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Brian1946's avatar

What are some words that have unnecessary letters?

Asked by Brian1946 (32592points) February 16th, 2017

How would you spell them without the extraneous characters?

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26 Answers

SQUEEKY2's avatar

Just off the top of my head.
1 (K)nife
2bom(b)
3 dum(b)

ragingloli's avatar

Any words with silent e’s.
There are 3 of those in your question.

Zaku's avatar

We(d)n(e)sday
s(w)ord
(w)rist
o(d)d
(T)rump
i(s)land
cas(t)le
k(n)ickers
(w)rap

Brian1946's avatar

Using my question as an example:

Wot r sum words that hav unnecessary letters?

Dutchess_III's avatar

though. through.

ucme's avatar

Trump, do away with the first letter & you describe the man himself…an arse.

Patty_Melt's avatar

Hillary, all unnecessary letters.

ucme's avatar

Or indeed unnecessary emails

Patty_Melt's avatar

Dou(b)t
Arkansa(s)
Lim(b)
Fr(i)end

rojo's avatar

thoro(ugh)
anything with q because it is always followed by a useless u.
anything with pairs of let(t)ers.

Hilary, al unnesesary leters.

And, @Brian1946 that would be: “Wat r sum werds that hav unnesesary leters.”

chyna's avatar

Pneumonia

Jeruba's avatar

I don’t think there are any.

ucme's avatar

Junkmail

Berserker's avatar

The name Vaughn. Why noy just Vawn or Von? Must be some english rules I don’t know about, just seems odd.

Patty_Melt's avatar

Coffee
Giraffe
Mississippi
Gnome
Diamond
Scissors

dxs's avatar

Worcester -> Wooster
Featherstonhaugh -> Fanshaw (I’ve only heard this one on the internet)

@rojo Anything with pairs of letters?! But…butt…but…why?

dappled_leaves's avatar

I’m sorry, but I must post The Frog and Peach here now. It’s the law.

rojo's avatar

@dxs bekaws it is stupid to wast letrs wen u can mayk yorself understud without the xtra efort.

Soubresaut's avatar

Aw, I’m with Jeruba! The spellings tell stories of etymology and word-relations and the history of the many influences and conventions that have swept through the English language… Stories I’m still figuring out, but the bits I’ve collected are fascinating…

Here’s a story about the etymology of English swear words if anyone’s interested. And it’s useful to know should you ever be talking with someone who tries to tell you that “fuck” is an acronym for “fornicate under consent of king,” because they you can use some cold hard Oxford-approved facts to punch the stupid alternative fact in its made-up face. … I had a bad experience with someone trying to tell me a bunch of etymology “factoids” because they heard that I like words… I don’t want to talk about it.

rojo's avatar

^^I thought it was “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge”.

Patty_Melt's avatar

Mailbox
Fanmail
Editor

Soubresaut's avatar

@rojo hahaha and gahhhhh :P at least that one makes more sense, and I’m assuming it’s spare the absurd back story of olden-time kings signing official F.U.C.K. documents for every marriage.

Jeruba's avatar

Exactly, @Soubresaut. The word’s orthography (spelling) is like its face. Much as a person’s face suggests age, ethnicity, character, and other biographical information, it tells you a lot about the word. And if you can recognize its roots, its origins, its relatives, and so on, you can gain a much deeper understanding of it. Some letters might not be necessary to the pronunciation of a word (or they might be), but pronunciation is hardly the only thing we want to know when we read a word.

Stinley's avatar

There is all the letters that Webster cut from American spelling:
mould, honour, colour, travelled (I think), haematology, anaesthetics, oedema etc

Dutchess_III's avatar

I thought “fuck” was a German word.

rojo's avatar

@Soubresaut Thanks a lot. Now I have this picture stuck in my head of the Sheriff of Nottingham (the one from Robin Hood) sitting at his desk with a stack of papers and as he stamps each one he intones “Fuck this. Fuck this. Fuck this…....”

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