Languages Facts

In Chinese, the KFC slogan "finger lickin' good" comes out as "eat your fingers off".

TYPEWRITER is one of the longest common words that can be typed using only the top row of a QWERTY keyboard, though three obscure 11-letter words (rupturewort, proprietory, and proterotype) technically hold the record.

If you mouth the word "colorful" to someone, it looks like you are saying "I love you".

The abbreviation Xmas isn't irreligious. The letter X is a Greek abbreviation for Christ.

"Goodbye" came from "God bye" which came from "God be with you."

The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." uses every letter of the alphabet!

The words ‘racecar,’ ‘kayak’ and ‘level’ are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

The only letter not appearing on the Periodic Table is the letter "J".

In parts of Albania and Bulgaria, particularly among older generations, a side-to-side head shake means 'yes' while an upward head tilt means 'no' — the opposite of most countries.

The Hawaiian alphabet has 13 letters.

The word "listen" contains the same letters as "silent."

Females learn to talk earlier, use sentences earlier, and learn to read more quickly than males.

The United States does not have an official language.

Korea's capital Seoul means "Capital".

The longest word in the English language is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis — a 45-letter term that was deliberately invented to hold that very title!

The word taxi is spelled the same in English, German, French, Swedish, Spanish and Portuguese.

The longest commonly-recognized words with no repeating letters are "uncopyrightable" and "dermatoglyphics," both at 15 letters!

The name Joshua is Hebrew for 'Jesus'.

The word 'set' has more definitions than any other word in the English language.

French was the official language of England for about 300 years.

The longest place name in Europe is llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantsiliogogogoch in Wales.

The most used letter in the English alphabet is 'E', and 'Q' is the least used!

The six official languages of the United Nations are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

China's capital Beijing literally means "Northern Capital" in Mandarin Chinese.