Only 17% of native English speakers can spell the following words correctly: height, necessary, accommodation, sincerely, business, separate.
More than 1/10 of English words are not prounounced the same way they are spelt. Try this on for size:
A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.
A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.
English is also a good way to say a lot of ... nothing:
"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know."
Donald Rumsfeld
"I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I said."
Robert McCloskey
I will further explore English over some time to come.
