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Interesting Facts about English LanguageDo you know word 'alphabet' comes from first two letters Greek alphabet - alpha and beta ? Here is a very simple sentence which uses every letter of the alphabet ,it is 'The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog ' !Do you know about 'crutch words' ?Crutch words are those words which we slip into sentences to give us more time to think or emphasize on some point. We start using them unconsciously but gradually they became part of our verbal tics.Few examples of these words are -actually,obviously,like,honestly,basically etc.Most of the times they don't add any value or meaning of a statement ,for example,'I actually was absent that day.'So what is your crutch word?Challenge your friends by asking them to tell a rhyming English word for any of following five words- month,silver,angel,orange or bulb.Actually there is no rhyming word in English language for any of these five words! Want to impress your friends? Remember, Scolionophobia –It means to have fear of School, hope you don’t have it. Talking of Phobias, you may get whole list of phobias on internet, but here is one interesting phobia - ‘Phobophobia’–It means fear (phobia) of having any phobia. So you got a word for phobia of phobias. The word 'swims' when turned upside down will still look like same i.e.'swims'.The sentence 'Are you as bored as I am ' can be read backwards and would still make sense!Now test your friends, ask them to say ‘the sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick’.It is known to be the toughest tongue –twister in English language. Do you know a funny fact about the word 'listen'? It contains the same letters as the word 'silent'!Do you know there used to be a word in the dictionary (from 1932 to 1940), which did not have any meaning? The word was ‘Dord’.It happened due to some error, this word was later known as Ghost word.You would be surprised to know that ‘Pronunciation’ is the most mispronounced word. The longest word in English is 45 letters long ! It is 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis'! It refers to a lung disease caused by silica dust.Do you know about a 5 letter word in English dictionary, which is pronounced in the same way even when the last four letters are removed from it? Oh, you guessed it right, it is ‘queue’. Here is something more about ‘Q’, would like to tell you that it is the least used letter in English language. Do you there are few words in English language, which only exist in plural form? Here are few –glasses, scissors, trousers, jeans, pants etc. Also you may be interested to know that one in every 6 persons in world knows or speaks English language. Also the first word spoken on the moon by a human was an English word! Do you want to know what it was ? It was ‘ok’ (well a small controversy exists here,few say it was ‘Houston’ ,others say it was ‘Contact’, anyway all the said word were in English). Don’t be surprised if we tell you that English language has richest vocabulary as compared to any other language in the world. Few of the dictionaries claim to have 6, 00,000 words. Going into history of dictionaries, would like to tell that first English dictionary was printed in 1755. There are many words in English, whose origin is very interesting .One of the word originated from marbles game! Have you ever played marbles? If yes, you must be knowing that sometimes players have to put their knuckles down on ground to take best hit, so from this a word originated ‘knuckle down’ which means to work very hard. Here is one more interesting history of origin another word ‘trivia. It comes from a Latin word ‘trivium’ which means a place where 3 roads meet, a kind of people square in old times. People would regularly gather there & would talk about all kind of things, most of which were very small & mostly useless so the trivia word originated which means interesting but useless things. Do you know that origin of word 'sinister' is rooted to superstitions.Ancient Romans were highly superstitious .One of the example is their fear for anything to do with the left, which is why their words for ‘left’ and ‘left-handed’ were sinister and sinstra , giving us the modern meaning of the word ‘sinister’ meaning bad or wicked. Let’s tell you about an unusual word. It is one of the few very last words in any dictionary ,it is ‘zyzzyva’ ,it is an insect which is very destructive for plants. Here is one interesting fact about a word 'Bookkeeper'.It is the only word in English language with three consecutive double letters!Flamboyance :We know that meaning of this word is ' richly colored'.But do you know that a group of flamingos is called flamboyance ...also called flurry .On the mythological side,a group of unicorns is called a blessing! ! Do you know that the adjective most often used to qualify the noun 'heart' is 'broken'./li>Inspirational Quotes for Language LearnersTheresa Dold on 04/15/11 diggDo you – or your students – need some extra motivation when it comes to language learning? Even though most of us will agree that it pays to be bilingual, it can be difficult to remain optimistic when the journey to multilingualism feels like a never-ending road trip with countless dead ends.?If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.??Nelson Mandela?One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.??Frank Smith?The limits of my language are the limits of my world.??Ludwig Wittgenstein?Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can; there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.??Sarah Caldwell?Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.??Chinese Proverb?You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.??Geoffrey Willans?To have another language is to possess a second soul.??Charlemagne?Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.??Johann Wolfgang von Goethe?Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.??Rita Mae Brown?Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.??Oliver Wendell HolmesInteresting Facts about the English LanguageVoxy on 02/20/13 Have you ever wondered what the little dot on top of an ‘i’ is called, or what the only two words in the English language that end in ‘-gry’ are? No? Well, get ready, because you’re about to!In the English language, ……the shortest word containing all five main vowels is ‘eunoia’, meaning ‘beautiful thinking’ or a state of normal mental health.…the longest word with only one vowel is ‘strengths’ (9 letters long).…there are only 4 words that end with ‘-dous’: ‘tremendous’, ‘stupendous’, ‘hazardous’ and ‘horrendous’.…the oldest word is ‘town’.…the longest one-syllable word is ‘screeched’.…the longest word with all the letters in alphabetical order is ‘almost’.…the only two words that end ‘-gry’ are ‘hungry’ and ‘angry’.…the longest word without the main vowels is ‘rhythms’.…the dot on top of the letter ‘i’ is called a ‘tittle’.…the most commonly-used word in conversation is ‘I’10 Fun & Easy Ways Learn English FasterVoxy on 01/9/12 We’ve all heard a thousand times that the only way to really learn English is to be totally immersed in the language, completely surrounded by it everywhere you go. But we wanted to go deeper than that and find quick and easy ways to start getting immersed. So our research team put together 10 steps that you can follow, in this order, to make learning English faster and a whole lot more fun.#1: Find some English radio stations and podcasts in iTunesThere are tons of podcasts about all topics imaginable these days: entertainment, politics, news. A good way to find one is to look for a podcast from a TV channel you usually watch in your cable TV. Look for one that interests you and listen to it in your car while driving. You’ll train your ear that way!#2: Check out the Top Videos on YouTube and watch for at least a few minutesMost of them are hilarious! It will be so worth it. Try looking at the comments to pick up some words and sentences you aren’t familiar with, but be careful there is all kinds of bizarre stuff in YouTube comments.#3: Talk and sing to yourself in EnglishWhen you are alone at home, or of course in the shower, start talking! Sing a song in English the way it sounds to you, talk about the weather or any other topic. Do this frequently and your pronunciation will drastically improve – guaranteed!4#: Do you have an English-speaking idol? Go to YouTube and watch all of his/her interviews in EnglishYou can spend hours doing that listening to interviews and it sure won’t feel like studying. But it is! It helps you a great deal.5#: Sit near people who are speaking English on the bus or in the park. Listen in…Okay now don’t be a creepy eavesdropper! But, see what words you can pick up and listen to the flow of the conversation. How much did you understand? What general topic were they talking about? Did you hear an interesting word you might want to look up after?#6: Pay attention to billboards, signs, advertisements, magazine stands and establishment namesLook and think about what these ads mean. How many words do you recognize? Did you see that same word elsewhere? Make up sentences about what you’re seeing.#7: Love music? Try figuring out the words/lyrics of your favorite songsWatch video clips with lyrics on YouTube and sing along. Read the translation and build up your vocabulary. Listen to “clean” versions of songs and try to figure out what dirty words were taken out. It’s fun!#8: Watch TV clips, episodes or soap operas in EnglishIt doesn’t matter if you don’t understand what they’re saying, watch anyway! Try to understand why something is funny or sad . If the joke is related to the word itself, then maybe that is why the joke does not make sense in your native language. What would be the best translation into your language then?#9: Engage in a conversation on Facebook with friends who post in EnglishWhen you have English speakers in your timeline, you see their posts daily and get inside information about news and viral videos in English. Your friends can be your teachers! Their timeline basically sort out the best material for you to study.#10: Produce, produce, produce. No matter how shy you are or how much you don’t “get” English, force yourself to speakHelp out a tourist who looks lost. They won’t mind you struggling with the language while you’re doing them a favor! After class, talk to your teacher about how things are going and what you need help with in English. When traveling, ask around for directions in English, even if you don’t need them! Try purchasing things online and by phone, or using customer support in English.It does not matter if you talk slowly, you are learning, that’s only natural!BONUS TIP: When seeing a new movie look up the original title on The translation sometimes does not correspond directly to the original. Find out what the original title really means. Ask yourself how the translation makes sense. ?What is the relation to the movie? You will never forget a new word that once it’s associated with an unforgettable movie. Works every time!25 Comical Quotes About the Confusing English LanguageTheresa Dold on 01/19/11 diggEveryone from Henry David Thoreau and George Carlin to Jerry Seinfeld and your regular old Joe Shmoe has something to say about the English language. Here’s a list of 25 quotes about the humorous, ironic, subtle and downright confusing aspects of this multi-continental Germanic tongue.Did we miss your favorite quote? We’re all ears. Share it with us in the comments section below, or post it on our Facebook page!“Our language is funny – a ‘fat chance’ and a ‘slim chance’ are the same thing.”J. Gustav White“If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers.”Doug Larson“If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.”Doug Larson“Why do we have noses that run and feet that smell?”Author Unknown“English is a funny language; that explains why we park our car on the driveway and drive our car on the parkway.”Author Unknown“The word ‘good’ has many meanings.? For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.”G. K. Chesterton“Lymph, v.:? to walk with a lisp.”Washington Post reader“I like the word ‘indolence.’ It makes my laziness seem classy.”Bern Williams“The two most beautiful words in the English language are ‘check enclosed.’”Dorothy Parker“The quantity of consonants in the English language is constant. If omitted in one place, they turn up in another. When a Bostonian ‘pahks’ his ‘cah,’ the lost ‘r’s migrate southwest, causing a Texan to ‘warsh’ his car and invest in ‘erl wells.’”Author Unknown“‘I am’ is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that ‘I do’ is the longest sentence?”George Carlin“Rudyard Kipling was fired as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. His dismissal letter was reported to have said, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language. This isn’t a kindergarten for amateur writers.’”Author Unknown“The English language has a deceptive air of simplicity; so have some little frocks; but they are both not the kind of thing you can run up in half an hour with a machine.”Dorothy L. Sayers“What is the shortest word in the English language that contains the letters: abcdef? Answer: feedback. Don’t forget that feedback is one of the essential elements of good communication.”Author Unknown“English grammar is so complex and confusing for the one very simple reason that its rules and terminology are based on Latin, a language with which it has precious little in common.”Bill Bryson“Making English grammar conform to Latin rules is like asking people to play baseball using the rules of football.”Bill Bryson“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”Ronald Reagan“In my sentences I go where no man has gone before… I am a boon to the English language.”George W. Bush“Introducing ‘Lite’ – The new way to spell ‘Light’, but with twenty percent fewer letters.”Jerry Seinfeld“England and America are two countries separated by a common language.”George Bernard Shaw“Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.”Robert Benchley“When I read some of the rules for speaking and writing the English language correctly, I think any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it.”Henry David Thoreau“I speak two languages: Body and English.”Mae West“Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible as baseball in Italian.”H. L. Mencken“Never make fun of someone who speaks broken English. It means they know another language.”H. Jackson Brown, Jr. ................
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