There are very few words that I would call “irregular” in English. Here are a few things to consider before referring to a word, especially a high-frequency word as “irregular” or “tricky”… 📍 The main job of the English spelling system is to communicate meaning. The homophone principle is the perfect example…to, two, too/by, buy, bye. 📍The structural elements that form written words (morphemes) are spelled consistently, even when the pronunciation varies. For example, notice that the suffix -ed is spelled the same, but pronounced differently…payed, wished, wanted. 📍There is almost always, more than one way to spell the same sound in English. 📍 The relationship between how a word is spelled and how it’s pronounced only makes sense in the context of morphological structure. The words: does, been and says are the perfect examples. The morphological structure of words like does, goes, been, says, & because along with their morphological word families, is the perfect example of how to introduce morphology and word structure to young students. Morphology has traditionally been viewed as a more advanced topic, secondary to the phoneme-grapheme correspondences that make up spoken words. Effective literacy instruction must include both the phonology of English AND the structural framework of the writing system…from the very beginning!
#earlyliteracy #structuredliteracy #scienceofreading #teachingreading #morphology #spelling #teachersoftiktok #homeschool