Fun facts about the English language |
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и одно слово в английском не рифмуется со словом «month» (месяц).
"Dreamt" (мечтал) это единственное английское слово, которое оканчивается на "mt".
У слова "set" больше всего дефиниций (определений)из всех английских слов.
"Underground" (метрополитен) – единственное слово в английском языке, которое и начинается и заканчивается одним и тем же буквосочетанием "und."
Самое длинное односложное слово (имеется в виду, не состоящее из двух или более корней) - "screeched" (визжала)
Есть только 4 слова с окончанием "-dous": tremendous (огромный, гигантский), horrendous (жуткий, кошмарный), stupendous(огромной важности), и hazardous (опасный, рискованный).
Самое длинное слово в английском я зыке это pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (заболевание легких от вдыхания мелкого пепла или песочной пыли)
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St. Patrick's Day (March 17) |
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Customs and Traditions
The person who was to become St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Wales about AD 385. His given name was Maewyn, and he almost didn't get the job of bishop of Ireland because he lacked the required scholarship.
Far from being a saint, until he was 16, he considered himself a pagan. At that age, he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders that raided his village. During his captivity, he became closer to God.
He escaped from slavery after six years and went to Gaul where he studied in the monastery under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre for a period of twelve years. During his training he became aware that his calling was to convert the pagans to Christianity.
His wishes were to return to Ireland, to convert the native pagans to Christianity. But his superiors instead appointed St. Palladius. But two years later, Palladius transferred to Scotland. Patrick, having adopted that Christian name earlier, was then appointed as second bishop to Ireland.
Patrick was quite successful at winning converts. And this fact upset the Celtic Druids. Patrick was arrested several times, but escaped each time. He traveled throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries across the country. He also set up schools and churches which would aid him in his conversion of the Irish country to Christianity.
His mission in Ireland lasted for thirty years. After that time, Patrick retired to County Down. He died on March 17 in AD 461. That day has been commemorated as St. Patrick's Day ever since.
Much Irish folklore surrounds St. Patrick's Day. Not much of it is actually substantiated.
Some of this lore includes the belief that Patrick raised people from the dead. He also is said to have given a sermon from a hilltop that drove all the snakes from Ireland. Of course, no snakes were ever native to Ireland, and some people think this is a metaphor for the conversion of the pagans. Though originally a Catholic holy day, St. Patrick's Day has evolved into more of a secular holiday.
One traditional icon of the day is the shamrock. And this stems from a more bona fide Irish tale that tells how Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity. He used it in his sermons to represent how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day.
The St. Patrick's Day custom came to America in 1737. That was the first year St. Patrick's Day was publicly celebrated in this country, in Boston.
Today, people celebrate the day with parades, wearing of the green, and drinking beer. One reason St. Patrick's Day might have become so popular is that it takes place just a few days before the first day of spring. One might say it has become the first green of spring.
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The House of Windsor |
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99 way to say “very good” |
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Black & White |
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Black
give someone a black look = смотреть на кого-либо сердито, бросать злобные взгляды: "Why is he giving me such a black look?"
be on the black list = be blacklisted = быть в «черном» списке, в списке нежелательных особ, получить волчий билет: "We won't be invited to their party this year – we're on their black list."
"Many actors and writers were blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950's because they were considered "un-American."
in black and white = черным по белому написано, чрезвычайно четко и понятно: "This contract is in black and white: we aren't allowed to keep any pets in this house."
black and blue = в синяках: "When she fell off her bicycle, she was black and blue for days."
things look black - дело плохо, дела принимают плохой оборот
be in the black – иметь прибыль, приносить доход, вести дело с прибылью, быть платежеспособным (доходы в старинных конторских книгах записывались черными чернилами, долги и расходы - красными)
White
whitewash = пытаться обелить кого-либо, скрыть правду: "I don't believe his story. I think it's all a whitewash."
They tried to give the scandal the old whitewash, but it didn't work — Они хотели, как обычно, замять этот скандал, но у них ничего не вышло
To show (fly) a white feather – струсить, смалодушничать, проявить трусость
Метки: black& white |
Accent Archive |
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ttp://accent.gmu.edu/
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The 100 Funniest Words in English |
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The 100 Funniest Words in English | |
Abibliophobia | The fear of running out of reading material. |
Absquatulate | To leave or abscond with something. |
Allegator | Some who alleges. |
Anencephalous | Lacking a brain. |
Argle-bargle | A loud row or quarrel. |
Batrachomyomachy | Making a mountain out of a molehill. |
Billingsgate | Loud, raucous profanity. |
Bloviate | To speak pompously or brag. |
Blunderbuss | A gun with a flared muzzle or disorganized activity. |
Borborygm |
A rumbling of the stomach. |
Метки: the 100 funniest words in english 100 самых смешных английских слов |
The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English |
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Ailurophile | A cat-lover. |
Assemblage | A gathering. |
Becoming | Attractive. |
Beleaguer | To exhaust with attacks. |
Brood | To think alone. |
Bucolic | In a lovely rural setting. |
Bungalow | A small, cozy cottage. |
Chatoyant | Like a cat's eye. |
Comely | Attractive. |
Conflate |
To blend together. |
Метки: the 100 most beautiful words in english самые красивые английские слова |
What are Palindromes? |
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Palindromes
The word palindrome is derived from the Greek palнndromos, meaning running back again (palнn = AGAIN + drom–, drameоn = RUN). A palindrome is a word or phrase which reads the same in both directions. Some simple examples are:
RACECAR | DEED | LEVEL | PIP |
ROTOR | CIVIC | POP | MADAM |
EYE | NUN | RADAR | TOOT |
Words like LIVE and STRAW (which read EVIL and WARTS backwards) are not themselves palindromes but the "phrases" LIVE EVIL and STRAW WARTS are. A palindrome is not necessarily a single word.
The longest single English word in common usage which is a palindrome is REDIVIDER, although the contrived chemical term DETARTRATED is two letters longer. In Finnish there is a 25-letter palindromic word: SOLUTOMAATTIMITTAAMOTULOS which means the result from a measurement laboratory for tomatoes, although technically it is a compound of four words. There is also the equally long SAIPPUAKUPPINIPPUKAUPPIAS which means soap cup trader.
When creating reversible sentences, it is usually accepted that punctuation and word spacings are ignored, and so the famous MADAM, I'M ADAM is a valid palindrome.
There are two other types of palindrome, although neither is particularly common. The first is the word-unit palindrome. As the name suggests, these are palindromes in which the words form the same sentence in either direction, e.g. WOMEN UNDERSTAND MEN; FEW MEN UNDERSTAND WOMEN. Occasionally these are also traditional palindromes, such as in I DID, DID I? but this only happens when each word is itself a traditional palindrome.
The other kind of palindrome is the mirrored palindrome. These are palindromes which are graphically reversible. Not all letters in mirrored palindromes necessarily have symmetry about a vertical axis (A, H, I, M, O, T, U, V, W, X) since some letters are (more or less) mirror images of others (e.g. L and J). Therefore a mirrored palindrome is not necessarily also a traditional palindrome. Punctuation and spaces cannot be ignored when creating mirrored palindromes. When reversed A TOYOTA becomes ATOYOT A which, strictly speaking, is not the same. WOT TOW, although fairly meaningless, is a valid mirrored palindrome. Of course, with this type of palindrome, it is important whether upper or lower case letters are used: bid is a mirrored palindrome, but BID is not.
Метки: palindromes |
Homonyms (part 6 S, T, U, V, W, X, Y) |
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sachet | a small bag containing perfumed powder |
sashay | to strut or flounce | |
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sacks | bags |
sax | short for saxophone | |
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sail | wind powered water travel |
sale | the act of selling | |
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sane | mentally normal |
seine | fishing net | |
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saner | more mentally normal than others |
seiner | one who fishes with a net | |
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saver | one who saves |
savor | to relish a taste | |
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sawed | cut timber |
sod | turf | |
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scene | visual location |
seen | past tense of saw | |
Метки: homonyms омонимы |
Homonyms (part 5 N, O, P, Q, R) |
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naval | pertaining to ships and the sea |
navel | pertaining to the belly button | |
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nay | no |
neigh | a horse's cry | |
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nays | votes against |
neighs | a horse vocalizes | |
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neap | the lowest tide |
neep | a turnip | |
Метки: homonyms омонимы |
Homonyms (part 4 K,L, M) |
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karat, see: carat
kernel, see: colonel
Kew, see: cue
key, see: cay
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knap | crest of a hill; break with a hammer |
nap | a short sleep | |
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knead | working bread dough |
need | must have | |
knew, see: gnu
Метки: омонимы homonyms |
Homonyms (part 3 F,G,H, I, J) |
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farrow | a litter of pigs |
pharoah | Egyptian king | |
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faux | fake |
foe | enemy | |
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fay | a fairy |
Faye | a woman's name | |
fey | strange and otherwordly | |
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fays | more than one fairy |
faze | to disconcert | |
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faze | to stun |
phase | a part of the sequence | |
Метки: homonyms омонимы |
Homonyms (part 2 C,D) |
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by a chorus | ||
coral | marine polyp skeleton | |
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chorale | a choir |
corral | a pen for horses | |
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chord | three tones in harmony |
cord | very light rope | |
cored | divested of its central part | |
Метки: омонимы homonyms |
Homonyms |
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a | very short little insignificant English word |
eh | an interrogative utterance | |
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acts | things done |
ax | chopping tool | |
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ad | short for advertisement |
add | short for addition | |
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adds | performs additions |
ads | more than one advertisement | |
adze | axe-like tool | |
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ade | fruit beverage |
aid | to assist | |
aide | an assistant | |
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aerie | eagle's nest |
airy | breezy | |
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aero | of aircraft |
arrow | slender, pointed shaft | |
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Tongue Twisters |
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What noise annoys an oyster most? A noisy noise annoys an oyster most.
Ripe white wheat reapers reap ripe white wheat right.
Blake's black bike's back brake bracket block broke.
Each Easter Eddie eats eighty Easter eggs.
She slits the sheet she sits on.
A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.
A twister of twists once twisted a twist.
and the twist that he twisted was a three twisted twist.
now in twisting this twist, if a twist should untwist,
would the twist that untwisted untwist the twists.
Red lolly, yellow lolly.
I am a mother pheasant plucker,
I pluck mother pheasants.
I am the best mother pheasant plucker,
that ever plucked a mother pheasant!
Mrs Hunt had a country cut front
in the front of her country cut pettycoat.
Knapsack strap.
Where Molly had had "had had", "had had" had had the teacher's approval.
Miss Smith's fish-sauce shop seldom sells shellfish.
Great gray goats
Whenever the weather is cold.
Whenever the weather is hot.
We'll whether the weather,
whatever the weather,
whether we like it or not.
Sunshine city, sunshine city, sunshine city, ...
The batter with the butter is the batter that is better!
There's a sandwich on the sand which was sent by a sane witch.
How many yaks could a yak pack pack if a yak pack could pack yaks?
Twelve twins twirled twelve twigs.
One smart man, he felt smart.
Two smart men, they both felt smart.
Three smart men, they all felt smart.
If you stick a stock of liquor in your locker
it is slick to stick a lock upon your stock
or some joker who is slicker
is going to trick you of your liquor
if you fail to lock your liquor with a lock.
Clowns grow glowing crowns.
Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager
imagining managing an imaginary menagerie?
Sister Suzie sewing shirts for soldiers
Such skill as sewing shirts
Our shy young sister Suzie shows
Some soldiers send epistles
Say they'd rather sleep in thistles
Than the saucy, soft short shirts for soldiers Sister Suzie sews.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
Richard's wretched ratchet wrench.
Rubber baby buggy bumpers.
Betty Botter bought some butter but, said she, the butter's bitter.
If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter will make my bitter batter better.
So she bought some better butter, better than the bitter butter,
put it in her bitter batter, made her bitter batter better.
So 'twas better Betty Botter bought some better butter.
A box of biscuits,
a box of mixed biscuits,
and a biscuit mixer.
When a doctor doctors a doctor,
does the doctor doing the doctoring
doctor as the doctor being doctored wants to be doctored or
does the doctor doing the doctoring doctor as he wants to doctor?
If two witches would watch two watches, which witch would watch which watch?
The soldier's shoulder surely hurts!
She sees seas slapping shores.
Mr. See owned a saw and Mr Soar owned a seesaw.
Now See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw before Soar saw See.
Six sick sea-serpents swam the seven seas.
There was a little witch which switched from Chichester to Ipswich.
She brews a proper cup of coffee in a copper coffee pot.
She is a thistle sifter.
She has a seive of unsifted thistles
and a seive of sifted thistles and the seive of unsifted thistles
she sifts into the seive of sifted thistles because she is a thistle sifter.
Betty bought some butter,
but the butter Betty bought was bitter,
so Betty bought some better butter,
and the better butter Betty bought
was better than the bitter butter Betty bought before!
I slit a sheet, a sheet I slit, and on that slitted sheet I sit.
Don't spring on the inner-spring this spring or there will be an offspring next spring.
King Thistle stuck a thousand thistles in the thistle of his thumb.
A thousand thistles King Thistle stuck in the thistle of his thumb.
If King Thistle stuck a thousand thistles in the thistle of his thumb,
How many thistles did King Thistle stick in the thistle of his thumb?
Five fat friars frying flat fish.
Betty bought some bitter butter
and it made her batter bitter,
so Betty bought some better butter
to make her bitter batter better.
A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump thunk,
but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.
I'm not the fig plucker,
nor the fig pluckers' son,
but I'll pluck figs
Till the fig plucker comes.
The sixth sheik's sixth sheep 's sick.
One black beetle bled only black blood, the other black beetle bled blue.
The big black bug's blood ran blue.
Ray Rag ran across a rough road.
Across a rough road Ray Rag ran.
Where is the rough road Ray Rag ran across?
A Tudor who tooted the flute
tried to tutor two tooters to toot.
Said the two to the tutor,
"Is it harder to toot or
to tutor two tooters to toot?"
A big black bug bit a big black bear and made the big black bear bleed blood.
How much wood could a woodchuck chuck
if a wooodchuck could chuck wood?
A woodchuck could chuck as much wood
as a woodchuck would chuck
if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
I thought a thought. But the thought I thought wasn't the thought
I thought I thought.
If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought,
I wouldn't have thought so much.
She sells sea shells on the seashore.
The seashells she sells are seashells she is sure.
Plain bun, plum bun, bun without plum.
Six stick shifts stuck shut.
The king would sing, about a ring that would go ding.
People pledging plenty of pennies.
To begin to toboggan first, buy a toboggan.
But do not buy too big a toboggan!
Too big a toboggan is too big a toboggan to buy to begin to toboggan.
Switch watch, wrist watch.
Six thick thistle sticks.
Irish wristwatch
Метки: tongue twister |
Musical instruments |
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Cамые красивые английские слова |
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На вопросы Британского совета, приуроченные к 70-летию этой организации, ответили более 400 тысяч человек в 102 странах мира.
В первую пятерку самых красивых слов английского языка были включены также passion (страсть), smile (улыбка), love (любовь) и eternity (вечность). А вот father (отец) оказался аутсайдером, не попав даже в 70 лучших.
Тем не менее, среди 70 слов лидеров английского языка оказались довольно неожиданные, к примеру peekaboo (детская игра в прятки или одежда с прорезями), flabbergasted (изумленный), hen night (девичник) и oi (окрик "эй, ты").
Завершают первую десятку английские слова fantastic (отличный), destiny (судьба), freedom (свобода), liberty (свобода) и tranquillity (спокойствие).
Первая десятка английских слов:
1. Mother (мать)
2. Passion (страсть)
3. Smile (улыбка)
4. Love (любовь)
5. Eternity (вечность)
6. Fantastic (отличный)
7. Destiny (судьба)
8. Freedom (свобода)
9. Liberty (свобода)
10. Tranquillity (спокойствие)
Наиболее неожиданные слова английского языка, входящие в 70 лучших:
48. Peekaboo (детская игра в прятки)
50. Kangaroo (кенгуру)
61. Oi (эй, ты)
63. Hiccup (икать, барахлить)
70. Hen night (девичник)
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