True or False- interesting facts about the English language

This activity can be an ice- breaker. Students are given one sentence each, and their task is to decide whether the statements are true or false.

1. The most common letter in English is "e".
2. Only two English words in current use end in "-gry". They are "angry" and "hungry".
3. More English words begin with the letter "s" than with any other letter.
4. The word "uncopyrightable" is the longest English word in normal use that contains no letter more than once.
5. The following sentence contains all 26 letters of the alphabet: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." This sentence is often used to test typewriters or keyboards.
6. The shortest complete sentence in English is the following. "I am."
7. We pronounce the combination "ough" in 9 different ways, as in the following sentence which contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
8. The "QWERTY keyboard" gains its name from the fact that its first 6 letter keys are Q, W, E, R, T and Y. On early typewriters the keys were arranged in such a way as to minimize the clashing of the mechanical rods that carried the letters.
9. Approximately one new word is added to the English language every two hours.
10. 11% of the entire English language is just the letter E.
11. Happy is used three times more often in English than sad.
12. 80 % of all information shared on the Internet is in English.
13. The longest common English word without vowels is ‘rhythms’.
14. A new word in English is created every 98 minutes.
15. The word ‘bride’ comes from the old German word which means ‘to cook’.
16. The word ‘mortgage’ comes from a French word that means ‘death contract.’
17.  English is the sole official language in 31 nations. An additional twenty nations identify English as one of two or more official languages.
18. The U.S. Department of Education found that those with limited English proficiency are less expected to be employed, less likely to be employed constantly, have a tendency to work in the least desirable sectors and earn less than those who speak English.
19. What is called a "French kiss" in the English speaking world is known as an "English kiss" in France.
20. Over 700 million people speak English as a foreign language.
21. The English language as we now know it began to emerge in the 14th century from a variety of dialects.
22. Mandarin Chinese is the only language spoken by more people around the world than English.