Today is UN English Language Day! The United Nations established this day in 2010 to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity. April 23rd is also Shakespeare’s birthday, making it a really important day for this language. In honor of today, here are 10 fun facts about English.
1. There is no word in the English language that rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple. [source]
2. Schoolmaster is an anagram of “the classroom.” (If you don’t know what an ‘anagram’ is, you can find out here. We love anagrams here at Magoosh!) [source]
3. 11% of the entire English language is just the letter E. What an important letter! [source]
3. English is the third most commonly spoken language in the world (the first and second are Mandarin Chinese and Spanish). [source]
4. One new word is added to the English language every two hours, and 4000 new words are added to the dictionary every year. That’s a lot of words! [source]
5. Happy is used 3 times more often in English than sad. [source]
6. The longest word in English is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Whew, that’s a mouthful! It’s a type of lung disease caused by inhaling sand dust and ash. [source]
7. English is the official language of the skies, and all pilots identify themselves in English on international flights — even if English isn’t their native language. [source]
8. There was no word for the color orange in English until about 450 years ago. [source]
9. Shaking hands with someone in an agreement is called famgrapsing. [source]
10. The most commonly used word in conversations is ‘I.’ [source]
Have you heard any cool facts about English? We want to hear them! Share in the comments below. 🙂
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