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Interesting Facts About English

in no particular order...

1.     The most common letter in English is "e".

2.     The most common vowel in English is "e", followed by "a".

3.     The most common consonant in English is "r", followed by "t".

4.     Every syllable in English must have a vowel (sound). Not all syllables have consonants.

5.     Only two English words in current use end in "-gry". They are "angry" and "hungry".

6.     The word "bookkeeper" is the only unhyphenated English word with 3 consecutive repeated letters. Words such as "cross-section" and "bee-eater" normally require a hyphen to be readily readable.

7.     The word "triskaidekaphobia" means "fear of Friday the 13th". It also means "superstition about the number thirteen" in general.

8.     More English words begin with the letter "s" than with any other letter.

9.     A preposition is always followed by a noun (ie noun, proper noun, pronoun, noun group, gerund).

10.                       The word "uncopyrightable" is the longest English word in normal use that contains no letter more than once.

11.                       A sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet is called a "pangram".

12.                       The following sentence contains all 26 letters of the alphabet: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." This sentence is often used to test typewriters or keyboards.

13.                       The only word in English that ends with the letters "-mt" is "dreamt" (which is a variant spelling of "dreamed") - as well of course as "undreamt" :)

14.                       A word formed by joining together parts of existing words is called a "blend" (or, less commonly, a "portmanteau word"). Many new words enter the English language in this way. Examples are "brunch" (breakfast + lunch); "motel" (motorcar + hotel); and "guesstimate" (guess + estimate). Note that blends are not the same as compounds or compound nouns, which form when two whole words join together, for example: website, blackboard, darkroom.

15.                       The word "alphabet" comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha, bēta.

16.                       The dot over the letter "i" and the letter "j" is called a "superscript dot".

17.                       In normal usage, the # symbol has several names, for example: hash, pound sign, number sign.

18.                       In English, the @ symbol is usually called "the at sign" or "the at symbol".

19.                       If we place a comma before the word "and" at the end of a list, this is known as an "Oxford comma" or a "serial comma". For example: "I drink coffee, tea, and wine."

20.                       Some words exist only in plural form, for example: glasses (spectacles), binoculars, scissors, shears, tongs, gallows, trousers, jeans, pants, pyjamas (but note that clothing words often become singular when we use them as modifiers, as in "trouser pocket").

21.                       The shortest complete sentence in English is the following. "I am."

22.                       The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat" meaning "the king is helpless".

23.                       We pronounce the combination "ough" in 9 different ways, as in the following sentence which contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

24.                       The longest English word without a true vowel (a, e, i, o or u) is "rhythm".

25.                       The only planet not named after a god is our own, Earth. The others are, in order from the Sun, Mercury, Venus, [Earth,] Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

26.                       There are only 4 English words in common use ending in "-dous": hazardous, horrendous, stupendous, and tremendous.

27.                       We can find 10 words in the 7-letter word "therein" without rearranging any of its letters: the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.

28.                       The following sentence contains 7 identical words in a row and still makes sense. "It is true for all that that that that that that that refers to is not the same that that that that refers to." (= It is true for all that, that that "that" which that "that" refers to is not the same "that" which that "that" refers to.)

29.                        

30.                      
A sentence with a similar pattern, which may help to unravel the above, is:
It is true, despite everything you say, that this word which this word refers to is not the same word which this word refers to.
Or, if you insist on being really correct:
It is true, despite everything you say, that this word to which this word refers is not the same word to which this word refers.

31.                       The "QWERTY keyboard" gains its name from the fact that its first 6 letter keys are Q, W, E, R, T and Y. On early typewriters the keys were arranged in such a way as to minimize the clashing of the mechanical rods that carried the letters.

What Are Some Interesting Facts About England?

Are you wondering what are some interesting facts about England?  England is officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  It contains the countries of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales and 100 small islands.

Here are some basic interesting facts about England:

• Water boundaries of England are the Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel, the North Sea, the Celtic Sea, and the Irish Sea. 
• There are actually three things that are used to symbolize England: St. George’s Cross, and the Three Lions crest, and the Tudor rose. 
• St. George’s Cross is usually seen on a flag and the Three Lions crest is seen on an emblem or sports badges of the cricket and football teams. 
• The Tudor rose is the national flower of England and is white in the center and red on the outside.  It was adopted as a sign of peace after the War of the Roses. 
• The national tree of England is the oak.

Records of England

Here are some interesting facts about firsts and records in England. 

• London is the largest city in Europe with 12 million people.  It is also the largest financial center in the world. 
• Postage stamps appeared first in England.
• In the 1680s, the Penny Post was invented by William Dockwra for delivering packages in London. 
• The Penny Black was the first nation-wide stamp, introduced in 1840.       

People of England

Here are some interesting facts about the residents of England:

• English people love their tea and drink more of it, per capita, than anywhere else on the planet. 
• The police in England do not carry guns unless it is an emergency. 
• The Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1752 even though the rest of the world said it was not practical. 
• Queen Victoria loved Valentine’s Day cards so much that she sent almost 2500 of them during her reign.
• The people of England speak over 300 languages. 
• Some notable English people include William Shakespeare, Thomas Paine, Winston Churchill, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Alfred Hitchcock, the Bronte sisters, Charles Darwin, and Andy Warhol.         

English Expressions

Interesting facts can include slang expressions in England.  Here are just a few:

• Ace - brilliant
• Bobby - policeman
• Cheeky - flippant
• Daft - stupid
• Filch - steal
• Jolly - very
• Mate - friend
• Off your trolley - crazy
• Snogging - making out
• Twit - idiot
• Yonks - ages

Buildings and Events

There are many interesting facts about the buildings in England:

• Big Ben is not the name of the tower which has a big clock.  It is the name of the 13-ton bell that is housed in that tower.  The tower is called St. Stephen’s Tower.

• It is believed that three ghosts inhabit the Athelhampton House and one of them is an ape. Windsor Castle is the largest royal residence in the world and the oldest one still in use. London opened the first public zoo in the world in 1828.  

• The Millennium Wheel, or the London Eye, is the largest Ferris wheel in Europe.  In 1600, the first hot chocolate establishment was opened in England by a Frenchman.  Within 100 years, there were almost as many of these as tea and coffee houses.

• The Lincoln Cathedral was built in 1280 and at time was the tallest structure in the world.  The record was taken by the Washington Monument in 1884.  

• Shropshire, England hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1850.  These inspired Baron Pierre Coubertin of France to have the Olympics in Athens 46 years later. 

Miscellaneous Facts About England

Here are a few more facts:

• In 2003, the highest temperature ever was recorded in England at 101.3 degrees F or 38.5 degrees C.  
• Newton is a very popular name in England and over 150 towns are named Newton.
• Heathrow Airport in London has the most international passenger traffic in the world and is third busiest overall.
• The flag of England is called the Union Flag when it is flown over land and the Union Jack when it is flown aboard a ship.  That is because it is flown on the jack mast of a ship.

So, now you know plenty of interesting facts about England.

Some Interesting Facts About England

England is one of the famous countries in the world. England is one of the three countries that form the Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales). The capital of England is London and English is the official language. Here are some interesting facts about England:

1.     England is surrounded by Wales on the west and by Scotland on the north.

2.     French was the official language of England until early 14th century.

3.     The Wimbledon Championship, the oldest tennis tournament in the world has been held at the All England Club in the suburb of Wimbledon since 1877.

4.     The highest temperature recorded in England was in Faversham in Kent with 38.5ºC (101.3ºF) in August 2003.

5.     The class system and aristocracy still prevails in England and it is based on one's background rather than money.

6.     London, which is the capital of England, is one of the most populous cities in the Europe with its population over 10 million.

7.     The English weather is erratic, specially in autumn. However, the average low temperature is a couple of degrees over 0 degree and the average high temperature is around 25-30 degrees.

8.     Some of the major cities in England are London, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield.

9.     The Heathrow airport in London is one of the largest and busiest airports in the world.

10.                       English cuisine include pastries, pie, pasties, Sunday roasts and curries, etc.,

11.                       The English people consume tea more than an average person in other parts of the world.

12.                       The Windsor Castle is the largest residential castle in the world. It is also the oldest one that is in continuous occupation for over 900 years.

13.                       Some of the most famous people of England are Princess Diana, JK Rowling, Sir Issac Newton, Agatha Christie, William Shakespeare, Paul McCartney and Margaret Thatcher.