The English Writing System

Grammar Points

The English writing system uses the Latin alphabet, otherwise known as the Roman alphabet. There

are twenty-six letters in total, which consist of twenty-one consonants and the five vowels -a, -e, -i, -0,

and -u. Each letter has two forms: the uppercase and the lowercase. Technically, we do not use

diacritics in English.

English has words from many different languages, including French, Greek, and Latin. We can see this

in the orthography of many English words. English does follow a phonemic rule; however, because of

these different influences, the rules are complex to learn and follow. That is why the spelling is not

always the same for the same pronunciation.

Also, the Great Vowel Shift that took place between 1400-1700 also accounts for spelling and

pronunciation discrepancies. There are several theories as to why there was so much change in vowels

during this time period. One theory states that, due to the fact that many immigrants had to

communicate with one another, English speakers had to adjust their speech so that they could

understand.