how to spell: tip 2 why spelling is weird & wonderful

Why is English spelling so confusing? You may feel that English spelling is illogical, weird and just plain crazy. It's true that there are some strange irregular spellings, this is because it includes words from many languages and some very very old words which we'll discuss later.

But English is much more regular in spelling than we think. In fact about 75% of English spelling is regular.

According to David Crystal: English spelling gives the impression of being more irregular than it really is. There are about 400 words in English whose spelling is wholly irregular -- the trouble is these are among the most frequently used words in the language. (David Crystal -- The English Language.)

Let's look at some of the most popular of these irregular words.

although among answer are aunt autumn blood build castle clerk climb colour comb come cough could course debt do does done dough eye friend gone great have hour island journey key lamb listen move none of once one only own people pretty quay receive rough said salt says shoe shoulder some sugar talk two was water were where who you (Notice a lot of these words have silent letters in them. These used to be pronounced, but we leave the silent letters in there to show the history of the word.

So how did English spelling become so 'weird' with its unusual spellings?

The English spelling system developed over the centuries and the irregularities came about because of various invaders and writers trying to fit their alphabet and sounds to English.

Roman/Latin writers, French scribes after 1066 who caused the most problems, then there were the printers with their new fangled printing presses of the 1400s, and then the 16th Century English academics decided to make spelling more like its Latin roots and added all sorts of silent letters in words.

Then in America Noah Webster decided to simplify American spellings and brought out his dictionary in 1828. This lot changed and brought 'strange' ways of spelling words.

Also pronunciation changed over the centuries but the spelling remained the same. especially with the words with silent letters in them like knee, knock, light, cough, calm, daughter... we didn't change the spelling because that was set.

60% of English words have silent letters in them. If you know they're not there to mess with your head but to show the history of the word it helps. For example: knock, knee, gnaw, gnat are all Viking (Old Norse) words, the 'k' and 'g' were pronounced but not now.
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As your knowledge of words increases, your confidence in learning improves, your ability to use a dictionary develops and your memory bank of words grow larger, you will start being able to predict likely spelling patterns or feel able to learn whole groups of words at once, and learning and remembering spellings will become easier for YOU. (Basic Skills Agency's The Spelling Pack)


So my TOP spelling TIP number 2 is knowing the history of spelling helps you realise why it is the way it is and stops you getting frustrated with it.

Go over to my website and check out The Reasons Why English Spelling is the Way it is ebook, and also sign up for free spelling lessons at howtospell.co.uk
other video history of English spelling

Thank you for watching and see you in spelling tip number 3 - how to remember and stop forgetting spellings.