The English language is a difficult one to learn because there are many exceptions to the rules of reading and writing. For example, there are words that sound the same, but they have different meanings and are spelled differently (homophones). Often writers will use the similar sounding words interchangeably, not knowing that they are using the wrong word for the content they are writing about. A common example of this is to/two/too. “Two” is the number, “too” is used to describe an addition and “to” is commonly used as preposition for direction or describing motion.
Because of the many exceptions in writing English, there are words that are difficult to spell. We first teach our children to phonetically sound out words as they are spelling them, if they are unsure how to spell it. This is often the rule of thumb at any age; however, there are times where vowels and letters are silent or the word is simply not spelled phonetically. Examples of silent letters is the letter “D” in the words handkerchief, Wednesday and sandwich. It is only through memorization where these words can be spelled correctly.
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