English Words with Odd Spellings

I have written a fair amount of poetry. Some of it has rhymed and some has not. When people ask me about the styles of poetry I write and why I enjoy writing it, I talk about  rhyme and rythm... er...rythem..er......rythym   ...better look it up.  R-H-Y-T-H-M. Rhythm. Huh? That does not make sense. And how come I have no trouble with rhyme? Do I simply use that word more often?

But then, why should I be surprised when English has so many exceptions to rules, silent letters, and words that with one or two different letters at the beginning of an otherwise identical list of words sound entirely different? Can you say "tough," "though," "through," and "bough?" Despite the fact that music is a huge factor in my life, I don't think I will ever be able to spell "rhythm" without looking it up first. Oh, and have I mentioned that I minored in English in University? In fact, I was originally going to major in English and minor in Psychology before I decided to switch these subjects.

I was taught to read with the whole word method by Mom using flashcards-long before I entered kindergarten. How can Hooked on Phonics ever work for English speakers? It can't, properly, and I blame this phonic learning for all the trendy spellings such as "lite," and "nite." English is actually a very difficult language to learn to speak and write, and I cannot imagine trying to learn it as a second language. Personally, I think Hooked on Phonics should be used only with Romance languages where vowel pronunciation is essentially constant. Punctuation marks will tell you how to pronounce a word in French or Italian-not in English.

Of course, the oddest English word spelling is "subpoena"-the court summons you are handed in person to notify you officially that you are wanted to testify in court as a witness for either a criminal case or a civil case. The spelling makes it look like it should be pronounced as "sup-eon-ah" or that the definition is some sort of Latin sub-species of the peony flower. In my opinion, this word should be spelled as s-u-p-i-n-a with its proper pronunciation.

Meanwhile, the oddest English-language place name in North America is Arkansas. That is "Are-Can-Saw" to you whole word readers. Hooked on Phonics will insist that Arkansas should be pronounced as "Are-Can-Sus"-otherwise known as "Our Kansas." No need to be confused with "Your Kansas" or "Their Kansas." And be sure you use the correct "their" "there" or "they're" with Kansas, too.

Of course, there are times when you are typing that you accidently hit the wrong letters. I am not talking about people who confuse "there" "their" or "they're." Rather I am talking about typing out a word that is spelled correctly, but it isn't the word you meant to type. I type with one hand, so this is often a problem for me. "R" and "T" are next door to each other and I was talking in the forums on another website one day about the author Lillian Jackson Braun who had just died. I gushed about how much I loved reading Braun because I adore "c-a-r-s."

Oops! That was supposed to read "c-a-t-s." This is why it is necessary to read your writing out loud as part of your editing process. You cannot rely simply on spell check. What did people do before computers? That's right, they used the dictionary.

In conclusion:

*Some words have odd spellings, making them difficult to spell even for native English speakers. Trendy spelling is now replacing correct spelling. That is fine for "texting" -apparently this is not a correctly spelled word as it is underlined in red for me-where you have a small number of characters you are allowed. However, it is not appropriate for a term paper or work you hand in to your boss. 

*Hooked on Phonics should not be used for native English speakers as it produces bad spellers.

*Spell check is an important tool. However, it cannot be your only editing tool. You need to read your test aloud to make sure you have not written the wrong but correctly spelled word.