Why Is English so Hard to Spell?

Consider the words knight, night, through, though, bough, cough, rough, come, give, gone.

Take a short pretest about the history of English.  Look at this chart.


Old English spoken for us.


Anglo-Saxon art

Anglo-Saxons vs. Vikings  which leads us to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.


After Norman castles we come to Middle English.

 

Homework:


1.  Go to the "Glossary of Usage"  in The Everyday Writer, pages 243-252.  Find and read about  "loose, lose" and write a sentence using each of those two words correctly.  THEN choose three MORE pairs of interest to you, and do the same for them. You may have eight sentences when you are done, but if you can combine words in a sentence, you may do so. Underline the eight words of interest as you use them.


2.  Here is a link if you are interested in this stuff:  The BBC on the History of English