10 Facts About English That You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know

Do you have any idea where the word “goodbye” comes from? Did you know that the author Ernest Vincent Wright penned an entire novel without once using the most common letter in the English language (and can you guess what letter that is)? Do you know which English word has the most synonyms? (There are 2,964 of them!)

We didn’t think so.

These are pieces of the English language that we use all the time and yet know very little about. Part of the reason you don’t know the answers to these questions is that they’re not questions you would ordinarily think about. But it also has to do with the fact that English is—let’s face it—hard. Its lexicon is a vast and complicated beast (and it becomes even more complicated when you add spelling, punctuation, and grammar rules).

But while none of us can ever hope to know every word in the language, we encourage you to learn something new about it when you can. In the video below are 10 new facts for you to feast your brain on. Have fun!