双语：十个你不知道的有趣英语小知识

　　Did you know that enneacontakaienneagon is actually a word in the English language?  In fact, the meaning of the word is just as bizarre as the word itself: it’s a shape with ninety-nine sides.

　　你知道吗？enneacontakaienneagon 真的是一个英语单词，而且它的意思就跟单词本身一样奇怪：这是一个九十九边形。

　　Compared to other languages, English may seem simple, but that is probably because most people don’t realize it is full of crazy inventions, misinterpretations, mistakes, strange words, and needless words!

　　与其他语言相比，很多人认为英语很简单，这可能是因为他们并不知道英语里其实充满了疯狂的、错误的和各种奇怪的、无用的单词！

　　Let’s take a look at ten interesting facts about the English language:

　　来看看英语中都有哪些有趣的地方：

　　1.“I am” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

　　“I am” 是英语中最短的完整句

　　 2. A pangram sentence is one that contains every letter in the language.

　　Pangram Sentence（全字母短句）是指包括英语全部26个字母的短句。比如 The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.

　　3. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (*breath*) is NOT the longest word in English.

　　Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 并不是最长的英语单词。

　　This extra long word (that approximately means “fantastic”) was popularized by the movie Mary Poppins and was eventually added to the dictionary. What you probably didn’t know is that there is a word that is longer—yes longer—than this one. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is a type of lung disease caused by inhaling ash and dust. Go ahead and try pronouncing that!

　　这个词是迪士尼音乐电影《欢乐满人间》中一首插曲的名字，与fantastic同义，最终也被收入词典。你可能不相信，英语中还有比这更长的单词：Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis，一种由于吸入尘土导致的肺部疾病的名字。 试试看你能不能拼读出来！

　　4. There are “ghost words” that mean nothing.

　　英语中居然也存在着没有任何意义的“别字”。

　　Believe it or not, there are some words that appeared in the dictionary because of printing errors. The nonexistent word “dord” appeared in the dictionary for eight years in the mid-20th century. It became known as a “ghost word.”

　　信不信由你，有些单词出现在词典中其实只是因为印刷错误。比如“dord”这个不存在的单词竟然在20世纪中期在字典上保留了8年之久！它成为了“别字”的重要代表。

　　5. The shortest, oldest, and most commonly used word is “I.

　　最短、最历史悠久以及最常使用的单词是“ I ”。

　　6. A new word is added to the dictionary every two hours.

　　每两小时就会有一个新词被添加进词典中。

　　During the course of the year, almost 4,000 new words are added! So, the next time you try to catch the attention of the dissertation committee, try adding some new words to your project.

　　在这一年里，已经有4000个新词被收录进词典。如果你想要吸引论文委员会的注意，在论文里使用一些新词可能是个不错的选择。

　　7. There’s a name for words that we repeat often.

　　那些我们经常重复的词，它们是有名字的！

　　Words we always use even though they add no meaning or value to a sentence are called crutch words. For example, in the sentence “Then I was like, OMG, then like, he went there, and like…” it is pretty obvious that “like” is the crutch word. “Actually,” “honestly,” and “basically” are also commonly used as crutch words.

　　我们在谈话中经常用到的但对内容没有任何作用的词，叫做Crutch words（拐杖词）。比如“Then I was like, OMG, then like, he went there, and like…” 中的like，还有“Actually” “honestly” “basically”，这些词都可以叫做crutch words。

　　8. Swims will be swims even when turned upside down.

　　当你把SWIMS倒过来你会发现...它还是SWIMS！这样的词叫做ambigrams（对称词）

　　9. English is the language of the air.

　　英语是空中专用语。

　　This means that all pilots have to identify themselves and speak in English while flying, regardless of their origin.

　　意思是，所有的飞行员在飞行中需要确认彼此身份时都必须使用英语，无论他们来自哪里。

　　10. Girl used to mean small boy or girl.

　　Girl可以用来指小孩子，男孩女孩都可以。

　　The word “girl” was not initially used to refer to a specific gender. It used to mean “child” or “young person” regardless of the gender.

　　”girl”一开始并不特指某种性别，过去都用这个词来指代小孩或者年轻人。

　　编译：陆婧宇

标签: 双语英语知识

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