20+ Curiosities about the English language that you will hardly learn in language courses

Linguist and professor of foreign languages ​​and cultures, Kristina Konstandenkova, published in her twitter Very curious facts about English. She has been passionate about foreign languages ​​since she was a little girl and likes to read books and watch movies always in the original language. Kristina studies a lot about the history of the English language and shares interesting facts for those who are learning.

We, from awesome.club, we want to share some peculiarities about the English language, which may seem easy at first glance, but it is a very rich language and full of interesting features. Follow!

Why are the names of the animals and their meat different (cow 🇧🇷 beef🇧🇷 pig 🇧🇷 pork🇧🇷 calf 🇧🇷 veal🇧🇷 During the years 1066 and 1399 (i.e. from William the Conqueror to Henry IV) all the nobility spoke French in England. The common people, however, communicated in Old English, or Anglo-Saxon. In this way, peasants referred to animals using Anglo-Saxon terms, but when these animals arrived at the table of the nobility, the meat received the French name. As we know, the French don’t like the English very much. And what we call “sneaking out”, when we don’t say goodbye before leaving, the English say “To take french leave” (“French exit”). The French, on the other hand, say “filer à l’anglaise” (“English-style exit”). When you studied articles in English, you probably learned that proper nouns cannot be followed by them. Well, that’s not quite true. Yes, we can use articles with proper names, but in specific cases and rarely. For example, THE James Gordon will indicate that we are talking about a very specific and notorious person, and not just any person. In Portuguese, it would be something similar to saying “I saw (himself) Sílvio Santos!” The indefinite article “a”, in front of proper names, will indicate that it is an unknown person, as in the example “A Charlemagne called you” (a Charlemagne). Many people believe (mistakenly) that the personal pronoun “you” is the informal way of communicating, therefore, there are no formal personal pronouns in English. Technically, it’s just the opposite. Remember, the 2nd person form of verbs coincides with the plural. O “you“informal used to be”you🇧🇷thee🇧🇷 Nowadays, these forms are no longer used.

We can’t help but talk about pronunciation. “X” at the beginning of words is almost always read with a “Z” sound. Therefore, the correct pronunciation of the word “Xerox” It is “zirox🇧🇷zeeuh-roks🇧🇷 Another examples: xylophone 🇧🇷 zai-luh-fown🇧🇷 xenophobia 🇧🇷 zeh-nuh-fow-bee-uh🇧🇷 And, of course, the warrior princess, Xena, is actually called “Zina🇧🇷 About strong women. The Nike company is named after the goddess of victory (Nike), so the name is pronounced more like “Naiki“, and not “Naik🇧🇷 English spelling and phonetics sometimes make our head hurt a little. For example, there are words like though🇧🇷 rough🇧🇷 cough🇧🇷 through🇧🇷 bough🇧🇷 thorough🇧🇷 The last 4 letters are the same, but no words rhyme with each other.

you get confused with little 🇧🇷 a little 🇧🇷 few 🇧🇷 a few🇧🇷 What is important to know: little 🇧🇷 few — “little”, in the sense of “insufficient”; already a little 🇧🇷 a few —also “little”, but a little more, enough. How to remember? In a little and a few there are more letters than in little and few, respectively, so they indicate a greater amount. False cognates. An inexhaustible subject. Sympathy it is usually “solidarity, compassion” (not “sympathy”); fabric — fabric (not “factory”); library — library (not “bookstore”); novel — novel (not “novel”) and, finally, tax — tax (not “fee”). In English, words are often merged to designate something new, giving rise to the so-called “port-case”, which usually consists of two words. brunch 🇧🇷 breakfast 🇧🇷 lunch🇧🇷 smog 🇧🇷 smoke 🇧🇷 fog🇧🇷 Tanzania 🇧🇷 tanganyika 🇧🇷 Zanzibar🇧🇷 And the most modern, megxit (term created to refer to the abdication of the British royal couple, Meghan and Harry, from their royal duties — “meghan🇧🇷Exit🇧🇷 Beautiful! If someone says he’s going to a public housedo not panic. public housethat is, “public meeting place”, is a term that today we know more by its diminutive: pub (Pub).

There are two really cool expressions with the word “dutch🇧🇷 🇧🇷to go dutch” — each person participating in a group activity will pay their individual expenses, like when everyone pays their own restaurant bill, for example. 🇧🇷dutch courage” — feeling of courage after drinking alcohol or the alcohol itself that gives you courage.

American English. There is a curious name for saying “sleeveless shirt” — “wifebeater🇧🇷 Literally, the word means “wife beater”. I have a feeling that this word will be banned very soon, but for now it is used to refer to that sleeveless shirt that is usually worn under other clothing. In England, T-shirt is “dress”, and in the United States, “dress” is vest. In England, the word “waistcoat” to refer to the vest.

Brits love to create “cute” diminutives for many everyday words, such as “wellies” which is short for “willington boots🇧🇷 🇧🇷brolly🇧🇷umbrella🇧🇷 But the Australians go much further in this regard. They say “grandmother” for “avocado“, and “Barbie” for “barbecue🇧🇷 Thinking like this, “veggies” for “vegetables” is a piece of cake. By the way, “moleza” in English can be translated as “piece of cake🇧🇷easy-peasy lemon squeezey🇧🇷duck soup” and a thousand other options, but these are the most edible ones.

Recurring mistakes of many students: uncountable nouns. Water and flour we understand more easily, but what about money, news, toast? You have to memorize! Just remember that such words will always be grammatically singular. 🇧🇷Money🇧🇷News” “is”, not “are”. But why singular? After all, we can count money. What happens is that the concept of counting, in this case, refers to the ability to count the items themselves (pieces). Money can be counted in pounds, reais, euros, dollars, but not in “money”. In the same way that water is calculated in liters. Therefore, they remain singular. And how to tell news and advice? 🇧🇷News🇧🇷advice🇧🇷furniture🇧🇷toast” etc. Apparently, such items are as countless as bread, that is, we must count in pieces: “a piece of🇧🇷 In Portuguese, “a piece of news” doesn’t sound very good, but that’s the logic of English. About “advice🇧🇷 It means “advice”, and the verb to advise, “to advise”, has the sound of “z” at the end. By analogy, “practice🇧🇷to practice🇧🇷 The same goes for f/v in the pairs: “relief🇧🇷to relieve🇧🇷 🇧🇷belief🇧🇷I believe🇧🇷 🇧🇷grief🇧🇷I’m grievous🇧🇷 Reflexive verbs. When we try to translate “I feel…”, we can make the mistake of saying “I feel myself…🇧🇷 This is not the correct way to express the idea of ​​the sentence in Portuguese. When “feel” comes before a noun or pronoun, it has more sense of “touching, touching”. Therefore, “I feel myself” would convey the idea of ​​touching / touching yourself.

The only city whose name is accompanied by a definite article is The Hague. 🇧🇷The Hague” (Netherlands). Another tip to memorize (good for beginners): “this🇧🇷that🇧🇷 🇧🇷This” It is isso (near); 🇧🇷thThet” It is Thekilo (far). Once a student read the sentence “how to give a shot to a dog” and, in surprise, asked why someone wanted to get a dog drunk. In English, there are many words that have more than one meaning, and “shot” is one of them. Firstly, it means “shot”, from the verb “to shoot” (shoot), but it can also mean “shot” or, as suggested, a “shot” of alcohol. But, in my opinion, the most universal word is “get🇧🇷 Forgot the correct verb? Use “get🇧🇷 It means many things: receive, arrive, become, understand, buy, punish, among many other connotations.

Another note on the elegance of the language. In English, all relatives, “acquired” after marriage, are called “in-laws” (are part of the family by law). 🇧🇷mother-in-law🇧🇷brother-in-law🇧🇷son-in-law”… And no brother-in-law, stepmother, mother-in-law, etc.

🇧🇷Sibling🇧🇷 It can be both brother and sister, it is enough that they are children of their parents. A few more curiosities. Our guinea pig is “guinea pig” (attention to the pronunciation: “gi-nee🇧🇷 In English they say “when pigs fly”, but for us it is “even if the cow coughs”; they say “two peas in a pod” while we say “flour from the same bag”; 🇧🇷let the cat out of the bag” is “letting the tongue out”. And so on. We are used to using the word “beautiful” to refer to women, and the word “handsome” For men. However, when reading Jane Austen novels, you will see that she uses the construction “handsome woman” all the time. It is usually spoken this way to suggest that a particular woman is beautiful, strong, and healthy.

According to the general rule, adverbs are formed by joining an adjective plus the suffix -ly 🇧🇷nice🇧🇷nicely🇧🇷 But what to do with adjectives that already end in -ly🇧🇷costly🇧🇷friendly🇧🇷lovely🇧🇷 The output is not very practical: we add “in a… manner🇧🇷 🇧🇷In a cowardly manner” (cowardly). Here’s another common misconception. We know perfectly well that the word “fine” means “fine, well” when it acts as an adjective, but it can also mean “fine”. Therefore, when choosing a shampoo, be careful: “for fine hair” — for fine hair, not healthy hair. Another confusion occurs with the words “lay” and “lie🇧🇷 We can memorize it like this:lThey” — “putTher”; 🇧🇷readand” — “danditer”. Inandalso. Girls, if you are called “hen” (chicken) in Scotland, please do not go on the rampage. This is a very common form of address for women, it means something like “darling”, but without any inappropriate connotations.

Did you already know these facts about the English language? Comment what you found most interesting and share other curiosities you know about the language!