The Grammar Doctor can tell you a lot of horror stories about poor writing by businesses and the media. This page will help the anal-retentive Grammar Doctor vent her spleen by providing good and bad examples, reviewing rules of good writing and correct grammar, and highlighting changes in the language that may have escaped your notice.

As I prepare for another adult spelling bee (OK, senior adult), I’m remembering how chaotic English spelling can be—and, ironically, how predictable it is in other ways. 

One of the explanations for the chaos, such as the presence of silent letters, can be traced to William Caxton’s invention of the printing press in 1476. This development led to the “standardization” (and I use that term loosely) of spelling patterns and rules. However, certain spellings were often chosen based on popularity or other factors rather than logic.  

Even before the printing press came along, English was subjected to a number of influences that robbed the language of some spelling consistency. Many of the inconsistencies are the result of the clash between English and French spelling systems.  

After the Norman invasion of 1066, French scholars often ignored native (Old English) spelling traditions. For example, they substituted qu for the more natural (for English, anyway) cw (as in queen). 

Also problematic was that Caxton employed some Dutch typesetters, who took liberties with English words by superimposing some Dutch spellings onto plain and simple English words. That’s why English now sports a silent h in ghost. Spooky, huh? 

The English Renaissance, glorious though it was, led some to meddle with some very respectable and predictable English spellings. The interest in Greek and Roman classics, and thus to the study of Greek and Latin, led to the idea that words imported from these languages should reflect their original spellings.

For example, some meddler added a b to the word that was most commonly spelled det, dett, or dette. But this word had been borrowed from the Latin word debitum, so it became debt, and we’re stuck with it. Similarly, an o was added to peple, which came from the Latin populum. The word was spelled both poeple and people until people won out. An s was added to ile and iland, influenced by the Latin insula, so we now have isle and island.  

Sometimes Greek and Latin words with silent letters were imported as originally spelled, giving us words with a silent p, such as psychology and pseudonym.  

These examples address only silent consonants; the problems with vowels are somewhat different but equally perplexing, perhaps worse. I’ll save that discussion for another time.