WORDS: The more we read, the more thankful we are that English was our first language. And the more empathy we have for those who learned it as a second language.

For example, this sentence: “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.”

Confused? It means the same as this: “Buffalonian bison [whom other] Buffalonian bison bully [also] bully Buffalonian bison.”

The Oxford Language Club says most average adult English speakers know 20,000 to 35,000 words. Those who read fiction have a larger vocabulary than those who do not. Fiction usually contains a wider range of vocabulary than nonfiction does.

New words come along every 98 minutes, which is nearly 15 new words a day. Perhaps no one has added more to the English language than William Shakespeare. He added 1,700 words — eyeball, bedroom, savagery, luggage, obscene, frugal, traditional, accuse, rely and so many more.

“In 2018, approximately 1.53 billion people (spoke) English as a primary, auxiliary, or business language. This is about 1 in 7 people on Earth,” the Oxford Language Club stated.

English is the most commonly used language in science.

“The most complex word in the English language is ‘set.’ This small word has over 430 definitions and requires a 60,000 word definition that covers 24 pages in the Oxford English Dictionary,” according to the language club. “The word ‘good’ has the most synonyms of any other word in the English language, at 380.”

The most common word used incorrectly is “ironic.”

The most annoying English word is “whatever.”

The most commonly used noun is “time.”

The ampersand used to be the 27th letter of the alphabet.