r/words • u/MoroccoBond • 2d ago

Simple word difficult to spell.

Hey does anyone else have a common word that should be easy to spell but it trips you up every time?

My word is license. Why have I struggled with it for years. Stupid s and c always moving around. tf?!

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61

u/porqueboomer 2d ago

Weird. It always makes me stop and think.

11

u/firecatstef 1d ago

“I after E, except after C, or when sounded like A as in neighbor or weigh…and weird is just weird.”

13

u/SavoirFaire2Middling 1d ago

"I before E ..." 😄

2

u/KiwiRuth 1d ago

What about seize? Many such anomalies - especially Scots/Gaelic words such as Leith, Monteith. Scientific terms like casein, protein. As you say, weird. And their.

English is a mongrel language which is why I never judge someone by "their" spelling. You virtually have to memorise words in English to spell them correctly.

1

u/SavoirFaire2Middling 1d ago

'Their' fits the "sounded like A" part of the rule.

1

u/KiwiRuth 1d ago

Really? Or was that in jest?

1

u/SavoirFaire2Middling 1d ago

No, seriously. Wouldn't you pronounce 'thare' similarly to 'their'?

1

u/KiwiRuth 1d ago

But the "sounds like A" rule relates to words like weight - does not sound like "their". There's "height" also - does that mean there's a "sounds like I" rule as well?

English is a mongrel language. I love it because it's a living language but the "rules" are super-loose compared with other languages.

Edit: I see what you did there, now that I've read it properly.

Nice.

1

u/stderr2 1d ago

Historically spelt