A lifelong lover of language, Gyles Brandreth brings his show to three venues in Kent. We caught up with him to talk favourite words and the power of communication.

Words are what make us human...

Yup. Words. Language. Speech. Talking. Oral communication. That’s what makes us human.

English is the richest language in the world...

There are 500,000 words in the English dictionary. The unfortunate French only have 100,000 words in their vocabulary – and that includes “le weekend”. Language is what makes us human. As the philosopher Bertrand Russell said: “No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest. Only words can do that.”

William Shakespeare managed to write all his plays using only 26,000 words...

So it’s not the number of words you know, it’s the way you use them that counts. I’m encouraging young people to learn new words, to extend their vocabularies and to have fun with language. Language is power. The more clearly you can express yourself, the better you will get on in life.

The English language will still be as important in 100 years’ time...

English is getting more and more important every year. English is now truly the lingua franca of the world. More people are speaking English than ever before. We are so blessed that our language, English, is the world’s language!

Shakespeare died 400 years ago this year...

But he is one of the reasons that English is the world’s richest and most wonderful language. Until Shakespeare came along, the English language lacked excitement. Yes, Shakespeare invented the word – along with more than 1,000 others. It appears first in his play, Hamlet.

I met Miley Cyrus in a lift at the BBC...

She is famous for her ‘twerking’. She seemed to think she had invented the word. I told her twerking was what’s known as a “portmanteau” word, combining two words in one, and has been around since the early 1800s. It’s a mix of twist and jerk.

Many people reckon that Barack Obama became the 44th US president because of his way with words...

Language defines you – I only remember the 43rd president because of his way with words. George W Bush was the guy who said “The trouble with the French is they don’t have a word for entrepreneur”.

WORDS GYLES LOVES...

Yex: An old word for a hiccup, very useful for playing Scrabble
Abracadabra: You can conjure up a whole world of magic
Squiddle: An old word, to waste time in idle talk. I do quite a bit of that.
I love you: You can change somebody’s life with these three words.
YOLO: I like acronyms like YOLO (You Only Live Once) and new words. RIDIC is a bit ridiculous, but why not?

DETAILS

Gyles Brandreth’s Word Power will be at the Hazlitt Theatre in Maidstone on Monday, April 4.
He will also be at Sevenoaks’ Ship Theatre on Friday, June 24 and the Gulbenkian in Canterbury on Saturday, June 25.