Did you know that English has the largest vocabulary of any language on earth? it’s estimated that our language contains around 800,000 words, and the average English speaker uses about 60,000 of those words. That may seem like a rather puny percentage, but when you think about it, it’s actually pretty impressive: many of those 800,000 words are specific scientific and trade terms or even expressions that are fading into obsolescence and no longer see much traffic.
Here’s some more interesting information about our language:
- More English words start with the letter T than with any other letter. It’s no surprise, then, that any dictionary has more listings under T than anywhere else.
- T may be great for starters, but E is the most common letter to appear in our language.
- The word cleave is the only word to have two meanings that happen to be complete opposites: it can mean to either stick together or to separate.
- English contains no rhymes for the words month, orange or purple.
- The shortest complete sentence in English is “Go.”
Wondering why we’re feeling so loquacious today? October 16th is Dictionary Day. And as people who make our living with words, it’s a day we like to recognize. We do our best to keep ourselves somewhat hip with the lingo (and, yep, that even includes some of those pesky trade terms) so that we’re able to help you put together the best possible ad to sell your item.
If you’re really not sure what to say in your ad, feel free to give us a call. We’ll help you think of how to describe your item to its best advantage and we may also have suggestions for selling points to mention. And if our assistance fills you with a need to talk about what you’re selling, remember that we also offer you a chance to come on the air every Saturday on our weekly radio show, Paper Shop Live!