Let's talk: Facts

DID YOU KNOW?

• English is the language of many lands (it's the official language of 67 countries) • English originates from Old English, which is its earliest historical form from the 5th century.

There was no punctuation until the 15th century. • The oldest Old English word still used today that has the same direct meaning is 'town'.

Town has kept the same meaning as its original Old English word "tun" meaning area of dwelling. • The most widely used English word is 'the'. • The legendary playwright was responsible for many of the things we say and write today. These include the words 'fashionable' 'advertising' and 'laughable' and the phrase 'fight fire with fire' which means to respond to attack with a similar form of attack. • A new word is added to the dictionary every two hours. • 'Go.' is the shortest grammatically correct sentence in English

3 Let's ta lk : Facts a) Read the fact file about English and complete the grid.

The most widely used word The oldest word The shortest word Modern words from Shakespearean time Any new words to add in the dictionary now?

b) Speak with your partner and ask his/her understanding o f the fact file. Example: A: What words from Shakespearean time do you know? B: As a matter of fact, my favorite word from that time is ...

^ 4 Team activity: Im pressions of the countries a) In groups of four, choose one statement you like the m ost 1. “When you come to live in the USA, you feel at home right away.” 2. “Why leave Canada? Where else would you want to be?” 3. “Indians are the Italians of Asia and vice versa. Every man is a singer when he is happy, and every woman is a dancer when she walks to the shop at the comer. For them, food is the music inside the body and music is the food inside the heart.” 4. “The people are immensely likable— cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted, and obliging. Their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water. The food is excellent. The sun nearly always shines. There is coffee on every corner.

Life doesn’t get much better than this.” b) Each member o f the group takes one of the statements and forms a new group with other students who have the same one. In your new group, discuss the statement:

What does it tell you about the country, the people there, or the speaker?

5 For my folder Find out more interesting and funny facts about English. Make an e-poster and present it to the class.