The English language is one of the hardest languages to learn but can be rewarding for those who want to learn it as a second language. When setting out on an adventure to learn English, why not enjoy some amazing fun facts about English that you may not have known about.

English Fun Facts

• The English Language is classed as a West Germanic Language.
• With the growth of the British Empire, the English language spread and became a dominant language in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and Canada.
• The English language has spread further across the world thanks to the US global influence.
• English is one of the most widely spoken languages on the planet. It is estimated that there are 1.5 billion English speakers worldwide with some of those being native and some learning English as a second language.
• Chinese Mandarin is the most spoken native language with over 800 million speakers. This is followed by Spanish and English.
• The US, Australia, UK and Canada are the countries which feature the highest population of English speakers.
• In the United Nations, the English language is one of the 6 official languages which include Chinese Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, and French.
• In the Oxford English Dictionary, it features over 250,000 different words.
• The English Language features words from a number of different languages. Many words have Dutch, Old Norse and French origins.
• Most scientific English words feature a Greek or Latin origin.
• The English Language is written using the Latin alphabet. It is also known as the Roman alphabet.
• There are more words in the English language starting with S than any other letter of the alphabet.
• “I am” is the shortest complete English sentence in the world.
• Copyrightable is the longest word which doesn’t repeat any letters.
• The following sentence, also known as a pangram uses every letter in the English alphabet. ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’
• The longest official word in English is ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’! It features 45 letters.
• In the English language there are no words which rhyme with purple, silver or orange.