All languages change over time. If we had been alive in Shakespeare's time we would speak a very different version of English from the one we speak today!

There are different ways in which languages change.

Sometimes new words are invented, such as shopaholic and internet.

When the pandemic of Covid 19 hit early in 2020, it brought a whole load of new words which became part of everyday usage, such as social distancing,  and lockdown.

At other times, existing words take on new or specific meanings. For example, the word mouse still refers to the small animal that likes cheese, but it is now also the name of the device we use to move the cursor around a computer screen.

In this activity, you can look at some of the different ways that English has changed over the centuries.