 The English language is most surprising peculiarities. The English language is a peculiar fascinating beast to teach and to learn. It comes with a long legacy of Anglo-Saxon and Norman invaders, empire building, and globalization of the 20th century. With multiple layers of rules and culture, it overflows with idiosyncrasies and peculiarities to confound native and learning speakers alike. Whether it's pronunciation, grammar, or even just the system of time, English is a welcoming lingua franca, and an intimidating coil of strangeness at the same time. Cultural. Any language has their culture imprinted on their language, but the English words for days and months are patently a product of its unique culture. While other languages such as Chinese use numbers for denoting their days, English named the second day after the Norse god Tyre, likewise using Odin or Woden to name Wednesday. For more confusion, the English months instead use Roman gods and historical figures, such as Janus Mars in August, to name January March in August. An English learner would likely not have the foreknowledge to recognize any of these references, and it's hard to say if many native speakers recognize them all either. Historical. On the other hand, the English language has a particularly rich history of borrowing from other languages, accumulating words from invasions and invaders, consequently, it is filled with loan words. This includes the French words ballet, faux pas, and quiche. And also German words, such as kindergarten and hamburgers. And these languages can be mixed with impunity, such as the kindergarten class put on a ballet. Since English also borrow the rules of these languages as well, including pronunciation and pluralization, English speakers need to balance these donor languages' peculiarities as well. Conceptual. Plurals are a particularly thorny concept in the English language, even for native speakers. In comparison with extremely regular plural systems like Latin, where language where plurals are largely absent or implied like in Chinese, English has inherited multiple plural endings over the centuries. The majority of plurals simply end with S, such as donuts, press, such as glasses. But then there's the US words whose Latin-inspired plural is I, such as cacti for more than one cactus. And to add to the confusion, there are words whose singular and plural are the exact same, such as moose and apparatus. Orthopical. Pronunciation in English is an even more ornery system. While some languages are beautifully phonetic like Italian, words largely being pronounced exactly the way they are spelled, English vowels and consonants are dependent on order, context, and even sometimes the origin of the word. There's a classic example of the Uke words, such as though, through, and trough, which are all pronounced differently. Then some words demand the pronunciation of their home language, like the French word faux pas. And to add one more layer of complexity, there are regional dialects, depending on which side of the Atlantic Ocean you're on. Grammatical. English grammar has plenty of rules, but the most common yet peculiar rule of them all is I before E, except after C. Any English-speaking child can recite this rule for spelling words such as achieve, receive, and believe. But the English language has numerous exceptions as well, including exotic loan words such as hacienda, or even everyday words like weird and science. It is English's unique peculiarity that it has such well-known and common rules, and promptly breaks them. All of these examples have been some of English's most flagrant and pernicious peculiarities to face new and native speakers. But here is a small but surprising peculiarity to consider, the curious case of the English phrase aren't I? Such as in I'm very lucky, aren't I? Any English student would recognize aren't as the contraction of are not. But they'd likely also know that the to-be verb in the first person is am, not are. And yet, English speakers both in Britain and America would rarely use ain't, which would immediately grate against the ear a slang like ain't. Using the second person to-be verb with I in a negative question is a colloquialism codified directly into the English language. In cases like these, there's not a much better explanation for it except that's the way it is in English. Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course today. While English's peculiarities can be certainly confounding, it's also part of its charm. It is a flexible language that has and will continue to adapt to new people and new surroundings. It can carry the weight of loan words seamlessly. And it is more than willing to bend its own grammatical rules to produce flowing poetry and everyday speech. Instead of worrying and begrudging what a fickle system of language it is, teachers and students alike should celebrate it for what it is, a living, breathing organism that has survived centuries with stories to tell.