50 Facts About English Language that will Surprise You      

Facts about English language that will surprise you: We all know that English is the world’s most spoken language, but there are several facts that you do not hear about the language. This language was part of the Indo-European family and its origin can be traced back to ancient times (around 5th century AD). Over the centuries, people worldwide have set up English grammar rules, which are now accepted globally. Also, the language slowly became part of most of the countries since its origin, owing to the colonisation of many territories by English-speaking countries and globalisation. 

At present, English is the primary language in countries such as the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. Additionally, there are several countries in which English is considered to be the official language such as India, Singapore, and the Philippines. Here, we will discuss some interesting facts about the English language that will help you in learning something new.

Must Read: Best Apps To Learn And Speak Good English 

50 Facts About English Language

The English language is full of surprises! From its ever-growing vocabulary to its unusual quirks, there’s always something new to learn. This collection of facts explores some of the lesser-known aspects of English, including the most common words, the origin of everyday phrases, and even the scientific makeup of the language itself. 

So get ready to discover some fascinating facts about English language that will surprise you.

1. The commonly used noun in the English Language is ‘time’.
2. In English, the word with the most definition is ‘set’.
3. There are only two words in the English language that end with “gry” that are “hungry” and “angry”.
4. The first word that was written in the English Dictionary in 1755.
5. There are more than 2 billion people in the world who speak English as their first or second language. The USA is the largest English-speaking country having 300 million native speakers. Here, is the list of countries which are having most native speakers are:

Country	Number of Native Speakers
United States of America(USA)	2 billion
United Kingdom(UK)	300 million
Canada	60 million
Australia	25.2 million
New Zealand	4.9 Million
Republic of Ireland	4.7 million

6. The oldest English word that still comes in use is “town”.
7. The commonly used adjective in the English Language is ‘good’.
8. English is the official language of 67 countries and 27 non-sovereign entities including Hong Kong.
9. The old English phrase god be with you later led to the formation of Good Bye.
10. Every 98 minutes, a word gets added to the dictionary which means nearly 14 per day.
11. The oldest, shortest, and most commonly used letter in English is I.
12. Research done by Harvard University shows that there are 10,22,00 words in the English language and each year there are more than a thousand words that are getting added.
13. William Shakespeare was considered to be the greatest writer, English playwright, poet, and actor has invented many words nearly 1700 words. The words invented by Shakespeare are Bedroom, Eye, Critic, Majestic, Generous, etc. 
14. The complete English language has a composition of 11% of the letter E.
15. More than 80% of the information present in computers across the world is in the English language. On several websites, you must have seen English in chat and forums. 
16. English is simple and can be learned easily by different methods. The sentence in which all the alphabet letters are used is called a pangram. Every letter of the alphabet series must be used once in the pangram sentence. For example, ‘Puzzled women bequeath jerks are very exotic gifts.’
17. You must have heard about the QWERTY keypad. It got the name as the starting letters of the keyboard are Q, W, E, R, T, and Y.
18. The word “therein” contains 10 words without getting rearranged such as there, in, here, the, rein, he, ere, therein, herein, and her. 
19. The only planet that is not named after God is Earth. Other planets are Mercury, Venus, Uranus, Neptune, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, and Uranus.
20. The word ‘rhythms’ is considered to be the longest English word that cannot be formed using a vowel(a,e, i,o, or u).
21. “I am.” is the shortest completed English language sentence.
22.  The word “Checkmate” that is used in chess is taken from the phrase ‘Shahmat’ which is a Persian means “the king is helpless”.
23. The most number of words start from the letter ‘s’ than any other letter.
24. The only word in the English dictionary that ends with mt is “dreamt”.
25. A curiosity that once developed in your mind is knowing about what the dot at the top of the letters i and j is. The dot is called a superscript dot.
26.  The formation of the word “alphabet” is formed by combining the Greek alphabets alpha and beta.
27.  “Uncopyrightable” is the longest word where no letter gets repeated in the English Language. No letter comes in the word more than once. 
28. An important fact about the English language is that a preposition always gets followed by a noun.
29. Bookkeeper(related word Bookkeeping) is the only word that does not contain a hyphen in it with three double letters coming together consecutively.
30. The # Symbol in English grammar is called by different names that are number sign, pound sign, and hash.
31. In the English language, some words exist in their plural forms such as goggles, men, women, binoculars, pants, headphones, etc. 
32. The @ symbol in the English language is commonly known as “at sign” or “at symbol”.
33. There are some words in the English language that are formed by combining the existing words those are called a “blend”. Some of the examples are motel (motorcar+hotel) and brunch(breakfast + lunch).
34. One must know English to fly an airplane rule was developed in 1977 when a fatal accident happened at the Tenerife airport. None of the pilot’s messages were not clear to the tower leading to the accident of the two airplanes. 
35. It was found that in the past there were more alphabets in the English language than it is today. There were a dozen more alphabets that were later reduced to make English a simple language.
36. There are some words in the English language that have different meanings. For example, bat has two meanings one is used to play cricket and the other is the mammal that flies.
37. An adult native English speaker knows around 20,000 to 30,000 words. 
38. The growth of the vocabulary gets stopped after attaining middle age. 
39. A child of 3 years old can recognise around 1000 words and at the age of 5 years, he will be able to recognise 10,000 words. 
40. The word “Typewriter” is the longest that can be typed by using the first row of the keyboard. 
41. Two negatives cancel each other to create an affirmative sentence. 
42. Do you know about the word that contains 5 vowels consecutively it is “Queueing”.
43. The shortest sentence that is grammatically correct in the English language is “Go!”.
44. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word that exists in the English dictionary and has 45 letters. 
45. An important fact about the English language is that some words in the dictionary occurred due to printing errors and have no meanings. One such word is “dord” which does not exist but remained in the dictionary for a longer time during mid-20th century.
46. Words that are used but add no meaning to a sentence are called the crutch word. Crutch words are basically, honestly, actually, OMG.
47. Ambigrams are the words in English grammar that look the same when looked backwards, forward, or upside down. Some of the ambigram words are Proud, Pod, Swims, Illuminati, etc. 
48. Several words are there in the English Language that do not have rhyme such as dangerous, wolf, silver, month, purple, etc.
49. The British accent first came in use around London at the time of the American Revolution.
50. In the US English, there are 24 dialects.

Also Read: 

Importance Of Learning English

Speech on Importance of English

Essay on Importance of the English Language

Here are some interesting facts about the English language, scroll right to learn more! #LearnWithBerlitz pic.twitter.com/303FhVf6qs

— Berlitz Hrvatska (@BerlitzHrvatska) January 21, 2023

Importance of English Language

English language learning has a huge importance in the lives of people as it allows them to communicate effectively. People can access information and other resources that are helpful for them in every course of life. Also, those who can speak fluently in English have the potential to make a great impression on others. Furthermore, the global language helps you to advance in your career and get jobs. Additionally, it is the international language of communication through which world leaders communicate with each other. 

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