Why is "phonics" not spelled the way it sounds?
456400
lol - ive often wondered that...according to phonics, they should be "hook-id on puh-onics" lol
643527
yeah you make good points. I would like to point out though that in some other countries, there is a greater emphasis on spelling and grammar. \n\nThis sort of "lazy english", although prolific among the younger set all over the world, shows up in ridiculous amounts even in "normal" writing in the US. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen the word "websight" in articles published in the NY Times?!! It's scary. \n\nI can't think of any other specific misspellings right now (words that are written phonetically instead of correctly) in esteemed publications and the forums of the general public, but I catch them fairly often - if I see any, I will post an update here.
608790
The ones that sound alike but are spelled differently, and these anagrams are very confusing to those in spelling bees too.  Words like meat and meet would have to be put in different sentences so people can improve their spelling too.
713859
I am convinced it is.  Such a sad state of affairs.  It seems like half the people on here are illiterate.  \nUnfortunately it isn't just on here.  I have corrected my kids teachers! My daughters kindergarten teacher had two misspelled words on the board: 'Wheelbarrell' instead of wheelbarrow and 'busses' instead of buses.  \nMy sons teacher wrote 'hassel free' instead of hassle free. \nI give up.......
761251
Actually, one can pronounce it either way...and a couple other ways in addition. It's nothing more than a phonological difference in dialect.
1174839
It seems so. I have never seen so many children who can 't spell basic vocabulary words and form a complete sentence without error. It boggles my mind why they would intentionally spell words wrong too in order to seem like they are talking cool. No Child Left Behind, uh huh..........
1001249
If spelling is so important (and I believe it is) why do we have two 'English' speaking countries spelling words differently? Examples of this is in America, red, green, yellow are "colors" yet in England and Australia they are "colours". \nIn the past the idea of spelling words as they sound was considered, however the word covering this style of spelling is "Phonetic spelling". Yeh, like that will catch on. Maybe if it was called 'Fonetic" it might have stood a chance. Anyway, as the English language is always developing and the original meanings of words are being lost, so is the ability to spell correctly.
349135
it's actually very simple- it is in fact based on the removal of vowels to shorten the material being written.\n\n example:\nits actlly vry smpl- n fct bsd on rmvl o vwls 2 shrtn mtrl bng wrtn
741832
Ooooh dear. The pudding is still a little soggy at the bottom isn't it.\n\n\nWe have *ONE* alphabet\nThere are 26 letters in the English alphabet\nWe are clever so we can use upper AND lower case\nPronunciation is how a letter sounds - nothing to do with a letter
724693
You spelled it right, it is the pronunciation that most get wrong, they say gover-ment most of the time, people tend to forget there is a "N" in there.
1147387
It's a bastardizing of the English language.  People seem to judge you on your ability to spell as a measure of your intelligence.  Most doctors are bad spellers.  So are we saying we are risking our lives to unintelligent people?  Of course not.  Some of us love the English language, phonics and such and we wish it to be properly executed.
520261
Maybe you're spelling it wrong!
460380
I have never thought about it, but now that you mention it, yes you are right, the S is silent, but the name would look silly and incorrect if it wasn't there....\n\nYou know what else? I think spelling like this with the pronunciation that we have all grown up with, we can blame the French! LOL! I'm only half joking, but there's a grain of truth when it comes to some place names because they (as a nation) were there, and other European languages do the same.\n\nIt's even worse sometimes with peoples first names and surnames.
40593
Two reasons, in my opinion:\n1. English spelling is inconsistent, and does not match the pronunciation of the words.\n2. Good spelling comes with reading a lot of high-quality writing. People don't do this any more.
316898
As others have noted, the letters WERE pronounced when the spellings originated.  And had the printing press come a century later, such things might be spelled the way we now pronounce them.\n\nThere is, however, some value in all this.  It is possible to see how words are related (to see something of their history) both within English and between English and the languages it grew out of.  Thus the spelling of word may show us connections with Germanic, French and Latin words\n\nI remember that it made it a lot easier to learn German, since I could recognize some of these words as related.  (Modern German, which DOES pronounce such sounds, has "Knecht" for "knight", "Nacht" for "night", etc.) I think it also helped with things like SATs.  Similarly, when I had to pick up a reading knowledge of French, I recognized a lot of related words (though I can't pronounce French worth a lick!)  I would think this is some help to Europeans learning English as well.\n\n------------\n\nSome more thoughts on the unstated (implied?) question -- why don't we fix it?!\n\nIncidentally, one of the things that has KEPT English from thorough spelling reforms is the fact that its vocabulary has been so freely borrowed from so many sources for centuries that there would be A LOT to try change and relearn.  (German and many other European languages did see such reforms in the past couple of centuires, but they had a lot less changing to do!)   And with the wide variety of regional pronunciations among just NATIVE English speakers, which ones would be adopt for the "standard"?  And if there were multiple versions what kind of mess would that make?! (The differences that now exist between British and American spelling are quite minor, hardly a barrier to reading each others' writing.)\n \nThink too what this change would do for reading anything in slightly older English!   We wouldn't be able to read documents and letters of the last several centuries without 'translating' them!
358707
They're not playing at being morons, they really are!  I have never seen so many people who couldn't spell, use proper punctuation in the right places or who have totally ignored the rules of grammar until I joined Yahoo Answers.  To answer your question, yes schools are failing this badly but I think parents are too.  The hip-hop industry isn't helping either.  Kids see this and imitate it. ("fo schnizzle" is a perfect example)
977800
Some I ran into:\n\nBe careful that they are learning to read the words and not just memorizing them.\n\nUnderstanding phonics is a big one.\n\nTwo letter sounds "ee" "ea" "ou".\n\nThe silent "e" rule.\n\nDo not push them beyond their limits time wise or level of book wise.  Time you will know, when they get antcy or stop paying attention, etc.  Let them pick the book to use, if its too hard that is okay, but they will realize their limits and see progress that way.