K – Kan you explane Inglish cpelling

Kan’t Kreate Korrect Cpelling

Otto was furious. “What is with this stupid language! Why can’t letters that have sounds be used to spell things with the same sounds?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Herman.

Otto wailed, “Did you ever try to write down something that starts with the sound of a ‘K’ only to discover that it doesn’t begin with a ‘K’ at all? I’m trying to write a blog about Cuckoo Clocks and found out that cuckoo doesn’t start with a K. That is quite annoying.”

“The English language can be quite difficult to understand. There are a lot of spelling rules you need to know and pronunciations, not to mention exceptions to those rules.”

Otto’s reaction was short. “Was that ‘quite’ with a ‘K’?” All I’m saying is that a language and spelling should be based on sounds equals letters.”

“I feel your pain,” Herman replied.

Otto went on, “Celery has an ‘s’ sound for the ‘C’ so why isn’t ‘carrot’ pronounced ‘sarrot’? And what about ‘center’, why doesn’t a horse ‘santer’ when he’s at a slow gallop? There’s only one letter different!”

Herman thoughtfully replied, “Now that you’ve given me those examples, it is easy to figure out a rule that should solve all your problems. If the ‘c’ is followed by an ‘e’ or ‘i’, you pronounce the ‘c’ like an ‘s’.  All other ‘c’ words sound like a ‘k’.”

“That just adds to my point,” Otto yelled, “Why do we need a ‘c’ at all in the English language, when either an ‘s’ or ‘k’ will do?”

All Herman could say was, “Why don’t you just bring it up with the dictionary people.”