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 ...

If you're a kid learning how to write, or an adult speaker of a language with sensible spelling, English spelling can seem like a cruel prank. And even if you're a completely literate adult native ...

Spellers compete in The Denver Post 72nd Annual Colorado State Spelling Bee at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver on Mar. 10, 2012. Spellers compete in The Denver Post 72nd Annual Colorado State ...

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The Church publishes the Monitor ...

This May, students from across the United States will gather in Washington D.C., for the 100th anniversary of the Scripps Spelling Bee, determined to conquer a spelling system that has baffled us for ...

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 ...

The English language is notorious for complex spelling rules—and the many words that break them. We all know i comes before e, except, of course, in certain weird words like, well, weird. We pronounce ...

Today Sam will plow through the city’s rough boroughs in search of artisanal cookie dough, even though he ought to stay home to nurse his cough. What’s wrong with that picture? Seven words containing ...

In the day and age that we live in, proper English spelling and grammar seem to have taken a backseat for students. With internet lingo and texting ruling the hearts and minds of youngsters, learning ...