English, in terms of size, is the greatest language of the world, currently with more than 600,000 entries in the Oxford English Dictionary. The English language appears simple compared to other languages, but most of us don’t realize that almost 70 per cent of its vocabulary is filled with borrowed words.
Here are some amazingly interesting facts about English.
- English has the largest vocabulary with approximately 500,000 words and 300,000 technical terms. One person out of seven in the world speaks perfect English.
- The English language has been developing for more than 1,400 years. No wonder it’s such a weird language. Old English first came into use way back in the 5th Century AD. Back then, it was a mixture of German dialects with some very old Celtic words, as well as other words that came from Latin. Since then the language has come on a very long journey to evolve into the modern English you hear today!
- Shakespeare added 1,700 words to the English language during his lifetime.
- English is the official language of the sky! It doesn’t matter which country they are from, all pilots speak in English on international flights.
- There was a word in the English dictionary from 1932 to 1940 which didn’t have a meaning. The word was “Dord” and it got there because of a printing error. It was known as the ghost word.
- More people in the world have learned English as a second language than there are native English speakers.