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Simple explanation is that the spelling rules are a combination of several older languages, saxon and french included. So a lot of the trick is to just recogniz
by generalizations 4y ago
Simple explanation is that the spelling rules are a combination of several older languages, saxon and french included. So a lot of the trick is to just recognize which language the word construction originated in.
English is phonetic; but it's also bimodal.
- pclmulqdq 4y agoMultimodal - Germanic languages, French, Latin, Greek and (to a lesser extent) Slavic languages have all produced common words in the English lexicon.
- tomjakubowski 4y ago"tough", "rough", "though" and "borough" all come from Old English, without any French influence. The wackiness in pronouncing "ough" is sadly not predictable from any set of rules and as you'd probably expect varies between dialects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ough_(orthography) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ough_(orthography)
- hydrok9 3y ago"at least eight pronunciations in North American English and nine in British English, and no discernible patterns exist for choosing among them."