Quirks of the English language (part 2)

English is one of the most popular and commonly used languages in the world, but it's also a language with many quirks. Here are a few more of them...

Unfortunately, I didn't have a photo of my foreign neighbour Keith
receiving eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated
weightlifters, so this photo of one genuine sleigh will have to do.

1) I before E.

Except when your foreign neighbour Keith receives eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters.

Weird.



2) Why does 'fridge' have a D in it but 'refrigerator' doesn't?

Surely it's a stupid idea to insert extra letters into an abbreviation!



3) It's ironic that the word 'hyphenated' is non-hyphenated, while the word 'non-hyphenated' is hyphenated.

"You're a lazy hippo."
"I am not! Take that back!"
"Sorry, I was being hippo critical."
"And also hypocritical."

4) Why do 'overlook' and 'oversee' mean opposite things?



5) “Hippos are so judgmental” is both hypocritical and hippo critical.



6) If the plural of tooth is teeth, then shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth?



7) Why are guinea pigs called guinea pigs? They're not pigs, and they're not from Guinea!



8) In the UK, the word 'zed' is the letter 'z' followed by two silent letters.

Incorrectly is spelt incorrectly in the dictionary.

In the US, the word 'zee' is the letter 'z' followed by two silent letters.



9) Why is quicksand called quicksand when you sink into it very slowly?



10) 'Incorrectly' is the only word in the dictionary which is spelt incorrectly.

You can find more quirks of the English language below:
Quirks of the English language (part 1)