Pub trivia: English language
English language
What came first, our linguistic ignorance or everyone else speaking English? Well that is a question that isn't answered here but there are some other English based facts for you to marvel at without fear of failure.
-
Fact
The word 'Checkmate' in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead."
-
Fact
The longest one-syllable word in the English language is 'screeched.'
-
Fact
The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is 'uncopyrightable.'
-
Fact
'Underground' is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters 'und.'
-
Fact
The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
-
Fact
'Stewardesses' is the longest English word that is typed with only the left hand.
-
Fact
The combination 'ough' can be pronounced in nine different ways; the following sentence contains them all: 'A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.'
-
Fact
The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis'. It doesn't mean anything - it was invented in 1935, purely so it could be the longest word in the English language.
-
Fact
'Dreamt' is the only English word that ends in the letters 'mt'.
Danny Wallace interview
His book Yes Man has been turned into a Hollywood film, so we caught up with Scottish-born comic Danny Wallace for all the glitzy goss.
Top 10 Bond gadgets
In Dr No he had a Geiger counter, but thankfully the gadgets got a bit better after that. We look back at 10 of Bond's best.
