ESL Blogs

Did you know that enneacontakaienneagon is actually a word in the English language? (And you thought pronouncing supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was difficult?!). In fact, the meaning of the word is just as bizarre as the word itself: it’s a shape with 99 sides! Now, who would come up with such a word and make sure it ends up in the Oxford Dictionary? No idea!
English may seem like a simple, less complex language when compared to others, but that’s probably because most people don’t know about the many secrets that lie within this universal language: it is full of crazy inventions, misinterpretations, mistakes, words you didn’tknow, and words you would never even need!
Let’s take a look at the top 10 interesting facts about the English language which we are sure you never knew before!

1)    “I am” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language:
 
The next time you don’t feel like talking to someone, you can cut the conversation short by saying these two words, “I am”. It probably won’t be an appropriate response, but at least it will be grammatically correct! (Just kidding!)

2)    A Pangram Sentence:
 
Did you know there was something called a “pangram” in the English language? It’s a sentence that includes all of the alphabets in the language. So, for example, the sentence, “The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is a pangram!


3)    Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (*breath*) is NOT the longest word in English:
 
Some guy invented the extra large word (that supposedly means “fantastic”), put it in a movie,and it became a word in the dictionary. What you probably didn’t know is that some other guy (maybe some super-inventive doctor) came up with another word that is longer – yes longer—than this one and it is ALSO in the dictionary. The word, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is a type of lung disease caused by inhaling ash and dust. Go ahead and try pronouncing that!

4)    There are even “Ghost Words” that mean nothing: Believe it or not, but there are even some words that appeared in the dictionary for a long time and they meant nothing. Due to a printing error, the word “dord” appeared in the dictionary for 8 years in the mid 20th century. It became known as a “ghost word”.

5)    The Shortest, Oldest, and most commonly used Word is “I”:
 
Medieval manuscripts reveal that some of the oldest words in English were “I” ,“we”, “two” ,and “three”. This makes “I” one of the shortest and oldest words in the English language. What’s more is that it is also the most commonly used word in English conversations.


6)    A New Word is Added to the Dictionary Every Two Hours: Imagine: Two hours from now, there’ll be a new word in the English dictionary. Then two hours later, another. Keep adding that, and you’ll end up with almost new 4000 words added per year! No wonder we can’t catch up with so many words are there are still so many “that we’ll never know” or “never need”!
So, the next time you take assignment help online to catch the attention of the committee, try out adding some new words to the project.


7)    There’s a Name for Words that We Repeat Often:
 
You must have wondered why your best friend always uses a certain word even though it adds no meaning or value to the sentence. They are called crutch words. For example, in the sentence “Then I was like, OMG, then like, he went there, and like…” it’s pretty obvious that “like” is the crutch word. Actually, honestly, and basically are also commonly used as crutch words.


8)    Swims will be Swims Even When turned Upside down: This amazing word in the English dictionary will spell the same word even when turned upside down. And, such words are usually called ambigram.


9)    English is the Language of the Air: Yup, that means all pilots have to identify themselves in English and speak in English to communicate, regardless of their origin. Hence, it is the “language of the air”.


10)    Girl used to mean small boy or girl: The word “girl” was not initially used to refer to a specific gender. It used to mean “child” or “young person” regardless of the gender. So, even a small boy would be called a “girl” in the olden days!