Absolutely Ridiculous English Spelling

Lesson 1. Introduction:

Why does the English language have so many words that are difficult to spell?  The main reason is that English has 1,100 different ways to spell its 44 separate sounds, more than any other language.  Some of the results of this are:	Words that have the same sounds but are spelled differently,
	Words that contain letters that have nothing to do with the way the words are pronounced
	Words that contain silent letters; that is, letters that must be included when you write the words even though they are not pronounced,
	Spelling rules that have lists of exceptions - words that do not follow the rules and thus must be memorized separately.

This situation exists for a variety of reasons.      For some words, the pronunciation has changed over the centuries even though the spelling has not changed.  Some words have been borrowed from other languages, and although they have kept their original spellings,  people over the years began pronouncing the words according to English rules.  Still other words have been borrowed from other languages and have kept their original spellings AND pronunciations, which makes them seem strange by English rules.

The reasons for the Ridiculous English Spelling do not matter, however, because  English is what it is; it has been this way for a long time.  If you want to learn to speak and write it, you must learn it as it is and not how it should be.  Our task is to make that a little easier for you.

Some common inconsistencies:

Pattern	Examples	How they are pronounced
words containing "ough"	thought, bought, fought, brought enough, rough, tough, slough through  though, although, dough, thorough cough bough, doughty	end with sound of "ot" as in POT, NOT end with sound of "uff" as in STUFF ends with sound of Long U, as in the word THREW or SHOE end with the sound of Long O, as in NO or GO ends with the sound "OFF contain the same sound as "COW" or "NOW"
Words that sound the same but are spelled differently.	byte, bite, bight seen, scene hear, here sense, cents, scents their, there, they're feet, feat ate, eight err, heir, air wheel, weal, we'll you, ewe isle, aisle, I'll ale, ail gnu, new, knew	Long i + t Long e + n Long e + r all end with the sound of "-ENCE" or "-ENSE" Long a + r Long e + t Long a + t Long a + r Long e + L Long u Long I + L Long a + L N + Long u
Words containing "ight"	alight, bight, blight, flight, fright, height, light, night, might, right, sight, tight, plight,	In all of these words, "ight" is pronounced like Long i + t.
Words with Silent Letters	gnat, gnaw know, knee, knife, knit, knickers, knuckle psychology, psychiatrist, pneumonia should, could, would isle, aisle, island wrap, wrinkle, write, wrath, wrist, wrought debt, doubt listen, soften, castle, often	All of these words are pronounced as if the red letters were not there, but when you write the words, you MUST include those letters.
Words that look the same but are pronounced differently.	wind - Short i sound wind - Long i sound read - Short e sound read - Long e sound abuse - with z sound abuse - with s sound addict - stress on ad addict - stress on dict combine - stress on com combine - stress on bine defect - stress on de defect - stress on fect	moving air outdoors, part of weather twisting motion, as with a clock spring past tense, got meaning from written words present tense of same verb verb, to injure or do harm noun - injury or damage noun - person who acts compulsively verb - to make dependent on noun - a harvesting machine verb - to put together noun - a flaw verb - to desert
Words with 'oo' that should sound the same but don't.	book, foot, good, hood, look, moor, poor, stood, wood aloof, boom, doom, gloom, soon, bloom, broom, noon, proof, roof, zoom floor, door flood, blood	these words have the same Short U  vowel sound these words all have a Long U sound 'oo' = an O sound as in 'or', 'more' these words have the same vowel sound as 'bud' and 'cud'

Some more inconsistencies:

Ways to spell Long 'U'	shoe, grew, through. do, doom, flue, two, who, brute, duty
Ways to spell Long 'O'	go, show, though, sew, beau, float, bone,
Ways to spell Long 'A'	may, weigh, late, pain, rein,  great
Ways to spell Long 'E'	free, bean, magazine, gene, mete, be, mien, receive, believe
Ways to spell Long 'I'	fine, rhyme, fight, align, isometric, bayou

The chart above is just a small sample of why Spelling Rules in English can be almost as much of a problem as spelling itself.  Notice the "i-e" Rule:

Use i before e, except after c, or when sounding like a as in neighbor and weigh.

• This is a nice, neat little rule concerning words that have the letters i and e together, usually  to form the Long E sound in English: i before e, as in piece or relief.
• Then the rule says "Except after C".  The ie becomes ei , as in receive and deceit. 
• Now, you know that the Long E sound in English can be made by 'ie', unless the sound comes after 'c', in which case it is made by 'ei', (except for those times when the Long E sound is made by 'ee' or 'ea' or 'e' or 'i' or 'oe').
• Then the Rule tells you about another exception - when the i and the e are together in a word and are pronounced like Long A, the e must come before the i.  Examples: neighbor, sleigh, weigh, freight, etc.
• In this one short Rule, there are already  two exceptions to it covering dozens of other words, but that is not the end.  There are many words that do not follow the Rule or its exceptions: seize, weird, neither, either, foreign, sovereign, forfeit, counterfeit, leisure, heifer, protein, geiger (as in 'counter'), height, sleight, feisty, seismograph, poltergeist, kaleidoscope. 

At this point you may ask, "What can I do about it? How can I figure out how to spell the words in this crazy language?" Believe it or not, there are a few things you can do that will help, but after you remember the rules and learn the 'tricks', you are left with this basic technique: Study, Memorize, Study, Memorize, Study, Memorize.

Exercise: For each of the words in the list below, write the definition (from a dictionary) and write a sentence using the word.

1. scene
2. seen
3. scent
4. sent
5. cent
6. err
7. air
8. heir
9. feet
10.feat
11. new
12. knew
13. hear
14. here

Posted in: Grammer , Learning English