• There were only 30,000 words in Old English. Modern English has the largest vocabulary in the world — more than 600,000 words.
• There are about 60,000 words in common use.
• About 450-500 words are added to the English vocabulary every year.
• 70 per cent of the English vocabulary are loan words and only 30 per cent of the words are native.
• There are words from 120 languages in English, including Russian.
• The most frequently used words in written English are: the, of, and, to, a, in, that, is, I, it, for and as.
• The most frequently used word in conversation is I.
• The longest word in English language is: (a lung disease).
• The commonest letter is "e".
• More words begin with the letter "s" than any other.
• The most overworked word in English is the word set. It has 126 verbal uses and 58 noun uses.
• The newest letters added to the English alphabet are "j" and "v", which are of post- Shakespearean use.
• The largest English-language dictionary is the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, with 21,728 pages.
• The commonest English name is Smith. There are about 800,00 people called Smith in England and Wales, and about 1,700,000 in the USA.
Fill in these phrases:
1. words are the English vocabulary every
2. 126 verbal and 58 noun uses
3. commonest name
