8 WEIRD FACTS ABOUT THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

English is a strange language due to its history and influences. It is a West-Germanic language which was further influenced by the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans. Here are 8 weird and wonderful facts about the language:

1.     A pangram sentence is one which contains every letter in the language. A very common example of this in English is “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” When I was at school we had to write this lots of times to practice our handwriting.

2.     English is the language of the air – every pilot in the world has to speak English whilst flying no matter where they’ve come from!

3.     The longest word in the English dictionary is ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’ which is a lung disease contracted from breathing in ash.

4.     4000 words are added to the dictionary every year with some of the latest additions being fro-yo (frozen yoghurt), YOLO and Brexit.

5.     The first dictionary was written in 1755 by Samuel Johnson and helped to standardise the spelling of the language.

6.     The letter E is the most common letter in the language, appearing 11% of the time.

7.     Shakespeare invented over 1700 words which we use in the language such as majestic, tranquil, gloomy and torture.

8.     The oldest noun in the English language which is still in use is “town”.