Learn with Condorito

Did you know...

Back in the 15th century, about the time when Christopher Columbus was discovering the "New World", English language was 90% phonetic.

That means that the words sounded the same as they look.

As the explorers travelled to new places, they brought back with them new words.

People liked the sound of these foreign words and started adding them to their conversations.

So, today, the English language is full of words that were adopted from other languages that follow a variety of different grammar and usage rules. The English language uses the Latin alphabet, which has only 26 letters that now must represent 41 different significant sounds. That means that English speakers must attempt to use combinations of letters to represent different sounds. This also means that modern English is only 40% phonetic. There are almost as many exceptions as there are rules in the English language.