Dear Humans,

The national Spelling Bee pronouncer Dr. Jacques Bailly said something interesting in a video I was watching the other day. He said his job is not that difficult because there’s only 44 sounds in the English language. He just has to put them together.

And it’s true, there are only 44 separate sounds (or phonemes) in English. That doesn’t seem like that many. There are 53 players on the Broncos team and there are a lot of people who know their names, stats, and alma maters.

But the thing about sounds is that they work together to create language. So those simple 44 sounds can turn into an unfathomable number of words. Like acorns that grow into massive oaks at the speed of sound.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt