Crazy English Spelling

CRAZY ENGLISH SPELLING

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 because English has adopted words from many other languages, or at least has partially adopted them. Very often, English has accepted the new words with their original spellings, but has not always adopted the original pronunciations, or pronunciations were changed along the way, but the original spellings were never changed to match the new pronunciations.

The reasons for this 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 it a little easier for you.

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.

From:

Words that have the same sound but are spelled differently:

1. byte, bite, bight

2. seen, scene

3. hear, here

4. sense, cents, scents

5. their, there, they’re

6. feet, feat

7. ate, eight

8. err, heir, air

9. wheel, we’ll

10. you, ewe

11. isle, aisle, I’ll

12. ale, ail

13. gnu, new, knew

Words that contain “silent” letters that have nothing to do with how they’re pronounced:

1. gnat, gnaw

2. know, knee, knife, knit, knuckle

3. psychology, psychiatrist, pneumonia

4. should, could, would

5. wrap, wrinkle, write, wrist

6. isle, aisle, island

7. debt, doubt, thumb

8. listen, soften, castle, often

All of these words have SILENT LETTERS that are not pronounced in Modern English. Unfortunately, when you write these words, you MUST include those letters.

Words that are spelled in ways that do not match their pronunciation:

1. Words containing “ough”:

a. thought, bought, fought, brought

b. enough, rough, tough

c. through

d. though, although, dough, thorough

e. bough

2. Words containing “ight”:

light, flight, fright, height, night, might, right, sight

3. Words with “oo”:

a. book, foot, good, hood, look, wood, poor, stood

b. boom, doom, gloom, soon, bloom, noon, roof, zoom

c. floor, door

d. flood, blood

Here is a small sample of English inconsistencies:

Ways to spell long “u”:

too, shoe, grew, through, do, cue, 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, nation, grey

Ways to spell long “e”:

free, bean, magazine, gene, be, receive, believe, cede

Ways to spell long “I”:

fine, rhyme, fight, align, isometric, bayou

Ways to spell the “sh” sound:

shirt, ocean, sugar, issue, mansion, ration, suspicion, nauseous, conscious, chivalry, schnapps, fuschia, pshaw, mission

GHOTI

gh, pronounced like “f” as in tough

o, pronounced like “i” as in women

ti, pronounced like “sh” as in nation

Therefore, GHOTI = FISH

Some Clues for Spelling English

1. The -ough -augh problem:

Words that end with ought or aught will almost always end with the sound of -otasin not.

bought / sought / thought / ought / taught / caught / fought / wrought / brought

This is a nice short list and will be easy to memorize. Once you do that, you will know that any word you hear with the OT sound that is not on this short list will probably be spelled with the letters OT.Examples: spot, clot, forgot, shot, trot, plot, not, got, rot, pot, sot, lot, jot, hot, dot, etc.What about the -AUGHT words? Try this memory trick - when you are TAUGHT to spell the right way, you won't be CAUGHT making mistakes..

There are no rules that cover all of the -ough words. Some sound the same and others stand alone, but you need to learn them all.

Rough, tough and enough rhyme with each other and end with the same sound as stuff. Using the words in a rhyme might help you remember that they are spelled alike so if you know how to spell any one of them, you will know the others, also: Example: "I'm rough and tough and that's enough." or "How was my cruise? The seas were rough; the meat was tough; I've had enough." A less common word in this group is slough, meaning to shed dead skin.
Bough, a tree limb, rhymes with cow,a four-footed animal that gives milk. Bough also rhymes with bow, what a stage performer does after the show, bending at the waist toward the audience. British spelling includes plough, which is the same as our plow, to till or dig up the dirt in a farm field.

But then, how do you tell the difference between bow (rhymes with how) andbow (rhymes with go), which is what one shoots an arrow with? This is where the idea of CONTEXT comes in.Context refers to the situation in which the word is used - what the other words in the sentence are referring to. "After the archer shot an arrow into the bull's eye, he leaned his bow against the bough and gave a bow to the audience."The words archer and arrow tell us that the first bow probably refers to the instrument with which an arrow is shot, which means it will rhyme with GO. The second bow is used in a part of the sentence which includes the word audience, so this probably refers to the action of bending at one's waist as a sign of respect or appreciation and will rhyme with HOW or NOW.

Though rhymes with go or show.In advertisements or informal writing it is often written as tho, which seems much more logical.Though can be used as a conjunction or as an adverb in English.

Through ends with a Long U sound and is pronounced the same as threw, what Sammy did with the baseball."Sammy threw the ball through the window."How can you remember which is which? Think about who threw something. He threw ; She threw ; We threw ; They threw. Notice the letter E in each of the words. Remember that the word that means "sent an object flying by releasing it from one's swinging hand"has an E in it, thus must be threw. On the other hand, the train drove through the tunnel, with 'through' and 'tunnel' both containing the letterU.

Cough rhymes with off.When Jim came down with a cold, he had to cough many times.
Another odd word isdraught, which rhymes with draft. This word, spelled the British way first and the American way second, has many different meanings: a current of air; a document authorizing payment of money; a drink, plans for a building, signing up new players for professional sports teams, etc.

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2. The -ight dilemma: There are many words in English that end with the letters -ight and are pronounced kind of like "ah-ee-t", or like a long i + t. Hundreds of years ago, the gh was pronounced, but time and speech patterns changed; Now you just have to write the letters, not pronounce them. These words rhyme withbite or kite.-ight is a large family and when you hear that sound in a word, there is a better than 60% chance that you will be correct if you spell it with -ight. /

• Common words in this group include: fight, light, night, might, right, tight, sight, insight, mighty, fighter, nightly, fright, delight, bright, knight, alight, enlighten, frighten, height, sightly, insight, tighten, plight.

2 1/2. Eight = Long A sound +T. eight, freight, weight rhyme with gate. Since there are only a few members of this family, you should be able to remember them easily. Try this: "What is theweightof the freighton car number eight?" If you are able to spell any of these words, then you will know the others because the endings are all the same.

• Relatives of the -eight family are weigh and sleigh. These words keep the Long A sound, but without the T at the end. Weigh and sleigh rhyme with way and slay.

2 3/4. A final member of this group is straight. Again, there is the Long A sound followed by T, and the word rhymes with crate, trait, and great.

3. Words with beginning letters that are silent. A method oftenused when learning to spell such words is to pronounce the silent letter to yourself every time you write the word. If you do that every time, you will not forget. But how, you may ask, does one know which words begin with silent letters if you hear the words but do not see them? That is simple....you cannot. That is why it is important to read as much as possible so you become familiar with just about any word you are likely to hear.

• Silent P - psychology, psychiatrist, psychoanalysis, pneumatic, pneumonia. As you are preparing to write the word, say to yourself, "p-sy-chol-ogy", not "sy-chol-ogy" or "p-neu-mon-ia", not "neu-mon-ia".
• Silent k - knife, know, knew, knit, knapsack, knuckle, knock, knickers. The same trick works with these words. EVERY time you write the word, pronounce the silent K to yourself, so as you write you are thinking, "k-nife", not "nife", and "k-nap-sack", not "nap-sack"
• Miscellaneous: gnat, gnaw. Use the same method as with the Silent P and the Silent K.

4. Some of the most difficult words to learn to spell are also some of the most common words in English. These words are difficult because they do not follow the normal pronunciation rules in English, so you cannot spell them by sounding them out.

do - pronounced with a Long U, sounds like DU, means "to perform an action or task"
two - pronounced with Long U, sounds like TU, is the number 2.
was - sounds like WUZ, rhymes with 'buzz'. Past tense of the verb TO BE.
the - sounds like THUH, when used before a consonant. / to - pronounced with Long U, sounds like TU, a preposition meaning "in the direction of"
been - pronounced as BIN, the past participle of the verb TO BE.
one - sounds like WUN, rhymes with sun, run, bun. The number 1.
the - sounds like THEE, when used before a word beginning with a vowel sound

Word Families Sound Alike and Look Alike

Words that have the Long A+R sound. This sound is represented by several different spelling combinations in English: -AIR, -ARE, -ERR, -EIR. If you think of the different spellings as different families, then you can remember how to spell the words by remembering what family they are part of.
Words containing the sound of Long A + R
fair / hair / care / ware / glare / stare
repair / unfair / dare / beware / mare / pare
lair / stair / bare / rare / scare / tare
pair / affair / error / terror / fare / hare
heir / err / terrible / terrier

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2. Words that have the Long E+R sound. This sound is represented by the following spellings: -EAR, -EER, -ERE, -IER . Remember the words as part of a family.

Words containing the sound of Long E + R
dear / sear / tear / beer / steer / career / bier
ear / rear / year / deer / veer / here / tier
fear / near / clear / jeer / peer / mere / spear
gear / hear / smear / leer / queer / interfere / sincere

3. Words that have the Long A+T sound. This sound is represented by the following spellings: -ATE, -AIT, -EAT, -EIGHT, -AIGHT. Four of the groups, or Families, are rather small, so you should be able to remember them easily.

Words containing the sound of Long A + T
ate / gate / pate / state / bait / great / grate
bate / hate / rate / rebate / gait / eight / trait
date / late / sate / plate / wait / freight / straight
fate / mate / rotate / crate / plait / weight

4. Words that have the Long A + N sound can be a pain. This sound is represented by the following spellings: -ANE, -AIN, -EIGN, -EIN. Study and learn the words as part of a group or family.

Memory Helpers: "The man down the lane hit Jane with a cane." "What will you gain if you remain in the rain?" "Cain tried in vain to explain why Able was slain."

Words containing the sound of Long A + N
bane / mane / wane / gain / slain / refrain / rein
cane / pane / crane / main / explain / maintain / vein
Dane / plane / Cain / pain / detain / deign / skein
Jane / sane / chain / rain / remain / feign
lane / vane / drain / vain / contain / reign

5. Words with the Long E + N sound can be seen next: This sound is produced with the following sets of letters: -EEN, -EAN, -ENE, -INE. The first two groups are the main ones, so you should study them well.

• Memory Helpers: "I've seen the teen queen preen between dates." "The mean Dean made me clean every bean."

Words containing the sound of Long E + N
between / keen / bean / mean / gene / xylene / dexodrine
careen / preen / dean / wean / neoprene / gasoline / Murine
seen / spleen / jean / clean / kerosene / Vasoline / green
teen / queen / lean / scene / carotene / Visine / marine

6. Words that have theLong A + L sound: This sound is made by these letter combinations: -ALE, -AIL, -EIL. The first two are by far the most common, and the only way to learn which words belong in which group is to STUDY, MEMORIZE, READ and WRITE the words as much as you can.

• Memory Helpers: "The pale male whale got caught in the gale." "The man from Yale bought a bale of kale that was on sale." "If you fail to make bail, you'll get your next mail in jail."

Words containing the sound of Long A + L
bale / male / vale / flail / pail / wail / trail
dale / pale / Yale / hail / rail / retail / Brail
hale / sale / ail / jail / sail / derail / veil
gale / tale / bail / mail / snail / entail
kale / whale / fail / nail / tail / frail

Beware of heard, a dreadful word,

That looks like beard and sounds like bird.

And dead: it’s said like bed and not like bead,

For goodness sakes don’t call it deed!