10 Crazy Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The English Language [Infographic]

From funny bananas, super long words and excitable foxes, our latest infographic explores 10 intriguing facts about the English language we’re sure you’ve never heard of before.

Studying English is lots of fun and very rewarding. Not only does English allow you to talk to people from all around the world, but it opens up new opportunities for work, travel and study.

But if you have been studying English for a long time, you’ll also know that there are many strange spellings, pronunciation rules, exceptions, and grammar tricks that you have to learn – making it hard work to say the least.

That’s because the English language is a bit like a sponge. It absorbs words and phrases from languages from all over the world and has changed a lot over time. In fact, some of the most commonly used words in the English language have been stolen from other places!

For example, when we can’t describe something or someone well, we say: “She has a certain je ne sais quoi”, we often enjoy eating at a buffet (both French), and lots of people live in bungalows (a word with Indian origin).

And although English is a Germanic language, much of our vocabulary comes from Old English and Latin. There are also many dozens of dialects, accents and spellings from all around the world, to make English even more challenging.

Confused? We’re not surprised! There are lots of other facts about English that we think you’ll be surprised to learn.

Here are 10 of our favourites:

That truly is enough to make your head spin. What was the strangest fact in your opinion? And what surprised you the most?

We hope you enjoyed some of these and you’ll be able to share them with your classmates.

Do you have any other fun facts about English you would like to share? Let us know in the comments!