Pulau Ubin in the context of "Singapore Island"

The Johor Strait (also known as the Tebrau Strait, Straits of Johor, Selat Johor, Selat Tebrau, and Tebrau Reach, also spelled Johore Strait) is an international tidal strait in Southeast Asia, between Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia.

Singapore Island, also known as mainland Singapore, is the main constituent island of the sovereign island country and city-state of the Republic of Singapore. It is located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, between the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea. The Singapore Strait lies to the south, while the Johor Strait lies to the north.

The island forms the bulk of the country in terms of area, population, and prominence since areas situated on the country's smaller islands consist of military or industrial areas, except for Sentosa and Ubin Islands. As of 2023, Singapore's population stood close to six million, and the mainland has a land area of approximately 730 square kilometres (280 sq mi).

Pulau Tekong (Singapore English pronunciation: /ˈtəkɒŋ/ TUH-kong), also known colloquially as Tekong or Tekong Island, is Singapore's largest outlying island. It lies off the northeastern coast of the mainland, to the east of Pulau Ubin. Since the 1980s, Pulau Tekong has been used by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) as a restricted military training ground, with public access prohibited. Transport for permitted personnel is provided via the SAF Changi Ferry Terminal located at Changi Beach.

Historically, various pre-colonial maps recorded the island under different names, and the origins of the name "Tekong" remain the subject of several theories. Pulau Tekong was previously inhabited by a multi-ethnic population of Malays, Chinese and Indians who established agricultural and fishing kampongs across the island. During the British colonial period, the island played a modest role in regional trade and rubber and vegetable farming sustained its economy. During the Japanese occupation of Singapore, residents of Tekong were subjected to forced labour, and many of the island's villages were eventually abandoned following the war.

The Ubin–Khatib Important Bird Area, also known as the North-East Conservation Area , is an 8940 ha tract of largely undeveloped land in north-eastern Singapore on the border with the Malaysian state of Johor. It encompasses the island of Ubin and much of the islands of Tekong and Tekong Kechil, as well as a coastal strip of the main island, including the Lower Seletar Reservoir, with the intervening coastal waters, seagrass beds, mangroves and intertidal mudflats.

Singlish (a portmanteau of Singapore and English), formally known as Colloquial Singaporean English, is an English-based creole language originating in Singapore. Singlish arose out of a situation of prolonged language contact between speakers of different languages in Singapore, including Malay, Cantonese, Hokkien, Mandarin, Teochew, and Tamil. Singlish is spoken alongside Standard Singapore English in a diglossic manner, and represents the colloquial register of English used between locals. As such, Singlish is not regarded as a separate language from English in Singapore, but rather, a sub-variety of it, forming a lectal continuum with the standard language. The term Singlish was first recorded in the early 1970s. Singlish has similar roots and is highly mutually intelligible with the Manglish spoken in Peninsular Malaysia.

Like all languages, Singlish and other creole languages show consistent internal logic and grammatical complexity, and are learnt natively within a community. As with many other creoles, it is sometimes perceived to be a "broken" form of the lexifier language—in this case, English. Due in part to this perception of Singlish as "broken English", the use of Singlish is greatly frowned on by the Singaporean government. In 2000, the government launched the Speak Good English Movement in an attempt to discourage the use Singlish, although more recent Speak Good English campaigns are conducted with tacit acceptance of Singlish as valid for informal usage. Several current and former Singaporean prime ministers have publicly spoken out against Singlish. However, the prevailing view among contemporary linguists is that, regardless of perceptions that a dialect or language is "better" or "worse" than its counterparts, when dialects and languages are assessed "on purely linguistic grounds, all languages—and all dialects—have equal merit".