Shakespeare also pioneered innovative use of grammatical form and structure - including superlatives and the connecting of existing words to make new words, like bloodstained - while the pre-eminence of his plays also did much to standardise spelling and grammar.
But Shakespeare's influence is felt far beyond our language. His words, his plots and his characters continue to inspire much of our culture and wider society. Nelson Mandela, while a prisoner on Robben Island, cherished a quote from Julius Caesar which said, "Cowards die many times before their death, the valiant never taste of death but once." While Kate Tempest's poem My Shakespeare captures the eternal presence of Shakespeare when she wrote that Shakespeare "... is in every lover who ever stood alone beneath a window ... every jealous whispered word and every ghost that will not rest."
Shakespeare's influence is everywhere, from Dickens and Goethe to Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Brahms; from West Side Story to the Hamlet-inspired title of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap - the longest-running theatre production in London's West End today.
While his original plays continueto entertain millions - from schoolhalls across the world to the overnight queues as hundreds scrambled for last-minute tickets to see Benedict Cumberbatch playing Hamlet at London's Barbican last year.
But perhaps one of the most exciting legacies of Shakespeare is his capacity to educate. As we see from the outreach work of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's Globe and the impact of pioneering British charities like the Shakespeare Schools' Festival, studying and performing Shakespeare can help improve literacy, confidence and wider educational attainment.
Every day throughout 2016, Britain is inviting you to join us in celebrating the life and legacy of William Shakespeare. On January 5, Twelfth Night, we launched "Shakespeare Lives" - an exciting global programme of activity and events to highlight his enduring influence and extend the use of Shakespeare as an educational resource to advance literacy around the world.
The programme will run in more than 70 countries, led by the British Council and the GREAT Britain campaign. You can share your favourite moment of Shakespeare on social media, watch never-before-seen performances on stage, film and online, visit exhibitions, take part in workshops and debates, and access new Shakespearean educational resources to get to grips with the English language.
The Royal Shakespeare Company will tour China; Shakespeare's Globe will perform across the world from Iraq to Denmark. Young people will reimagine Shakespeare in Zimbabwe. A social media campaign called "Play your Part" (#PlayYourPart) will invite the next generation of creative talent to produce their own digital tribute to the Bard - and, in partnership with the British charity Voluntary Services Overseas, we will raise awareness of the huge challenge of global child illiteracy and use Shakespeare to increase educational opportunities for children around the world.
Beyond the great gift of language, the bringing to life of our history, his ongoing influence on our culture and his ability to educate, there is just the immense power of Shakespeare to inspire. From the most famous love story to the greatest tragedy; from the most powerful fantasy to the wittiest comedy; and from the most memorable speeches to his many legendary characters, in William Shakespeare we have one man, whose vast imagination, boundless creativity and instinct for humanity encompasses the whole of the human experience as no one has before or since.
So, however you choose to play your part, please join us in 2016 in this unique opportunity to celebrate the life and enduring legacy of this man, ensuring that, as he himself put it, "all the world's a stage" and that through his legacy, truly, Shakespeare Lives.
• For further information on quadricentennial activities and other performances around New Zealand, follow @UkinNZ on twitter or ukinnewzealand on Facebook.
