用英語說“英語”，不可不知的常識！

英語里最常見的字母是“e”。

2. The most common consonant in English is "r", followed by "t".

英語里最常見的輔音字母是“r”，接著是“t”。

3. Only two English words in current use end in "-gry". They are "angry" and "hungry".

當代英語只有“angry”和“hungry”兩個單詞是以“gry”結尾的。

4. The word "bookkeeper" (along with its associate "bookkeeping") is the only unhyphenated English word with three consecutive double letters. Other such words, like "sweet-toothed", require a hyphen to be readily readable.

“bookkeeper”這個單詞(還有與之相關的“bookkeeping”)是唯一一個不帶連字符、有三對連續(xù)重復字母的單詞。還有一個類似的單詞是“sweet-toothed”，但它需要用連字符連接以確保能讀出來。

5. The word "triskaidekaphobia" means "extreme fear of the number 13". This superstition is related to "paraskevidekatriaphobia", which means "fear of Friday the 13th".

有個詞叫“triskaidekaphobia”，意思是“對數(shù)字13的極度恐懼”。這種迷信也和“paraskevidekatriaphobia”這個詞有關，意思是“害怕13號正好是禮拜五的那天”。

6. More English words begin with the letter "s" than with any other letter.

以“s”打頭的單詞比其他任何字母打頭的單詞都要多。

7. A preposition is always followed by a noun (ie noun, proper noun, pronoun, noun group, gerund).

介詞后面永遠要跟一個名詞(或專有名詞、代詞、名詞詞組、動名詞)。

8. The word "uncopyrightable" is the longest English word in normal use that contains no letter more than once.

“uncopyrightable”是英文里最長的無重復字母的常見單詞。

9. A sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet is called a "pangram".

一個包含所有26個字母的句子叫做“pangram”。

10. The following sentence contains all 26 letters of the alphabet: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." This sentence is often used to test typewriters or keyboards.

下面這個句子就包含所有26個字母“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”(敏捷的棕色狐貍跳過了懶狗)，這個句子也常被用來測試打字機或鍵盤。

11. The word "alphabet" comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha, bēta.

“alphabet”這個單詞來源于前兩個希臘字母：α和β。

12. In English, the @ symbol is usually called "the at sign" or "the at symbol".

英語中，@符號通常叫做“at標志”、或“at符號”。

13. The shortest complete sentence in English is the following. "I am."

英語里最短的完整句子是“I am”。

14. The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat" meaning "the king is helpless".

象棋里“將軍”這個詞來源于波斯語“Shah Mat”，意思是“國王束手無策”。

15. The longest English word without a true vowel is "rhythm".

英語里最長的沒有元音字母的單詞是“rhythm”。

16. The only planet not named after a god is our own, Earth.

唯一一個不以神的名字命名的行星是我們地球。

17. We can find 10 words in the 7-letter word "therein" without rearranging any of its letters: the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.

從“therein”這個由七個字母組成的單詞里，能不換字母順序而找出十個單詞：the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.

18. The "QWERTY keyboard" gains its name from the fact that its first 6 letter keys are Q, W, E, R, T and Y. On early typewriters the keys were arranged in such a way as to minimize the clashing of the mechanical rods that carried the letters.