23/04/2026
English Language Day today!!!🇬🇧
This day was chosen because it is thought to be Shakespeare's birthday, and the anniversary of his death. As well as being the English language's most famous playwright, Shakespeare also had a huge impact on modern-day English. At the time he was writing, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English language was going through a lot of changes and Shakespeare's creativity with language meant he contributed hundreds of new words and phrases that are still used today. For example, the words 'gossip', 'fashionable' and 'lonely' were all first used by Shakespeare. He also invented phrases like 'break the ice', 'all our yesterdays', 'faint-hearted' and 'love is blind'. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
- William Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet" “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
- William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream “But, for my own part, it was Greek to me.”
- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar