Compared to other languages, English may seem simple, but that is probably because most people don’t realize it is full of crazy inventions, misinterpretations, mistakes, strange words, and needless words!

Let’s take a look at the top 10 interesting facts about the English language:

1. “I am” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

2. A pangram sentence is one that contains every letter in the language.

For example, the sentence, “The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is a pangram.

3. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (= extraordinarily good, wonderful) is not the longest word in English.

This extra long word was invented for a movie (Mary Poppins), and it became a word in the dictionary. What you probably didn’t know is that there is a word that is longer than this one. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is a type of lung disease caused by inhaling ash and dust. Go ahead and try pronouncing that!

4. There are “ghost words” that mean nothing.

Believe it or not, there are some words that appeared in the dictionary due to printing errors and meant nothing. The word “dord” appeared in the dictionary for eight years in the mid-20th century. It became known as a “ghost word”.

5. The shortest, oldest, and most commonly used word is “I.”

Medieval manuscriptsreveal that some of the oldest words in English were “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.

6. 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 4000 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.

7. There’s a name for words that we repeat often.

Words we always use even though they add no meaning or value to the 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.

8. Swims will be swims even when turned upside down.

Such words are usually called ambigrams.

9. English is the language of the air.

This means that to communicate all pilots have to identify themselves and speak in English, regardless of their origin.

10. Girl used to mean small boy or girl.

The word “girl” was not initially used to refer to a specific gender. It used to mean “child” or “young person” regardless of the gender.

source: grammarly.com   

Spain considers ban on dubbing in bid to boost English language skills

A new proposal from the ruling Popular Party could see Spain say adios to the practice of dubbing foreign programmes on television as a way of improving the nation’s English proficiency.

Spaniards lag far behind their Scandinavian, German and Dutch cousins when it comes to English proficiency, but they could soon be shooting up the EU English league tables if one election proposal comes to fruition. The conservative Popular Party (PP) led by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy want a part of all television programming in Spain to be emitted in the original version, getting rid of dubbing and broadcasting with subtitles instead. Spain’s Education Minister, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, unveiled the plan as part of the PP’s electoral programme for education and culture in Burgos on Thursday. The plan also includes measures to allow all Spanish children to receive schooling in Spanish. In some regions of Spain, public schools teach the majority of classes in regional languages, such as Catalan or Basque.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has famously struggled with English, which has sometimes hindered his ability to join in the banter on foreign visits. He had been working on his language skills, however, as a recent documentary revealed.

Spain’s long tradition of dubbing films instead of subtitling them stems, in part, from its political history. Under General Francisco Franco, all foreign – and even regional – languages were banned, which meant that international films shown in Spain were dubbed in Spanish rather than shown in their original languages with subtitles. Dubbing Hollywood films into Spanish also meant that Spanish censors could remove whole swathes of storyline; in the film Mogambo, Spanish censors made Grace Kelly and Donald Sinden siblings to avoid explaining her adultery (he is really her husband).

But the tide is changing. Many Spanish cinemas now show films in V.O.S (versión original subtitulada – subtitled original version) and as younger generations improve their English, they increasingly want to watch films in the original language rather than dubbed in Spanish.

Hollywood stars have also been known to not be the biggest fans of their foreign dubbers. “I heard my Spanish self for the first time and it is so high pitched and different from my own voice,” Jennifer Lawrence recently told US chat show host Conan O’Brien.

source: www.thelocal.es

English is a foreign tongue in up to a quarter of households in parts of London, the census revealed. Census figures released earlier this week highlighted the changing face of the UK over the past decade, and revealed just 44.9 per cent of Londoners describe themselves as white British. The data from the Office for National Statistics also indicates that English is not regularly spoken in between 20 and 25 per cent of houses in a number of boroughs across the capital. In thousands of other homes only the children living there regularly speak English, a report in the Daily Telegraph said.

In the east London borough of Newham 24.3 per cent of households are home to nobody who speaks English as their main language. In Brent, in north-west London, and in Westminster, the figure is 22.4 per cent.

Work is underway in ethnically diverse Newham to encourage people living in the area to use English.

Mayor Sir Robin Wales has said the council is concerned that the language barrier could leave women and elderly people isolated in their homes.

The local authority has stopped the supply of foreign language newspapers to local libraries as part of its policy to promote integration, the report said.

The census figures also revealed 7.5million residents of England and Wales were foreign-born in 2011, and that less than 90 per cent of the country is white for the first time ever.

It also showed a record dip in marriage rates.

foreign tongue – idegen nyelv
quarter – negyed
census – népszámlálás
to reveal – felfedni/feltárni
figures – adatok
to highlight – kiemelni/hangsúlyozni
to indicate – jelezni
borough – város/választókerület
underway – folyamatban
diverse – sokféle/változatos
to encourage – bátorítani
council – tanács
to be concerned – aggódni
barrier – akadály
to be isolated – elszigetelve lenni
local authority – helyi hatóság
supply – beszerzés/szállítmány
policy – irányvonal
integration – beilleszkedés
resident – lakos
dip – esés/süllyedés