Excuse me. What is your ask?

While working as an English as a Second Language teacher in Austria and The Czech Republic, I would correct common mistakes made by my students at the end of each lesson.

There are no more than 400 million native speakers of English worldwide, and Americans like me are in demand for roles staffing the world’s schools.

I no longer teach English; but I still pay close attention to words.

Recently, I’ve noticed that the word ask is more and more being used as a noun in place of the word question. But why do we use the word question in English anyway instead of just a noun form of the word ask?

Here’s your answer:

Question entered the English language through the French-speaking Normans in the eleventh century, and Old English had a noun form for the word ask before it was replaced by the word question. The noun form of the word was āscung.

Excuse me. What is your āscung?

But why are we using the word ask again now as a noun?

Well, the English language is continuously evolving, and here it’s moving closer toward a word that once was. Things are just coming full circle.

The actual reason for this shift away from the use of the word question is that there are only about 400 million native speakers of English, and non-native speakers of English are now driving the evolution of the English language.

Non-native speakers of English outnumber native speakers of English by about a billion people.

This leaves me feeling that one day an old student of mine might correct my archaic English or maybe my grandchildren will.