Take a look at the following English words: butcher, squirrel, mortgage, and choir. Does something seem off about them? At one point in time, the words move and love rhymed. So did blood, good, and ...

STORY: Why is English so hard to spell? There are clear differences between how words are written and how they are said. If English is your first language you may not realize it’s not that normal. In ...

This post is in partnership with History Today. The article below was originally published at HistoryToday.com. Note: Usually, History Today posts appear on TIME.com with American spellings. For this ...

In a normal year, millions of Americans would be following closely this week as preteens showcase their knowledge of words most of us have never heard of. The social and professional benefits of ...

My 11-year-old student sighs. How can the same letters make so many different sounds? We are looking at the letter combination “ough”, which can be read in seven different ways: “through”, “thorough”, ...

“But here’s the thing,” wrote David Shariatmadari in The Guardian a couple of weeks ago. “English orthography makes no sense.” No sense? I know it is exaggeration for the sake of humor (no quibble ...

Tear in eye your dress you’ll tear. So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer, Pray, console your loving poet, Make my coat look new, dear, sew it? Just compare heart, beard and heard, Dies and diet, lord and ...

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Are you smarter than a spelling bee contestant? If you can spell these words, you might be. Merriam-Webster has announced the hardest words to spell in the English language ahead of the 92nd annual ...

On August 27, 1905, The Worcester Evening Gazette loudly declared a rupture with President Theodore Roosevelt. "THE GAZETTE WILL BE PRINTED IN ENGLISH" was the headline on the lead editorial. ... “The ...