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
  A	a
  B	bee
  C	cee
  D	dee
  E	e
  F	ef
  G	gee
  H	aitch
  I	i
  J	jay
  K	kay
  L	el
  M	em
  N	en
  O	o
  P	pee
  Q	cue
  R	ar
  S	ess
  T	tee
  U	u
  V	vee
  W	double-u
  X	ex
  Y	wye
  Z	zee

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