The English language is much more complicated than most native speakers think.
Depending on a person's native language, learning English can be relatively easy or quite difficult. Speakers of other Germanic languages may have an easier time with English spelling than speakers of non-Germanic languages, but the fact remains that quite a bit of English spelling is not phonetic. While the English language has several spelling rules that should make spelling easier, not all English words follow these rules.
Different Spellings for the Same Sound
According to one estimation, English has 1,100 ways to spell the 44 separate sounds that comprise the language. This is one of the main factors contributing to the difficulty of learning to spell in English. Once a person has identified a sound in a word, she then needs to determine which spelling of that sound applies to the word. One example is the spelling for a long u sound. All the following words contain this sound, but are spelled differently: "shoe," "grew," "glue," "do," "two" and "doom."
Homophones
Words that sound the same but mean different things or are spelled differently are called homophones and are another reason English spelling is so difficult to learn. Phonetically speaking, similar sounds should be spelled the same way, but this is not the case with homophones. An example is "here" and "hear." If we pronounced words phonetically, these two words would have different pronunciations. It is also difficult for a non-English speaking person to spell homophones because they may not have a clear understanding of the different meanings.
Silent Letters
A common mistake spellers make is omitting silent letters or placing them incorrectly. These silent letters are not pronounced but are necessary for a word to be properly spelled. If someone tries to spell phonetically, these silent letters get left out because they are not sounded out. Common examples of silent letters include "knife," "knee," "psychology" and "thought."
Consonant Doubling
Another common barrier to learning English spelling is the doubling of consonants in some, but not all, words. The rule here is to double a consonant after a short, stressed vowel in a longer word; however, consonant doubling often appears after unstressed vowels and some consonants do not get doubled even after a short, stressed vowel. The word "common," for example, contains a short, stressed "o" as do the words "comic" and "dominant," but the latter two words do not have double consonants.
Exceptions to the Rules
There are 90 basic English spelling patterns that are taught when a person learns spelling; 84 of the patterns have exceptions. In addition, many words deviate from the common English spellings, making English by far the most difficult language to master.
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