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Tuesday, 18 August 2015
Fun facts about the English language
1. No word in the English language rhymes with month.
2."Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
3. The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.
4. "Underground" is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters "und."
5. The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."
6. There are only four words in the English language which end in"-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
7. The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
8. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.
9. There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein": the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, here, ere, therein, herein.
10. No words in the English language rhyme with orange, silver or purple.
11. 'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
12. To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by swearing on their testicles.
13. 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."
14. The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
15. The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable."
Noun vs. Verb Syllable Stress [Finance]
Read this sentence out loud (or in your head):
‘Matthew won the contest but I am going to contest the results.’
Did you pronounce ‘contest’ and the second ‘contest’ the same way? If you did, you made a mistake common to many English learners. The words ‘contest’ are actually pronounced: ‘Matthew won the CONtest but I am going to conTEST the results.’
Usually, when we turn a verb or adjective into a noun (called ‘nominalization’), we change its spelling. However, with certain words the spelling stays the same but the syllable stress changes.
For this example, the first ‘contest’ is a noun (meaning ‘competition’) and the second is a verb (meaning ‘to challenge’).
So the rules for syllable stress for these types of words are:
NOUN version: stress on first syllable [e.g. EX/port]
VERB version: stress on second syllable [e.g. ex/PORT]
This week let’s look at some words related to finance! Try reading the examples out loud.
1. Import
Noun: IM/port [Ex. One of the top imports into the U.S. each year are automobiles.]
Verb: im/PORT [Ex. Many U.S. congressmen would like the country to import fewer products.
2. Export
Noun: EX/port [Ex. Oil is one of the Middle East’s biggest exports.]
Verb: ex/PORT [Ex. China has been exporting more and more products each year.]
3. Refund
Noun: RE/fund [Ex. My computer stopped working, so I will need to get a refund.]
Verb: re/FUND [Ex. I’m sorry, but you dropped your computer, so we can’t refund you.]
4. Increase
Noun: IN/crease [Ex. There has been an increase in revenue since we hired our new product manager.]
Verb: in/CREASE [Ex. Productivity has increased in the past 6 months.
5. Decrease
Noun: DE/crease [Ex. Obama’s popularity has seen a decrease since he was elected.
Verb: de/CREASE [Ex. We need to decrease the number of customer complaints.
Read this sentence out loud (or in your head):
‘Matthew won the contest but I am going to contest the results.’
Did you pronounce ‘contest’ and the second ‘contest’ the same way? If you did, you made a mistake common to many English learners. The words ‘contest’ are actually pronounced: ‘Matthew won the CONtest but I am going to conTEST the results.’
Usually, when we turn a verb or adjective into a noun (called ‘nominalization’), we change its spelling. However, with certain words the spelling stays the same but the syllable stress changes.
For this example, the first ‘contest’ is a noun (meaning ‘competition’) and the second is a verb (meaning ‘to challenge’).
So the rules for syllable stress for these types of words are:
NOUN version: stress on first syllable [e.g. EX/port]
VERB version: stress on second syllable [e.g. ex/PORT]
This week let’s look at some words related to finance! Try reading the examples out loud.
1. Import
Noun: IM/port [Ex. One of the top imports into the U.S. each year are automobiles.]
Verb: im/PORT [Ex. Many U.S. congressmen would like the country to import fewer products.
2. Export
Noun: EX/port [Ex. Oil is one of the Middle East’s biggest exports.]
Verb: ex/PORT [Ex. China has been exporting more and more products each year.]
3. Refund
Noun: RE/fund [Ex. My computer stopped working, so I will need to get a refund.]
Verb: re/FUND [Ex. I’m sorry, but you dropped your computer, so we can’t refund you.]
4. Increase
Noun: IN/crease [Ex. There has been an increase in revenue since we hired our new product manager.]
Verb: in/CREASE [Ex. Productivity has increased in the past 6 months.
5. Decrease
Noun: DE/crease [Ex. Obama’s popularity has seen a decrease since he was elected.
Verb: de/CREASE [Ex. We need to decrease the number of customer complaints.
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