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 ...

Grammarly built its reputation on being a tool for checking spelling, grammar, and writing tips in English. The company is ...

There isn't a strong link between good spelling and intelligence, but that doesn't mean spelling doesn't matter. Proper spelling makes people perceive you as more intelligent and can increase your ...

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 ...

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”, ...

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 ...

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 ...

English, whatever its merits as a language, is a bitch to spell. There are so many rules, and so many exceptions, and yet in the end you have to learn a lot of words on a case-by-case basis. If future ...

“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 ...

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 ...