{"id":21117,"date":"2025-03-13T13:53:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T13:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ecenglish.com\/en\/?p=21117"},"modified":"2025-11-26T12:28:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:28:37","slug":"10-weird-things-about-the-english-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecenglish.com\/en\/blog\/english\/10-weird-things-about-the-english-language\/","title":{"rendered":"10 weird things about the English language"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

English is known for being one of the hardest languages to learn. For all of its rules, there are even more exceptions which makes learning this language difficult for non-native speakers. Here are some weird and interesting facts about the language, but if you want to learn even more, don\u2019t forget to explore our English courses abroad<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weird Things About the English Language<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1) There are an estimated 2.5 billion words in the Oxford English Corpus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Oxford English Corpus<\/a> is a collection of 21st-century texts from the internet from sources all over the English-speaking world, including Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. It is being used to track the way the English language changes over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) The average person only knows about 50,000 words<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This might be because words like \u2018and\u2019, \u2018the\u2019 and \u2018I\u2019 make up 25% of the language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) Words have lifespans ranging between 1,000 and 20,000 years<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Researchers can even predict that words like \u2018dirty\u2019, \u2018push\u2019 and \u2018stick\u2019 will die out soon, based on how different the word is in multiple languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) A new word is created approximately every 98 minutes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That adds up to over 4,000 words per year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5) Over 50 countries use English as an official language<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the U.S., U.K., and Australia, these countries include Singapore, Ghana, and India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6) A word spelled the same backwards and forwards is called a palindrome<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Palindromes include words like racecar, level, and kayak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7) Dictionaries sometime publish made-up words by mistake<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The word \u2018dord\u2019 was accidentally printed in Webster\u2019s dictionary in 1934 and stayed there until 1947.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8) The oldest known word is \u2018who\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It dates back more than 20,000 years. The next oldest words are \u2018I\u2019, \u2018we\u2019, \u2018two\u2019 and \u2018three\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9) | The dot on lower case letters \u2018i\u2019 and \u2018j\u2019 is called a tittle<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The original definition of the word \u2018tittle\u2019 was used to describe a tiny amount of something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10) Words that we repeat often are called \u2018crutch words\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We use them even though they don\u2019t add much meaning to our sentences. These include words like \u2018basically\u2019, \u2018actually\u2019, or \u2018honestly\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Try a free online lesson with EC Live<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Live online English classes for continuous learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
try it for free<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

English is known for being one of the hardest languages to learn. For all of its rules, there are even more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_trash_the_other_posts":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"acf":{"post_subtitle":"","related_posts":""},"yoast_head":"\n10 Weird Things About the English Language | EC English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover 10 weird things about the English language. 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