In Vowels^x, Spelling^x

CalifJim wrote:I thought you were only looking for irregular verb forms.I am indeed looking for something like irregular verb forms. The comparison with bays, days, etc. is just a remark. But what is intriguing is that says is not an irregular verb. It is formed by just adding an s. It's...

Contrary to common belief, the name is not Scandinavian; it is simply two made-up words meant to look Scandinavian to American eyes (which is quite ironic as "z" is rarely used in the Scandinavian languages). This is known in the marketing industry as foreign branding (and also similar to the...

To all of you who want a British accent: Although I've mentioned on this website that I've made a website of poems, with my clear English voice recording attached to them, and although since last year almost 24000 people have visited it from across the world, I have never heard from anyone in...

CalifJim wrote:I read somewhere that Mario Pei, the linguist, tried to learn a different language every year. He supposedly claimed that Vietnamese was the most difficult. CJ I disagree with the linguist Mario Pei not because I am a Vietnamese. It is because I have seen, in my...

When I was teaching GED prep a few months ago, we used a book called Morphographs to teach spelling. In it, there were all these spelling rules based on morphographs (smallest parts of a word). One of these rules is that "w" and "y" at the end of a morphograph are vowels.

There are few spelling rules in English, Aroo-- and most of them have exceptions. English has more vowel sounds than its alphabet has vowel characters. There is no escape from learning and remembering individual spellings.

I have mentioned this before on this website, but I hope it will help you. I am poet who has made available freely about 240 of my own poems on the internet, but I have also added my clear English voice to each poem to help both overseas students studying the English language and especially...

Hwat for what is the original pronunciation and was the only form used in Middle English. In Modern English, many dialects lost the wine-whine distinction, and began pronouncing words spelled "wh" as simply "w", rather thn "hw". The original, conservative form is still around, and is considered...

I don't think there is a hard and fast rule here. However: If you have a two syllable word that ends with an 'a', it's typical that the vowel in the first is short. Like 'dada', 'feta', etc. This is not a rule so much as a pattern that should be observed. Following it, the 'da' in 'data' should...

and an ignorant American would look at British and pronounce practise (Br. spelling) like practize.... Highly unlikely.Americans on the other hand, have been butchering it for centuries and should not be consulted when learning this language. It is, after all, English and not American.Rubbish. ...