Curiosities

Thursday, October, 16, 2012: Did you know what...?

-The most used letter in the English alphabet is "e" and "q" is the least used. 
-Of all the words in the English language, the word "set" has the most definitions. 
-The only word in the English language that has fours sets of double letters in row is balloonneer. 
-The shortest complete sentence in the English language is "I am". 
-"Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel. 
-The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

Tuesday, October, 25, 2012: Did you know what...?

-In "The treatment he had had had had no effect", the same word appears four times in a row with no intervening punctuation.
-"Round" is the only word that can be used as five different parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition).

Friday, November, 2, 2012:

 

Commonly-used Acronyms

• CALL = Computer Assisted Language Learning

• EFL = English as a Foreign Language (Studying English in non-English-speaking countries)

• ELT = English Language Teaching (or sometimes Training)

• ESL = English as a Second Language (Studying English as a non-native speaker in a country where English is spoken. Depending on where you are from, the term ESL may be more inclusive and includes EFL. For some people the reverse seems to be true.)

• ESOL = English to Speakers of Other Languages (Note: ESL and EFL are often used interchangeably. This acronym is an attempt to make a generic term and then assign more limited meanings to ESL and EFL.)

• L1 = "Language 1" = the student's native (primary or first acquired) language.

• L2 = "Language 2" = the language being learned or studied

• TEFL = Teaching English as a Foreign Language

• TESL = Teaching English as a Second Language

• TESOL = Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (It is also the name of an association, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.)

• TOEFL = Test of English as a Foreign Language

• TOEIC = Test of English for International Communication

Thursday, October, 20, 2012: Did you know what...?

- Abstemious, abstemiously and cavernicolous have all the vowels in order and not repeated.

- Almost and understudy have four consecutive letters of the alphabet together in the correct order.
- The word "triskaidekaphobia" means fear of Friday the 13th. It also means "supersitition about the number thirteen in general.
- More English words begin with the letter "s" than with any other letter.
-The most common vowel in English is "e" followed by "a".
-The most common consonant in English is "r" followed by "t".
-The word "uncopyrightable" is the longest English word in normal use that contains no letter more than once.