Find your English word by the way it sounds?

[damefrank]

Would a book that spells English words by the way they sound be helpful?


Answers to any of the above will help this author.

...and knowing where you are now and where you are from is a big bonus!

[Super Sonic]

Hmm, I suppose it will be in IPA or APA, no? If it's going to be in conventional writing, I would definitely give it a try.

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by damefrank

Would a book that spells English words by the way they sound be helpful?


Answers to any of the above will help this author.

...and knowing where you are now and where you are from is a big bonus!

Most good dictionaries already do this.
It's true that they don't list them by the way they sound, but they have a phonetic transcription after the head word.

[Anglika]

There was that awful period about 30 years ago when the theorists came up with a "new" way of teaching reading, where words were presented as an artificial "phonetic form". This meant the child may already have started with the alphabet, was switched to the new forms, and then had to start all over again to learn the standard way of spelling. It set back reading by years.


Of course, to find dictionaries useful, you have to know the alphabet as it is recited phonetically, not just as it looks when written.

[konungursvia]

I don't think the concept suits a book as well as it does simply asking a teacher orally. For books, the alphabet presents itself as the most effective search method, so there you are again with the OED.