11 fascinating facts about English

Steffanie Zazulak
A woman sat on a sofa smiling reading a book
Reading time: 3 minutes

English is one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world, but how much do you know about the language? Here are 11 facts about EnglishÌýthat you might not know.

Facts about English
Reproducir
Privacy and cookies

By watching, you agree ÃÛÌÒapp can share your viewership data for marketing and analytics for one year, revocable by deleting your cookies.

1. English is the language of the skies

You might know that English is the language of many lands (it’s the official language of 67 countries) but did you know it’s the language of the skies, too? That’s right, English is spoken by all pilots to identify themselves on flights, regardless of where they are from – yet another way in which learning English improves employability.

2. You or me?

We use the words "you" and "me" all the time, but which of the two do you think is the most widely used? You might be surprised to learn that while "you" is the 18th most commonly-used word in the English language; "me" is way back at number 50. So what is the most used English word? Exactly that: ‘the’.

3. One in a billion

If you were to write out every number in order as words (that is, one, two, three, four…) you wouldn’t use the letter "b" until you reached one billion.

4. No repeats

"Subdermatoglyphic" is the longest English word that can be written without repeating any letters. It has 17 letters in it, and it’s the medical name for the layer of skin beneath the fingertips. Slightly easier to guess the meaning of is the word "uncopyrightable", which has 15 letters without any being repeated, and refers to something that can’t be copyrighted or owned.

5. Shakespeare was an architect of the English language

The legendary playwright was responsible for many of the things we say and write today. These include the words "fashionable", "advertising" and "laughable", and the phrase "fight fire with fire", which means to respond to attack with a similar form of attack.

6. New arrivals to the dictionary

A new word is added to the every two hours. Some include "nerdjacking" (to hijack a conversation with detailed explanations), "undorse" (to reverse a policy) and "Mx" (a gender-neutral form of address instead of using "Mr" or "Ms").

7. Historic word, new meaning

You may know a "twerk" to be a popular, thrusting dance but in the 19th century "twirk" (spelt with an "i" not an "e") it refered to a twisting or jerking movement or twitch.Ìý

8. The origins of English

English originates from Old English, which is its earliest historical form from the 5th century. There was no punctuation until the 15th century. The oldest Old English word still used today that has the same direct meaning is "town". Town has kept the same meaning as its original Old English word "tun" meaning area of dwelling.

9. Time to move

There is a debate about the shortest grammatically correct sentence in English. "Go!" is often mentioned because it has an understood subject "you" and the predicateÌý(the part of the sentence that tells what the subject does) is "go." However, some believe that "I am." is the shortest complete sentence because it includes both a subject and a predicate.

10. The enemies of poets

What do the words "month", "silver", "marathon" and "purple" have in common? They're just some of the words that don't have a "".

11. What's an "Aegilops"?

The longest word in English with its letters in alphabetical order is "Aegilops", which is a type of plant.

Read our blog posts 'Slang terms from across the UK' and 'Commonly misspelled English words'.

More blogs from ÃÛÌÒapp

  • Teacher stood at the front of the class writing on a interactive whiteboard

    GSE Teacher Toolkit: Planning a communicative grammar lesson

    Por Sara Davila
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    Planning grammar lessons with the GSE Teacher Toolkit

    Grammar is one of the core areas of language teaching. Often, new teachers are nervous about teaching it, but sooner or later, all English teachers will have to get to grips with it. Whether you love or hate teaching grammar to your students, the makes planning a successful grammar lesson easier than ever.Ìý

    When it comes to planning a grammar-focused lesson, there are two main strategies to choose from: a communicative approach or a focus-on-form approach. The communicative approach is more commonly used.Ìý

    So, let’s have a look at how the GSE Teacher Toolkit can help you plan a communicative grammar lesson that is effective and engaging for your students.Ìý

    Teaching communicative grammar

    When you’re planning a grammar lesson, you want to be sure there is a reason for students to use the grammar point that you’re going to teach. That way, your students will be more motivated to learn the form and practise using it correctly.Ìý

    Using and applying grammar generally requires producing something. That’s why grammar, as an enabling skill, is often aligned to speaking and writing, the productive skills. When you want your students to use or produce a particular grammar form, you can begin by looking for the associated skills in speaking and writing.Ìý

    Choosing a skill to teach

    Imagine that you have a class that is learning at an A2 level (35 - 40 on the GSE range). You’ll want to help them work towards A2+/B1. So, it’s a good idea to plan lessons around skills that are in your target GSE range to push their progress.Ìý

    In order to plan an A2+ range speaking class, you can filter the GSE Teacher Toolkit to look in your target learning range for specific skills to teach:Ìý