Interesting Facts About The English Language

Have you emerged from your turkey and wine induced coma confused, disorientated, dehydrated and feeling as though there's something integral missing from your life? Well, never fear. We refuse to let you stumble from Christmas into New Years Eve unarmoured with witty banter and impressive small talk.

Here are 5 Pointless and Awesome things you need to know before making your New Years statement and hopefully locking down a cheeky midnight pash.

#1 How Has The Festive Season Impacted Aussie Single?

Apart from having to punch a few new holes in your belt loop post-Christmas lunch, has the festive season taken its toll on your pulling power? Online dating platform Zoosk has shown a massive spike in signups and member messages between Christmas and New Year. Here's what else they found.

  1. Sign ups over the Christmas period jump up by 11%
  2. Message rates for Christmas Day are 19% lower (as most people will be spending the day with their family), but on Boxing day they're 12% higher
  3. Messages drop by 18% on New Year's Eve, but increase by 13% on New Year's Day
  4. The pattern is similar for sign ups, with a 13% on Christmas Day, a 15% lift on Boxing Day, a 22% drop on New Year's eve, and 22% increase on New Year's day
  5. Messages between members also increase by 18% during the first two weeks of January

#2 Interesting Facts About The English Language

Writing those pesky Christmas cards may seem like a chore, but have you ever stopped to think where all those words came from? Here are some interesting facts about the English language.

  1. Understanding English actually hurts professional players of English scrabble. Some of the world's best Scrabble players are Thai and can't speak English.
  2. Many English words used to be spelled phonetically (e.g. debt was 'det') until some scholars purposely added silent letters to make them look more like Greek or Latin words.
  3. If you write any number in words (English), count the number of letters, write this new number in words and so on, you'll always end with number 4.
  4. The word “set” has 464 definitions, making it the word with the most variety.

#3 Best & Worst Rated Films Of The 2015 Holiday Season

From those that smash the box office, to those that bomb, the end of 2015 has been a telling time in the world of film. Reviewing authority, Rotten Tomatoes ranked every major release (films that reach 600+ theaters, or with 80+ critic reviews) from November and December of 2015 by the site's Tomatometer and here are the results.

BEST
1. Brooklyn - 98%
2. Spotlight - 97%
3. Carol - 95%

WORST
1. Point Break - 4%
2. Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Road Chip - 16%
3. Love The Coopers - 19%

#4 Australia's Biggest Google Searches Of 2015

2015. There was doom and gloom, there was laughter and shock, there was light and shade. Here's what the land downunder was plugging into Google in 2015, and how many people were searching.

FEB Oscars 2015 - 406M+
FEB-MAR Cricket World Cup - 323M+
APR Nepal Earthquake - 85M+
MAY Princess Charlotte Born - 105M+
JUN China Crisis - 12M+
SEPT Australia's New Prime Minister - 22M+
SEPT Volkswagen Emissions Scandal - 13M+
SEPT-OCT Rugby World Cup - 246M+
SEPT-OCT The Longest Reigning Queen - 100M+
OCT Sehwag Retires - 9M+
OCT Water On Mars - 10M+
NOV Paris Under Attack - 897M+
DEC Star Wars - 155M+

#5 The World's Highest Paid Actors & Actresses Of 2015

Which silver screen staples were making the big bucks this year? Forbes put together a list of Hollywood's highest paid actors and actresses of 2015 and here are the results.

ACTORS
1. Robert Downey Jr - $80M
2. Jackie Chan - $50M
3. Vin Diesel - $47M
4. Bradley Cooper - $41.5M
5. Adam Sandler - $41M

ACTRESSES
1. Jennifer Lawrence - $52M
2. Scarlett Johansson - $35.5M
3. Melissa McCarthy - $23M
4. Bingbing Fan - $21M
5. Jennifer Anniston - $16.5M