ODDITIES OF ENGLISH

• There is no singular form of the word cattle. The male animal is a bull and the female is a cow, but there is no name for the animal in general. The closest term might be head of cattle.
• The word Mrs. exists only as an abbreviation; it cannot be spelled out.
• Nothing rhymes with orange or silver.
• The only word that ends in -mt is dreamt.
• The word oil can be pronounced by spelling it quickly: o-i-l.
• The plural of bureau is formed by adding an x: bureaux.
• The only letter of the English alphabet that is never silent is V.
• The only letters of the English alphabet that are never doubled are Q and Y. Double J appears only in the Arabic word hajj, and double X only in the neologisms doxxing/doxxed and vaxxing/vaxxed.
• The English pronunciation of alumni follows the Latin pronunication of alumnae, and vice versa.
• The names of the letters of the alphabet can be spelled out, as shown here:
  
  

  Letter	Name	Double	Silent
  A	a	aardvark
  B	bee	bubble	comb
  C	cee	vaccine
  D	dee	puddle
  E	e	reef	cube
  F	ef	baffle
  G	gee	struggle
  H	aitch		hourf
  I	i
  J	jay
  K	kay	bookkeeper
  L	el	fall
  M	em	pummel	mnemonic
  N	en	funnel	autumn
  O	o	spoon
  P	pee	grapple
  Q	cue
  R	ar	barrel
  S	ess	brass
  T	tee	little
  U	u	vacuum
  V	vee	flivver
  W	double-u
  X	ex	vaxxed
  Y	wye
  Z	zee	dazzle

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