why your typos are not your fault

Get 10% your next Hostinger website using code ANSWER: hostinger.com/answerinprogress
You probably forget if "embarrassing" has one R or two, and have come to rely on autocorrect and spellcheck a little too much over the years. Why is spelling such a struggle and what sets Scripps National Spelling Bee winners apart from us typo-laden normies? In this video, Sabrina jumps into the history and linguistics that makes the English language so hard to spell, trains for a spelling bee, and challenges the smartest people she knows to a spell off!
PLAY THE GAME
spellcheck.xyz
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/ answerinprogress
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
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CHECK OUT PHIL'S CHANNEL
/ philedwardsinc
FIX MY CODE ON GITHUB
github.com/sabrina-aip
SOCIAL MEDIA
Sabrina
Twitter: / nerdyandquirky
Instagram: / nerdyandquirky
Melissa
Twitter: / mehlizfern
Instagram: / mehlizfern
Taha
Twitter: / khanstopme
Instagram: / khanstopme
CREDITS
Produced by Sabrina Cruz
Research Assistance by Rosemary Webb
Video Editing by Joe Trickey
Motion Design by Sabrina Cruz
Sound Design by Joe Trickey
Special Thanks to
Phil Edwards
Hank Green
Jade C
Tom Lum
Jabrils
Steph Castillo
Estefannie
Imperial
Glarses
Joss Fong
Adam Cole
Andy Burgess
Taha Khan
Melissa Fernandes
MUSIC
Epidemic Sound. Get started today using our affiliate link. share.epidemicsound.com/answer...
RECOMMENDED READING
Hartman, T. (2022, June 2). The Spelling Bee highlights why it’s so hard to spell in English. Reuters. www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-...
Wild, H. C. (1868). A Short History of English: With a Bibliography and Lists F Texts.
Remer, S. (2018). Words of Wisdom: Keys to success in the scripps national spelling bee (fifth edition)
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 an embarasing confession
00:35 is this a hbomberguy-able offense
01:15 youtuber mines content from mundane occurance
01:56 the american dream, A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N
02:48 why English is so hard to spell
03:46 a very specific encounter with my mortality
04:24 IT WAS LAST UPDATED THIS YEAR
04:40 responsible business ownership (derogatory)
05:24 how to make a website (that kind of works)
07:51 i can memorize pi but not coccygeal
08:16 how spelling bees choose their words
09:00 embracing mediocrity (and it kinda works)
09:34 words with friends (not trademarked)
13:36 the problem(s) with harmattan
14:24 asking experts
14:34 being ignored by experts
14:39 sabrina is just like me, fr
14:42 size isn't everything
14:57 sabrina learns something (not how to spell tho)
15:11 enemies to lovers arc
16:00 how spelling bee champions train
16:35 how English got so hard to spell
20:30 sabrina makes a metaphor
21:14 this metaphor cost over 200 dollars
22:45 the procrastination finally has consequences
23:00 the answer in progress spelling bee finals
25:24 sabrina graciously accepts the L
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the joke under the fold!
Language is a surprisingly competitive and controversial beast.
Actually, I almost got in a fight with a linguist. Luckily, he was all talk.
Leave a comment with the word TALK to let me know you were here ;-)

[@answerinprogress]

This video was a little embarrassing (double R double S) to make but I hope you liked it! Also, be sure to check out Phil's channel if you're interested in history and fascinating niche stories: youtube.com/@philedwardsinc

[@literally-nobody242]

tanks allot

[@OnTheNerdySide]

Phil is great!! Always one of my favorites at Vox and amazing now he's gone solo. Glad to see him here!!

[@alisonbiles5981]

First off, I love love love all your videos. So funny and informative. Second, I have a silly completely unrelated question, maybe a waste of your time. Where did you find the orange sweatshirt you wore in the video? Thanks!

[@dougjohnson7063]

Could you drop a link to all the KZbinrs. Some of them I know, but having to individually search each from the name you gave is a bit much, but I am interested in seeing more content from each so want to check their pages.

[@Star-du2od]

I gave up trying to study spelling despite a looming SAT. THANK YOU SO MUCHHHHHHH!!!! mwah

[@Glarses]

i can confirm I was told to spell Transmissibility incorrectly for the video, I would never misspell such an easee word

[@justin_64]

lmaoo

[@Psi_Fan123]

Lol

[@misterdot6923]

helo

[@BoterBug]

And "Pterodactly"?

[@Rubiish_Axel]

I don’t buy it.

[@cinderheart2720]

KZbin really is about monetizing your therapy progress, ain't it?

[@Happenpupe]

I gutes it’s a win for everyone

[@meditalisoo7]

Therapy in Progress

[@TheFiteShow]

you're going through it, may as well get some dough for it

[@IamaDesmond]

Therapy in progress

[@kiwee4577]

@@meditalisoo7 now that would be an interesting youtube channel, in itself

[@Bedizenin]

The “OH!” on the Japanese origin was so real. All the vowels are a lot more closed and easier to predict the spelling.

[@theAkornTree]

I had the exact same reaction when I had that word! (I paused the video to check out the website)

[@DasOrange]

As a native German who learned English and French in school and is currently self teaching Japanese, German and Japanese are direct, French is hard to spell but easy to pronounce and English is a mess.

[@spencerthomas4087]

When she said, "oh and word origin but I assume people only ask for that when they're stalling for time", I was hoping that would come full circle. Was not disappointed

[@illuminoeye_gaming]

same, i was ready for an "i told you so"

[@JoseDanielFSX]

As a native spanish speaker I always found spelling competitions very silly when they appeared in movies from the US. I always wondered why was spelling such a big deal in the US while in Spain is a skill that almost everyone above 8 years old should master. This video made me understand what the big deal is, I remembered from the time I started learning english that writing in english is way harder than it is in spanish because in english you have A LOT of different vowel sounds while in spanish every letter is always pronounced the same way and we only have 5 vowel sounds: a,e,i,o,u, that's it!

[@higherquality]

I really find Spanish way easier than English or god forbid Dutch

[@shaiky1681]

"Hard" Spanish words: "Paraguay, ovovivíparo, pterodáctilo..." Hard english words: "queue, height, length, through, thought, though, pterodactyl..."

[@user9267]

I'm a native English speaker and I struggle more with spelling words in English than in Spanish

[@user9267]

​@@shaiky1681 Eye doo naught get it

[@dishevelleddev]

Not only that, but we have a lot of words whose pronunciation has changed but their spelling has not. Knight (now said like "NITE" or in Spanish it would probably be spelled NAIT) used to be pronounced with all of the letters. (The gh made a sound a bit like a cat's hiss). Not to mention all the different languages that modern English is built from with different rules for words from those languages. And that's not even considering English grammar.

[@xpengunx]

The irony of pterodactyl being spelt wrong in the subtitle took me out 😂💀

[@INNERLMNT]

The closed captions having the correct spelling is even funnier

[@dukeofburgerz5225]

It's so good 😆 I knew someone else had to have pointed it out

[@DeltaEntropy]

It gaslit me so bad…

[@progCan]

IT WAS SPELT WRONG LOLOLOLOLOLMAO

[@DoofenSpyroDragon16]

It was?? Gosh, I didn’t even notice 😂

[@MattAndImprov]

Pirate Butt That's how you remember how to spell embarrass ARR ... ASS

[@Scratchydoesmusic]

Yarr

[@pinkajou656]

that will genuinely help me

[@Blackener]

Once my friend told me that "Assassination" starts with two butts, I never look at that word the same way again 😂

[@zephyrias]

Yaarrr harrr thats a good one

[@zephyrias]

@@Blackenerthats how I remembered it back in the day. Asss asss in’s creed. got it

[@themaskedinc.786]

Ngl the Hostinger ad was probally the most convincing ad I have ever seen on youtube

[@henryinman4301]

Yes this!

[@confusedwhale]

The reason for "word origin" in a spelling bee helps the contestant figure out how a word is spelled if they have never heard/seen it before. It's so they can figure out how the word would be spelled based on the original language's spelling--for lack of a better word--idiosyncrasies. Edit: I appreciate that you acknowledged Phil at the end with how important etymology is with spelling in English.

[@meiliyinhua7486]

ye I heard the "ramping for time" comment and thought "No. Nonono. Nonononono"

[@I.____.....__...__]

@@meiliyinhua7486 The irony of her making up a word and/or redefining it in a video about spelling. 😒 No, there is no world in which "ramping" is a verb that means what she implied.

[@meiliyinhua7486]

@I.____.....__...__ that one I'm more willing to forgive, cuz I'm imagining there's a colloquial etymology there from "vamping for time." Which is when a play's orchestra will repeat a small section, or "vamp," to handle any variable-time delay that actors might have with minimal improvisation and minimal chance of the audience noticing. Naturally those unfamiliar with the underlying might hear the phrase "vamping for time," and mistakenly "correct" vamping to the more familiar word "ramping"

[@elerielouie3160]

​@@I.____.....__...__I believe what she actually said was "Vamping for time" which IS a real expression. It seems to come from a music term, specifically as a type of improvisation.

[@zak3744]

@@meiliyinhua7486 Yeah, she said "vamping", not "ramping". I just went back and listened again to check my brain didn't auto-correct when I first heard it. She definitely said "vamping"!

[@LinusBoman]

English spelling: cough, rough, though, through. Spelling bees: it's not a bug, it's a feature.

[@metalxhead]

Ha, at first I was surprised to see you here, and then I totally wasn't! That is a very concise list that hurts my brain. I like it.

[@thork6974]

"The tough coughs as he ploughs the dough."

[@geebs7275]

@@thork6974that should've rhyme but it doesn't and I'm actually tweaking

[@lemonadeslices]

adding thorough to this list

[@laurencefraser]

-ough is one of the few instances of something that is 100% a bug as a result of left over legacy fragments that really should have been depreciated and replaced with something functional long ago. Most of the other supposed 'bugs' are less 'bad code' and more 'bad documentation'. Though arguably a system that requires over 60 sequential rules in order to be consistent enough for a computer, never mind a human, has Issues, even if they're not 'bugs'. Though introducing an actual Stress Mark would cut that number down a Lot.

[@CatalogK9]

In fairness, like half those final words were technically still in other languages, we just added them to our lexicon because we were too lazy to translate them and they were too specific to their cultures of origin. But yeah, etymology tells you what language's spelling rules to use, which is super useful for the majority of English words, in addition to helping to jog your memory as to which word they mean.

[@jasonreed7522]

English has a tendency to just copy-paste words from other languages so the spelling stays the same, maybe with a slight drift. But the pronunciation is allowed to corrupt from its original language into something easier to say for native English speakers, causing all sorts of pain when trying to "sound out words". (Which is possible the least helpful advice all kindergartners hear when trying to spell things, because the language doesn't support doing it.) This can be seen as a feature since it makes it super easy to steal "loan words" for concepts that we don't have words for or that don't translate well.

[@DanielDinhCreative]

This also shows why lots of foreign speakers struggle so much with English. It's such a mashup of different origins and etymologies which often make no sense unless you've been exposed to it. Even between english-speaking countries, there's disagreement around spelling and pronunciation...

[@grummdoesstuff2983]

Remember, it’s I before e except after c, unless you weird foreign neighbor Keith receives eight beige weights.

[@jedisalsohere]

"receive" is spelt right by the rule though

[@KitsuneMiko383]

you forgot the other half: "Or when sounding like A, as in neighbor or weigh." That's important, ya know?

[@risamaeve]

@@KitsuneMiko383 with these exceptions: weird height, foreign leisure, neither seize nor forfeit either

[@awkweirdabby8352]

*your

[@AnonHooman]

Efficiency

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

I'm genuinely anxious because I haven't played yet today.

[@matt45540]

I was pulling for you Phil!

[@natalkadullek5809]

@@matt45540 I also did!

[@mrharvest]

You did amazing, good job!

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

Hey, you are the reigning champion! And you always will be, because there's probably not going to be another championship!

[@chilaou]

Hey, someone had to occupy Sabrina's mad dive and obsession with this project. I'm sure Melissa and Taha appreciate keeping her busy! And congrats!

[@toomanyopinions8353]

The most important and impactful single lesson I ever learned in school was in 6th grade when my teacher spent a few weeks teaching my class Latin and Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes that are used in english. It has been immensely helpful.

[@katie18976]

I would've loved to be in that class 🤩

[@Yellowsam4145]

"The word just... LOOKS wrong..." is me every time I see a word that I can't spell but is just... wrongly spelt

[@Retiarius2]

Can I just mention my sheer respect for the sponsorship segment here? Integrating it seamlessly into part of the video was a genius move. I can't skip past it and I'm not even mad.

[@maike__-]

Right? I was about to skip it but then it was relevant so I stayed. Good job Sabrina!

[@Xanthelei]

It really is the best way to add in ads for things. It took me a few beats to even realize it WAS an ad!

[@ktaragorn]

Same, best sponsorship segment ive seen i think.

[@adrenalinerider3030]

RIGHT? I got to the end of the segment and said 'That was an ad??"

[@geeksdo1tbetter]

I didn't even realize it was still the ad, halfway thru!

[@AngelVids7]

Word origins are literally the most important part of learning English spellings as most of our words are rooted in words from other languages

[@awkweirdabby8352]

Yes!! I was looking for a comment about this. Word origin is so important for spelling!

[@chesspiece4257]

word origin is even better for pronunciation (french and greek are the hardest to me)

[@CoreenMontagna]

Right, like ffff is probably PH if Greek, and F if Latin

[@Jiglias]

yeah with country of origin and definition you can basically recreate most words

[@AhrenAKADan]

​@@Jiglias Exactly. They ask word origin when they don't know for sure so they can use the right spellset for the phonemes. Like if it's a word that starts with the sound for "new" and they say it's Greek there is a real chance it's gonna be a pn to start

[@ajuma55]

For years, I ended letters with "Yours" because I could never remember how to spell Tru(e)ly or Sincer(e)ly. I still can't spell them. Thank goodness for spell-check!!!

[@pian816]

Your parentheses confused the heck out of me since truly doesn't have an E, but sincerely does. 😭 Cheers!

[@ajuma55]

That's exactly my point. I never knew if either one of those words had an "e" or not. I had the same experience with a spelling test as she did. For me, the word was "been". Where I live, we pronounce it like the name Ben. "B-E-N" just didn't look right, or sound right in my head. Neither did "B-E-E-N". "B-E-A-N" was definitely wrong. I ended up with a hole in my paper from erasing so much. Vowels have always been a problem for me.

[@PanduPoluan]

I just end my emails with "Rgds," It's now so much a signature of mine that if it's not there people start to become suspicious 😅

[@ColinandSamir]

This is just so good.

[@ZevMeth_originaljewishmusic]

Agreed! And that ad integration was the most seamless I've ever seen! Mr. Beast needs to take some notes!

[@elijahparnell]

@@ZevMeth_originaljewishmusic the ad was great. i hate when ads are so obnoxious you skip them, when theyre interesting and actually revolve around the video, theyre amazing!

[@AtlasMatheu]

So, as a BIG etymology nerd. When you said word origins are just time filler I almost exploded in the comments. Glad I waited the whole video! Great job!

[@stefflcus]

Ssssame! The foreshadowing was top notch.

[@AD_AP_T]

Agreed! I was waiting for the revelation. I couldn't do times tables if my life depended on it as a kid, but was exceptional at spelling... and I'm pretty sure it's because a word's spelling tells a story that makes sense to me.

[@hallieharvey4073]

For real I immediately went but that how people learn to win spelling bees you learnt etymology so you can spell nearly anything 😂

[@BlueMentos]

woah there buddy, there are children in these comments

[@SimplyDomRBLX]

Sabrina using spell check for every single word is legit me 😭

[@rickk3658]

My first Word Processor, SpeedScript, on the Commodore 64 worked the same way. The program's spell checker was keyed in by hand, but the dictionary was empty. Every word in my first document was misspelled until I added the words to the dictionary. Thankfully I didn't have to retype them to add.

[@ponyov.8308]

As a new English teacher, I was so proud of the second half of this video. Fresh out of university, I was wondering if I would ever reuse the knowledge of the History of English class. Thank you so much. I am for sure going to recommend this video, hahaha

[@mukundsai1806]

20:16 "Rizz" for 2023 is still better than the "😂" emoji as Oxford Word of the Year for 2015 xD

[@blackamaterasuflame]

"could have cheated, but forgot to" I feel Sabrina in my soul every video.

[@robuxyyyyyyyyyy4708]

The beauty of english is that if enough people say something a certain way it just becomes how people pronounce it, which is why I'm pronouncing Arkansas as ar-kansas

[@AmIAntiAntianti]

Ha ha. I do that

[@IsYitzach]

Unfortunately, the pronunciation of Arkansas is fixed by law to be Ark-an-saw. You can thank the Senators representing the state in the US senate for that a long time ago. They want different pronunciations and the state legislature said, "F*** that, it's pronounced Ark-an-saw"

[@robuxyyyyyyyyyy4708]

@@IsYitzach What are they going to do? Ban pronouncing it another way?

[@aminelswefy1808]

@@robuxyyyyyyyyyy4708The FBI is putting you under investigation for the mispronunciation of Arkansas. Your only hope is to hand yourself in for questioning and receive a more lenient sentence.

[@know1care]

I did a short research on demonyms the other day. How would you call a person from Wisconsin? Similar to New Yorker or Floridian? Nope, it's Wisconsinite! And there is just no specific rule for local demonyms. Just however local people prefer to call themselves. Many cities simply don't have it.

[@locolord]

This is not only a great video, but it is also some of the best editing I've ever seen. The way the video plays out like a story being told is also amazing. This needs more views!

[@kqawiyy]

I never actually knew what purpose asking for the origin of the word served. This video made me realize that knowing the language & place it comes from would help narrow down how the word is spelled based on how that specific culture would spell it

[@Aurus46]

It's really interesting that as a native french speaker I have a harder time with medium difficulty than hard, because most of the "hard" words have obvious Latin roots or are straight up French loanwords.

[@themenacingpenguin.7152]

French loanwords have 4 extra vowels on average that just sit there with a thumb up their ass, that's why I hate French loanwords with a passion and want to melt the Eiffel tower into diet silverware for mukbang youtubers. Latin and Greek words are kinda easy.

[@londongael414]

The best way to learn to spell is to READ A LOT, and read widely. That way, when a word is spelled wrong, it looks wrong, because you've seen it hundreds, or thousands, of times. OK, some of these spelling bee words don't come up that often - but that's why they pick them. If you want to win spelling bees, study those words. If you want to spell well for real life, read a lot. Appreciating the history and etymology is also great, and I'm so glad Sabrina included that!

[@stevieinselby]

The funny thing then though is when people know a word but don't know how to _pronounce_ it, because they've only ever seen it written down. Not that I would mock or denigrate anyone for that, it shows that they have a thirst for reading and for language, which is admirable, but it can be a bit incongruous at times.

[@londongael414]

@@stevieinselby A friend of mine had a brilliant way of dealing with that slightly awkward moment. If corrected, he'd say "That's what I said", the corrector would say "Oh, sorry" and the conversation would continue with nobody feeling embarrassed (two Rs, two Ss).

[@pinkfloweredsnake]

Idk I somehow managed to be a veracious reader and terrible speller. It wasn't until after college when it clicked that Saturday comes from the word Saturn, and I stopped spelling it with an e. I think in general reading is so important for vocabulary. I love reading and it paid off in other ways. For most people it helps them spell, too. But, frustratingly for me, it's not a hard and fast rule.

[@londongael414]

@@pinkfloweredsnake Well, few rules are hard and fast :-) I am also a voracious ("devouring" -think of carniVORe) reader, and, though an excellent speller, there are still words that trip me up! Sounds like etymology would be more your route 😊 When all's said and done, it's more important to enjoy reading than to spell well.

[@pinkfloweredsnake]

@@londongael414 lol love that this typo made my point for me. But if it took me post college to get the weekdays right, I don't know that I have much faith in etymology either. I think most people take for granted how much they suck out of the air. If one person is thinking about how to spell voracious and the other Saturday, the second is going to have to be putting a whole lot more effort into something most consider, at least on the level of Saturday, basic. And if asked, I could have even said what the word is connected to: vor in my mind is attached to consume (there's even a kink!). I can usually guess what language a word comes from, too. Green grun German, verdant ver French, robot, interestingly, Russian, apotheosis (beautiful word, first came it in the sound and the Fury in 12 grade) obviously Latin. But the actual spelling rules that are supposed to be attached to this knowledge isn't there. Ostensibly I have the pieces but...dunno. And edit to add: yes of course spelling isn't everything. But it's a pretty frustrating gap to have! Sometimes frustrating in surprisingly damaging ways( ie people taking errors I'm genuinely blind to as carelessness since they can't imagine I don't know, or that I wouldn't catch something if i had just taken the time to glance over what i wrote..which i do, usually many times) But also in smaller ways like not wanting to be sidetracked by red squiggles when typing: P

[@LeLuvicks]

I am obsessed with your powerpoint presentations segments and I was HYPED when you were setting up the projector. This is 100% how I plan my classes and work presentations (and honestly the correct way to use powerpoint ??) and I strive to make mine as great as yours

[@IONProd]

Word origin gives huge clues on how it's spelled because of general rules from those languages. Like "eau" is a really common combination in french words, such as chateau or beautiful

[@iplayminecraft2248]

“Nobody is rooting for me, I’m the villain in the scenario” is such a sentence

[@sterndrache...ok.]

I love how you didn't use an adjective, you just said it's a sentence which yes, it obviously is but also you are definitely correct, it is such a sentence.

[@kqawiyy]

Eren Yaeger in a nutshell

[@PlayingWithWilson]

You bots are getting very close to actually convincing someone that you're a human.

[@iplayminecraft2248]

@@PlayingWithWilson ok buddy

[@PlayingWithWilson]

Nobody but bots say buddy anymore, you need an update.

[@avi12]

Therapist: "Mustache-less Waluigi doesn't exist. It can't hurt you." Sabrina: 18:33

[@kainaris]

Unnatural.

[@liliwheeler2204]

I'm definitely getting the impression that Sabrina has thought about this a lot for some reason.....

[@SayAhh]

I had to look up mustache vs moustache once.

[@ultimate6295]

I‘m at minute 1 of watching this video and simultaneously scrolling down comments and I have no idea how Waluigi can fit into all of this, I can‘t wait to see 😂

[@seagummy]

one of these videos will be sabrina getting tested for dyslexia

[@Blueredlady]

Ive been loving watching videos on the English Language and its history recently but i have to say this 4min summary is so great and informative 👌 "English is a time capsule buried under those squiggly red lines" New subscriber here

[@blips97]

As a language nerd, when you initially said you were gonna exclude the etymologies from the game I went "NOOOOOOO"

[@Nicozumba]

In spanish words are spelled like they sound, I dont know how to explain it. Just that we think your spelling contests are dumb for us, since for us it would be like "Breathing Contests" And also I still dont understand why spelling is hard for you, english is not my native language but spelling wasnt a trouble for me.

[@blips97]

Well, it's not hard for me, but I'm a language nerd so. I'm not a good example.@@Nicozumba

[@Nicozumba]

@@blips97 I meant the average english native I guess. About language im talking about my experience, im more of a maths nerd

[@AD_AP_T]

@@Nicozumba It really doesn't need much explaining - most English background speakers are familiar with the way many other languages' spellings map tidily to pronunciations, and how English is unusual in this regard. In Spanish, words are spelled how they sound *in Spanish.* In English, words are spelled how they sound in Spanish, Italian, German, Gaelic, Greek, Flemish, Dutch, French, Urdu, Latin, Norwegian, Malaysian, Mayan, Portuguese, etc, etc... and sometimes the system even changes mid-word. Most of us have a basic level of awareness of this, even if not all of us know how to decode those spellings and read the history of the language in the very bones of our written words.

[@gen9695]

​@Nicozumba On October 14th, 1066, William, duke of Normandy, and native French speaker, took full control of England. This led to an incredible amount of upheaval in early British culture and politics, leading to the entirety of the British nobility speaking almost exclusively French, and the rest of the population speaking Old English. Over the next few centuries, these 2 languages would then merge through a process known as hierarchical diffusion, leading to the creation of Early Modern English. To give an example: all of the English words for meats (beef, pork, poultry, etc.), whereas all the words for the relevant animals descend from Proto-Germanic. To add insult to injury, Old English isn't even meant to use the Latin alphabet, and most of our phonology doesn't actually correlate well with it at all. So, the language is at war with itself, possessing 2 major distinct phonologies, both fighting for custody over the sole alphabet, which was only designed for the French portion of the language. Meanwhile, Spanish is a direct descendant of Latin Vulgaris, and uses the Latin alphabet. It was not subjected to any such linguistic fusion, and as such, remains phonologically consistent.

[@phoenixacxf]

These videos have taught me that Sabrina loves coding, Melissa loves food, and TAHA STILL NEEDS HIS COUCH

[@melissaprice2880]

I appreciate so much that you tackled this topic. My English speaking kids go to french school and while they are speaking French beautifully in just a few years, they are struggling with reading and writing in 2 languages where phonetics and spelling don't match very well. I've always sucked at spelling and confused french and English words regularly (choose/chose, beaucoup/because etc). So 1- addressing that it's a challenge for many people and 2- working on a solution is amazing! Thanks!

[@pogchannel420]

this was actually very fun to watch, it felt like i was too on this journey alongside fun and dumb parts of the video, i love it when a video has this quality of production and the fact that you always make a fun education point throughout the video, it makes it a lot more fun to enjoy learning

[@throstlewanion]

Ok but can I say as a non-native English speaker wierd makes much more sense than weird

[@pedrosaune]

for me, "weerd" would be the perfect one

[@SoapyCilantro]

I know right? English is super wierd

[@KokaKolaMusic]

​@@pedrosaune funny story, it used to be spelled werd, wird, or wyrd.

[@christianjalexander]

I will agree with you as a native English speaker.

[@foxpokemonforever4775]

It completely breaks the i before e rule and yet wierd looks weird

[@ceralith942]

"Spell Pterodactyl. " "... T." 😂😂😂

[@harshitaharshloomba7701]

I loved how the video took a completely different turn in the middle. Kudos, you just earned a subscriber!

[@vitsofiasantos]

I'm Brazilian and I found this KZbin channel because I was looking for interesting videos in English with subtitles precisely because I have A LOT of difficulty with the language in general (I joined the game you put in the description and managed to get all the words wrong 😅). But I'm trying to have more fun during this learning process, instead of putting too much pressure on myself. Thanks, Sabrina, for this video. 🧡✨🤧

[@manqobashongwe1301]

'English isn't whack, it's a record.' Heck of a way to look at it, Ms Cruz.👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@honeycream1396]

The last time I cheated in school was also a spelling test. Didn't know if "ninety" was spelled with a d or without. Looked at the person next to me who wrote "ninety" and thought they were wrong. Ended up writing down "niney".

[@I.____.....__...__]

Compromise makes the world go round. 🤷

[@rukbat3]

The one and only time I cheated on a test in school was also a spelling test! The word was "robin." Similar to Sabrina, I felt so horrible about it that I never did it again. And what made is worse was that "Robin" is my Granddad's name!

[@kcoyne6362]

The first test I cheated on was a first grade spelling test. Glad I'm not the only one!

[@catelynh1020]

I cheated on a test in high school. I'd been gone for a bit from an illness and came back to a test with a substitute teacher. The test was about memorizing the first however many elements on the periodic table. Route memorization was already not my strong suit, so i shifted my glasses and looked up through them at the giant periodic table of elements in the front of the classroom that had exactly 100% of the answers on it. When our regular teacher was back, he covered the giant poster for the following tests. Understandably.

[@killerbee.13]

@@rukbat3 I never cheated on a spelling test, but I was at least 20 years old when I realized that my grandpa's name was spelled "Wally" as in short for "Walter" because I'd literally never seen it written down and he didn't interact much with my immediate family for the last few years of his life so I hadn't really had much reason to talk about him since I was much younger.

[@lotusdumplings7066]

I played it and absolutely loved that you had word origins in the daily, it's incredibly helpful in English to know where a word is from

[@user-zp2xt4hs3n]

17:48 until THE FRENCH

[@richbaird9407]

It really hurts my heart that Mr. Beast can literally burn piles of money for the clicks, while this genuine insightful joy of a channel can’t afford a ticket to California. Great work and don’t worry, I can’t spell embarased either 😅

[@mattcoxonline]

They did just drop over $300 on books + API calls though.

[@roecocoa]

Sometimes it helps to make up a little story with an anagram. "After downing an entire bottle of MR BARE ASS GIN, he did something truly EMBARRASSING." Admittedly, some words lend themselves to this process more than others.

[@Ashley-xu1lk]

1) Answer in Progress should do an annual spelling bee, that would be amazing to watch! 2) I love you Sabrina, but I love Phil a little more and was rooting for him. But would've been happy either way. 3) As usual, you did amazing at learning something new and thank you for sharing that process! This is one of my favorite channels. You learn things that isn't ever covered in school. You'd think we'd learn the origin of English in English class, but nope haha

[@JHaven-lg7lj]

I’m forever grateful that my schools emphasized etymology, it helps me all the time. Not least because I could usually help my kids understand a word, and now I can help my grandkids too. I was just talking to one of them last night about why animals and the meat from the animals have different names.

[@VaibhavShewale]

10:57 we i googled and it showed double "s" and not single"s" like shown in the video "transmisibility" is incorrect!

[@TuxLetsPlay]

Oh right. I forgot we added capital ß in 2017. We never had that because it was never used at the start of a word. Forced us to use "ss" instead when all-caps typing tho.

[@Whiteythereaper]

Sssniperwolf boutta make a new channel called ßsniperwolf in that case

[@mirjam3553]

I had to scroll way too far to see what German changed. Makes sense to have it just for completeness, but is it actually used anywhere? (My daily media intake is def not in German...)

[@TuxLetsPlay]

@@mirjam3553 I think really just because on the Internet, all-caps is used quite often. Not only in more casual situations like comments, but also sometimes for stylistic reasons in titles and things like that. Especially with new web technologies when you can just add a line of code that says "make all this all-caps", that probably caused some problems with text that was written in the past.

[@mirjam3553]

@@TuxLetsPlay Thank you! I was briefly afraid they'd made new rules for where it's supposed to get used...

[@Whiteythereaper]

@@TuxLetsPlay also not just on the standard Internet, but with subtitles on media too. Some streaming services put all their subtitle tracks in all caps by default through sheer laziness, and it's especially egregious on physical media like Blu Rays, and on Live TV too

[@scragar]

Word origins is IMO one of the biggest clues in how to spell. English is a mix of 3 major languages(Germanic/Old English, French, and Latin) with some Greek/Nordic influences. Each of those languages has it's own rules for spelling/pronounciation as well as having their own twists when they came into english(for example silent letters from pt or ps in Greek vs silent h from latin and silent e from Old French but not more Modern French). Learning those rules and how to apply them is a huge step towards figuring out words you might not already know. Yes it's a last resort(because like all rules to the English language there are lors of exceptions), but just based on word sounds and etymology you can generally get about 80-85% correct first try.

[@jasonreed7522]

Also most science words use greek and latin as the roots, but use the germanic compound word structure for the modularity. This leads to an interesting bit of trivia where by common usage greek makes up 5% of the language, but by pure dictionary count greek origins account for around 20% of the language. (Most people just don't say words like photosynthesis or electrophoresis in their average conversations.)

[@y0Pretzels]

Origins can be useful for words that don't come from baseline English. Like how fancy words come from French? I remember I used that to spell the word "malaise" in middle school. Because I was studying French I was able to spell it despite the American-ized pronunciation and all that.

[@Daniel-hg2rq]

13:40 Interesting we are experiencing harmattan in West Africa currently 😂

[@WrenStanchen]

I'm gonna show this to my students, and we shall have spell offs. Thank you for aiding me in my quest of convincing middle school boys that English is cool!

[@AbiSaysThings]

If you're actually going to use it as a teaching aid I would fact-check it beforehand. For instance a certain word in today's challenge is being pronounced like Roseanne, when it should actually be like rozz-in.

[@Merrsharr]

Can't expect a text-to-speech AI to get uncommon words right. Merriam-Webster's website has audio with pronunciation for most words (sometimes even more than one when multiple pronunciations are common).

[@ma_yuvari2215]

Hey answer in progress! Taha, Mellisa and Sabrina, just wanted to let you know i really love your channel! Ive been looking forward for your videos and i find them intresting, funny and inspiring. Thanks! God bless you and i hope that you will continue to enjoy doing what you love.

[@anjanishah3156]

sabrinas ability to retain information from the mass amounts of research and sources that she uses is ACC crazy, i inspire to be like this...i also love the random obscure facts i get from these vids

[@trenchcoatgoose]

given that i am an english student and big into the english change over time stuff the part of the video where sabrina fully flips her opinion on english was so funny. first time i've already known something in one of these videos lol

[@PeachNEPTR]

One thing I’ve learned to appreciate over time is the way in which English is genuinely a world language. English doesn’t care where a word comes from, if the word is useful we use it. We often spell it the same or similarly to the language it comes from and so we have this massive hodgepodge of mixed up language. It constantly grows and changes. The grammar is very fluid and sometimes sentence structures can be wildly mixed up, and still comprehensible. It has so much room for dialect. I love how something like German is very strict, it’s precise. The way that things are spelled such that you always know exactly what it sounds like. But English allows you to say “exactly what you mean” even if that is in three different languages at the same time.

[@swan00_]

as a three-time national spelling bee contestant, this was a good video :) was really funny to see all this stuff i’d studied years ago lol! and seeing “words of wisdom” was a hell of a blast from the past!!

[@lelouchzxc_]

This is one of the best video i have ever -whatched- watched! The editing the emotion of the discovery is so well done! (english still sucks but now less)

[@ricdavid]

I'm always impressed by the videography(?) of your videos. It could just be you sitting in front of a green screen like 90% of youtubers, but it's not, you put so much more effort into it with weird angles and lots of cuts and that's what I appreciates about ya. Also I think "embarrassing" (double R double S) is like the poster child for words we all screw up despite using it all the time.

[@thork6974]

That slide into frame on "Aaaaanyway" kills me.

[@joaovieira1595]

As a non-native english speaker I never really understood the need for spelling bees. We don't really have much of those in my country and I just assumed everyone could spell words on the spot pretty easily. Although we did have some writing contests with a similar premise, and not everyone managed to ace them. I guess this video made me understand why stuff like this exists and why it's so hard for some people. Maybe it's because I read a lot of books as a kid, but I've gotten so familiar with seeing how words are written that I rarely ever forget how to spell them. Not only in my native language but in English too. I wonder if the saturation from reading at school and the existence of much more video and audio form content has led to less reading, and therefore worse spelling for the last few generations?

[@SomeThingOrMaybeAnother]

English just has generally fucky spelling-sounding relation. I blame the French.

[@chesspiece4257]

the hardest part of english spelling is you never know if each letter is in there once or twice

[@thalophy]

I also noticed that non-native English speakers who are pretty good at English actually tend to be better at spelling, probably because we actively had to learn how to spell English words whereas native English speakers probably just... know the words somehow

[@I.____.....__...__]

Yup, spelling-bees aren't a thing in many languages, especially phonetic ones. But imagine them in highly-agglutinative languages like a lot of the Eskaleut family, or even just German. 😬

[@Ross_mo]

I'm the same, but I checked out her spelling test (link in the description), and there are words there that I have no idea how to spell. You should definitely give it a go!

[@carlinemoon2484]

I am glad that you covered twoof the main reasons that words are not spelled the way they sound: because we have changed the way they sound; and because we have adopted words from other languages, then forced them their pronounciations to fit into an alphabet that they were not designed for. Thank you. I really struggle all the time with spelling words.

[@twertygo]

This might be one of the funniest episodes ever! The I was legit laughing out loud when you called English whack and when you referred to runes as from "that Tom Scott video" (in part because I always think of that video when I encounter runes lol). But also the amount of effort that went into the shots! Must have taken ages to film this, you can really be proud of this one!

[@nweoodropz]

Sabrina is so me, the way that i feel that spell check is cheating is so relatable

[@mr.duck1248]

The spelling bee lady keeps making a vowel sound before the beginning of the word and I’m like “what did she say????”

[@Jeejjj]

New subscriber here, having studied English linguistics a lil I was worried when you disregarded etymology for your spelling website at the beginning but in the end you accounted for that. Solid video, great video. 9/10 would have loved to see some of the tips contained in those $100's worth of spelling books

[@EvelynNdenial]

making english phonetic would have to be in my top 10 wishes. it would fix sooooooo much

[@normalperson4sure]

"I don't think they make spelling bees for adults!" Guy Montgomery would beg to differ

[@pppfan103]

to be fair, if flying out to california was too much for the budget, i imagine flying to new zealand probably wasn't either

[@egekahraman8985]

god being absolutely sure that you write a word correct on office yet seeing those dreaded red squigly lines is the worst

[@I.____.....__...__]

"on office"? 🤨 So no worries about the green squiggle, huh?

[@catelynh1020]

Some coworkers will misspell my name to avoid a red squiggle.

[@tofuachoo]

This was such a relatable and a great video, I love it, and I love the qualieteeis used here.

[@Iwastolatetochangemyhandle]

12:32yes it is, I was one for half a year before turning fully vegetarian. It means someone who tries to eat no meat, but sometimes has a “cheat day”

[@Carebearritual]

I’ve been pretend playing this on twitter this whole time I thought it was a social experiment

[@austinsmith1293]

I'm using duolingo right now to learn spanish, and I like how they go about this. You get one chance to spell the word correctly, and if you get it wrong they tell you the answer and then continue. Then, after doing a few more words they ask you again to see if you remember the answer.

[@mdc_artwork141]

I absolutely love the way u make and edit ur videos it’s so good

[@juliette862]

I'm studying English Studies, I'm not a native speaker of English and I clicked this just to see your reaction for discovering the history of this language. Totally worth it, best thing I've seen today 😂😂😂

[@connernicewander8503]

Can we give a moment to appreciate how good this woman's content is? I don't know what makes it so enjoyable but I love it

[@INNERLMNT]

What makes it enjoyable is Sabrina's determination, and the teamwork between her and her friends (Taha, Melissa and co.) to make it happen

[@meep7547]

As a person with dyslexia it is nice to see others being confused by english too, because after years of people seeming to just understand the language while you seem to be the only one not understanding. It's a weird language to spell (specially if your brain is just devloped in a way that makes spelling harder) but you explaining why it's so werid is a nice twist then just saying English is weird.

[@arjunraman7276]

the fact that i recognize that voice from crash course kids shows how much my school used those vids

[@Topcatyo.]

This channel makes learning funny and entertaining. How do y’all do it and make it look so effortless

[@risxra]

As a linguistics student, this was such a fun watch! Congrats on learning the joys of the English language :)

[@stephaniec3022]

As a writer, spelling has always been interesting for me. I get things wrong all the time. But I've also studied lots of older English literature, and learned about the differences between our modern spelling, and 1500s - 1600s English with it's non-consistent spelling or spelling how the word sounded. Glad you went on this journey!

[@weirdral]

Just watched another KZbinr play your game on their live stream having no idea that you made it and my worlds collided and it was so cool!

[@ObviouslyBenHughes]

I think the most concerning and confusing part of this entire journey was hearing the term “junior kindergarten” 😳 Is it not called pre-kindergarten or Pre-K in most places? I’ve only ever heard it called that…

[@accuratc]

We finally getting context of spellcheck tweets 😭

[@Anthony_Dante]

haha sames

[@bassmanjjm33]

OMG I never bother commenting on KZbin, but this video was so good! As someone who as struggled with a self diagnosis of dyslexia and always been a slower reader, which I have been attributing to the dyslexia, I am seen in this video. I absolutely love reading and writing in my adult life, but have struggled explaining to folks the politics of it and the fact that it can be something to strive for, but that it should not be used as such a high standard to determine ones intelligence. Your video tells such a beautiful story of going from someone who just feels like spelling is hard and it sucks to someone who recognizes that it is hard and that is what makes it beautiful, making this not only a wonderful educational video but a really moving one. Excellent work!

[@marinajakovacz]

Linguist here: "origins" matter a lot!! English is a warm soup made of ingredients from different languages and different times. Knowing that a specific word has French, German, Nordic or Latin origins could help me spell it correctly (the same sound in French, German or Latin could be spelled differently)

[@abigailb2478]

it's the first video I see from your channel and I love your personality. you're so bubbly and fun🥰 now I just want to watch all of your videos

[@IMPERIALYT]

One day I'll learn how to spell transmisablitliy

[@DKdrop]

That was such a smooth ad pivot that it took me a minute to realize that it was even an ad. I had my suspicions, but it wasn’t until Sabrina started talking about features that I was confident.

[@sky01james28]

The blue bar filling up at the bottom of the screen confirmed my suspicions

[@jupitired777]

love love the part on spelling with all the creestors, so cool to see Phil and hank

[@enderdoom1469]

I think the subtitles for "Pterodactyl" at 5:15 having a typo is fantastically ironic for this video lmao. I love it.

[@talideon]

Yep, one of the key spelling hacks in English is etymology! English is a bunch of different spelling systems mashed together, and to know the spelling, having its history talk to you is critical. Once you've a vague idea of the origin of a word and/or affix, the actual spelling gets vastly more obvious.

[@billyalarie929]

Holy shit these ad spots are really on point right now. You guys are doing a great job integrating your sponsors into the subject of the vid itself.

[@chaulk5]

I loved your video on English Spelling, but can we just talk about how good and engaging your editing is!??!?!?! DUDE as a follow editor I love your style! It is so engaging! AND THE PROJECTOR SLIDE SHOW!?!?! Come ON that was awesome! You're a great story teller and I see your craft! *clicks subscribe button*

[@joeyshi2114]

Great job on the spellcheck game, it looks very polished!