'Mother' is the most beautiful word in the English language, followed by 'passion', 'smile', 'love' and 'eternity', according to a worldwide survey.
The British Council, the government agency that promotes British culture around the globe, has quizzed more than 40,000 people in 102 non-English speaking countries on their favourite words.
'Fantastic', 'destiny', 'freedom', 'liberty' and 'tranquillity' filled out the top 10 most beautiful English words.
The choices were made out of a list of 70 words - a number deliberately chosen to mark the British Council's 70th anniversary.
Others that made the grade included 'lollipop' at number 42, 'flip-flop' (59), 'hen's night' (70) and 'banana' (41), along with 'twinkle' (23), 'hiccup' (63), 'hodgepodge' (64), 'whoops' (56) and 'oi' (61).
"It's interesting that 'mother', the only word of the 70 that describes a direct relationship between people, came top of the poll," British Council spokesman Greg Selby said.
The word 'father' did not make the list at all.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200411/s1251297.htm
The British Council, the government agency that promotes British culture around the globe, has quizzed more than 40,000 people in 102 non-English speaking countries on their favourite words.
'Fantastic', 'destiny', 'freedom', 'liberty' and 'tranquillity' filled out the top 10 most beautiful English words.
The choices were made out of a list of 70 words - a number deliberately chosen to mark the British Council's 70th anniversary.
Others that made the grade included 'lollipop' at number 42, 'flip-flop' (59), 'hen's night' (70) and 'banana' (41), along with 'twinkle' (23), 'hiccup' (63), 'hodgepodge' (64), 'whoops' (56) and 'oi' (61).
"It's interesting that 'mother', the only word of the 70 that describes a direct relationship between people, came top of the poll," British Council spokesman Greg Selby said.
The word 'father' did not make the list at all.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200411/s1251297.htm