LESSON TRANSCRIPT

All About S1 #2
Learn The English Writing
System

# 2
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Chihiro: Hey everyone and welcome back. I'm Chihiro and welcome to
EnglishClass101.com. This is All About English Lesson 2, Learn the English Writing
System. In this lesson, Daniel and I are going to explain a little bit more about the
writing system in English.

Daniel: Right, we’re going to briefly talk about how English is written with a pencil
and paper... or printed.

Chihiro: Listeners, you most likely know the alphabet, the 26 letter writing system
that consists of 21 consonants and 5 vowels either from your own language, or from
studying it. It has no diacritics, which are markings on letters to show the way a letter
should be pronounced. Each letter can be written in two ways, upper case and lower
case.

Daniel: You probably have seen the alphabet around you, perhaps on products or on
TV, even if English is not an official or even a second language for that matter in your
country.

Chihiro: Some languages that use the alphabet have a phonemic system... which...

Daniel: A what system?

Chihiro: A phonemic system, which means that the sound corresponds to the letter
of the alphabet. It means you can probably spell the word just by hearing it.

Daniel: Right.

Chihiro: The spelling for English is to a certain extent phonemic, but the rules are
more complex than other phonemic languages. This means that the spelling is not
always easy to figure out just from hearing the word. This is because it has influences
from French, Greek, Latin, and other languages.

Daniel: Also, between 1400-1700 there was a major change in the pronunciation of
vowels. This is called the Great Vowel Shift.

Chihiro Which also accounts for irregularities in the writing system. There are several
theories behind this, but immigration could be one. The need to communicate with
people with different accents meant adjusting pronunciation.

Daniel: Right. That’s for sure. That’s why today, you find so many words with similar or

ENGLISHCLASS101.COM ALL ABOUT S1 #2 - LEARN THE ENGLISH WRITING SYSTEM 2

identical pronunciation spelled differently. For example the double o in the word
food is pronounced differently from the double o in the word good.

Chihiro: That's a good example. And also I realized that since we use computers to
write things these days, when I write to my friends I tend to take shortcuts in my
writing... for example I drop double letters just to make things shorter... and when I
find myself having to write something out, by hand, I tend to doubt my spelling!

Daniel: Ah, you’re not the first person I bet. So listeners, as you can see, spelling is not
always straightforward in English!

Chihiro: No, and also British English and American English sometimes spell words
differently, we suggest that once you pick a spelling form, don’t mix the two up, just
stick with one or the other.

Daniel: Let’s give some examples of tricky spellings for words. Listeners, go ahead
and try to spell them yourself, see if you know them! Give us one Chihiro.

Chihiro: Ok, let’s start with accommodate... that’s a-c-c-o-m-m-o-d-a-t-e

Daniel: Those double letters are a pain but necessary... which is spelt n-e-c-e-s-s-a-r-y

Chihiro: How about the word although? That’s a-l-t-h-o-u-g-h. But the word cough is
c-o-u-g-h. Similar, but different pronunciation.

Daniel: Good examples. How about just plain difficult spelling... this next word is also
one of my favorite drinks... daiquiri... d-a-i-q-u-i-r-i

Chihiro: And if you’re in the military, you should know how to spell colonel... c-o-l-o-n-
e-l

Daniel: And one more, if you lived through the 80s, you might remember lots of
fluorescent colors... Flourescent, which is spelt, f-l-o-u-r-e-s-c-e-n-t.

Chihiro: Spelling is all about memorization, so keep on practicing.

Daniel: And when working on the computer, always double check your spelling with
the spell check and with your own eyes. Spelling errors are frowned upon in formal
documents.

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Chihiro: Right good point. Ok, that's all we have for this lesson, thanks for listening
everybody and hope you tune in next time.

Daniel: Thanks everybody, bye for now.

ENGLISHCLASS101.COM ALL ABOUT S1 #2 - LEARN THE ENGLISH WRITING SYSTEM 4