Which branch of the Germanic language family does English belong to?

English belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Germanic language family.

West Germanic also includes German, Dutch, Afrikaans, Frisian, Yiddish, and several historically documented languages. English developed from the Germanic dialects brought to Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the fifth century.

The Germanic family is itself part of the larger Indo-European language family. Germanic languages are commonly divided into West Germanic, North Germanic, and the extinct East Germanic branch. Gothic was the best-known East Germanic language, while Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic are North Germanic languages.

English has borrowed extensively from French, Latin, Greek, and many other languages, especially after the Norman Conquest. This large vocabulary sometimes makes English look less Germanic than it is, but its core grammar and many basic words retain Germanic origins.