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There’s a name for words that we repeat often:
They’re called: CRUTCH WORDS
Words we always use even though they add no meaning or value to a sentence are called crutch words. For example, in the sentence “Then I was like, OMG, then like, he went there, and like…” it is pretty obvious that “like” is the crutch word. “Actually,” “honestly,” and “basically” are also commonly used as crutch words.
There’s an interesting fact! Some words remain the same even after you turn them upside down.
Such words are called ambigrams.
The lowercase letters l, o, s, x, and z are rotationally symmetrical, while pairs such as b/q, d/p, m/w, n/u, and in some typefaces h/y and a/e, are rotations of each other. Thus, the words “sos“, “pod“, “suns“, “yeah“, “swims“, “dollop“, or “passed” form natural rotational ambigrams.
source:
A new word is added to the dictionary every two hours.
Between now and your next meal, a new word will be put into the dictionary. During the course of the year, almost 4,000 new words are added! So, the next time you try to catch the attention of the dissertation committee, try adding some new words to your project.
source:
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/10-interesting-english-facts-guest/
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (*breath*) is NOT the longest word in English.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – This extra-long word (that approximately means “fantastic”) was popularized by the movie Mary Poppins and was eventually added to the dictionary. What you probably didn’t know is that there is a word that is longer — yes longer — than this one. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis is a type of lung disease caused by inhaling ash and dust. Go ahead and try pronouncing that! Funnily enough, my MS Word engine recognizes it!!!
The shortest, oldest, and most commonly used word is “I.”
Medieval manuscripts reveal that some of the oldest words in English are “I,” “we,” “two,” and “three.” This makes “I” one of the shortest and oldest words in the English language. It is also the most commonly used word in English conversations.
GHOST WORDS
There are “ghost words” that mean nothing.
Believe it or not, there are some words that appeared in the dictionary because of printing errors. The nonexistent word “dord” appeared in the dictionary for eight years in the mid-20th century.
It became known as a “ghost word.”
Dord
Where does it come from? And why does it mean nothing?
It was the result of someone misreading a note written by Austin M. Paterson, Webster’s chemistry editor at the time. The note said “D or d, cont./density,” and it referred to the uppercase letter D (or lowercase d) being used as an abbreviation for density. “D or d” became “Dord,” a word that meant “density,” and the best-known example of a ghost-word—a word that, in fact, isn’t a word at all.
Tweed
Here’s a more recent misunderstanding that gave us a new word. We got the word “tweed”—a type of wool—from a misunderstanding of the Scottish word “tweel,” which was how the Scots said “twill.”
How was it created? And why?
That mistake may have happened because there’s a Tweed river in Scotland, so when people heard or saw “tweel,” they thought of the Tweed River; but regardless of how it happened, “tweed” became an established word for the cloth in London in the mid-1800s.
source:
A pangram sentence is one that contains every letter in the given language (strictly one time, or more)
A pangram sentences in English:
(Пъргавата кафява лисица прескача мързеливото куче.)
(Чавките обичат моя голям кварцов сфинкс.)
Панграми на български език:
Панграми на руски език:
source:
“I am.” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
Here is some context:
Who is ready for the new lesson?
– I am. (meaning: I am ready for the new lesson.)
Which one of you is the oldest?
– I am. (meaning: I am the oldest.)
Here are examples of regular yes/no questions in Present Simple.
Are you free tonight?
– Yes. I am. (meaning: I am free tonight.)
Are you afraid of heights?
– Yes. I am. (meaning: I am afraid of heights.)
It is difficult to give an example where “I am” is not an answer.
I breathe. I live. I am. (here “I am” means: I exist.)
I strive. I die – a man!
Double comparatives are adjectives with more than one comparative marker. For example, the comparative word more and the comparative suffix -er are both applied to the adjective loud in the phrase more louder in the sentence above. Like comparatives, superlatives (most, -est) may also be doubled.
Double comparatives may also involve two instances of the suffix -er, as in the word louderer, though the double usage of this suffix might be a distinct phenomenon from the usage of more and -er together. In particular, there is typically no difference in meaning between louder and more louder, while it may be that there is a difference in meaning between louder and louderer.
a. The Duke of Milan / and his more braver daughter could controul thee.
(Shakespeare, The Tempest)
b. This was the most unkindest cut of all.
(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)
Additional comparisons?
Nevins (2012:92) cites Radford (1977) for the claim that double comparatives do not license two comparisons. For example, the following sentence contains a double comparative and feature two comparisons (comparison with Bill and comparison with you), and they are unacceptable to many native speakers because of this:
2) John is more taller than Bill than you are (you are taller than Bill but not as much as John).
Kennedy and McNally (2005), however, provide examples like (3), with less, which do seem to license an extra layer of comparison:
3) an old department store a lot less taller than the city hall building than is the new company headquarters.
Seuren (1972:561) also suggests that double comparatives with more can in fact license two comparisons:
4) John is more taller than Bill than Peter. (John is taller than Bill, but he is even taller than Peter)
Less co-occurring with -er
Corver (2005) notes that the -er affix doesn’t always mean “more” but can be realized in forms like less happier. He gives the following example from Shakespeare:
5) Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
(Shakespeare, King Richard II, ii, i)
https://ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena/double-comparatives#who-says-this
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