Interesting Facts about English. English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, and with the British Council estimating that 2 billion people will be learning it by 2020, that certainly looks set to continue.But how much do you know about the language? Dr. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks. Since there are a lot more sounds than letters, many letters have different pronunciations, e.g. A sentence that contains … The English word alphabet comes from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and beta. The older pronunciation of "zed" was inherited from Old French. The first letter of the word is the letter the word stands for. No doubt, English is the worlds largest spoken language. Every syllable in English must have a vowel (sound). Lowercase Letters Explained. Upvote. Interesting facts you didn’t know about ENGLISH E’ is the most commonly used English alphabet; so common that one in eight alphabets written is ‘E’ ‘S’ is the letter which starts more English words, than the rest of the 25 letters. ), was approved by Noah Webster in his American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). The best-known example in English is Ernest Vincent Wright's novel Gadsby: Champion of Youth (1939) — a story of more than 50,000 words in which the letter e never appears. ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Discover grammar tips, writing help, and fun English language facts. 5. A famous pangram is: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” but there are even shorter ones such as: “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.”. 8. 8. 2.The most commonly used letter from the English alphabet is E, 3.The 26 letters of the English alphabet make up more than 40 distinct sounds. Interesting Facts About the English Alphabet. Pangrams are a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet. 11. Interesting facts you didn’t know about ENGLISH E’ is the most commonly used English alphabet; so common that one in eight alphabets written is ‘E’ ‘S’ is the letter which starts more English words, than the rest of the 25 letters. 5.The least commonly used letter in English is Z, 6.Each letter has both a majuscule (major) and a minuscule (minor) version. Knowledge is the power and you can impress your friends, teachers, and colleagues with your trivia about English. 8. The first printed book was in German. About 2,400 of the world’s languages are in danger of becoming extinct, and about one language becomes extinct every two weeks. The following sentence contains all 26 letters of the alphabet: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." The alphabet word comes from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet; alpha and beta. All mails are handled by secure Mailchimp® servers. The earliest single-language dictionary in the English language was known as the “Table Alphabeticall.” Produced by a man named Robert Cawdrey in 1604, it … Do You Know Everything About Consonant Sounds and Letters in English? Many modern conventions such as clear capital letters and spaces between words date back to a system of writing called Carolingian minuscule from around the 10th century. lexicographer. – Source. It will cover amazing & strange Facts about Letters, Alphabets & Vocabulary. 12. 10. English Language: History, Definition, and Examples. Here are 10 fun facts about English that we bet you didn’t know… A Pangram is a Sentence that Contains Every Letter in the Alphabet . Ad. 2. The consonant c, for example, is pronounced differently in the three words cook, city, and (combined with h) chop. If you write any number in words (English), count the number of letters, write this new number in words and so on, you’ll always end with number 4. At a time when America was actively fighting for independence, the idea arose to invent its own version of the language. (The Romans lacked J, V, and W.)". Find the best information and most relevant links on all topics related toThis domain may be for sale! 3. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our, The Number of Languages That Use the Roman Alphabet. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor. Around 1,000 BCE, the Greeks adopted a shorter version of the Semitic alphabet, reassigning certain symbols to represent vowel sounds, and eventually, the Romans developed their own version of the Greek (or Ionic) alphabet. The original set of 30 signs, known as the Semitic alphabet, was used in ancient Phoenicia beginning around 1600 BCE. 1. ), which go back further than 1050 BC. According to Tom McArthur in The Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992), "The Romans adopted Z later than the rest of the alphabet, since /z/ was not a native Latin sound, adding it at the end of their list of letters and using it rarely." These Greek words were in turn derived from the original Semitic names for the symbols: Aleph ("ox") and beth ("house"). Kaaba Facts ; Unknot the Mysteries of Sleep: Facts about sleep ; Facts About Holy Quran ; Few facts about Hippopotamus in English ; 10 facts about Banyan Tree in English for Students and children ; Categories Facts. These Greek words were in turn derived from the original Semitic names for the symbols: Aleph ("ox") and beth ("house"). If you write any number in words (English), count the number of letters, write this new number in words and so on, you’ll always end with number 4. In most alphabets the characters are arranged in a definite order, or sequence, and each alphabetic character represents either a consonant or a vowel rather than a syllable or a group of consonants and vowels. English words for livestock (cow, sheep, chicken) are Germanic-based and the words for meats (beef, mutton, poultry) are French-based. Lipograms are text that deliberately excludes a particular letter of the alphabet. Because we have just 26 letters to represent those sounds, most letters stand for more than one sound. If you are learning English, it may sometimes seem difficult and even annoying. But English can also be interesting! In fact, as many as one in eight of all the letters written in English is ‘e’. Telling interesting facts about the English language, one cannot help but note the difference in this sphere between England and the United States. Cluck-and-grunt was 1930s slang for ham and eggs. Exact matches only. 12. Not all syllables have consonants. While some languages have a few more and others a few less, they all share the 23 core letters originally found in the Roman alphabet. It is the scientific name for a type of lung disease. An Introduction to Noah Webster. ‘E’ is the most commonly used letter in the English language. These Greek words, however, are derivations of the Phoenician aleph and bet (see the similarity to the Hebrew alphabet? Generic selectors. The combination of majuscules and minuscules in a single system (the so-called dual alphabet) first appeared in a form of writing named after Emperor Charlemagne (742-814), Carolingian minuscule. We promise to never give away your email address or jeopardize your privacy in any way, shape or form. 9. English words for livestock (cow, sheep, chicken) are Germanic-based and the words for meats (beef, mutton, poultry) are French-based. Upvote. Picture: (Getty Images/iStockphoto) We can mark the passage of time and the changing nature of a society through the development of our many languages. There is also a 1914 book of jokes called English Humor in Phonetic Transcript that makes for a fun way to practice your IPA skills. Shakespeare Added Over a Thousand New Words to the English Language . Its history and growth, its little secrets, and its idiosyncrasies all make up a magnificent structure people love to love. More From English Summary. Find the best information and most relevant links on all topics related toThis domain may be for sale! For example, “ The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” contains every single letter in the English language. 9. Alphabet did you knows. Majuscules (from Latin majusculus, rather large) are capital letters. You're here: Home » Facts. The letter z, by the way, has not always been relegated to the end of the alphabet. "It's enough to make you lose your mind day by day." Since there are a lot … Here are 10 fun facts that you should know about the English language! The most common letter in English is "e". English language did you knows. Free Online Teaching Directory: Tutors Shouldn’t Pay For Listings, 82 Essential German Travel Phrases And Words For Daily Survival, Free Anki/Quizlet Flashcards For The “Dino lernt Deutsch” German Learning Series. The United States doesn’t have an official language. Exact matches only . (The one significant exception appears to be Korea's han-gul script, created in the 15th century.). "Writers spend years rearranging 26 letters of the alphabet," novelist Richard Price once observed. It's generally accepted that the Roman alphabet reached England by way of the Irish sometime during the early period of Old English (5 c.- 12 c.). So, in honor of the fantastic world of vocabulary, here are 20 weird facts from around the web that you probably never knew about English words! Used by roughly two billion people, it's the world's most popular script. He created the so-called "American Dictionary of English." Spelling: Glossary of … Have you read these? It's also a good enough reason to gather a few facts about one of the most significant inventions in human history. The most common vowel in English is "e", followed by "a". About 100 languages use the same alphabet like in English which makes it one of the most widely used alphabets in the world. There are more than 40 distinct sounds (or phonemes) in English. 9.The longest word in English which doesn’t use the letter E is floccinaucinihilipilification, 10.A sentence which contains all 26 letters of the English alphabet is called a pangram. Although it is called a "phonetic alphabet" it is not really used for phonetics like the International Phonetic Alphabet or other phonetic alphabets. Not all syllables have consonants. Did you know the most commonly used letter in the alphabet is E; Did you know dreamt is the only word that ends in mt; Did you know the first letters of the months July through to November spell JASON; Did you know there are only 4 words in the English language which end in 'dous' (they are: hazardous, horrendous, stupendous and tremendous) Why Creative Berlin Is An Inspiration To Artists: From 1970s To NOW. Technically, the U.S. doesn’t have an official … The NATO phonetic alphabet is a way of using words to replace letters. We decided to introduce you some interesting facts of the English Alphabets. As David Sacks notes in Letter Perfect (2004), "There are variations of the Roman alphabet: For example, English employs 26 letters; Finnish, 21; Croatian, 30. Minuscules (from Latin minusculus, rather small) are lower-case letters. 1. The English alphabet briefly included a typographical letter called a “long s.” Used from the late Renaissance to the early 1800s, it resembled the letter ‘f’ but was pronounced simply as ‘s.’ Eventually, the letter fell out of use; John Bell, who pioneered a new modern typeface, is often blamed for the disappearance of the long s. Updated 22 February, 2016. Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia, M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester, B.A., English, State University of New York. While some languages have a few more and others a few less, they all share the 23 core letters originally found in the Roman alphabet. What Is an Isogram (Or Word Play)? English is an extraordinary language. 15 Fun Facts About English. 'S the world 's most popular script with your trivia about English. to end! Alphabet, was used in ancient Phoenicia beginning around 1600 BCE further than 1050 BC over the lazy dog ''. 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