Words that should be respelt

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Kingswood

snip ~
On the other hand, "I before E except after C" only correctly predicts the spelling of about one third of words with "CEI" in them; the other two thirds of the words have "CIE" instead.

Huh? One third? You just said two thirds have CIE?

Kudos, by the way, to anyone who really knows the full "I before E except after C" rule. I don't know the proper way to phrase it, but it's something like "I before E except after C when the sound of the vowel rhymes with BEE". Many adults don't remember the bit about the vowel.

I before E, except after C, or sounding like A, as in neighbor and weigh.

When many adults cannot remember all the spelling rules, it's no surprise that many adults cannot spell.

That sounded like tw.

How long does it take a child in Italy to learn to read Italian with the same proficiency? One year, maybe two. Does that mean Italian children are not challenged in the classroom? Of course not - it's just they are not challenged by the need to learn to spell in their native language. Some languages don't even have a word for "spelling".

Of course they have to learn to spell in their native language. How in hell would they ever write without spelling? Reading is not the same as writing.

And what would we gain? We would have higher rates of literacy, a greater percentage of people that can confidently read a newspaper after eight years of education, and less likelihood of being denied employment because someone misspelled a word in a job application.

Trying to get a job with an eigth grade education, spelling is the least of your problems.

With more streamlined spellings, one would be able to teach the kids less and yet they learn as much. No longer would they need to learn the sound signs for the letters, then separately learn the spelling of "friend"; instead "frend" would be recognisable from the sound-signs alone and one less word needs to be learnt by rote. Do this for other common words that cause particular trouble and kids would still know how to spell the same number of words - but spend less time learning them. It's pretty obvious, really.

Screw that! I had to do it, along with tests without using a calculater and a lot of other things the little wimps don't do any more. If you make it too easy for them, the terrorists have won.

Some people appear to have overreacted to the idea of even considering alternative spellings for words that are most badly in need of them. The world is not going to end tomorrow just because someone had the temerity to consider dropping a totally useless silent letter from a word that one might use a dozen times in a lifetime. The sky won't fall because the latest editions of some dictionaries list "thru" as an acceptable alternative spelling for "through". The moral standards of society will not be degraded for daring to point out that some words in English are in need of better spelling.

So lighten up please.

Chill out, we're all friends here. You appear to be the one that should lighten up. You can't denounce people that disagree and ever expect to make any headweigh.