SpellingIQ

Native English spelling

What each Native English convention writes, with examples, and which ones give a word away on sight.

Where these spellings come from

The oldest layer. Old English was spelled as it sounded, and the sounds moved: the k of knight, the w of write and the gh of night were all once pronounced, and the letters stayed after the sounds went. Middle English scribes added tch and dge for the ch and j sounds after a short vowel.

Spellings to recognize on sight

Each of these is a Native English way of writing a sound, and each can be spotted in a word by looking at it. They are also where a speller working by ear writes the plain letters instead.

  • ight for the ite sound · night, knight
  • ough, one spelling for several sounds · though, through
  • silent gh · weigh, taught
  • silent k before n · knife, know
  • silent w before r · write, wrist
  • wh for the w sound · which, whisper
  • silent g beside n · gnaw, gnat
  • silent b after m · thumb, lamb
  • tch for the ch sound · kitchen, watch
  • dge for the j sound at the end · bridge, edge

Background

How this layer fits beside the others, and where the boundaries between them blur, is on where English spelling comes from.

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Other origins

All spelling traps and origins

References