When I recently heard there were protesters outside the national spelling bee, I thought I must have misunderstood. Why the heck would anyone protest a spelling bee?! Then I learned that they were objecting to the difficulty level of standard English spelling.
They’re right. English is a difficult language, but I’m not sure that trying to simplify it would be simple. The word through, they claim, has too many letters. It should probably be thru. But what happens to threw? Would it become thru as well?
Then there’s lead – as in “I will lead you through the maze.” Not to be confused with lead – the iron-like metal. Never to be confused with led – as in “I led you through the maze.”
But wait. Corn is also referred to as maize. Would that become mays?
I’m confused, in a daze. Or should that be days?
Maybe the protesters are right after all.
They’re right. English is a difficult language, but I’m not sure that trying to simplify it would be simple. The word through, they claim, has too many letters. It should probably be thru. But what happens to threw? Would it become thru as well?
Then there’s lead – as in “I will lead you through the maze.” Not to be confused with lead – the iron-like metal. Never to be confused with led – as in “I led you through the maze.”
But wait. Corn is also referred to as maize. Would that become mays?
I’m confused, in a daze. Or should that be days?
Maybe the protesters are right after all.
2 comments:
And what about lede? That is how I was taught to spell the first paragraph in a news story when I took journalism oh so many years ago (in junior high!)
Very creativve post
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