If I asked you what the most used letter in the English alphabet was, what would you guess? “R” is a popular response, but you’d be wrong. “A”? Nope. Turns out, the most used letter in the alphabet is “E”.
A good friend of mine is an Optometrist. Oddly enough, there are only 10 letters used in most eye exams. These are C, D, E, F, L, N, O, P, T and Z. The reason for this is that some letters can be identified by the human brain even if they are too blurry to be seen clearly. An example of this would be the letter Q. The brain is able to pick up on the shadow of the tail that comes off that letter and determine what it is, because there are no other letters like it.
And the least commonly used letter? Obviously “Z”.
There are 26 letters in the English language. And with those letters, over 470,000 words are in use according to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary. However, Korea sports over 1.1 million words in their language. While translation between English and Arabic is clunky at best, Arabic has over 12 million distinct words!
The language with the most letters is Cambodian with 74 letters (fun fact: some without any current use). The language with the least is Rotokas with only 12 letters and is spoken by a few thousand people in New Guinea.
When I first submitted my book’s manuscript to my publisher, I had painstakingly poured out over 28,000 words out of my brain, through my fingertips connecting with a keyboard which landed them squarely in my original manuscript. My publisher’s first review comment: “You need to write more words, this is basically a large pamphlet.” My first 2 thoughts, in order, “Screw you.” Followed quickly by, “Well, how many words do I need to get to?” Their response: 35,000…at the minimum. For those of you who don’t have a calculator nearby, that’s 7,000 extra words. For those of you who’ve never written much before…that’s a lot of extra words. “What’s wrong with a large pamphlet?” I surmised.
For those of you who’ve read my book Retirement Stepping Stones, you know that I have a smattering of characters to drive my points home. There’s Slumping Steve and Connected Connie and Dan the Dentist (bonus points for creativity? Yes?) These characters ended up driving my points home. Most of them represented real-life client stories that had occurred during my career. And, thus, by writing them, I obtained my 35,000 word goal…and ultimately made my book better.
In the end, my publisher was right, I needed more words. The characters I created made the principles in the book more real, more tangible. My readers have identified with certain ones and have sought to overcome a character’s stumbling block and turn it into their own personal stepping stone.
Yet, words can have the opposite effect too, can’t they? They can be used for hate and disunity. They can divide and dissuade. They can put down and cast out. They can turn a good day opposite and a bad day worse. They can empower evil and trounce good.
And yet, we, gentle reader, on the other hand, can use them for good. We can build up and encourage. We can edify and empower. We can speak love and gratitude. We can bless others and promote purpose. We can write thank you notes, and love letters, and legacy learnings. We can sing and rhyme and synthesize and organize. We can use our words to make a positive impact in a world where many words are used to tear down.
Think before you speak. Use your words carefully. They matter…to you and to others.
Let your words brighten your day. Let them brighten another person’s day.
Use your words to be a blessing to humanity.
And may they be used to live your purpose today.
