Useless grammatical trivia

Things to ponder about the English language when writing your next novel:

  1. Dreamt is the only word that ends in the letters “mt.”
  2. No word rhymes with month, orange, or purple.
  4. The only word that consists of two letters, each used three times is deeded.
  5. Rhythm and syzygy are the longest words without vowels.  (Syzygy?!?)
  6. The two longest one-syllable words are screeched and strengthsStrengths is also the longest word with just one vowel.
  7. Stewardesses and reverberated are the two longest words that can be typed using on the left hand. The longest word that can be typed using the right hand is lollipop. Skepticisms is the longest word that can be typed using alternating hands. One of the longest words that can be typed using the just top row of a typewriter is typewriter.
  8. Underground is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters “und.”
  9. The word queueing is the only word with five consecutive vowels.
  10. The only word with all five vowels in reverse order is subcontinental.
  11. There are only four words which end in “-dous”:  tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
  12. There are only three words with the letter combination “uu”:  muumuu, vacuum, and continuum.
  13. Bookkeeper and bookkeeping are the only words with three consecutive double letters.

See, you never know what kind of useful information you might find on this blog!

Have some of your own?  Leave a comment to share more useless grammatical trivia.

2 thoughts on “Useless grammatical trivia

  1. Diana

    I love things like that, Melissa! One thing I always pointed out to my students, when they would remark how English is “so easy – why can’t German be the same” was this…..
    ‘ g h o t i ‘ could be the spelling for fish – as our english language uses so many sounds that are goofy (and usually borrowed from other foreigh languages!) :
    “gh” = “f” sound from the word “enough”
    “o” = “i” sound from the word “women”
    “ti” – “sh” sound from the word “nation”

    Need to get together to hear about Italy! Are you free for lunch some day next week perhaps?

    1. wordswithmelissa

      Thanks, Diana. I ran across the first couple of these somewhere, and they led me on a search for similar useless trivialities.

      I LOVE your “ghoti” comment! I’m sure your German students roller their eyes at that one! 😉

      It would be great to get together about Italy. Actually, I was thinking about inviting the Gourmet Group over for a Chianti tasting one evening, but we’d have to check calendars again. We’re all so busy!

      Thanks again for being our chauffeur from the shuttle bus when we returned from Italy. What a yucky night!

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