English language curiosities



•Where do they speak English?



The longest words:



In Czech?
•Nejzdevětadevadesáteronásobitelnějšího
•    (38 letters)
•Nejneobhospodařovávanějšími
•
•Červenokostelecký
•(the longest second name)
•
•

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
•The longest word in a major dictionary
•Coined to be the longest word
•From medicine

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
That is a lovely town in a very pretty part of Wales.


Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
•
•Famous for being created for Marry Poppins musical

smiles
•The nicest longest English word


The shortest word:
•A
•I

balloonneer
•The only word in the English language that has four sets of double letters in row


Queue
•
•the only word that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed

The most common letter in English
•           E


•
•   This paragraph is not ordinary. Look at it. At first, it won´t look too odd. Just a normal
paragraph – you may think. But look at it again and you might find it a bit unusual. Just a tiny
bit. What´s wrong with it, you may ask? Nothing wrong at all, in fact: as I said, it´s just
slightly unusual. It´s difficult to put it in words. Look again. Is anything not right? Can you
spot it? Is anything … missing?

There was no letter E
•It´s the hardest kind of lipogram.


Lipogram
•= a text written without using a particular letter of the alphabet.


Almost
•the longest word with the letters in the alphabetical order
•

In Czech?
•Mateřídoušky
•dvacetikoruny
•
•The words with all vowels in order

•Abstemious,
•abstemiously,
•abstentious,
•adventitious,
•adventitiously,
•Arenicolous,
•arsenious
•cavernicolous
•the words with each of the vowels, all in order, none repeated

Subbookkeeper
•the only word with four pairs of double letters in a row
•
•=  (a person who works underneath the main bookkeeper)
•

Goddessship
•the only word in the English language with a triple letter


In Czech?
•Nejstřeštěnější
•Přesvědčivější
•
•Scvrnkls
•
•Smrž pln skvrn zvlhl z mlh.
•Slova s pěti háčky
•
•
•Nejdelší slovo bez samohlásek
•Nejdelší věta bez samohlásek.

Sentences



The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
 Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs
•
•
•Use every letter of the alphabet!
•
•

And Czech?
•Ulili-li liliputáni oheň včas, zabránili požáru.
•5x the same syllable
•
•Nebudou se štítiti títi Ti ti tiší špehové do vazu?
•9x

I am.
•The shortest complete sentence


Czech
•Blb vlk pln žbrnd zdrhl hrd z mlh Brd skrz vrch Smrk v čtvrť srn Krč.
•
•The longest Czech sentence without any vowels.

Palindroms
• a word or phrase that is the same whether it is read forwards or backwards


•Madam I´m Adam.
•Sit on a potato pan, Otis.
•
•Read the whole words:
•First ladies rule the State and state the rule: ladies first.
•
•
•

Other palindroms
•Stressed or desserts
•Stop – pots
•Evil – live
•Star – rats
•Red rum, sir, is murder.
•Step on no pets.
•Eva, can I see bees in a cave?
•No lemon, no melon.

In Czech?
•Kobyla má malý bok.
•Fešná paní volá: Má málo vína pan šéf?
•Do chladu si masa mísu dal Chod.
•Sabina hrává na varhany bas.
•Jelenovi pivo nelej.
•Umírá na rýmu.

From politics
•I zeman ležel na mezi.
•
•A kníže je žínka.

From maths
•19.9.1991


Strange meanings?
•They were too close to the door to close it.
•Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
•I had to subject the subjest to a series of tests.

Is English logical?
•Noses can run and feet can smell.
•If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
•There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

•When the stars are out, they are visible; but when the lights are out they are invisible.



What is hidden in the Czech word
•ÚSPĚCH
•
•SPĚCH
PECH
ECH!