressing emphasis). While discourse markers are particularly characteristic of informal and spoken registers of English, they are also used in written and formal registers.


title: English language

text: It is generally stated that English has around 170,000 words, or 220,000 if obsolete words are counted; this estimate is based on the last full edition of the "Oxford English Dictionary" from 1989. Over half of these words are nouns, a quarter adjectives, and a seventh verbs. There is one count that puts the English vocabulary at about 1 million words—but that count presumably includes words such as Latin species names, scientific terminology, botanical terms, prefixed and suffixed words, jargon, foreign words of extremely limited English use, and technical acronyms.


title: English language

text: Due to its status as an international language, English adopts foreign words quickly, and borrows vocabulary from many other sources. Early studies of English vocabulary by lexicographers, the scholars who formally study vocabulary, compile dictionaries, or both, were impeded by a lack of comprehensive data on actual vocabulary in use from good-quality linguistic corpora, collections of actual written texts and spoken passages. Many statements published before the end of the 20th century about the growth of English vocabulary over time, the dates of first use of various words in English, and the sources of English vocabulary will have to be corrected as new computerised analysis of linguistic corpus data becomes available.


title: English language

text: English forms new words from existing words or roots in its vocabulary through a variety of processes. One of the most productive processes in English is conversion, using a word with a different grammatical role, for example using a noun as a verb or a verb as a noun. Another productive word-formation process is nominal compounding, producing compound words such as "babysitter" or "ice cream" or "homesick". A process more common in Old English than in Modern English, but still productive in Modern English, is the use of derivational suffixes ("-hood", "-ness", "-ing", "-ility") to derive new words from existing words (especially those of Germanic origin) or stems (especially for words of Latin or Greek origin).


title: English language

text: Formation of new words, called neologisms, based on Greek and/or Latin roots (for example "television" or "optometry") is a highly productive process in English and in most modern European languages, so much so that it is often difficult to determine in which language a neologism originated. For this reason, lexicographer Philip Gove attributed many such words to the "international scientific vocabulary" (ISV) when compiling "Webster's Third New International Dictionary" (1961). Another active word-formation process in English are acronyms, words formed by pronouncing as a single word abbreviations of longer phrases, e.g. "NATO", "laser".


title: English language

text: English, besides forming new words from existing words and their roots, also borrows words from other languages. This adoption of words from other languages is commonplace in many world languages, but English has been especially open to borrowing of foreign words throughout the last 1,000 years. The most commonly used words in English are West Germanic. The words in English learned first by children as they learn to speak, particularly the grammatical words that dominate the word count of both spoken and written texts, are mainly the Germanic words inherited from the earliest periods of the development of Old English.


title: English language

text: But one of the consequences of long language contact between French and English in all stages of their development is that the vocabulary of English has a very high percentage of "Latinate" words (derived from French, especially, and also from other Romance languages and Latin). French words from various periods of the development of French now make up one-third of the vocabulary of English. Linguist Anthony Lacoudre estimated that over 40,000 English words are of French origin and may be understood without orthographical change by French speakers. Words of Old Norse origin have entered the English language primarily from the contact between Old Norse and Old English during colonisation of eastern and northern England. Many of these words are part of English core vocabulary, such as "egg" and "knife".


title: English language

text: English has also borrowed many words directly from Latin, the ancestor of the Romance languages, during all stages of its development. Many of these words had earlier been borrowed into Latin from Greek. Latin or Greek are still highly productive sources of stems used to form vocabulary of subjects learned in higher education such as the sciences, philosophy, and mathematics. English continues to gain new loanwords and calques ("loan translations") from languages all over the world, and words from languages other than the ancestral Anglo-Saxon language make up about 60% of the vocabulary of English.


title: English language

text: English has formal and informal speech registers; informal registers, including child-directed speech, tend to be made up predominantly of words of Anglo-Saxon origin, while the percentage of vocabulary that is of Latinate origin is higher in legal, scientific, and academic texts.


title: English language

text: English has had a strong influence on the vocabulary of other languages. The influence of English comes from such factors as opinion leaders in other countries knowing the English language, the role of English as a world "lingua franca", and the large number of books and films that are translated from English into other languages. That pervasive use of English leads to a conclusion in many places that English is an especially suitable language for expressing new ideas or describing new technologies. Among varieties of English, it is especially American English that influences other languages. Some languages, such as Chinese, write words borrowed from English mostly as calques, while others, such as Japanese, readily take in English loanwords written in sound-indicating script. Dubbed films and television programmes are an especially fruitful source of English influence on languages in Europe.


title: English language

text: Since the ninth century, English has been written in a Latin alphabet (also called Roman alphabet). Earlier Old English texts in Anglo-Saxon runes are only short inscriptions. The great majority of literary works in Old English that survive to today are written in the Roman alphabet. The modern English alphabet contains 26 letters of the Latin script: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z (which also have capital forms: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z).


title: English language

text: The spelling system, or orthography, of English is multi-layered and complex, with elements of French, Latin, and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system. Further complications have arisen through sound changes with which the orthography has not kept pace. Compared to European languages for which official organisations have promoted spelling reforms, English has spelling that is a less consistent indicator of pronunciation, and standard spellings of words that are more difficult to guess from knowing how a word is pronounced. There are also systematic spelling differences between British and American English. These situations have prompted proposals for spelling reform in English.


title: English language

text: Although letters and speech sounds do not have a one-to-one correspondence in standard English spelling, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetic changes in derived words, and word accent are reliable for most English words. Moreover, standard English spelling shows etymological relationships between related words that would be obscured by a closer correspondence between pronunciation and spelling, for example the words "photograph", "photography", and "photographic", or the words "electricity" and "electrical". While few scholars agree with Chomsky and Halle (1968) that conventional English orthography is "near-optimal", there is a rationale for current English spelling patterns. The standard orthography of English is the most widely used writing system in the world. Standard English spelling is based on a graphomorphemic segmentation of words into written clues of what meaningful units make up each word.


title: English language

text: Readers of English can generally rely on the correspondence between spelling and pronunciation to be fairly regular for letters or digraphs used to spell consonant sounds. The letters "b", "d", "f", "h", "j", "k", "l", "m", "n", "p", "r", "s", "t", "v", "w", "y", "z" represent, respectively, the phonemes . The letters "c" and "g" normally represent and , but there is also a soft "c" pronounced , and a soft "g" pronounced . The differences in the pronunciations of the letters "c" and "g" are often signalled by the following letters in standard English spelling. Digraphs used to represent phonemes and phoneme sequences include "ch" for , "sh" for , "th" for or , "ng" for , "qu" for , and "ph" for in Greek-derived words. The single letter "x" is generally pronounced as in word-initial position and as otherwise. There are exceptions to these generalisations, often the result of loanwords being spelled according to the spelling patterns of their languages of origin or residues of proposals by scholars in the early period of Modern English to follow the spelling patterns of Latin for English words of Germanic origin.


title: English language

text: For the vowel sounds of the English language, however, correspondences between spelling and pronunciation are more irregular. There are many more vowel phonemes in English than there are single vowel letters ("a", "e", "i", "o", "u", "w", "y"). As a result, some "long vowels" are often indicated by combinations of letters (like the "oa" in "boat", the "ow" in "how", and the "ay" in "stay"), or the historically based silent "e" (as in "note" and "cake").


title: English language

text: The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that learning to read and write can be challenging in English. It can take longer for school pupils to become independently fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including Italian, Spanish, and German. Nonetheless, there is an advantage for learners of English reading in learning the specific sound-symbol regularities that occur in the standard English spellings of commonly used words. Such instruction greatly reduces the risk of children experiencing reading difficulties in English. Making primary school teachers more aware of the primacy of morpheme representation in English may help learners learn more efficiently to read and write English.


title: English language

text: English writing also includes a system of punctuation marks that is similar to those used in most alphabetic languages around the world. The purpose of punctuation is to mark meaningful grammatical relationships in sentences to aid readers in understanding a text and to indicate features important for reading a text aloud.


title: English language

text: Dialectologists identify many English dialects, which usually refer to regional varieties that differ from each other in terms of patterns of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. The pronunciation of particular areas distinguishes dialects as separate regional accents. The major native dialects of English are often divided by linguists into the two extremely general categories of British English (BrE) and North American English (NAE). There also exists a third common major grouping of English varieties: Southern Hemisphere English, the most prominent being Australian and New Zealand English.


title: English language

text: Since the English language first evolved in Britain and Ireland, the archipelago is home to the most diverse dialects, particularly in England. Within the United Kingdom, the Received Pronunciation (RP), an educated dialect of South East England, is traditionally used as the broadcast standard and is considered the most prestigious of the British dialects. The spread of RP (also known as BBC English) through the media has caused many traditional dialects of rural England to recede, as youths adopt the traits of the prestige variety instead of traits from local dialects. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, grammar and vocabulary differed across the country, but a process of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to disappear.


title: English language

text: Nonetheless, this attrition has mostly affected dialectal variation in grammar and vocabulary, and in fact, only 3 percent of the English population actually speak RP, the remainder speaking in regional accents and dialects with varying degrees of RP influence. There is also variability within RP, particularly along class lines between Upper and Middle-class RP speakers and between native RP speakers and speakers who adopt RP later in life. Within Britain, there is also considerable variation along lines of social class, and some traits though exceedingly common are considered "non-standard" and are associated with lower class speakers and identities. An example of this is H-dropping, which was historically a feature of lower-class London English, particularly Cockney, and can now be heard in the local accents of most parts of England—yet it remains largely absent in broadcasting and among the upper crust of British society.


title: English language

text: English in England can be divided into four major dialect regions, Southwest English, South East English, Midlands English, and Northern English. Within each of these regions several local subdialects exist: Within the Northern region, there is a division between the Yorkshire dialects and the Geordie dialect spoken in Northumbria around Newcastle, and the Lancashire dialects with local urban dialects in Liverpool (Scouse) and Manchester (Mancunian). Having been the centre of Danish occupation during the Viking Invasions, Northern English dialects, particularly the Yorkshire dialect, retain Norse features not found in other English varieties.


title: English language

text: Since the 15th century, southeastern England varieties have centred on London, which has been the centre from which dialectal innovations have spread to other dialects. In London, the Cockney dialect was traditionally used by the lower classes, and it was long a socially stigmatised variety. The spread of Cockney features across the south-east led the media to talk of Estuary English as a new dialect, but the notion was criticised by many linguists on the grounds that London had been influencing neighbouring regions throughout history. Traits that have spread from London in recent decades include the use of intrusive R ("drawing" is pronounced "drawring" ), "t"-glottalisation ("Potter" is pronounced with a glottal stop as "Po'er" ), and the pronunciation of "th-" as ("thanks" pronounced "fanks") or ("bother" pronounced "bover").


title: English language

text: Scots is today considered a separate language from English, but it has its origins in early Northern Middle English and developed and changed during its history with influence from other sources, particularly Scots Gaelic and Old Norse. Scots itself has a number of regional dialects. And in addition to Scots, Scottish English comprises the varieties of Standard English spoken in Scotland; most varieties are Northern English accents, with some influence from Scots.


title: English language

text: In Ireland, various forms of English have been spoken since the Norman invasions of the 11th century. In County Wexford, in the area surrounding Dublin, two extinct dialects known as Forth and Bargy and Fingallian developed as offshoots from Early Middle English, and were spoken until the 19th century. Modern Irish English, however, has its roots in English colonisation in the 17th century. Today Irish English is divided into Ulster English, the Northern Ireland dialect with strong influence from Scots, and various dialects of the Republic of Ireland. Like Scottish and most North American accents, almost all Irish accents preserve the rhoticity which has been lost in the dialects influenced by RP.


title: English language

text: North American English has been regarded as fairly homogeneous compared to British English but this has been disputed. Today, American accent variation is often increasing at the regional level and decreasing at the very local level, though most Americans still speak within a phonological continuum of similar accents, known collectively as General American (GA), with differences hardly noticed even among Americans themselves (such as Midland and Western American English). In most American and Canadian English dialects, rhoticity (or "r"-fulness) is dominant, with non-rhoticity ("r"-dropping) becoming associated with lower prestige and social class especially after World War II; this contrasts with the situation in England, where non-rhoticity has become the standard.


title: English language

text: Separate from GA are American dialects with clearly distinct sound systems, historically including Southern American English, English of the coastal Northeast (famously including Eastern New England English and New York City English), and African American Vernacular English, all of which are historically non-rhotic. Canadian English, except for the Atlantic provinces and perhaps Quebec, may be classified under GA as well, but it often shows the raising of the vowels and before voiceless consonants, as well as distinct norms for written and pronunciation standards.


title: English language

text: In Southern American English, the most populous American "accent group" outside of GA, rhoticity now strongly prevails, replacing the region's historical non-rhotic prestige. Southern accents are colloquially described as a "drawl" or "twang," being recognised most readily by the Southern Vowel Shift initiated by glide-deleting in the vowel (e.g. pronouncing "spy" almost like "spa"), the "Southern breaking" of several front pure vowels into a gliding vowel or even two syllables (e.g. pronouncing the word "press" almost like "pray-us"), the pin–pen merger, and other distinctive phonological, grammatical, and lexical features, many of which are actually recent developments of the 19th century or later.


title: English language

text: Today spoken primarily by working- and middle-class African Americans, African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is also largely non-rhotic and likely originated among enslaved Africans and African Americans influenced primarily by the non-rhotic, non-standard older Southern dialects. A minority of linguists, contrarily, propose that AAVE mostly traces back to African languages spoken by the slaves who had to develop a pidgin or Creole English to communicate with slaves of other ethnic and linguistic origins. AAVE's important commonalities with Southern accents suggests it developed into a highly coherent and homogeneous variety in the 19th or early 20th century. AAVE is commonly stigmatised in North America as a form of "broken" or "uneducated" English, as are white Southern accents, but linguists today recognise both as fully developed varieties of English with their own norms shared by a large speech community.


title: English language

text: Since 1788, English has been spoken in Oceania, and Australian English has developed as a first language of the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Australian continent, its standard accent being General Australian. The English of neighbouring New Zealand has to a lesser degree become an influential standard variety of the language. Australian and New Zealand English are each other's closest relatives with few differentiating characteristics, followed by South African English and the English of southeastern England, all of which have similarly non-rhotic accents, aside from some accents in the South Island of New Zealand. Australian and New Zealand English stand out for their innovative vowels: many short vowels are fronted or raised, whereas many long vowels have diphthongised. Australian English also has a contrast between long and short vowels, not found in most other varieties. Australian English grammar aligns closely to British and American English; like American English, collective plural subjects take on a singular verb (as in "the government is" rather than "are"). New Zealand English uses front vowels that are often even higher than in Australian English.


title: English language

text: The first significant exposure of the Philippines to the English language occurred in 1762 when the British occupied Manila during the Seven Years' War, but this was a brief episode that had no lasting influence. English later became more important and widespread during American rule between 1898 and 1946, and remains an official language of the Philippines. Today, the use of English is ubiquitous in the Philippines, from street signs and marquees, government documents and forms, courtrooms, the media and entertainment industries, the business sector, and other aspects of daily life. One such usage that is also prominent in the country is in speech, where most Filipinos from Manila would use or have been exposed to Taglish, a form of code-switching between Tagalog and English. A similar code-switching method is used by urban native speakers of Visayan languages called Bislish.


title: English language

text: English is spoken widely in southern Africa and is an official or co-official language in several countries. In South Africa, English has been spoken since 1820, co-existing with Afrikaans and various African languages such as the Khoe and Bantu languages. Today, about 9 percent of the South African population speaks South African English (SAE) as a first language. SAE is a non-rhotic variety, which tends to follow RP as a norm. It is alone among non-rhotic varieties in lacking intrusive r. There are different L2 varieties that differ based on the native language of the speakers. Most phonological differences from RP are in the vowels. Consonant differences include the tendency to pronounce /p, t, t͡ʃ, k/ without aspiration (e.g. "pin" pronounced rather than as as in most other varieties), while r is often pronounced as a flap instead of as the more common fricative.


title: English language

text: Nigerian English is a dialect of English spoken in Nigeria. It is based on British English, but in recent years, because of influence from the United States, some words of American English origin have made it into Nigerian English. Additionally, some new words and collocations have emerged from the language, which come from the need to express concepts specific to the culture of the nation (e.g. "senior wife"). Over 150 million Nigerians speak English.


title: English language

text: Several varieties of English are also spoken in the Caribbean islands that were colonial possessions of Britain, including Jamaica, and the Leeward and Windward Islands and Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, and Belize. Each of these areas is home both to a local variety of English and a local English-based creole, combining English and African languages. The most prominent varieties are Jamaican English and Jamaican Creole. In Central America, English-based creoles are spoken in on the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Panama. Locals are often fluent both in the local English variety and the local creole languages and code-switching between them is frequent, indeed another way to conceptualise the relationship between Creole and Standard varieties is to see a spectrum of social registers with the Creole forms serving as "basilect" and the more RP-like forms serving as the "acrolect", the most formal register.


title: English language

text: Most Caribbean varieties are based on British English and consequently, most are non-rhotic, except for formal styles of Jamaican English which are often rhotic. Jamaican English differs from RP in its vowel inventory, which has a distinction between long and short vowels rather than tense and lax vowels as in Standard English. The diphthongs and are monophthongs and or even the reverse diphthongs and (e.g. "bay" and "boat" pronounced and ). Often word-final consonant clusters are simplified so that "child" is pronounced and "wind" .


title: English language

text: As a historical legacy, Indian English tends to take RP as its ideal, and how well this ideal is realised in an individual's speech reflects class distinctions among Indian English speakers. Indian English accents are marked by the pronunciation of phonemes such as and (often pronounced with retroflex articulation as and ) and the replacement of and with dentals and . Sometimes Indian English speakers may also use spelling based pronunciations where the silent found in words such as "ghost" is pronounced as an Indian voiced aspirated stop .


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: Yellowstone is an American neo-Western drama television series created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson that premiered on June 20, 2018, on Paramount Network. The series stars Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille and Gil Birmingham. The series follows the conflicts along the shared borders of the Yellowstone Ranch, a large cattle ranch, the Broken Rock Indian reservation, and land developers. The first part of the fifth season premiered on November 13, 2022, with the second part premiering in 2023.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: In 2013, Sheridan began work on the series, having recently grown tired of acting and begun writing screenplays. Having lived in the rural parts of states such as Texas and Wyoming, Sheridan set the series in Montana and went about writing the first scripts in Livingston. Sheridan initially pitched the series to HBO, but the network declined. The series follows the Dutton family, owners of the largest ranch in Montana, the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, commonly called "the Yellowstone". The plot revolves around family drama at the ranch and the bordering Broken Rock Indian Reservation, national park, and developers. In May 2017, Paramount Network announced that it had greenlit its first scripted series, "Yellowstone". Paramount issued a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. The series was set to be written, directed, and executive-produced by Sheridan.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: A prequel series, titled "1883", premiered on December 19, 2021 on Paramount+, and focuses on a generation of the Dutton family during the Old West as they undertake the arduous journey across the country before settling the land that would become the Yellowstone Ranch. The series was announced following a five-year deal signed by Sheridan with ViacomCBS and MTV Entertainment Group. A second prequel series titled "1923" premiered on December 18, 2022 on Paramount+, and focuses on a new generation of the Dutton Family during the time of Western Expansion, Prohibition and the Great Depression, which in Montana started a decade earlier. A third planned spin-off titled "6666" is in development and is set in the present day on the Four Sixes Ranch in Texas. A fourth planned spin-off titled "" is also in development and will focus on the life of the titular character.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: The series follows the Dutton family, owners of the largest ranch in Montana, the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, commonly called "the Yellowstone". The plot revolves around family drama at the ranch and the bordering Broken Rock Indian Reservation, national park, and developers.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: In 2013, Taylor Sheridan began work on the series, having recently grown tired of acting and begun writing screenplays. Having lived in the rural parts of states such as Texas and Wyoming, Sheridan set the series in Montana and went about writing the first scripts in Livingston. Sheridan initially pitched the series to HBO, but the network declined.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: In May 2017, Paramount Network announced that it had greenlit its first scripted series, "Yellowstone". Paramount issued a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. The series was set to be written, directed, and executive-produced by Sheridan. Other executive producers were to include John Linson, Art Linson, Harvey Weinstein, and David Glasser. Production companies involved with the series were set to consist of Linson Entertainment and The Weinstein Company.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: In October 2017, it was announced that following reports of sexual abuse allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein, his name would be removed from the series' credits as would The Weinstein Company. In January 2018, Kevin Kay, president of Paramount Network, clarified during the annual Television Critics Association's winter press tour that "Yellowstone" will not have The Weinstein Company's credits or logo on them, even though that company was involved in production. He stated that their intent is to replace Weinstein Television with the company's new name in the show's credits when available. That same day, it was announced that the series would premiere on June 20, 2018.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: In July 2018, it was announced that Paramount Network had renewed the series for a second season that was expected to premiere in 2019. In March 2019, it was announced that the second season would premiere on June 19, 2019. In June 2019, the series was renewed by Paramount for a third season, which premiered on June 21, 2020. In February 2020, Paramount Network renewed the series for a fourth season, ahead of the premiere of its third season. The fourth season premiered on November 7, 2021. In February 2022, Paramount Network renewed the series for a fifth season, which will be split into two installments of seven episodes each. The fifth season premiered on November 13, 2022.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: In May 2017, it was announced that Kevin Costner had been cast in the series lead role of John Dutton. In June 2017, it was reported that Luke Grimes, Cole Hauser, Wes Bentley, and Kelly Reilly had joined the main cast. In July 2017, it was announced that Kelsey Asbille had been cast in a main role. In August 2017, it was reported that Dave Annable, Gil Birmingham, and Jefferson White had been added to the main cast while Wendy Moniz, Gretchen Mol, Jill Hennessy, Patrick St. Esprit, Ian Bohen, Denim Richards, and Golden Brooks were joining the cast in a recurring capacity.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: In November 2017, it was announced that Michaela Conlin and Josh Lucas had been added to the cast in recurring roles. In December 2017, it was reported that Heather Hemmens was joining the cast in a recurring capacity. In June 2018, it was announced that Barret Swatek had been cast in a recurring role. In September 2018, it was announced that Neal McDonough was joining the cast of season two in a recurring capacity. In July 2021, it was announced that Jacki Weaver, Piper Perabo, Kathryn Kelly and Finn Little were joining the cast in the fourth season. In February 2022, it was announced alongside the fifth season renewal that Jennifer Landon and Kelly were promoted to series regulars for the season.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: Principal photography for the series began in August 2017 at the Chief Joseph Ranch in Darby, Montana, which stands in as the home of John Dutton. Filming also took place that month near Park City, Utah. The production used all three soundstages at the Utah Film Studios in Park City, which is a total of 45,000 square feet. The building also houses offices, editing, a wardrobe department and construction shops. By November 2017, the series had filmed in more than twenty locations in Utah, including the Salt Flats, Promontory Club, and Spanish Fork. Additionally, filming also took place at various locations in Montana. Production reportedly lasted until December 2017.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: In August 2020, the series announced that filming was completely moved to Montana. An undisclosed production location was rented in Missoula, Montana. Film locations included the Community Medical Center, Ryman Street near the County Courthouse, and a diner (Ruby's Cafe) on Brooks Street in Missoula, as well as places in nearby Hamilton, Montana.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: Filming of the "log mansion" home of John Dutton is at the main house of the Chief Joseph Ranch, which is now a guest ranch just south of Darby.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: The house was built between 1914 and 1917 after Cincinnati, Ohio residents William S. Ford (1866–1935) and Howard Clark Hollister (1856–1919) purchased 2,500 acres on the Bitterroot River for a vacation home and formed the Ford-Hollister Ranch. Ford was chairman of Owens-Illinois Glass in Toledo, Ohio. Hollister was a judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Bates & Gamble of Toledo were the architects. The house is 5,000 square feet including a 2,200 square foot parlor.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: The house has a log cabin motif and was dubbed "log mansion" by "The New York Times". It has been compared in style to the Old Faithful Inn which opened in 1904 and is 294 driving miles away in Yellowstone National Park. The Times described it as "A diverse combination of arches, gables and dormers, set off by logs placed vertically and horizontally, adds an elegance to log-home design that is seldom seen."


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: The complex includes 3 large barns built to house Holstein cattle. It was claimed it was the largest dairy herd west of the Mississippi River. Ford later gave up the dairy cattle and began raising Hereford cattle. After Ford died, his wife and daughter operated it as a guest house. They sold it in 1952. It went through a series of new owners who renamed it for Chief Joseph who is said to have passed through its area during the Nez Perce War. Among the various owners is Mel Pervais, a self-made millionaire and member of the Ojibwa Nation who owned it from 1987 to 2004.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: The series' score was composed by Brian Tyler. He worked with musicians from the London Philharmonia Orchestra and viola, cello, and violin soloists. On August 17, 2018, the soundtrack for the first season was released by Sony Music.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: A teaser trailer for the series was released on February 28, 2018, with the first full trailer being released on April 26. On June 25, 2018, the series held a screening at Seriesfest, an annual international television festival, at the Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver, Colorado. The first season was released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 4, 2018.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: NBCUniversal's Peacock acquired the U.S. streaming rights to "Yellowstone" in 2020, with the first two seasons debuting in July of that year. Paramount Global President and CEO Bob Bakish has since called the timing of the deal "unfortunate"; due to the show's improved reception, viewership, and popularity in its later seasons. Critics have noted that "Yellowstone"'s absence from Paramount's own, similarly-named streaming service, Paramount+ (in-spite of the show's spinoffs being produced for the service), in addition to current seasons available on Paramount Network's app and website primarily through TV Everywhere (requiring a paid television subscription), have caused confusion among viewers and the show's fans on social media.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: Full episodes and seasons of "Yellowstone" are available for purchase on all major digital entertainment distribution stores in the U.S., with Amazon's Prime Video streaming new episodes in Canada the day after their U.S. broadcast on Paramount Network. Starting with the 5th season, it will be moved to Paramount+ in Canada, and the UK, and to SkyShowtime in any territories where the service is already available. As with the previous seasons in Canada, new episodes will be released the day after the U.S. airing.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: After the fifth season premiere airing, CMT started rerunning those episodes after being released on Paramount Network on Friday.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: A prequel series, titled "1883" and set during the titular year, premiered on December 19, 2021 on Paramount+, and concluded after ten episodes on February 27, 2022. The series was announced as part of a five-year deal signed by Sheridan with ViacomCBS and MTV Entertainment Group, under its inital name "Y: 1883". It focuses on a generation of the Dutton family during the Old West as they undertake the arduous journey across the country before settling the land that would become the Yellowstone Ranch. The series stars Sam Elliott as Shea Brennan, Tim McGraw as James Dutton, Faith Hill as Margaret Dutton, and Isabel May as Elsa Dutton. James is the great-great-grandfather of John Dutton III. Flashbacks of both James and Margaret Dutton are featured during the fourth season of "Yellowstone".


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: Another prequel series, titled "1923" and set during the titular year, premiered its first season on December 18, 2022 on Paramount+. Acting as a sequel to "1883", it focuses on a new generation of the Dutton Family during the time of Western Expansion, Prohibition and the Great Depression, which in Montana started a decade earlier. The series stars Helen Mirren as Cara Dutton, Harrison Ford as Jacob Dutton and Brandon Sklenar as Spencer Dutton. Jacob is the brother of James Dutton, who was featured in "1883", and is the great-great uncle of John Dutton III.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: Initially titled and set in the year "1932", in June 2022 it was announced that the title and setting would be changed to "1923",The series is set to run for two seasons consisting of eight episodes each.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: Another planned spin-off, titled "6666", is set in the present day on the Four Sixes Ranch in Texas. It will premiere on Paramount Network in 2023. The 6666 Ranch is also featured during the fourth season of "Yellowstone".


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: A spinoff series to "1883" titled "" that will focus on the life of the titular character was announced in May 2022.


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: Following its premiere, the show was met with a mixed response from critics. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the first season a score of 57 out of 100 based on 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds a 56% approval rating, with an average rating of 5.8/10 based on 52 reviews. The website's critical consensus of the first season reads, ""Yellowstone" proves too melodramatic to be taken seriously, diminishing the effects of the talented cast and beautiful backdrops."


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: The second season holds an approval rating of 89%, based on 9 reviews. The third season holds an approval rating of 100% based on reviews from 7 critics. The fourth season holds a 91% approval rating based on reviews from 11 critics. The critical consensus for that season reads, "Hitting its stride as a predictably unpredictable oat opera, "Yellowstone" continues to entertain with its tough-as-rawhide characters and modernized perspective on classic cowboy tropes." The fifth season earned a 90% approval rating based on 30 reviews. The critical consensus for that season reads, "Galloping into the arena of politics with a decidedly nonpartisan bent, "Yellowstone" enters uncertain territory but remains firmly in the saddle, with Kevin Costner's steadfast presence remaining an invaluable asset."


title: Yellowstone (American TV series)

text: Viewership of the series has grown with subsequent seasons. The season 3 premiere attracted 7.6 million viewers, and the season 4 premiere tallied 12.7 million viewers. The season 5 premiere garnered 12.1 million viewers. The series has attracted audiences from American conservatives and also been called a "Heartland drama" and "red state" drama, a label which Sheridan himself disputes.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kimberly Noel Kardashian (formerly West; born October 21, 1980) is an American socialite, media personality, and businesswoman. She first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, but received wider notice after the sex tape "Kim Kardashian, Superstar", shot in 2003 with her then-boyfriend Ray J, was released in 2007. Later that year, she and her family began to appear in the E! reality television series "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" (2007–2021). Its success led to the formation of the spin-off series "Kourtney and Kim Take New York" (2011–2012), "Kourtney and Kim Take Miami" (2009–2013), and Hulu's "The Kardashians" (2022).


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian has developed a significant presence online and across numerous social media platforms, including hundreds of millions of followers on Twitter and Instagram. With sisters Kourtney and Khloé, she launched the fashion boutique chain Dash, which operated from 2006 to 2018. Kardashian founded KKW Beauty and KKW Fragrance in 2017, and the shaping underwear or foundation garment company Skims in 2019. She has released a variety of products tied to her name, including the 2014 mobile game "" and the 2015 photo book "Selfish". As an actress, she has appeared in the films "Disaster Movie" (2008), "Deep in the Valley" (2009), and "" (2013), and provided her voice for "" (2021).


title: Kim Kardashian

text: "Time" magazine included Kardashian on their list of 2015's 100 most influential people. Both critics and admirers have described her as exemplifying the notion of being famous for being famous. She is estimated to be worth US$1.8 billion, as of 2022. Kardashian has become more politically active by lobbying for prison reform and clemency, and is currently under a four-year law apprenticeship supervised by the legal nonprofit #cut50. Her relationship with rapper Kanye West has also received significant media coverage; they were married from 2014 to 2022 and have four children together.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kimberly Noel Kardashian was born on October 21, 1980, in Los Angeles, California, to Robert and Kris Kardashian (née Houghton). She has an older sister, Kourtney, a younger sister, Khloé, and a younger brother, Rob. Their mother is of Dutch, English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, while their father was a third-generation Armenian-American. In 1991, their parents divorced and their mother married Bruce Jenner, the 1976 Summer Olympics decathlon winner. As a result of her mother's remarriage, Kim Kardashian acquired step-brothers Burton "Burt", Brandon, and Brody; a step-sister, Casey; and later two half-sisters, Kendall and Kylie Jenner.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian attended Marymount High School, a Roman Catholic all-girls school in Los Angeles. In 1994, her father represented football player O. J. Simpson during his murder trial. Simpson is Kardashian's godfather. Kardashian's father died in 2003 of cancer. In her teenage years, Kardashian was a close friend of Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton, through whom she first garnered media attention. After totaling her car at age 16, her father agreed to buy her a new one on condition that she agree to be responsible for paying all expenses related to any future damages. She subsequently began working at Body, a local clothing store in Encino, California, where she worked for four years, assisting in the opening of the Calabasas location. In 2000, after entering into her first marriage, she resigned.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: By 2003, Kardashian was working as a personal stylist to the R&B singer and actress, Brandy, the sister of Ray J. Later, the siblings' mother (and manager) Sonja Norwood, alleged that in 2004 she had authorized Kardashian to make "one and only one" purchase on her American Express credit card and that nevertheless Kardashian and her sisters Khloé and Kourtney had incurred over $120,000 in unauthorized charges to that card. Norwood also alleged that the bulk of the charges were attributable to purchases made at Kardashian's family-owned boutique in 2006 and 2007, after Kardashian was no longer employed by Norwood's daughter. Norwood further alleged that, at the request of her children, she did not file criminal charges, instead presenting her allegations personally to Kardashian, and that Kardashian apologized and promised to repay the debt. In 2008, no payments having been forthcoming, Norwood filed a lawsuit. Kardashian has denied all these allegations. In 2009, the parties reportedly reached a confidential settlement, and the lawsuit was dismissed.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In 2006, Kardashian had begun working as a stylist for Paris Hilton, a childhood friend of hers. She appeared in several episodes of the reality series "The Simple Life" and was frequently photographed accompanying Hilton to events and parties. Sheeraz Hasan, a PR strategist working with Hilton, had previously met Kardashian and her mother Kris Jenner in 2005, and stated in a 2020 "20/20" television special that Kardashian was "ready to do whatever it takes" to create a successful brand. Rick Mendozza, a freelance photographer on assignment for the tabloid TMZ, remarked in the same interview that, when Kardashian accompanied Hilton to Hyde, which was a Hollywood hotspot at the time, he continued to get assignments from tabloids to get photographs of Kardashian for the next three years. In 2021, Kardashian said that Hilton "literally gave me a career. And I totally acknowledge that."


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In February 2007, a sex tape made by Kardashian and Ray J in 2003 was leaked. Kardashian filed a lawsuit against Vivid Entertainment, who distributed the film as "Kim Kardashian, Superstar". She later dropped the suit and settled for a reported 5 million, allowing Vivid to release the tape. Several media outlets later criticized her and the family for using the sex tape's release as a publicity stunt to promote their forthcoming reality show. In October 2007, Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, her step-parent Caitlyn Jenner, her siblings Kourtney, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian, and half-sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner, began to appear in the reality television series "Keeping Up with the Kardashians". The series proved successful for E!, and led to the creation of a number of spin-offs, including "Kourtney and Kim Take New York" and "Kourtney and Kim Take Miami". The flagship series concluded in 2021 after 294 episodes.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian posed in a nude pictorial for the December 2007 issue of "Playboy". She made her feature film debut, opposite Carmen Electra, in the disaster film spoof "Disaster Movie" (2008), in which she appeared as a character named Lisa. In 2008, she was a participant on season seven of "Dancing with the Stars", where she was partnered with Mark Ballas. She was the third contestant to be eliminated. In September 2009, Fusion Beauty and Seven Bar Foundation launched "Kiss Away Poverty", with Kardashian as the face of the campaign. For each LipFusion lipgloss sold, 1 went to the Foundation to fund women entrepreneurs in the United States. In October, she launched her first fragrance, self-titled "Kim Kardashian". That year, she also released a workout DVD series, became a guest host–judge of WrestleMania XXIV on "America's Next Top Model", and guest-starred in "How I Met Your Mother", "Beyond the Break", and CBS's "".


title: Kim Kardashian

text: By 2010, Kardashian had ventured into several new endorsement deals, including endorsing various food products for Carl's Jr. On July 1, 2010, the New York City branch of Madame Tussauds revealed a wax figure of Kardashian. Kim, Kourtney, and Khloé wrote an autobiography titled "Kardashian Konfidential", which was released in stores on November 23, 2010, and appeared on "New York Times"s Best Seller List. In December 2010, she filmed a music video for a song titled "Jam (Turn It Up)". The video was directed by Hype Williams; Kanye West makes a cameo in the video. Kardashian premiered the song during a New Year's Eve party at TAO Las Vegas on December 31, 2010. The song was produced by The-Dream and Tricky Stewart. When asked if an album was in the works, Kardashian replied, "There's no album in the works or anything—just one song we did for "Kourtney and Kim Take New York", and a video Hype Williams directed, half of the proceeds we're giving away to a cancer foundation, because The-Dream's and one of my parents passed away from cancer. It's just all having fun—with a good cause". Jim Farber, writing for the "Daily News", called the song a "dead-brained piece of generic dance music, without a single distinguishing feature", and suggested that the single made Kardashian the "worst singer in the reality TV universe".


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In 2010, Kardashian also served as producer for "The Spin Crowd", a reality television show about a New York City public relations firm run by Jonathan Cheban and Simon Huck, appeared on of "The Apprentice", and guest starred with Khloé and Kourtney as themselves on the season three premiere episode of the series "90210". The International Business Times reported that Kardashian's 2010 earnings were the highest among Hollywood-based reality stars, estimating them at $6 million.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In 2011, Kardashian released her third fragrance, "Gold", as well as a novel, "Dollhouse", along with sisters Kourtney and Khloe. In 2012, "E!" renewed "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" for two additional seasons, in a deal reported to be worth $50 million. That year, Kardashian released her fourth fragrance, "True Reflection", which she worked with the company Dress for Success to promote, and her fifth fragrance, "Glam", which was made available through Debenhams. In "" (2013), a romantic drama produced, written, and directed by Tyler Perry, Kardashian obtained the role of the co-worker of an ambitious therapist. While the film was a moderate box office success, with a worldwide gross of US$53.1 million, critical response was negative and Kardashian won the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian released "", a mobile game for iPhone and Android, in June 2014. The objective of the game is to become a Hollywood star or starlet. The game supports a free to play model, meaning the game is free to download, but charges for in-game items. It was a hit, earning 1.6 million in its first five days of release. In July, developer Glu Mobile announced that the game was the fifth highest earning game in Apple's App Store. She voiced an alien in the September 21, 2014 episode of the adult animated series "American Dad!".


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian appeared on the cover and in a pictorial in "Paper"s winter 2014 issue, photographed by Jean-Paul Goude. On the cover, her nude buttocks are featured above the caption: "Break the Internet", which generated considerable comment in both social and traditional media. A "Time" magazine writer commented that, unlike previous celebrities' nudes that represented the women's rebellion against repressed society and "trying to tear down" barriers, Kardashian's exhibition was "just provocation and bluster, repeated images that seem to offer us some sort of truth or insight but are really just self serving. We want there to be something more, some reason or context, some great explanation that tells us what it is like to live in this very day and age, but there is not. Kim Kardashian's ass is nothing but an empty promise." However, the stunt "set a new benchmark" in social media response, and "Paper"s website received 15.9 million views in one day, compared with 25,000 views on an average day.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian released a portfolio book called "Selfish", a 325-page collection of self-taken photos of herself, in May 2015. It received positive reviews from critics, with Kat Brown of "The Telegraph" describing it as "unexpectedly revealing" and "oddly moving". That year, she was also the cover model for the August issue of "Vogue Spain", and released an emoji pack for iOS devices called Kimoji. The app was a best-seller, becoming one of the top 5 most bought apps in its first week of release.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: By November 2016, as per CBC Marketplace and interviews with celebrity endorsement experts, Kardashian was reportedly paid at least US$300,000 for each post that she made on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, endorsing beauty products like waist trainers, teeth whiteners as well as Coca-Cola and well-known charities. Business Insider later estimated her fee to be around US$720,000 per Instagram post. Even though engagement data indicates that her posts are worth slightly less, her regular features in the news allows her to demand a premium above any calculated Instagram sponsored post price.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: With sisters Kourtney and Khloé, she launched the fashion boutique chain Dash with an initial store in Calabasas, California. The chain operated between 2006 and 2018.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In 2017, Kardashian launched both her beauty and fragrance lines, KKW Beauty and KKW Fragrance. She made a cameo appearance in the heist film "Ocean's 8", which was released on June 8, 2018.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: After announcing a new range of shapewear called Kimono in June 2019, Kardashian was heavily criticized over the name of the brand, which critics argued disrespected Japanese culture and ignored the significance behind the traditional outfit. Following the launch of the range, the hashtag #KimOhNo began trending on Twitter and the mayor of Kyoto wrote to Kardashian to ask her to reconsider the trademark on Kimono. In response to public pressure, she announced that she would change the name. However, Japanese trade minister Hiroshige Seko stated that he would still be dispatching patent officials for a meeting at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and that Japan would keep an eye on the situation. In August 2019, she changed and rebranded the shapewear company to the name Skims, officially launching the following month on its own digital store and later made available on various other websites (such as online stores of SSENSE, David Jones, Net-a-Porter, Ounass).


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In February 2020, under a retail partnership with Nordstrom, Skims' products were made available to shop exclusively at the chain's stores across the United States. The company has also expanded into lingerie, bodysuits, loungewear, dresses, and winterwear. Since 2021, Skims has opened various pop-up stores in the United States, Europe and Asia. In June 2021, Kardashian revealed the brand entered into a partnership with the US Olympics team under which the company would provide undergarments, loungewear and pajamas and other clothing items with American flags and the Olympics rings with a Team USA branding printed on them to the team's female athletes at the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The athletes also wore Skims' clothing at the 2022 Winter Olympics, and were featured in the brand's campaign for a capsule collection launched ahead of the event, in collaboration with the United States' Winter Olympics delegation. In November 2021, luxury fashion house Fendi released a capsule collection in collaboration with Skims, consisting of a range of shapewear, leather dresses, and bodysuits. That month, Kardashian was honored with the Brand Innovator award, for her work on Skims, at the 2021 "WSJ." Innovator Awards. In January 2022, it was reported that her company stood at a valuation of US$3.2 billion.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian hosted "Saturday Night Live" in October 2021 and in her monologue, she made fun of her estranged-husband Kanye West, her mother's ex-husband Caitlyn Jenner, her sisters, O. J. Simpson and others.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In January 2022, in a class-action lawsuit filed against the cryptocurrency company EthereumMax that alleged the company is a pump and dump scheme, Kardashian was named as a defendant along with former professional boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., former NBA player Paul Pierce, and other celebrities for promoting the EthereumMax token on their social media accounts. In October 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Kardashian had agreed to pay a $1.26 million fine, to not promote cryptocurrency assets for three years, and to cooperate with an ongoing investigation without admitting or denying wrongdoing for failing to report receiving a $250,000 payment to promote the EthereumMax token. In December 2022, Central California U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald dismissed the lawsuit on the basis that the claims were insufficiently supported given heightened pleading standards for fraud.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In April 2022, Kardashian founded Skky Partners, a private equity firm, with a former partner of the Carlyle Group. Her mother, Kris Jenner, is also a partner at the firm. In July 2022, she made her Paris Fashion Week modeling debut on the catwalk for fashion house Balenciaga, along with Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa, and Christine Quinn (from the reality television series "Selling Sunset").


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In 2000, 19-year-old Kardashian eloped with music producer Damon Thomas. Thomas filed for divorce in 2003. Kardashian later blamed their separation on physical and emotional abuse on his part and said she was high on ecstasy during their wedding ceremony. Before her divorce was finalized, Kardashian began dating singer Ray J.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In May 2011, Kardashian became engaged to NBA player Kris Humphries, then of the New Jersey Nets, whom she had been dating since October 2010. They were married in a wedding ceremony on August 20 in Montecito, California. Earlier that month, she had released her "wedding fragrance" called "Kim Kardashian Love" which coincided with her own wedding. A two-part TV special showing the preparations and the wedding itself aired on "E!" in early October 2011, amidst what "The Washington Post" called a "media blitz" related to the wedding. After 72 days of marriage, she filed for divorce from Humphries on October 31, citing irreconcilable differences.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Several news outlets surmised that Kardashian's marriage to Humphries was merely a publicity stunt to promote the Kardashian family's brand and their subsequent television ventures. A man professing to be her former publicist, Jonathan Jaxson, also claimed that her short-lived marriage was indeed staged and a ploy to generate money. Kardashian filed a suit against Jaxson, saying his claims were untrue, and subsequently settled the case that included an apology from Jaxson. A widely circulated petition asking to remove all Kardashian-related programming from the air followed the split. The divorce was subject to widespread media attention.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian began dating rapper and longtime friend Kanye West in April 2012, while still legally married to Humphries. Her divorce was finalized on June 3, 2013, Kardashian and West became engaged on October 21, Kardashian's 33rd birthday, and married on May 24, 2014, at Forte di Belvedere in Florence, Italy. Her wedding dress was designed by Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy with some guests' dresses designed by designer Michael Costello. The couple's high status and respective careers have resulted in their relationship becoming subject to heavy media coverage; "The New York Times" referred to their marriage as "a historic blizzard of celebrity". West said Kardashian was his muse.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In January 2021, CNN reported that the couple were discussing divorce and on February 19, 2021, Kardashian officially filed for divorce. In April 2021, they both agreed before court that they would end their marriage due to "irreconcilable differences" and agreed to joint custody of their four children. They also agreed that neither of them need spousal support. In February 2022, Kardashian filed a complaint to the Los Angeles Superior Court, asking for a quicker proceedings in the divorce from West, saying that West was trying to delay it and saying that "Mr. West, by his actions, has made it clear that he does not accept that the parties' marital relationship is over." Kardashian was declared legally single on March 2, 2022. This allowed her to drop "West" as her legal last name. Their divorce was finalized on November 29, 2022.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian began dating actor and comedian Pete Davidson in November 2021. In August 2022, they ended their relationship.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kim Kardashian is a Christian and has described herself as "really religious". She was educated in Christian schools of both the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic traditions. In October 2019, she was baptized in an Armenian Apostolic ceremony at the baptistery in the Etchmiadzin Cathedral complex and given the Armenian name Heghine (Հեղինէ).


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In April 2015, Kardashian and West traveled to the Armenian Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem to have their daughter North baptized in the Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the oldest denominations of Oriental Orthodox Christianity. The ceremony took place at the Cathedral of St. James. Khloé Kardashian was appointed the godmother of North. In October 2019, Kim baptized her three younger children at the baptistery in the Etchmiadzin Cathedral complex, Armenia's mother church. Psalm was given the Armenian name Vardan, Chicago received Ashkhen and Saint received Grigor.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian and West have four children: daughter North (born June 15, 2013), son Saint (born December 5, 2015), daughter Chicago (born January 15, 2018), and son Psalm (born May 9, 2019).


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian has publicly discussed difficulties during her first two pregnancies. She experienced pre-eclampsia during her first, which forced her to deliver at 34 weeks. With both pregnancies, she developed placenta accreta after delivery, eventually undergoing surgery to remove the placenta and scar tissue. After her second pregnancy, doctors advised her not to become pregnant again; her third and fourth children were born via surrogacy. Kardashian has also spoken about her psoriasis.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In May 2021, it was reported that Kardashian had tested positive for COVID-19 in November 2020. She confirmed this report but denied reports that she caught the disease after hosting a party at a private island.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In May 2014, Kardashian was estimated to be worth 45 million. In 2015, "Forbes" reported she had "made more this year than ever as her earnings nearly doubled to $53 million from 2014's $28 million", and reported that she "has monetized fame better than any other". Much of her income includes wholesale earnings of the Sears line, the Kardashian Kollection, which brought in $600 million in 2013 and the Kardashian Beauty cosmetics line, Kardashian-branded tanning products, the boutique-line DASH, as well as sponsored social media posts which are collectively worth $300,000–500,000 per post. As of July 2018, Kardashian was worth US$350 million. Kardashian does not receive alimony payments from either of her first two marriages. On April 6, 2021, "Forbes" estimated Kardashian's net worth at US$1 billion.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: On October 2, 2016, while attending Paris Fashion Week, Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in the apartment where she was staying. Five individuals, dressed as police officers, bound and gagged her, then stole $10 million worth of jewelry. The thieves got in her residence by threatening the concierge. Once they accessed Kardashian's room, they held a gun to her head, tying her wrists and legs and wrapping duct tape around her mouth as a gag. Kardashian, who was placed in the bathtub, was physically unharmed and reportedly begged for her life. She managed to wriggle her hands free from the plastic ties around her wrists and scream for help. The thieves escaped. On October 6, 2016, it was revealed that filming for the next season of "Keeping up with the Kardashians" had been placed "on hold indefinitely" after the robbery.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: After the robbery was announced, several critics expressed skepticism about whether it was staged or not, with some even drawing comparison to Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte's recent false robbery claim. On October 10, 2016, a video was released showing Kardashian immediately after the robbery, as police began conducting their investigation. In the video, she is seen using the cell phone that she had reported stolen, and did not have any of the markings she claimed from being bound by her captors, prompting more questions as to whether or not the events were staged. In response, Kardashian filed lawsuits against several media outlets the following day, and secured a gag order to get the video removed from any articles due to it being part of an active police investigation. On October 25, 2016, Kardashian dropped the lawsuit, prompting more criticism that the robbery was a ploy to generate media attention. Production resumed on "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" on October 26.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: On January 9, 2017, French police detained 17 persons of interest for questioning in the robbery case. Later in 2017, 16 people were arrested for their alleged involvement. It was revealed in 2020 that French prosecutors would seek trial for 12 of the suspects. The suspects who allegedly entered her room were of, or near, senior age and were named the 'Grandpa Robbers' by the press. In 2021, the suspects were still awaiting trial with at least one of the five who entered Kardashian's room reportedly set to plead no contest to the charges.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: During an interview with Caity Weaver of "GQ" for the July 2016 issue, Kardashian described herself as a Democrat, and declared support for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In January 2017, she tweeted a table of statistics that went viral, highlighting statistics that show that gun violence in the United States kills 11,737 people annually while terrorism in the United States kills 14 people annually. In December 2017, the tweet was mentioned by the Royal Statistical Society in the announcement of its "International Statistic of the Year" for 2017. On a trip to Uganda in October 2018, she and her husband met with President Yoweri Museveni. They had a press conference, and Kanye talked about tourism in Uganda. They were criticized for meeting Museveni due to his being a dictator and his recent crackdown on the opposition and the Ugandan LGBT community.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In April 2019, "Vogue" reported that Kardashian was studying to pass the bar exam; instead of attending law school, she is "reading law". In 2021, Kardashian said she had failed her first-year law exam (the baby bar) for a second time, performing "slightly worse" than her first attempt earlier in the year. In December 2021, she passed the "baby bar" law exam on her fourth attempt.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In 2020, Kardashian condemned the actions of Azerbaijan in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and expressed her support to Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh. On November 20, 2021, it was reported that Kardashian and the English soccer club Leeds United F.C. had financially helped female Afghan soccer players to make their way to England. The women and girls had escaped Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover, but were stranded in Pakistan.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian has also contributed to private GoFundMe causes, especially of people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2021, she donated $3,000 to a mother of four who had lost her husband to COVID-19 and was about to be evicted from her home.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian has expressed pride in her Armenian and Scottish ancestry. She is not a citizen of either Armenia or the United Kingdom and does not speak Armenian. She has advocated for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide on numerous occasions and encouraged President Barack Obama and the United States government to consider its acknowledgement. In April 2016, Kardashian wrote an article on her website condemning "The Wall Street Journal" for running an advertisement by FactCheckArmenia.com denying the Armenian Genocide. In April 2021, Kardashian wrote a letter to President Joe Biden thanking him for officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide, thus becoming the first ever United States president to do so.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In April 2015, Kardashian traveled to Armenia with her husband, her sister Khloé, and her daughter North and visited the Armenian Genocide memorial Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan. On October 10, 2020, Kardashian announced she donated $1 million to Armenia Fund, a humanitarian organization that supports Armenia's development.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: Kardashian has worked in the area of prison reform, advocating for the commutation of the sentence of Chris Young and also of Alice Marie Johnson, a woman who received a life sentence for a first-time drug offense as the leader of a major cocaine ring in Tennessee which was granted by President Donald Trump in June 2018. Along with Van Jones and Jared Kushner, she was instrumental in persuading President Trump to support the First Step Act, which enacted major reforms in the US prison system. Van Jones later stated that without Kardashian, the act would have never passed because it would not have received the president's support. It was later passed by a great majority in the US Senate.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In 2019, Kardashian largely funded the 90 Days to Freedom campaign, an initiative to release nonviolent drug offenders from life sentences by attorneys Brittany K. Barnett and MiAngel Cody. The effort resulted in 17 persons being released under provisions of the First Step Act. Kardashian was widely credited for the success of the campaign in media headlines. Commentary on her involvement ranged from praise, to assertions that it was a public relations stunt, to accusations that she was taking the credit for work she did not do. In a Facebook post from May 7 of that year, Barnett commented on the divisive and underfunded nature of the "criminal justice reform space", adding, "Kim linked arms with us to support us when foundations turned us down. We and our clients and their families have a lot of love for her and are deeply grateful for her."


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In April 2022, Kardashian advocated for the clemency of Melissa Lucio, the only woman of Hispanic descent on Texas' death row, in a series of tweets. She tweeted, "I recently just read about the case of Melissa Lucio and wanted to share her story with you. She has been on death row for over 14 years for her daughter's death that was a tragic accident." Lucio is on death row for the abuse and death of her daughter, who was two years old. Kardashian deleted the series of tweets the same day. When Lucio was granted a stay of execution on April 25, Kardashian celebrated on her social media channels.


title: Kim Kardashian

text: In July 2022, Kardashian expressed support and petitioned for the release of rapper Gunna, who is imprisoned without bond, charged with one count of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. However, in October of the same year, Gunna was again denied release from jail ahead of his January trial.


title: Keanu Reeves

text: Keanu Charles Reeves ( ; born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, Reeves began acting in theatre productions and in television films before making his feature film debut in "Youngblood" (1986). He had his breakthrough role in the science fiction comedy "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989), and he reprised his role in its sequels. He gained praise for playing a hustler in the independent drama "My Own Private Idaho" (1991) and established himself as an action hero with leading roles in "Point Break" (1991) and "Speed" (1994).


title: Keanu Reeves

text: Following several box office failures, Reeves's performance in the horror film "The Devil's Advocate" (1997) was well received. Greater stardom came for playing Neo in the science fiction series "The Matrix", beginning in 1999. He played John Constantine in "Constantine" (2005) and starred in the romantic drama "The Lake House" (2006), the science fiction thriller "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (2008), and the crime thriller "Street Kings" (2008). Following another commercially down period, Reeves made a successful comeback by playing the titular assassin in the "John Wick" film series, beginning in 2014.


title: Keanu Reeves

text: In addition to acting, Reeves has directed the film "Man of Tai Chi" (2013). He has played bass guitar for the band Dogstar and pursued other endeavours such as writing and philanthropy.


title: Keanu Reeves

text: Keanu Charles Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 2, 1964, the son of Patricia (née Taylor), a costume designer and performer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves Jr. His mother is English, originating from Essex. His American father is from Hawaii, and is of Native Hawaiian, Chinese, English, Irish, and Portuguese descent. His grandmother from his father's side is Chinese Hawaiian. His mother was working in Beirut when she met his father, who abandoned his wife and family when Reeves was three years old. Reeves last met his father on the Hawaiian island of Kauai when he was 13.


title: Keanu Reeves

text: After his parents divorced in 1966, his mother moved the family to Sydney, and then to New York City, where she married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director, in 1970. The couple moved to Toronto, Canada, and divorced in 1971. When Reeves was nine, he took part in a theatre production of "Damn Yankees". Aaron remained close to Reeves, offering him advice and recommending him a job at the Hedgerow Theater in Pennsylvania, United States. Reeves' mother married Robert Miller, a rock music promoter, in 1976; the couple divorced in 1980. She subsequently married her fourth husband, a hairdresser named Jack Bond; the marriage lasted until 1994. Reeves and his sisters grew up primarily in the Yorkville neighbourhood of Toronto, with a nanny caring for them frequently. Because of his grandmother's ethnicity, he grew up with Chinese art, furniture, and cuisine. Reeves watched British comedy shows such as "The Two Ronnies", and his mother imparted English manners that he has maintained into adulthood.


title: Keanu Reeves

text: Describing himself as a "private kid", Reeves attended four different high schools, including the Etobicoke School of the Arts, from which he was expelled. Reeves said he was expelled because he was "just a little too rambunctious and shot my mouth off once too often...I was not generally the most well-oiled machine in the school". At De La Salle College, he was a successful ice hockey goalkeeper. Reeves had aspirations to become a professional ice hockey player for the Canadian Olympic team but decided to become an actor when he was 15. After leaving De La Salle College, he attended Avondale Secondary Alternative School, which allowed him to get an education while working as an actor. He dropped out of high school when he was 17. He obtained a green card through his American stepfather and moved to Los Angeles, United States three years later. Reeves holds Canadian citizenship by naturalization.


title: Keanu Reeves

text: In 1984, Reeves was a correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) youth television program "Going Great". That same year, he made his acting debut in an episode of the television series, called "Hangin' In". In 1985, he played Mercutio in a stage production of "Romeo and Juliet" at the Leah Posluns Theatre in North York, Ontario. He made further appearances on stage, including Brad Fraser's cult hit "Wolfboy" in Toronto. He also appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial in 1983, and in the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) coming-of-age, short film "One Step Away".


title: Keanu Reeves

text: Reeves made a foray into television films in 1986, including NBC's "Babes in Toyland, Act of Vengeance" and "Brotherhood of Justice". He made his first motion picture appearances in Peter Markle's "Youngblood" (1986), in which he played a goalkeeper, and in the low-budget romantic drama, "Flying". He was cast as Matt in "River's Edge", a crime drama about a group of high school friends dealing with a murder case, loosely based on the 1981 murder of Marcy Renee Conrad. The film premiered in 1986 at the Toronto International Film Festival to a largely positive response. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" describes the performances of the young cast as "natural and credible", with Reeves being described as "affecting and sympathetic".


title: Keanu Reeves

text: Towards the end of the 1980s, Reeves starred in several dramas aimed at teen audiences, including as the lead in "The Night Before" (1988), a comedy starring opposite Lori Loughlin, "The Prince of Pennsylvania" (1988) and "Permanent Record" (1988). Although the latter received mixed reviews, "Variety" magazine praised Reeves' performance, "which opens up nicely as the drama progresses". His other acting efforts included a supporting role in "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988), which earned seven nominations at the 61st Academy Awards, winning three: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design. This was followed by "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989), in which he portrays a slacker who travels through time with a friend (portrayed by Alex Winter), to assemble historical figures for a school presentation. The film was generally well received by critics and grossed $40.5 million at the worldwide box office. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 79% approval rating with the critical consensus: "Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are just charming, goofy, and silly enough to make this fluffy time-travel Adventure work".


title: Keanu Reeves

text: In 1989, Reeves starred in the comedy-drama "Parenthood" directed by Ron Howard. Nick Hilditch of the BBC gave the film three out of five stars, calling it a "feelgood movie" with an "extensive and entertaining ensemble cast". In 1990, Reeves gave two acting performances; he portrayed an incompetent hitman in the black comedy "I Love You to Death", and played Martin, a radio station employee in the comedy "Tune in Tomorrow". He also appeared in Paula Abdul's music video for "Rush Rush" which featured a "Rebel Without a Cause" motif, with him in the James Dean role.


title: Keanu Reeves

text: In 1991, Reeves starred in "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey", a sequel to "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", with his co-star Alex Winter. Michael Wilmington of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that the sequel was "more imaginative, more opulent, wilder and freer, more excitingly visualized", praising the actors for their "fuller" performances. Film critic Roger Ebert thought it was "a riot of visual invention and weird humour that works on its chosen sub-moronic level [...] It's the kind of movie where you start out snickering in spite of yourself, and end up actually admiring the originality that went into creating this hallucinatory slapstick". The rest of 1991 marked a significant transition for Reeves' career as he undertook adult roles. Co-starring with River Phoenix as a street hustler in the adventure "My Own Private Idaho", the characters embark on a journey of personal discovery. The story was written by Gus Van Sant, and is loosely based on Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part 1", "Henry IV, Part 2", and "Henry V". The film premiered at the 48th Venice International Film Festival, followed by a theatrical release in the United States on September 29, 1991. The film earned $6.4 million at the box office. "My Own Private Idaho" was positively received, with Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" describing the film as "a postmodern road movie with a mood of free-floating, trance-like despair[...] a rich, audacious experience". "The New York Times" complimented Reeves and Phoenix for their insightful performances.


title: Keanu Reeves

text: Reeves starred alongside Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty and Gary Busey in the action thriller "Point Break" (1991), directed by Kathryn Bigelow. He plays an undercover FBI agent tasked with investigating the identities of a group of bank robbers. To prepare for the film, Reeves and his co-stars took surfing lessons with professional surfer Dennis Jarvis in Hawaii; Reeves had never surfed before. Upon its release, "Point Break" was generally well-received, and a commercial success, earning $83.5 million at the box office. Reeves' performance was praised by "The New York Times" for "considerable discipline and range", adding, "He moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanour that suits a police procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles". Writing for "The Washington Post", Hal Hinson called Reeves the "perfect choice" and praised the surfing scenes, but opined that "the filmmakers have their characters make the most ludicrously illogical choices imaginable". At the 1992 MTV Movie Awards, Reeves won the Most Desirable Male award.


title: Keanu Reeves

text: In 1991, Reeves developed an interest in a music career; he formed an alternative rock band called Dogstar, consisting of members Robert Mailhouse, Gregg Miller and Bret Domrose. Reeves played the bass guitar. A year later, he played Jonathan Harker in Francis Ford Coppola's Gothic horror "Bram Stoker's Dracula", based on Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula". Starring alongside Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder and Anthony Hopkins, the film was critically and commercially successful. It grossed $215.8 million worldwide. For his role, Reeves was required to speak with an English accent, which drew some ridicule; "Overly posh and entirely ridiculous, Reeves's performance is as painful as it is hilarious", wrote Limara Salt of Virgin Media. In a retrospective interview in 2015, director Coppola said, "[Reeves] tried so hard [...] He wanted to do it perfectly and in trying to do it perfectly it came off as stilted". "Bram Stoker's Dracula" was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning three in Best Costume Design, Best Sound Editing and Best Makeup. The film also received four nominations at the British Academy Film Awards.


title: Keanu Reeves

text: In 1993, he had a role in "Much Ado About Nothing", based on Shakespeare's play of the same name. The film received positive reviews, although Reeves was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor. "The New Republic" magazine thought his casting was "unfortunate" because of his amateur performance. In that same year, he starred in two more drama films, "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" and "Little Buddha", both of which garnered a mixed-to-negative reception. "The Independent" critic gave "Little Buddha" a mixed review but opined that Reeves' part as a prince was "credible". The film also left an impression on Reeves; he later said, "When I played this innocent prince who starts to suspect something when he has the first revelations about old age, sickness and death, it hit me. [...] That lesson has never left me."


title: Keanu Reeves

text: He starred in the action thriller "Speed" (1994) alongside Sandra Bullock and Dennis Hopper. He plays police officer Jack Traven, who must prevent a bus from exploding by keeping its speed above 50 mph. "Speed" was the directorial debut of Dutch director Jan de Bont. Several actors were considered for the lead role, but Reeves was chosen because Bont was impressed with his "Point Break" performance. To look the part, Reeves shaved all his hair off and spent two months in the gym to gain muscle mass. During production, Reeves' friend River Phoenix (and co-star in "My Own Private Idaho") died, resulting in adjustments to the filming schedule to allow him to mourn. "Speed" was released on June 10 to a critically acclaimed response. Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" lauded Reeves, calling him "absolutely charismatic [...] giving a performance juiced with joy as he jumps through elevator shafts [...] and atop a subway train". David Ansen, writing for "Newsweek", summarized "Speed" as, "Relentless without being overbearing, this is one likely blockbuster that doesn't feel too big for its britches. It's a friendly juggernaut". The film grossed $350 million from a $30 million budget and won two Academy Awards in 1995Best Sound Editing and Best Sound.


title: Keanu Reeves

text: Reeves' next leading role came in the 1995 cyberpunk action thriller "Johnny Mnemonic," directed by artist Robert Longo and based on the 1981 story of the same name by William Gibson. Set in 2021, it is about a man who has a cybernetic brain implant and must deliver a data package before he dies or is killed by the Yakuza. The film received mainly negative reviews and critics felt Reeves was "woefully miscast". Roger Ebert opined that the film is one of the "great goofy gestures of recent cinema, a movie that doesn't deserve one nanosecond of serious analysis but has a kind of idiotic grandeur that makes you almost forgive it." As part of the film studio's marketing efforts, a CD-ROM video game was also released.


title: Keanu Reeves

text: He next appeared in the romantic drama "A Walk in the Clouds" (1995), which also garnered mixed-to-negative reviews. Reeves plays a young soldier returning home from World War II, trying to settle down with a woman he married impulsively just before he enlisted. Film critic Mick LaSalle opined that ""A Walk in the Clouds" is for the most part a beautiful, well-acted and emotionally rich picture", whereas Hal Hinson from "The Washington Post" said, "The film has the syrupy, Kodak magic-moment look of a Bo Derek movie, and pretty much the same level of substance".