small knowledge
2014-09-16
1. 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.
2. According to a research procejt at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosnt mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter.
3. "Goodbye" came from "God bye" which came from "God be with you."
4. The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." uses every letter of the alphabet!
5. 'Go', is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
6. The onion is named after the Latin word 'unio' meaning large pearl.
7. The phrase 'rule of thumb' is derived from and old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
8. The word Tips is actually an acronym standing for 'To Insure Prompt Service'.
9. The longest word in the English language is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses!
10. More people in China speak English than in the United States.
11. The word "listen" contains the same letters as "silent."
12. Hoover vacuum cleaners were so popular in the UK that many people now refer to vacuuming as hoovering.
13. Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel, "Gadsby", which contains over 50,000 words -- none of them with the letter E!
14. Stressed is Desserts spelled backwards.
15. The most used letter in the English alphabet is 'E', and 'Q' is the least used!
Of course,more Chinese speak English than in USA ..because they speak American
Rule of thumb. Yes but we also have the saying that many a man is under his wife's thumb...meaning she is in charge!
Here's another one: the word 'evil' is never pluralized, except in the phrase: 'the lesser of two evils'.
Wish you a great day.
#1: that type of sentence is called a 'palindrome'. Another example of a palindromic sentence is: Madam, I'm Adam. Palindromes abound! Maybe you can create one?
#13: that type of writing is called 'lipogrammatic'. A lipogram (from greek: leaving out a letter) generally omits any given letter. The challenge of Gadsby is that the letter 'E' is omitted, 'E' being one of the most used letter in the English language - as you said in #15.
Here is another one for your list: the word 'weird' is the only exception to the 'i before e, except after c' rule.
Thanks for your interesting post!
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