İngilizce'yle İlgili İlginç Gerçekler - Interesting Facts about English

Interesting Facts about English - İngilizce ile ilgili İlginç Gerçekler

General

• Over 400 million people use the English vocabulary as a mother tongue.
• Over 700 million people speak English as a foreign language.
• Of all the world's languages (over 2,700) English is arguably the richest in vocabulary.
• English is the most widespread language in the world and is more widely spoken and written than any other language.
• The sentence 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' or 'Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs' uses every letter in the English language.
• The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
• The most used letter in the English alphabet is E, and Q is the least used!
• The shortest complete sentence in the English language is I am.

Techonology

• Three-quarters of the world's mail, telexes and cables are in English.
• The main language used throughout the world on the internet is English.
• More than half of the world's technical and scientific periodicals are in English.

Vocabulary

•  "Rhythms" is the longest English word without the normal vowels, a, e, i, o, or u.
• The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.
•  "Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.
• Bookkeeping is the only word with 3 double letters in a row.
• Indivisibility is the only word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs six times.
• Of all the words in the English language, the word 'set' has the most definitions.
• What is called a "French kiss" in the English speaking world is known as an "English kiss" in France.
• No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
• The word "assassination" was invented by Shakespeare.
• The word "news" did not come about because it was the plural of "new." It came from the first letters of the words North, East, West and South. This was because information was being gathered from all different directions.
• The three words in the English language with the letters "uu" are: vacuum, residuum and continuum.
• The most commonly used words in spoken English are I, You, The, and A.
• The last thing to happen is the ultimate. The next-to-last is the penultimate, and the second-to-last is the antepenultimate.
• The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with.
•  "Of" is the only commonly used word in which F is pronounced like a V. The only other words with this property are hereof, thereof and whereof.
• The word "racecar" and "kayak" are the same backwards and forwards.
• The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th Century England. During heavy downpours of rain, many of these poor animals unfortunately drowned and their bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents that raced through the streets. The situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs" and led to the current expression.
• There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous" : tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
• The ZIP in Zip-code stands for "Zoning Improvement Plan." 
• The word "grammar" entered medieval English as "gramarye," , via Scotland. The Scots got it from the French word, "grimoire" which meant a collection of magic spells.
• In English, "four" is the only digit that has the same number of letters as its value.