Interesting Facts About English Language

The English language is, quite literally, the greatest language in the world. Great in terms of size - the current edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains 615,000 entries. Great in terms of scope -- it's an official language in seventy-nine countries and territories

Here are some interesting facts about English

  1. The most used letter in English language is (e).
  2. The most used vowel in English language is (e) , followed by (a).
  3. The most used consonant in English language is "r", followed by "t".
  4. The word "triskaidekaphobia" means "extreme fear of the number 13". This superstition is related to "paraskevidekatriaphobia", which means "fear of Friday the 13th".
  5. Every syllable in English must have a vowel (sound). But not all syllables have consonants.
  6. Only two English words end in (-gry). They are (angry) and (hungry).
  7. The word "bookkeeper" (along with its associate "bookkeeping") is the only unhyphenated English word with three consecutive double letters. Other such words, like "sweet-toothed", require a hyphen to be readily readable.
  8. The number of English words begin with the letter "s" are more than with any other letter.
  9. The word "uncopyrightable" is the longest English word in normal use that contains letter used once only.
  10. The following sentence contains all 26 letters of the alphabet: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." This sentence is often used to test typewriters or keyboards. This kind of sentences is called "pangram".
  11. A word formed by joining together parts of existing words is called a "blend" (or, less commonly, a "portmanteau word"). Many new words enter the English language in this way. Examples are "brunch" (breakfast + lunch); "motel" (motorcar + hotel); and "guesstimate" (guess + estimate). Note that blends are not the same as compounds or compound nouns, which form when two whole words join together, for example: website, whiteboard, sunglasses.
  12. The word "alphabet" comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha, bēta.
  13. If we place a comma before the word "and" at the end of a list, this is known as an "Oxford comma" or a "serial comma". For example: "I drink coffee, tea, and hot chocolate."
  14. Some words exist only in plural form, for example: glasses (spectacles), binoculars, scissors, shears, tongs, gallows, trousers, jeans, pants, pajamas (but note that clothing words often become singular when we use them as modifiers, as in The longest English word without a true vowel (a, e, i, o or u) is "rhythm".
  15. We can find 10 words in the 7-letter word "therein" without rearranging any of its letters: the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.

Collected By . Ins Naela Al-Tami

References

1. EnglishClub.com

2. huffingtonpost.com

3. Wikipedia.org

12 Truly Fascinating Food Facts

1.The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; " was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. " UP " indicated the direction of the bubbles.

2. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.

3. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

4. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's chewing gum.

5. Smelling bananas or green apples can help you lose weight ( they trick your body into thinking you ate them ).

6. Chewing gum while peeling onions will help you from crying.

7. Peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynamite!

8. Coca-Cola was originally green.

9.In Japan, they have square watermelons. They can be packed easier than the

round ones.

10. Honey is the only food that does not spoil.

11. Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.

12. Broccoli is vegetables with a nervous system. Primitive though it may be, it can feel pain.