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One of the most difficult and confusing aspect of English language is its spelling system. There is often similarity between the pronunciation of word and its spelling. One cannot always tell how to spell a word by its pronunciation.
In order to understand the peculiarity of the English spelling system, it is good to know something about the history of the language. First, it is helpful to realize that English was originally spoken by people who could neither read nor write. While the uneducated people spoke English, the literate upper classes spoke French and wrote in Latin. Later, when English became a literary language, there was no system for spelling its words. Moreover, the first writers of English were French speaking orators who knew English only slightly: therefore, they carried many French spelling idiosyncrasies into English. In addition, these first writers of English, who were used to writing in Latin, Often interpolate letters into words even when they were not pronounced because the corresponding word in Latin was spelled that way.
Finally, the confusion increased when the diction of certain words changed while the spelling remained the same.

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