Mind-blowing facts about the English language

The English language is a sprawling, chaotic, and fascinating beast. Here are 20 mind-blowing facts that show just how quirky and dynamic it is:

20 Mind-Blowing Facts About the English Language

A New Word is Added Roughly Every Two Hours.
- The English lexicon is constantly expanding. It’s estimated that almost 4,000 new words are added to the dictionary every year. This is driven by technology, popular culture, and slang (e.g., rizz, simp, unsend).
The Shortest Complete Sentence is “I am.”
- While you might think “Go!” is the shortest, the full subject (“you”) is implied (an elliptical sentence). The sentence “I am.” is the shortest grammatical, non-elliptical complete sentence in English.
No Single Word Rhymes with Month, Orange, Silver, or Purple.
- Despite the huge number of words in English, these common words are famous for not having a perfect rhyming partner.
English is the Official Language of the Air.
- Regardless of their country of origin, all pilots flying internationally must identify themselves and speak in English when communicating with air traffic control. This rule was established to ensure safety and clarity in global aviation.
The Word ‘Set’ Has the Most Definitions.
- The tiny three-letter word “set” holds the record for the most different meanings. The Oxford English Dictionary has over 430 definitions for the word, and its entry takes up 24 pages.
The Letter ‘E’ is Everywhere, ‘Q’ is Almost Nowhere.
- The letter ‘E’ appears in approximately 11% of all words in the common English vocabulary. Meanwhile, the letter ‘Q’ is the least common, with most of its appearances involving the letter ‘U’.
More People Speak English as a Second Language Than as a Native Language.
- English is a massive global phenomenon. While there are around 375 million native English speakers, there are over 750 million people who speak it as a second language.
Shakespeare Created Over 1,700 Words.
- William Shakespeare is one of the greatest word inventors in history. He coined or popularized thousands of words by changing nouns into verbs, adding prefixes/suffixes, or combining words. Examples include bedroom, swagger, gossip, fashionable, and torture.

9. The Shortest, Oldest, and Most Common Word is “I.”

- The singular pronoun “I” is one of the original words passed down from Old English, making it one of the oldest in the language. It is also the word that appears most frequently in English conversation

10. The Word “Goodbye” is a Contraction of a Religious Phrase.

- The simple farewell “goodbye” is a contraction of the phrase “God be with ye,” evolving from “God be wy you” in the 14th century into its current form.
11. The Ampersand Used to Be a Letter
The symbol & (ampersand) was once considered the 27th letter of the English alphabet. It was recited at the end of the alphabet, and the phrase “and per se and” was shortened over time to ampersand.
12. The Dot on the ‘i’ and ‘j’ Has a Name.
The small dot that appears above the lowercase letters i and j is called a tittle.
13. One Common Word is a Contronym.
A contronym is a word that has two meanings that are opposites. For example, “dust” can mean to remove dust (dust the furniture) or to add dust/powder (dust a cake with sugar).
14. You Won’t Use the Letter ‘B’ Until a Billion.
If you spell out every whole number starting from one (one, two, three…) in English, you will not use the letter B until you reach the word “billion.” Similarly, you won’t use the letter A until you reach “one thousand.”
15. The Longest Common Word with No Repeated Letters is “Uncopyrightable.”
This 15-letter word contains no letter more than once, making it the longest known common English word of its type.
16. The Closest Living Relative to English is Frisian.
English is a Germanic language, and its closest linguistic cousin today is Frisian, a language spoken by about half a million people in the Netherlands and Germany.
17. The United States Has No Official Language.
Despite being the country with the most native English speakers, the United States has no official language at the federal level. English is the official language in over 30 states, but not for the whole country.
18. There Are Only Three Words that End in “ceed.”
The only three common words in the entire English language that end in the letters “ceed” are proceed, succeed, and exceed.
19. The Word ‘Nice’ Used to Mean ‘Foolish.’
The word “nice” came from the Latin nescius, meaning “ignorant” or “not knowing.” It meant foolish or stupid in early English before slowly softening into its current meaning of pleasant.
20. Old English Had Grammatical Gender.
Like modern German or French, Old English had grammatical gender. Nouns were masculine, feminine, or neuter. This feature was largely lost after the Norman Conquest.