[3] It is one of seven Wikipedias written in an Anglic language or English-based pidgin or creole.

[5] Its simpler word structure and syntax, while missing some nuances, can make information easier to understand when compared with the regular English Wikipedia.

[1][2] In 2012, Andrew Lih, a Wikipedian and author, told NBC News' Helen A.S. Popkin that the Simple English Wikipedia does not "have a high standing in the Wikipedia community," and added that it never had a clear purpose: "Is it for people under the age 14, or just a simpler version of complex articles?

Tim Dowling of The Guardian newspaper explained that "the Simple English version tends to stick to commonly accepted facts".

[12] The project encourages, but does not enforce, the use of a vocabulary of around 1,500 commonly used English words[3] that is based on Basic English, an 850-word controlled natural language created by Charles Kay Ogden in the 1920s.