Download 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: http://www.say-it-in-english.com/SpellHome.html
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 -ot
as in 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) and
bow (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 letter U.
Cough rhymes with off. When Jim came down with a cold, he had to cough
many times.
Another odd word is draught, 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 with bite 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 the weight of the freight on 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 often used 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-sychol-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
break
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 the Long 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!