English Language GK Quiz

1. How many letters are there in the modern English alphabet?

The modern English alphabet has 26 letters.

2. Which letter is statistically the most commonly used in English writing?

"E" is the most frequently used letter in English text, by a wide margin.

3. English belongs to which language family?

English is a West Germanic language, though it has absorbed huge amounts of Latin and French vocabulary over centuries.

4. What is a word or phrase that reads the same forwards and backwards called?

A palindrome reads identically in both directions, like "level" or "madam."

5. Which historical event brought thousands of French words into English?

The Norman Conquest of 1066 brought Norman French rule to England, heavily influencing English vocabulary for centuries afterward.

6. Who compiled one of the most famous early English dictionaries, published in 1755?

Samuel Johnson's "A Dictionary of the English Language" (1755) was one of the most influential early English dictionaries.

7. How many vowel letters are there in the English alphabet (not counting 'y')?

There are 5 vowel letters: a, e, i, o, u.

8. What do we call a word borrowed directly from another language into English?

A loanword is a word adopted from another language with little or no modification, such as "café" from French.

9. Which English playwright is often credited with introducing or popularising hundreds of new words and phrases?

William Shakespeare is widely credited with coining or popularising hundreds of English words and phrases still used today.

10. What term describes two words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings?

Homophones sound alike but differ in spelling and meaning, like "flour" and "flower."

11. Which of these is generally recognised as the shortest complete sentence in English?

"Go." is a complete sentence — it has an understood subject ("you") and a verb.

12. What is the term for the smallest unit of meaning in a word, such as "un-" in "unhappy"?

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language — "un-" and "happy" are both morphemes in "unhappy."

13. Which of these words entered English fairly recently due to the internet and social media?

"Doomscrolling" is a modern term describing compulsively scrolling through negative news online — see our New English Words guide.