It’s a miracle I know it, and having to teach someone how to read and spell was an eye opener for me trying to explain “this is like this except for this one word because… Reasons and sometimes there’s a variation like this because…reasons” so many times.
I once had a roommate from Chile and he asked what the difference in pronunciation was for “juice” versus “Jews”. I’m still not sure I properly got the difference across…
Also the difference between “to rob” and “to steal” was an interesting thing to think through and then explain.
Having to explain to my spanish speaking friends why an english word is spelled one way but pronounced another entirely different way gave me the same experience. So many times i have to tell them: “i don’t know english is just weird.”
It’s a miracle I know it, and having to teach someone how to read and spell was an eye opener for me trying to explain “this is like this except for this one word because… Reasons and sometimes there’s a variation like this because…reasons” so many times.
I once had a roommate from Chile and he asked what the difference in pronunciation was for “juice” versus “Jews”. I’m still not sure I properly got the difference across…
Also the difference between “to rob” and “to steal” was an interesting thing to think through and then explain.
Mostly the “reasons” just boil down to etymology. We spell things the way the languages we stole them from spelled them.
Having to explain to my spanish speaking friends why an english word is spelled one way but pronounced another entirely different way gave me the same experience. So many times i have to tell them: “i don’t know english is just weird.”
Agreed, I am teaching my second son to read.
I am having the same conversations as when I taught my first to read.
“ok, this word is a ‘sight word’ because it doesn’t make the sounds you expect. It says won, but it looks like it says on-e”