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Why is English spelling so hard?

If you’ve ever found yourself stumped by English spelling, you’re definitely not alone. Even native speakers can get tripped up by words like through, knight, or aggressive. Why is it that these words look so different from how they sound? It turns out, the spelling system in English is a relic of our linguistic past, with layers of history and some fascinating sound shifts at play.


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Old English Origins and Odd Spellings

English is a patchwork of influences, but many of the most common words—like the, through, night, laugh—come from Old or Middle English. The problem is, English pronunciation has changed over time, but the spelling has largely stayed the same. For example, in Old English, the word knight would have been pronounced something like "k-neeht." Yes, that silent k and gh were fully pronounced!


Interestingly, around 60% of the 1,000 most frequent words in English are of Germanic origin, primarily from Old English. These tend to be short, functional words like the, and, he, she, and with, which form the backbone of everyday speech. Because these words are used so often, young children are faced with these quirky spellings right from the start when they learn to read and spell. These words, often called "sight words," can’t always be sounded out phonetically and must be memorized, adding an extra challenge for early learners.


Take the word through—back in Middle English, it would have been pronounced more like "thruɣ" (with that gh sounding like a gargled "ch" in the back of the throat). But as pronunciation evolved, the spelling fossilized, leaving us with the quirky mismatch we see today.


The Great Vowel Shift: Why Words Don’t Sound the Way They’re Spelled

One of the biggest shifts in English pronunciation happened between the 1400s and 1700s, and it’s known as the Great Vowel Shift. During this time, long vowel sounds started to "move up" in the mouth. For example, the word bite used to be pronounced "beet," and meet used to sound like "mate." As vowels shifted, spelling conventions didn’t keep up.

This shift helps explain why meat and meet are pronounced the same, even though they’re spelled differently. The same goes for blood (which rhymes with good in Middle English) but now sounds like "blud" due to these sweeping changes in vowel pronunciation.


Double Trouble: Assimilation

Ever wonder why some words seem to double up on their consonants? It’s often because of a linguistic process called assimilation. This happens when a prefix (like ad-) blends with the root word. For example, ad + gressive (from the Latin gradere, to step) should give us something like adgressive. But the d from ad- has assimilated to match the g in gressive, giving us aggressive instead.


Other examples of assimilation include:

  • immobile (from in- + mobile)

  • illegal (from in- + legal)

  • irrelevant (from in- + relevant)



The consonants double up to make the transition from prefix to root smoother on the tongue. And of course, this quirky bit of pronunciation evolution is often reflected in English spelling, making things just a bit more challenging!


From -tion to -shun: Assibilation

Another stumbling block in English spelling is the process of assibilation—where certain endings like -tion or -sion get pronounced as “shun.” Words like nation, action, and mission all follow this pattern. You might wonder why these aren’t just spelled nashun or akshun instead—well, blame history again.


Assibilation occurs when certain sounds become "sibilant," meaning they take on a hissing sound, like s or sh. Latin words ending in -tio or -sio became part of English, but instead of keeping that hard t or s sound, we softened it into the sh we use today.


Some more examples:

  • concession (from concedere in Latin, which would have had a harder sound)

  • expulsion (from expellere)


We may say "shun," but the spelling still nods back to its Latin roots, adding yet another layer of complexity to English spelling rules.


The Chaotic Charm of English Spelling

It’s clear that the quirks of English spelling aren’t random—they’re echoes of its history. From the remnants of Old and Middle English to the aftermath of the Great Vowel Shift, from assimilation to assibilation, every tricky spelling has a story. While this may make English spelling one of the hardest to master, it’s also what gives it a certain charm. Every time you write a word like knight or aggressive, you're seeing centuries of linguistic evolution on the page.

So, the next time you find yourself wrestling with English spelling, take heart—it’s not just difficult, it’s delightfully historical!

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