English Spelling

Many people feel that English spelling rules are troublesome.  Some letters are not pronounced but still need to be written down, such as Comb, Climb, Tomb, Debt, Doubt‌, Subtle. Without checking, I sometimes make spelling mistakes. I agree that from a learner's perspective, English spelling is truly a pain, but at the same time I feel the chaos of English spelling also has a beautiful side to it.  Although many languages in relatively recent centuries have undergone systematic spelling reform, English has never gone through this process. As a result, many words have spellings that reflect very old pronunciations, while others reflect which ancient language the word has its roots in.  So in my view, the chaos of English spelling isn't really chaos; it's more like a window into the past. I reckon that every language's annoying aspects probably have similar reasons or explanations behind them. Compared to other Indo-European languages, English has already lost a lot of its conjugations. English nouns are neutral, unlike French nouns which are more complicated. Therefore, compared to other Indo-European languages, English is easier to learn.

不少人觉得英文的拼写规则很麻烦。 有些字母不发音，却非要写出来，比如[cb]Comb, Climb, Tomb, Debt, Doubt‌, Subtle.[/cb] 如果不检查的话，有时就会出现拼写错误。 我同意从学习者的角度来看，英文拼写的确很麻烦，但我同时觉得英文拼写的乱还有美好的方面。 尽管在近几个世纪里，许多语言都经历了系统的拼写改革，但英语却从未进行过这样的改革。 所以很多词的拼写仍然古老的读音，而且很多词的拼写表现它们根源于哪种古老的语言。 所以在我看来，英文拼写的乱其实不算是乱，而更像是一扇通往过去的窗户。 我觉得每种语言麻烦的方面应该会有类似的原因。 跟其它印欧语言比起来，英文的动词变位已经少了很多。 英语名词是中性的，不像法语名词那样麻烦。 所以，跟其它印欧语言比起来，英语简单易学。