If you're a kid learning how to write, or an adult speaker of a language with sensible spelling, English spelling can seem like a cruel prank. And even if you're a completely literate adult native ...

One of the best things going on around 200 B.C.E. (from this linguist’s point of view, at least) was that a librarian in Alexandria, Aristophanes of Byzantium, invented the first punctuation system ...

Johnny in Topeka can’t read, but Janne in Helsinki is effortlessly finishing his storybooks. Such a disparity may be expected by now, but the reason might come as a surprise: It probably has much less ...

Many people were spellbound as they watched the newest Scripps National Spelling Bee champions — Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar — correctly sound out scherenschnitte and nunatak in order ...

Want to sound more natural when speaking English? In this lesson, you’ll learn how native speakers pronounce American English ...

Some parents give up helping their children with spelling long before they get to spelling bee words like "psychagogic" (attractive) or "fewtrils" (things of little value). That may be especially true ...

We take for granted that English is filled with weird spellings — 'b's that are silent, 'gh' and 'ph' that sounds like 'f,' 'i's and 'e's that switch inexplicably, and more — making it complicated for ...