Random Language Facts

    41 facts tagged with Language Facts

    "Goodbye" came from "God bye" which came from "God be with you."
    297
    There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”:
    tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
    175
    The word 'mile' is derived from the Latin word for 1,000 - the number of paces it took the average Roman!
    6
    Ioannis Ikonomou
    Ioannis Ikonomou
    The Chief Translator for the European Parliament can speak 32 different languages fluently.
    36
    The equivalents of the English saying "That's Greek to me" are "This appears to be Spanish" (German), "This is Chinese to me" (Dutch), "It's German to me" (Philippines), "It's Hebrew" (Finnish), "It's Chinese to me" (Hebrew), "Sounds like Mars language/These are chicken intestines" (China).
    10
    WAS IT A CAR OR A CAT I SAW.. 'WASITACARORACATISAW'.. This is the only English sentence which even if we read in reverse, it'll give the same sentence.
    398
    The six official languages of the United Nations are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.
    31
    'Go', is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
    236