英语冷知识
在英语词典中,构成单词使用最多的字母是E,使用最少的字母是Z;
会话中用作单词最多的字母是I;
由一个字母构成的单词,使用最个泛的是冠词A;
在英语单词中,位于词首次数最多的字母是S,最少的字母是X.
⑵ 冷知识:你知道英语中用的最多和最少的字母是哪
我感觉英语中用得最多的字母应该是a。
用对手的字母应该是q
⑶ 英语冷知识,看看你知道多少
1.lover是“爱人”还是“情人”?傻傻分不清楚,正解:“情人”,所以不清楚的情况下,不要随便说哦!
2.busboy看上去还以为是“公汽售票员”?那你就又错了。现在我们已经对 “waiter” 和 “waitress” 的提法非常熟悉了。殊不知,餐馆里还有一类人,他们扫地、擦桌、端盘子、洗碗,十八般“武艺”样样精通。他们就是餐馆勤杂工,在英语中,他们被叫做“busboy”。
3.busybody “大忙人”是不是又要脱口而出?不是直译,而是引申义为“爱管闲事的人”。
4.mad doctor你以为是“发疯的医生”?其实恰恰相反,“mad doctor”是“精神病科医生”。
5.confidence man为什么是“骗子”而不是“信得过的人”呢?靠取得受害者的信任而骗人来源于:1849年一个叫威廉姆·汤姆逊的人,靠跟不认识的谈话,最后取得信任而骗人手表,后来被抓受审,因为靠取得受害者的信任而骗人,所以被称为“confidence man”。
6.dead president并非只有“已故总统”的意思,还有“美钞”的意思呢,因为上面有已逝的华盛顿的头像。
7.sweet water为何是“淡水”?这是从地质方面来说的,我们常说“甘甜的泉水”,其实泉水也没加糖、没加蜜,而是自然甜,所以是sweet water。
8.black tea到底是什么茶?在星巴克,如果你想点一杯红茶,一般都要说成black tea,许多人不解,为什么红茶不是red tea 而是black tea呢?对此,有许多说法,有一种说法称西方人相对注重茶叶的颜色,因此称之为“Black”,而中国人相对注重茶汤的颜色,因此称之为“红”。而另一种说法则说因为在17世纪英国从福建进口茶叶时,在厦门收购的武夷红茶茶色浓深,故被称为black tea。这个名字的由来至今还是个谜。
9.green hand是“新手”而不是你想象中的“绿手”。刚刚从事某一行的人就可被称之为green hand,指刚入门。它的来源是:England是个岛国,船是重要交通工具,为保养船只,常用与海水一样的绿色油漆来漆船。一个不熟练的油漆工,工作时常会双手粘满油漆。
10.Greek gift是“希腊礼物”?其实“Greek gift”含义为“图谋害人的礼物”,来源于著名的“特洛伊战争”:特洛伊战争中希腊人使用“木马计”,特洛伊人将希腊人留下的“礼物”——大木马拖进城,导致藏在木马中的希腊人与城外大军里应外合,摧毁了特洛伊城。“Greek gift”就是指那只木马,后来用来比喻“存心害人的礼物”,与“黄鼠狼给鸡拜年——没安好心”有异曲同工之妙。
⑷ 双语:英语中的9个冷知识 你知道么
1. It is the only major language without an academy to guide it.
英语是唯一没有学术机构加以规正的大语种。
L’Académie française, based in Paris, is in charge of overseeing the French language. For Spanish there is the Real Academia Española. German has the Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung. There is no equivalent to L’Académie for English. Of the 10 most-widely spoken languages in the world, only English has no academy guiding it.
法兰西文学院位于巴黎,负责审查法语。对于西班牙语,有西班牙皇家学院,德语有标准德语德语正字法协会。而英语则没有相应的文学院。世界十大使用最为广泛的口语中,唯有英语没有学术研究院引领。
2. More than 1 billion people are learning English as you read this.
你读这篇文章的时候,有超过10亿的人正在学英语。
According to the British Council, around 1 billion people around the world were learning English in 2000. This figure is now likely to be significantly higher.
据英国文化委员会的调查数据显示,在2000年,全球有10亿左右的人正在学习英语。如今这个数字很可能有了更为显著的提高。
3. 96 of the 100 most common English words are Germanic.
英语中100个最常用词中96个来自日耳曼语。
Of the hundred most frequently used words in English, 96 have Germanic roots. Together, those 100 words make up more than 50% of the Oxford English Corpus, which currently contains over 2 billion words found in writing around the world.
100个使用频率最高的英语词汇中,96个有日耳曼语词根。总的来说,牛津英语语料库词汇有超过一半由这100个词汇组成——目前涵盖世界各地书面语中超过20亿的词汇。
Surprised? The most frequently used words are the meat and bones of the language, the essentials that make communication work, including I, you, go, eat, and so on.
吃惊吗?使用频率最高的词汇是一门语言的骨架,这些要素让人们成功沟通,比如“我”、“你”、“去”、“吃”等等。
4. But most words that have entered the language since 1066 have Latin origins.
不过自1066年之后的大部分英语词汇都有拉丁词根。
The Renaissance, which started in Italy and reached England via France, was a massive source of new vocabulary. New ideas, or old ideas rediscovered, started flooding out of the southern cities but there were no words to describe them in English. So the language adopted or adapted the Latin words. During the Renaissance, the English lexicon roughly doubled in size.
起源于意大利,席卷法国再蔓延至英国的文艺复习带来了海量新词。新的点子也好,旧的想法也罢,被人们重新发现,不断从南部的意大利城市中奔涌而出,而英语中却没有相应词汇用以描述。于是英语就采用、改写了拉丁词汇。文艺复兴时期,英语的词汇几乎翻了一倍。
5. For more than a century, the English aristocracy couldn’t speak English.
有一个世纪多的时间,英国贵族不会说英语。
William the Conqueror tried to learn English at the age of 43 but gave up. Within 20 years of the Normans taking power in England, almost all of the local religious institutions were French-speaking. There is little to suggest that aristocrats themselves spoke English. It isn’t until the end of the 12th Century that we have evidence of the children of the English aristocracy with English as a first language.
英国国王威廉一世曾在43岁时尝试学习英语,但半途而废。诺曼人控制英国的20年里,大部分的地方宗教机构都说法语。鲜有证据显示英国的贵族自己会说英语。证据显示,直到12世纪末,才有英语贵族子女以英语为第一语言。
6.That is why Latin words sound more prestigious than Germanic ones.
这就是为什么拉丁词汇比日耳曼词汇听上去更高大上。
Think about the difference between a house (Germanic) and a mansion (French), or between starting something and commencing, between calling something kingly or regal. English has a huge number of close synonyms, where the major difference is the level of formality or prestige. The prestigious form is almost always the Latin one.
想想看"house"("房子",日耳曼词汇)与"mansion"("宅邸",法语词汇)的差异,及"starting(开始)"与"commencing(肇始)"的不同、“kingly(皇家气质)"与"regal(君威)"的区别。英语中有大量意思贴近的同义词,其主要差异在于其正式与高级程度。高级形式几乎都是拉丁词汇。
7. The concept of “correct” spelling is fairly recent.
“正确”拼写是相当新近的概念。
Shakespeare, for example, was liberal in his spellings of words, often using multiple variants within a single text; his name itself has been spelt in many different ways over the centuries.
例如莎士比亚,在拼写单词就非常随意,常在同一文本中使用数种变体;数世纪以来,其名字也有多种不同的拼法。
8. One man is largely responsible for the differences between American and British spelling.
美式英语和英式英语拼写上的差异很大程度上因一人而起。
Noah Webster, whose name you still find on the front of many American dictionaries, was a patriotic man. Between 1783 and 1785, he proced three books on the English language for American schoolchildren. During his lifetime, 385 editions of his Speller were published. The modern US spelling of color was initially spelt in the British way, colour, but this changed in later editions.
在美国的许多词典封面上你还能找到一个人的名字,一位富有爱国心的美国人——诺亚·韦伯斯特。在1783至1785年间,韦伯斯特为美国的学龄儿童创作了三本关于英语的书籍。韦伯斯特一生中,其拼写教材出了385版。现代美式英语中“color(颜色)”一词起初是英式的拼写方式,但在后来的版本中,这些词的拼写方式发生了变化。
9. -ize is not an American suffix-ize.
并不是美式英语中的后缀。
There is a popular belief that words such as popularise/ize, maximise/ize and digitise/ize have different spellings in British and American English.
人们普遍认为,popularise/ize(普及)、maximise/ize(最大化)、digitise/ize(数字化)等词在英式英语和美式英语中拼写方式不同。
Look at that z – isn’t it snazzy? It’s got to be American, hasn’t it?
看看这个Z——不是很时髦吗?它一定是美式英语,不是吗?
⑸ 将“关于你不知道的冷知识”翻译成英文!
Referring to the side-knowledge you don't know.
As to the side-knowledge you don't touch.