why your typos are not your fault

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

SUPPORT US ON PATREON

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

CHECK OUT PHIL'S CHANNEL

FIX MY CODE ON GITHUB

SOCIAL MEDIA
Sabrina
Melissa
Taha

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

RECOMMENDED READING
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 ;-)

[Glarses]

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

[xpengunx]

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

[Bedizenin]

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

[Yellowsam]

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

[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!

[LinusBoman]

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

[thospe-fx]

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

[themaskedinc.]

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

[grummdoesstuff]

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

[PhilEdwardsInc]

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

[CatalogK]

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.

[toomanyopinions]

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.

[Retiarius]

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.

[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.

[seagummy]

one of these videos will be sabrina getting tested for dyslexia

[vitsofiasantos]

I'm Brazilian and I found this YouTube 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. 🧡✨🤧

[AngelVids]

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

[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!

[ajuma]

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!!!

[MattAndImprov]

Pirate Butt

That's how you remember how to spell embarrass

ARR ... ASS