English is funny

Why do we say “double U” when it clearly looks like a “double V”?

Image: Sven Brandsma

English is a wonderful language, full of quirks that defy logic. For example, why does "colonel" sound like "kernel"? And what’s the deal with "knight" starting with a silent "k"? English has picked up all sorts of odd habits over the centuries. Did you know about these 12?

Image: Bruce Warrington

Let’s get this one off the table first. The word "colonel" comes from the Italian colonnello, but the French changed it to coronel, adding an "r" sound. English later adopted the French pronunciation but kept the Italian spelling.

That’s why we say "kernel" but write "colonel": it is a mix of Italian spelling and French pronunciation.

Image: Matt Benson

The word "knight" once had a pronounced "k," but over time, English dropped the sound while keeping the old spelling.

This mismatch is common in English, where pronunciation changes but spelling stays the same. "Knight" and "night" are homophones: they sound alike but mean different things.

Image: Niclas Dehmel

In English, "dust" can mean opposite things depending on context. You can dust a shelf to remove dust or dust a cake to add sugar.

It’s a quirky example of a contronym: a word with two opposite meanings. Context is everything!

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The only English word with five (yes, five) consecutive vowels is used to describe a not-so-cherished activity: "queueing". Of those five vowels, the pronunciation of the word only uses three.

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The letter "W" is pronounced "double U", even though it clearly resembles a double "V".

Image: Brooke Cagle

If you take notice, the names "Zoey" and "Zoe" are pronounced in the same way. But "Joey" and "Joe" are not.

Image: Gift Habeshaw

Even though the plural of "I" is "we", and the plural for "he/she" is "they", there is no plural for "you".

Image: Rachel Hisko

The word "ghoti" is a playful take on how weird English spelling can be. Though it looks odd, some argue it could be pronounced "fish."

Here’s how: "gh" as in tough gives the "f," "o" as in women gives the "i," and "ti" as in nation gives the "sh." It’s not a real word, but it highlights just how inconsistent English pronunciation can be.

Image: Antonino Visalli

Granted, some letters are pronounced differently from their spelling. But few are so different as the plural word for "woman". The "o" sound is replaced by an "i" when pronouncing "women".

Image: Jonathan Borba

The word "oversight" is a great example of a contronym: a word that means two opposite things, depending on the context it is used in.

For example, it can be used positively if we say that "the project is under careful oversight". But, it can be used negatively if we say that "the oversight cost us dearly".

Have an apple

11 Common medical misconceptions you probably once believed

Image: Nikolai Chernichenko

Medicine is complicated, and it's easy for folklore, memes, and half-remembered advice to creep their way into our collective subconscious. Some of these myths are harmless, others are misleading, and many are downright dangerous. Let's take a look at 11 medical misconceptions that have endured over time, and that you've probably believed at one time or another.

Image: Isabella Fischer

..keeps the doctor away, right? Apples are healthy. They are full of fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. But, as you probably know, they aren't enough to ward off disease on their own. The phrase originated in 19th-century Wales as "Eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread." The rhyme is charming, but fortunately, doctors still get plenty of bread.

Image: Kotagauni Srinivas

That satisfying pop comes from collapsing gas bubbles in the fluid of your joints, not from your bones grinding to dust. Decades of peer-reviewed research show no link between knuckle-cracking and arthritis or bone deterioration. It might be irritating for those around you, but not bad for your joints.

Image: Guus Baggermans

It does feel that way, but it's only an optical illusion: the new growth feels blunt and coarse when compared to a tapered hair tip. However, the follicles themselves are unaffected by shaving. Your hair’s growth rate and thickness are determined by genetics.

Image: Andra C Taylor Jr

This one is nothing more than a parental scare-tactic propaganda. Gum is indeed indigestible, but it doesn’t remain trapped inside you forever. It passes through your digestive tract quite efficiently, just like corn or sunflower seeds. Certainly in days, not 7 years.

Image: Angelo Casto

Although carrots are good for overall eye health, the myth that they have the power to give you night vision stems from a little bit of British World War II propaganda. The British Royal Air Force claimed that their pilots had uncannily good night accuracy because of their carrot-heavy diets. In reality, it was a cover story to conceal their use of radar technology.

Image: Tobias Oetiker

Neither black coffee nor cold showers can accelerate the rate at which your body metabolizes alcohol. Ask any doctor for a recipe to sober up quickly, and they will tell you the sad, sad truth: it's impossible.

Plenty of people claim to have found a trick to solve this problem. However, no matter how many freezing showers you take, they will only make you cold, wet, and awake, but still drunk.

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Well, it depends on who you ask. There’s a long list of home remedies: hold your breath, drink water upside down, have a friend scare you, and so on. While some of these techniques might help by resetting your diaphragm, the truth is that most hiccups fade on their own within minutes. And if they don’t, you’re better off seeing a doctor than cycling through an endless number of folk cures.

Image: Alfred Quartey

In reality, apple seeds contain amygdalin, which the body can convert into toxic cyanide (not arsenic). However, the amount of amygdalin in apple seeds is tiny: you would need to crush and eat over 150 apple seeds to get anything close to a dangerous dose. Or you could simply avoid eating the seeds altogether.

In any case, apples are far better at keeping the doctor away than they are at poisoning you.

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If you do, you'll catch a cold. Or that's what this myth would have us believe. In fact, wet hair in chilly weather will just make you uncomfortable.

As we know, colds are caused by viruses that get into our systems. Being cold or damp doesn't conjure viruses out of thin air. That being said, lowering your body's temperature might weaken your immune defenses slightly, but the real culprits are still unequivocally the germs.

Image: Shubham Dhage

A Hollywood myth that has crawled deep into our collective imagination. While the exact origin of the phrase is unclear, it is often associated with the lectures of Harvard psychologist William James, who told audiences that we only tap a fraction of our full potential during the 1890s. The idea then evolved and spread through self-help and motivational literature, eventually becoming the widely believed claim we know today.

Scientific research has thoroughly debunked this notion. While the inner workings of much of our brain are still unknown to us, we do know that virtually all of it has a function, and we use 100% of it.

Image: Megan Watson

A Thanksgiving classic, people like to blame their festive drowsiness on the turkey. There is some scientific basis for this: turkey does contain tryptophan, an amino acid that promotes sleep.

However, the amount in turkey is minimal and no greater than that found in chicken or beef. The real culprits behind your post-dinner nap are the carb overload, extra drinks, and day-long festivities—not the turkey itself.