X-Nico

100 unusual facts about english language


2006 State of the Union Address

Newly elected Governor of Virginia Tim Kaine gave the Democratic response in English and Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa did so in Spanish.

Adler Volmar

Not yet fluent in English, he misunderstood and thought that he was obligated to serve in the military.

Ahmed F. Mehalba

Mehalba received a medical discharge from the Army in May 2001 and was later hired a San Diego defense contractor, Titan Corporation, to be an Arabic-English translator at Guantanamo Bay.

Ahmed Mohamed Iman

His books included Toosiye Everyday English for Everyone (an English Grammar translated into Somali), Marine Ecosystem Data Gathered of Somalia and Taariikhda Taxan iyo Dhaqanka Soomaaliya (a book about the history and culture of Somalia).

Albatros C.II

The unusual tail structure used an open frame structure with a conventional fin and rudder and gave rise to the nickname Gitterschwanz (en: lattice tail).

Algeria at the Olympics

The National Olympic Committee for Algeria is the Comité Olympique Algérien (Algerian Olympic Committee in English), and was founded in 1963.

Amit Offir

On 2013 Amit's books were translated to other languages such as English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and many more.

Amor Artificial

# "Quevoasaber" (Spelled as colloquial pronunciation for Que voy a saber) English: How Would I Know? or, more loosely, I Have No Clue

Amphibola crenata

Amphibola crenata (titiko in the Māori language or mud-flat snail in English) is a species of air breathing snail with an operculum, a pulmonate gastropod mollusc which lives in a habitat that is intermediate between the land and the sea, not entirely terrestrial and not entirely marine.

Anna Terruwe

Dr. Baars discovered her work and went on to translate some of her work into English and further the work on "Emotional Deprivation Disorder" and the repressive disorders.

Anton Vassil

As a director fluent in French, English and German, he is often associated with international projects requiring multiligual skills and international co-productions.

Bandar al-Hazmi

The hijack pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 Hani Hanjour lived with Bandar in Phoenix, Arizona for several months starting in late November 1997, allegedly after the two met while studying English at the same school in Florida.

Benjamin Blackledge

He was the first teacher of English language in Closter, New Jersey, and rose to become "the most prominent man in the northern part of Bergen County".

Central fm

Central FM is by far the largest and longest serving English commercial radio station broadcasting in Southern Spain.

Cifal

Cifal (meaning the biggest, most senior head, chief or director in Volapük; itself coming from English ˝chief˝) is the leader of the Volapük movement.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar

Western Isles Council was retracted in 1997 under the Local Government (Gaelic Names) (Scotland) Act 1997, meaning that the former Western Isles are now officially named Na h-Eileanan Siar, even in English language contexts.

Copa de Oro

The Copa de Oro (English: Gold Cup, Portuguese: Copa Ouro), or Copa de Oro Nicolás Leoz, was a football cup winners' cup competition contested on 3 occasions by the most recent winners of all Conmebol continental competitions.

Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior

The Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior (or São Paulo Youth Football Cup, in English), also known as Copa São Paulo de Juniores (São Paulo Youth Cup) and Copinha (Little Cup), is a cup competition played by 88 Brazilian under-20 football teams (until the 2006 edition, it was contested by under-21 teams), most of them from São Paulo state.

Core ontology

Most applicable to teaching, e.g. the Longmans defining dictionary of the simplest meanings of 2,000 English words is used to define the 4,000 most basic English idioms -- this is a core glossary of the English language, which permits access to the core ontology (the idioms).

Cultural depictions of Anne Frank

The book The Freedom Writers Diary (and its 2007 film adaptation) biographs the lives of high school students whose English teacher encourages them to read The Diary of Anne Frank.

Dakheel Najafi

The different works on Islamic (Shi’ite) jurisprudence by Al-Najafi, all written in Arabic have never been translated into English or any other language.

Dasmariñas City Council

The ex officio members are the Association of Liga ng mga Barangay ng Dasmariñas (English: League of Barangays of Dasmariñas) President, who is currently, Antonio L. Ferrer, and the Sangguniang Kabataan (English: Youth Council) Federation President, who is currently, Jerome M. Menguito.

Delta Warp

Delta Warp was released only in Japan but features English text menus and the simple gameplay style means it can be played by non-Japanese readers.

Dr. Syed Gulam Farooq Mirranay

Dr. Mirranay is the official spokesperson for the Afghan Mellat Party and speaks both official Afghanistan languages, Pashto and Dari, as well as English.

Elisabeth Eybers

Her poetry was mainly in Afrikaans, although she has translated some of her own work (and those of others) into English.

Eng Leong Medallic Industries

ELM credits much of the company’s growth over the past 41 years to Singapore’s geographical advantage with English being the primary medium for industry.

Erdenechimeg Luvsannorov

Dr. Erdenechimeg has written 15 musicological and ethno-musicological books in Mongolian, several of which are also published in Chinese, Russian and English.

Estoc

The French estoc or English "tuck" was a type of European sword in use from the 14th to 17th centuries.

Euronord

It is chiefly based on English, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish and is intended to be a zonal constructed language for Northern Europe.

French Road Cycling Cup

The French Road Cycling Cup (English for Coupe de France de cyclisme sur route) is a road bicycle racing competition under the Fédération Francaise de Cyclisme (French Cycling Federation) each year since 1992.

Furby

They are programmed, however, to speak less and less Furbish and more and more English as they "grow".

Gaus

A Gau is an administrative division formerly used in Germany, the plural of which is Gaue (though often rendered in English as Gaus).

Gedaliah Finkel

Rabbi Finkel delivers a daily English Talmudic lecture in a classroom above his older brother's house.

Gerash

The cost-effectiveness of Eastern Europe makes it a favorite destination for those students who have a passion for learning English.

Hampstead, Quebec

In terms of mother tongue, the 2006 census found that, including multiple responses, almost 63% of residents spoke English, and about 16% of residents spoke French.

Heckler v. Campbell

Ms. Campbell had been born in Panama, and though she had limited ability to speak and write English, she could read and understand English fairly well.

Hilmar Grétarsson

Hilmar Grétarsson (born March 8, 1982) is an Icelandic newspaper publisher best known for founding the Reykjavík-based, English language Reykjavik Grapevine with Jón Trausti Sigurðarson and Valur Gunnarsson.

Hugo Schiltz

During World War II Schiltz was a member of the Nationaal-Socialistische Jeugd Vlaanderen (English: National Socialist Youth Flanders).

Hydrocotyle umbellata

Its English common name is manyflower marsh pennywort or dollarweed.

Itopride

This may explain the apparent lack of patient information available in English compared to other similar classes of medication.

Jeunesse Populaire Française

Jeunesse Populaire Française (JPF, English: French Popular Youth) was a fascist youth movement created by Jacques Doriot and connected to his Parti Populaire Français.

John J. McClellan

In the 1985 English edition of the LDS hymnal, the music for "Sweet Is the Work" (hymn #147) was composed by McClellan.

John Rumbiak

His good English and excellent presentation skills then facilitated his role as Elsham's chairman of International Affairs travelling widely attending many international conferences informing the international community about West Papua.

Jorge José Emiliano dos Santos

His nickname was Margarida (meaning Daisy, in English).

Julian Owusu-Bekoe

Julian Owusu-Bekoe (born 10 May 1989 in Tooting) is an English-born Ghanaian football player who plays for Hayes & Yeading United in the Conference National.

Kaleohano

For the lyrics, and the English translation of the song, please visit reference #2.

Kate Asabuki

Asabuki studied French and English in college, and joined Nikkatsu to work in their Roman Porno films in 1982, while still attending university.

King's English

Received Pronunciation, a form of English language pronunciation sometimes known as the Queen's English or the King's English

Klingon Language Institute

Speers is known for having undertaken the endeavour to raise his child bilingually in English and Klingon; Speers spoke in Klingon and his wife in English.

Köse Mihal

Köse Mihal (13th century – c. 1340); (English: Michael the beardless, and Michael with the goatee)

Kotzen

Since one English translation of the German verb "kotzen" is "to vomit" therefore the town was jokingly (?) incorrectly referred to in Ripley's Believe-It-or-Not under the title "Barfburg".

Kühlung

In the Kühlung, some of the sites referred to as a "Berg" (Eng.: hill or mountain) are merely promontories, while some of its summits are unnamed.

La Jalousie

The title of its English editions is Jealousy, but this fails to capture the ambiguity of the French title: "la jalousie" can be translated as "jealousy", but also as "the jalousie window".

Law of Hong Kong

The Law Drafting Division is responsible for drafting all legislation, including subsidiary legislation, in Chinese and English, and assists in steering legislation through the Executive and Legislative Councils.

Liberature

In the works where Nowakowski provides the reader with three versions of the text – Polish, English and Esperanto – one could observe certain differences in the rendition of the same topic, the technique which contributes to the further differentiation of the book’s meaning.

Lima Azimi

At the time of the 2003 World Athletics Championships, Azimi was a student of English language and literature at Kabul University.

Louis George Alexander

A British author of EFL course books, Louis Alexander was born in London and educated at Godalming Grammar School and the University of London, he taught English in Germany (1954–56) and Greece (1956–65) where he was head of English at the Protypon Lykeion, Athens (what is now the Scholi Moraïti).

Lucy Donnelly

Lucy Donnelly (September 18, 1870 – August 3, 1948) was a teacher of English at Bryn Mawr College.

Luigi Facelli

Despite the different walks of life, Lord Burghley considered Facelli a friend for years and invalidates, so that during the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, invited him to the opening ceremony, but when Facelli received the letter, he did not know the English language, if had it translated by a friend who brought back the greeting but simply was not able to translate even the invitation.

Malietoa Talavou Tonumaipe’a

Talavou was a keen student and statesman who was highly respected by resident Europeans on account of his dignified and friendly demeanor, not to mention his impressive command of both the English and Samoan languages.

Manolo el del bombo

Manuel Cáceres Artesero (born 15 January 1949 in Ciudad Real, Spain), better known as Manolo, el del bombo (English: Manolo the Bass Drummer) is one of the most famous football fans in the world.

Matthew 1:18

English editions invariably give different translations for the two, but the author of Matthew may have been trying to link the two verses with the second geneseos symbolically beginning the second section of the chapter.

Metamorfosi, Laconia

Of particular interest is the cave "Trypa tou Voria" (English: Hole of the North) which was discovered by the Italian Speleological Group "SPARVIERE" in the late 1990s.

Nancy Ward

Nanyehi (Cherokee: ᎾᏅᏰᎯ: "One who goes about"), known in English as Nancy Ward (ca. 1738–1822 or 1824) was a Beloved Woman of the Cherokee, which means that she was allowed to sit in councils and to make decisions, along with the chiefs and other Beloved Women.

Novara-class cruiser

The Novara class, known as Rapidkreuzer or Helgoland-Klasse (in English literally rapid cruiser ) was a class of light cruisers of the Austro-Hungarian Navy active during the First World War.

Oleg Kuvaev

He studied first at a school specializing in the English language, then at school majoring in physics and mathematics.

Orang Asal

However, all languages are in danger of being lost as the children in the tribes learn Malay and English.

Ottawa Fringe Festival

Because Ottawa is a bilingual city, both English and French productions are presented at the Fringe, though a small number of productions in past years have been bilingual.

Parti Rakyat Sarawak

The Parti Rakyat Sarawak or, PRS (English: Sarawak Peoples' Party) is a political party in Malaysia.

Penny Bacchiochi

She continues to support a no-tax-increase state budget plans and has cosponsored legislation to make English the official language of Connecticut.

Peruvian Connection

Today, the company has about 200 employees in the United States, South America and the U.K. Peruvian Connection catalogs are printed in English with prices in dollars or pounds sterling, and in German with pricing in Euros.

Peter King, 1st Baron King

He was also the author of the Act (4 Geo. II. c. 26) by virtue of which English superseded Latin as the language of the courts.

Physalis pubescens

Physalis pubescens is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family known by many common names, including husk tomato and hairy groundcherry in English, and muyaca and capulí in Spanish.

Points classification in the Giro d'Italia

The Azzurri d'Italia classification (English: Azure or Sky Blue Italy) is an award in the Giro d'Italia in which points are awarded for the top three stage finishers (4, 2 and 1 point).

Pokémon Puzzle League

The game was not available in Japan due to a lack of popularity of the Nintendo 64 console in that region and because it is based on the English dub of the anime.

Radio Bulgaria

In 2004, Radio Bulgaria broadcasts to Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America on short and medium wave in Bulgarian, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Serbian, Greek, Albanian and Turkish.

Rakovički potok

The Rakovički potok (Serbian Cyrillic: Раковички поток, English: Rakovica Creek) is a short stream in north-central Serbia, a 8,5 kilometer-long right tributuary to the Topčiderka river.

Remi Raji

Aderemi Raji-Oyelade is a Nigerian poet, writing in English.

Robert Alwyn Hughes

The family’s first language at home was Welsh until young Robert began attending the Dowlais Central School at five years old (when he began using English).

Roy Boudreau

He served in the opposition shadow cabinet at various times as critic for Department of Tourism and Parks, the Culture and Sport Secretariat, the anglophone section of the Department of Education and the Department of Family and Community Services.

Sa'id Akhtar Rizvi

He there learned Swahili and improved his English in order to better perform his work as a scholar.

Shema Yisrael Torah Network

The Shema Yisrael Torah Network is a group of (mainly English) websites dedicated to spreading Jewish thought, halakha (Jewish law) and other material through the World Wide Web, email and written material.

St. Catharines Black Hawks

Besides the strong rivalry between Anglophone and Francophone hockey teams and Canadian citizens in general, there was unfinished business between Marcel Dionne and the Remparts coach Maurice Filion.

Stadion Rujevica

Rujevica Stadium (official name: "Stadion Rujevica", English: "Rujevica Stadium") is a stadium that was planned to be built in the city of Rijeka.

Star designation

In addition to the traditional names, a small number of stars that are "interesting" can have modern English names.

Stuart Cavilla

Being a native Gibraltarian, Cavilla is naturally bilingual in English and Spanish as well as speaking Llanito when among other Gibraltarians.

Subject side parameter

English is an example of a "subject first" language, whereas Malagasy is an example of "subject last".

Thé Au Harem D'Archimède

The album's French title, which translates into English as "Tea in the Harem of Archimedes," is a reference to the Mehdi Charef book Tea in the Harem (French title: Thé au Harem d'Archimède), as well as a pun on the French phrase "Théorème d'Archimède", the title of the album's fourth track.

Thomas Whythorne

Thomas Whythorne (1528–1595) was an English composer who wrote what some consider to be the earliest surviving autobiography in English.

Tony Connor

From 1971 until he retired in 1999 Connor was professor of English at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

Upeet

The term is possibly derived, like several words in Madras Bashai, from English.

Vera Begić

Vera has achieved the Master of Laws degree; she can communicate in fluent English and can also speak Russian, Hungarian and Italian.

Wantok FM

Wantok is a Pijin word which comes from the English "one talk", and means people who speak the same language, belong to the same culture, are friends and help one another out.

Wasserstein metric

Most English-language publications use the German spelling "Wasserstein" (attributed to the name "Vasershtein" being of Germanic origin).

Will Tura

Will Tura's first hit was Eenzaam zonder jou (Eng, Lonely without you) in 1963, for which he wrote the melody, and Ke Riema the text.

William Lilly

This was the first of its kind to be printed in the English language rather than Latin, and is said to have tutored "a nation in crisis in the language of the stars".

WMYA-TV

For two weeks after that, it broadcast a "nightlight" service in the form of a continuously repeating short program about installing digital television converter boxes, alternating between English and Spanish versions, before finally shutting down its analog signal completely.

Woking College

The college is also used by other organisations such as English courses for foreign students during the summer holidays and also as a training hall for the Korean martial art Choi Kwang-Do, with the Woking CKD school being based at the college.

WOYE

The station carries a mix of the 1980s, 1990s, and modern English music.

Września Miasto railway station

Września Miasto (English: Września City) was a narrow-gauge railway stop in Września, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland.


Ardboe O'Donovan Rossa GAC

Cumann Lúthchleas Gael Ard Bó Uí Dhonnabhain Rossa (Ardboe O'Donovan Rossa in English) is a club based in east County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, close to the shores of Lough Neagh.

Asrary school riyadh

Asrary School, Riyadh is a school that teaches English, Arabic, and French from KG1 till 12th grade.

Avnei Eitan

The community is host to the Mechinat Avnei Eitan pre-military yeshiva, also known as the "Leadership Yeshiva Academy," attended by mainly by English-speaking overseas students.

Bittern

They were called hæferblæte in Old English; the word "bittern" came to English from Old French butor, itself from Gallo-roman butitaurus, a portmanteau of Latin būtiō and taurus.

CJLD-FM

On February 22, 2012, Mark Tamagi, on behalf of Blackgold Broadcasting Inc, received Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to operate a new English language FM radio station in Leduc.

Comics Revue

In issue #200, Comics Revue featured the only English language publication of "The Dark Angels", the last Modesty Blaise story, by Peter O'Donnell and Romero.

Coupe des Mousquetaires

La Coupe des Mousquetaires (English: The Musketeers' Trophy) is the trophy awarded to the winner of the Men's Singles competition at the French Open.

D. Quentin Miller

Quentin Miller (born 1967) is a professor of the English language and literature at Suffolk University in Boston.

Demographics of Suriname

Dutch (official), Sranan Tongo (Surinamese, sometimes called Taki-Taki, is native language of Creoles and much of the younger population), Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu), Javanese, English (widely spoken), French due to cultural influence from French Guiana, Portuguese and Spanish.

Director of Education

In Ontario, the Director of Education is an individual who has executive oversight and administration rights, usually within an educational entity or organization representing 72 District School Boards in Ontario of the anglophone and francophone publicly funded secular and separate school boards.

Eben Dönges High School

Eben Dönges High School (Hoërskool Eben Dönges) is a government-funded, Afrikaans-medium high school in Kraaifontein, Western Cape, South Africa.

Garfield in Paradise

They meet the tribal chief who explains that the villagers learned English "from watching a lot of beach movies", and that the car was originally owned by the Cruiser, a James Dean/Fonzie-styled legend who drove his car into the village in 1957 and introduced the people to the 1950s pop culture.

Hazrat Jandaha

Hindi and English newspapers are easily available in the city, including Dainik Jagran, Hindustan, Prabhat Khabar, The Daily Telegraph and The Times of India.

Helen Zimmern

Through her advocacy and translations, Zimmern made European culture - whether that of Germany, or, increasingly, Italy - accessible to English speakers.

Hinduism in Croatia

So far the Proceedings of the first 3 conferences have been published in English by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the 1st conference proceedings alone being brought out in India by Munshiram Manoharlal.

Hmong American

Even though most Hmong families speak a language other than English at home, many Hmong Americans are rapidly blending into mainstream American society.

HPItv

HPItv (Horseplayer Interactive Television) is a Canadian English language Category B specialty network owned by Woodbine Entertainment Group.

Ittefaq Group

The Ittefaq Group of Industries, (English The Unity), is a multimillion dollar integrated steel producer with major operations in Punjab Province of Pakistan.

Killer Tattoo

Elvis really believes he is Elvis Presley (and not an Elvis impersonator), and because the real Elvis didn't speak Thai, Elvis M-16 is incapable of understanding the language and can only respond to English commands.

Kjære Margit

: Et festskrift til Nordens folkelesningsdronning; Margit Sandemo 70 år (in English Dear Margit!:The Anniversary Book to the Queen of Readers of the Nordic Countries; Margit Sandemo 70 Years) is a Norwegian autobiographical book by Norwegian-Swedish fantasy writer Margit Sandemo.

Las Supremas de Móstoles

Las Supremas de Móstoles (or The Supremes of Móstoles, in English) is a Spanish pop band made up of three sisters, Susi, Vicky and Luisi (two of them are twins).

Little Pollon

Enoki Films USA holds the U.S. license to the anime series, although no English dub or subtitling of the series has ever been commercially released.

Luboš Blaha

"Back to Marx?" is currently translated into English and there are some plans to translate the book into Russian.

Lucha film

When American producer K. Gordon Murray bought the rights to three of Santo’s lucha libre films, he dubbed them into English for domestic release and changed the name of the wrestling hero to "Samson".

Marshall Thompson

He co-starred with Annie Fargé in the 33-episode CBS sitcom Angel (1960–1961) about an American architect with a charming but scatterbrained French wife, who often got into zany, Lucy Ricardo-esque situations, caused in part by her lack of English; the show was canceled after 33 episodes due to low ratings, despite critical acclaim for French-born newcomer Annie Fargé.

Nancy K. Miller

Currently a Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center, Miller is the author of several books on feminist criticism, women’s writing, and most recently, family memoir, biography, and trauma.

Primera Fila: Sasha Benny Erik

Primera Fila: Sasha Benny Erik (English: Front row: Sasha Benny Erik) is the first album by Mexican pop trio Sasha, Benny y Erik released on November 6, 2012 by Sony Music Latin.

Purva Rana

Rana speaks Hindi and English, she loves singing and modelling, and she is currently a student of Electronic engineering at Himachal Pradesh Technical University.

Renault Avantime

The name combines the French word "Avant" (meaning "ahead") and the English word "time", with the latter using the English (tīm) rather than French pronunciation (tēm).

Sabras Radio

Although the majority of the schedule is presented in Hindi and English - there are speciality shows broadcasting in Bengali, Gujarati and Punjabi.

Swapner Din

Swapner Din (English language: Chased by Dreams, translation: A Day of Dreams) is a 2004 Bengali drama film directed and written by Buddhadev Dasgupta, who won the National Film Award for Best Direction for it.

Takalani Sesame

It incorporates all of South Africa's 11 national languages, including Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Ndebele, Sesotho, Northern Sotho, Tsonga, Tswana and Venda.

Teboho MacDonald Mashinini

A move by South Africa's apartheid government to make the white, colonial language Afrikaans an equal mandatory language of education for all South Africans in conjunction with English was extremely unpopular with black, Bantu and English-speaking South African students.

The Girl from the Chartreuse

It has been translated in several other languages including English and it has been adapted in an eponymous film by Jean-Pierre Denis

Toma Sik

The International Institute of Social History keeps a vast collection of papers from Toma Sik in several languages, such as Hebrew, Hungarian, and English.

TraXX FM

TraXX FM (formerly known as Blue Network, Radio 4 and Radio Malaysia Saluran 4 (English: Radio Malaysia Channel 4)) is an English radio station operated by Radio Televisyen Malaysia.