Introduction

To start with looking at NLP, let's understand what natural language is. In simple terms, it's the language we use to express ourselves. It's a basic means of communication. To define more specifically, language is a mutually agreed set of protocols involving words/sounds we use to communicate with each other.

In this era of digitization and computation, we tend to comprehend language scientifically. This is because we are constantly trying to make inanimate objects understand us. Thus, it has become essential to develop mechanisms by which language can be fed to inanimate objects such as computers. NLP helps us do this.

Let's look at an example. You must have some emails in your mailbox that have been automatically labeled as spam. This is done with the help of NLP. Here, an inanimate object – the email service – analyzes the content of the emails, comprehends it, and then further decides whether these emails need to be marked as spam or not.