Is there any word in your mother tongue which has same pronunciation of an English word but different meaning(Homophone?) "Truth is stranger than fiction". A real incident which took place in Mumbai some 20 years back. An American landed In a foreign bank in Mumbai to do some audit work. He was provided with an attender to do a few menial jobs like opening/closing the door on his entry/exit.The American Officer found the assistant not closing the door whenever ordered to do so as he couldn't understand American accent.The American Officer made a complaint to Bank Manager. The Manager racked his brain and finally found a solution to this problem. He advised American Officer to say "There was a banker" instead of "Close the door". It worked out fine. "There was a banker" phonetically matched with DARWAZA BANDH KARO

Have you had enough (or enuf) trouble spelling to make you want to scream (or skreem?) You are not alone. Since the 17th century, scholars have been protesting the irregularities that occur in English spelling. Reform movements can boast such iconic English-speaking figures Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, and Theodore Roosevelt. English is currently the most widely-spoken language on the planet, yet it is the only language among the top ten most spoken that lacks an official regulatory academy to approve spelling. One of the problems that spellers face is the diverse origin of English words. German, Latin, French, and Greek are all common sources, and each follows a different set of rules for spelling. Even within any one of these languages, it’s impossible to guarantee internal consistency; when these systems mix together helter skelter, one ends up with English orthography. Students of the SAT know that memorizing the Latin roots of English words is a great way to expand vocabulary, but most Latin-rooted words entered English usage from French after the Norman Conquest of the 11th century. The British English spelling of colour and centre are vestiges of this relationship. The Normans replaced French as the language of the court, throwing Old English, a Germanic language, out of official usage for 300 years. By the time English was again allowed at court, it was a French-infused Middle English. Geoffrey Chaucer is a great example of English spelling and pronunciation at this awkward phase. In fact, there was no set form for spelling – there are sentences in The Canterbury Tales in which the same word is spelled differently. This was no fault of Chaucer’s; he was simply following the spelling of the moment. read less