NEVER TRUST ENGLISH SPELLING
Never … trust English spelling English spelling is a foolhardy attempt to represent, with only twenty-six letters, close to sixty distinct sounds. That is why it is so confusing and complicated. The verb to spell is both regular and irregular: spelled, spelled or spelt, spelt. Orthography is the art of correct spelling, but do not use the word; few people would understand you. Say spelling instead. Bill Bryson exclaims in his book The Mother Tongue : “English spelling has caused problems for about as long as there have been English words to spell.” And this situation will probably never change while the English language exists. A word as simple as where has been spelt in different ways since the invention of printing: wher whair wair wheare were wheer —all pronounced, we think, in the same way for centuries. But whining ( gimoteos ) will get us nowhere. We can protest, criticize, lament, deplore, or bemoan... but we are not going to change the way words are spelt. We do, how...