Enough Is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Eezier to Spell

by Gabe Henry

A brief and humorous 500-year history of the Simplified Spelling Movement

Why does the first "g" in "George" sound different from the first "g" in "gorge"? Why does "c" begin both case and cease? And why is it funny when a philologist faints, but not polight to laf about it? Anyone who has ever had the misfortune to write in English has, at one time or another, struggled with its spelling.

So why do we continue to use it? If our system of writing words is so tragically inconsistent, why haven’t we standardized it, phoneticized it, brought it into line? How many brave linguists have ever had the courage to state, in a declaration of phonetic revolt: “Enough is enuf”?

The answer: many. In the comic annals of linguistic history, legions of rebel wordsmiths have died on the hill of spelling reform, risking their reputations to bring English into the realm of the rational. This book is about them: Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin, Eliza Burnz, C.S. Lewis, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Darwin, and the innumerable others on both sides of the Atlantic who, for a time in their life, became fanatically occupied with writing "thru" instead of "through," "tho" for "though," "laf" for "laugh," "beleev" for "believe," and "dawter" for "daughter" (and tried futilely to get everyone around them to do it, too).

Gabe Henry takes his humorous and informative chronicle right up to today as the language seems to naturally be simplifying to fit the needs of our changing world thanks to technology—from texting to Instagram to emojis, the Simplified Spelling Movement may finally be having its day.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Language, Linguistics, Writing, Audiobook, Humor

304 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2025

About the author

Gabe Henry is the author of three books including the poetry anthology "Eating Salad Drunk" (Vulture's Best Comedy Books of 2022), a humor collaboration with Jerry Seinfeld, Margaret Cho, Ray Romano, Mike Birbiglia, Janeane Garofalo, Roy Wood Jr., Michael Ian Black, Bob Odenkirk, George Wallace, Maria Bamford, and other titans of comedy.​

His forthcoming book, "Enough is Enuf" (HarperCollins), is about the little-known "Simplified Spelling Movement" and its many (failed) attempts to change "through" to "thru," "laugh" to "laf," and "enough to enuf" (tu naim a few) in an effort to pare down all words to their simplest spelling.

Reviews

[Nataliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

English spelling is quite a mess, I think we can all agree. It can be arbitrary and illogical, based on antiquated conventions and etymological misunderstandings, disastrous and annoying, and seems frozen in time without taking into account changes in pronunciation. No wonder spelling bee is an odd phenomenon that really should not be a thing in the world where spelling would be sensible.

“Our spellings today are therefore anchored to a pronunciation spoken sometime between Chaucer and Shakespeare, back when we voiced the S in aisle, the G in gnarl, and the K in knife.”

Picture young Nataliya at seven years old in Eastern Europe, having diligently memorized English alphabet, being called to the blackboard to spell “cat” and innocently coming up with mortifying “K-E-T”. That was my first encounter with the completely illogical and puzzling thing that is English orthography.

It seems easy to shrug off any issues with the “traditional” spelling as something irrelevant, but it appears that the push to make the spelling make sense goes back centuries. It may seem silly now, when children learn it early, but in the times when literacy meant ability to advance in the world for adults who previously have been illiterate, having non-phonetic spelling was an artificial roadblock to better things in life. And once I see it from this angle, the efforts to improve this suddenly seem was less frivolous.

Nevertheless, it seems that those efforts to improve everything by insisting on an immediate change to something that looks offputting and strange to those used to traditional ways of writing attracted people with specific personality traits — from simply pedantic to those used to being in power, although they all seemed to be fueled by genuine desire to improve. The problem is — humans are resistant to sudden changes forced in them from above. Andrew Carnegie probably had the best idea of introducing changes slowly (but Roosevelt bulldozed that pretty quickly), and Noah Webster stealthily excised extraneous “u” in worlds like “color” and “k” in “magic” — but those who tried to barrel them through (like Teddy Roosevelt) were met with strong resistance. (The book doesn’t mention it, but an example of a successful simplifying of archaic orthography was done in Russian after the Soviet Revolution, but it only worked because it was forced from above without room for discussion, like everything in the Soviet state).

The common approach to simplifying spelling is, of course, based on phonetics — which to an eye unused to it looks a bit strange and childlike and generally incomprehensibly offputting (“Speling Reform Asoshiēshun”, anyone?), but some went as far as adding numbers in place of letters (and here I was, assuming that was the result of textspeak and calculators made to spell “boobies” via 5318008) or even creating completely new alphabets. Some proposed doubling up on letters (“catt” and “dogg” and other similar nonsense). Some preferred “tho” and “thru”, and others - like many of us now - prefer donuts to doughnuts, even if they are equally delicious.

The Star-Spangled Banner in several “sensible” styles

The proponents of ‘sensible’ orthography included Benjamin Franklin, George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, Noah Webster, Charles Darwin, Andrew Carnegie, Theodore Roosevelt, Melvil Dewey, Upton Sinclair. For some it was a true lifelong passion (those seem to be people of, ummmm, certain type of uptight character) and for others a passing fad. But in general, the public seemed to get tired pretty quickly of increasingly odd-looking words, just as people roll their eyes at ridiculous spelling we see in textspeak (out of which many luckily seem to grow out). As for textspeak, Henry devotes an entire chapter to it, as well as to “creative” 90s song titles (some by Artist Formerly Known as Prince), reminding me that some things I took for silly affectations actually have root in numeric keyboards, SMS character limits and prices per SMS sent.

And yet, given the long tradition of spelling bees glorifying people being able to memorize ridiculously spelled words, we the people are clearly Stockholm-syndromes into this silly orthography of ours. Enuf sed.

Now, this book is meant to be entertaining above all. It lacks academic focus of deep dive into the subject, remaining a light read often full of chuckles. Depending on what you are looking for, this may be a curse or a blessing. Henry is not as good at combining the two as, for instance, John McWhorter, but he’s not bad, with the end result being light and fun, even if not that deep. Not a bad way of ending a few hours, feeling a bit better about thinking twice of all the letters in “connoisseur” (my personal spelling nemesis).

3.5 stars, rounding up.

[Katie B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Dey Street Books for sending me a free copy! #MorrowPartner

ENOUGH IS ENUF by Gabe Henry caught my eye because the Simplified Spelling Movement is something I hadn’t heard of and it sounded intriguing. Glad I took a chance on this one because it was chock full of interesting info. The book explores the 500 year history of this reform movement with some notable names like Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain pushing for change.

The idea is simple, make spelling English words easier because as it is there are way too many random rules and exceptions to those rules. Letters have different sounds depending on the word and it can be confusing. So why not go with a more phonetic approach? Sounds like a great plan but it’s never really been implemented because everyone has their own idea of how the alphabet would need to be tweaked in order to accomplish it. Gradually though some changes have been made over the years as Americans have veered slightly from the British way of spelling words. For example, the letter u has been dropped from words like favourite and colour. Advertisements and text messaging have also simplified our spelling habits.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and loved sharing the bits of info I learned with my husband. Recommend to anyone who is a fan of nonfiction.

[Shannon A · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who has struggled with spelling my entire life, this book intrigued me. I’m not the only one that thinks spelling was a waste of good time and has wanted desperately to simplify the spelling process.
From monks, Benjamin Franklin to Prince; sorting out spelling has been happening right along the evolution of language for generations. All the failed attempts led us to the texting and shorthand that is part of our daily lives 2day.

[Leilani W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed this thoroughly researched and well-written look back at the many attempts to tame our language's many peculiarities. I had no idea there had been so many different plans and methods invented. I particularly liked the passages written in some of the proposed alphabets/writing systems, to see how easy they would be to pick up and to imagine what might have been. Highly recommend this book for anyone interested in microhistories or the English language in particular.

(Bookseller advance reader copy)

[Lori Tatar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was incredibly fascinating, worth a few giggles, quite a bit of contemplation and despite all the frustration most of us have likely felt at times, all I can say is, Whoda’ thunk?

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw this book was coming out, I knew I had to read it and am so glad that I did. There were so many things in there that I hadn't thought about for so long, like the joke about the kid who tries to spell fish and comes up with ghoti. I had to stop and think when the author said there are seven different ways to pronounce ough.

I loved reading the history of the different people who are trying to simplify our spelling. Then, of course, men arguing over whose spelling would be better. I really loved all the political cartoons mocking President Roosevelt. Good political cartoons are extremely undervalued.

This is an amazing book!!!

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

[Lisa Ahlstedt · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a former English major, I really enjoyed reading this book about the many unsuccessful attempts to reform English spelling. The book is very entertaining and gives both a background of enthusiastic reformers of the past, such as Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain, all the way through to the shorted and simplified spelling that has come about as part of the texting revolution. The end of the book even includes some simplified spelling lists that Noah Webster championed.

I received a copy of this book from a GoodReads giveaway.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was so fun!!! I feel like it was tailor-made for me.
Gabe Henry combines a niche slice of humor with witty writing and some fun bonus content at the end of this book. I read an advanced ebook copy and can tell that this is going to be beautiful in its finished, physical form—from the formatting of the ebook, it looks like this will have call-outs/quotes/pictures that make "enough is enuf" a contender for my coffee table.
such a fascinating, forgotten piece of history

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I luvd this buk! It wuz veree funee; I lafd owt lowd sevril tiims. It wuz also veree informativ. I had no ahdeeuh that so menee difirent simplifiid speling sistems hav bin sugjestid over the yeers.

Ok, enuf -- I mean enough -- of that. Just writing those few sentences phonetically took more time than the whole rest of this review.

As confusing and inconsistent as English spelling is, we've still memorized it so thoroughly that learning a whole new method is more than we want to tackle. That's one of the reasons why simplified spelling has never really caught on, as this book explains in hilarious detail.

It traces the history of the simplified spelling movement from its beginning in the 12th century with Middle English, all the way up to modern textspeak with its emoji characters, acronyms, alphanumeric combinations, and abbreviated spellings.

The author also gives us portraits of some of the personalities who have championed simplified spelling, which include some very famous people such as Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie, George Bernard Shaw, and Noah Webster.

He also reproduces -- as far as he is able to with modern type fonts -- some of the simplified spelling systems that have been in use over the years. One which was based on musical notation evolved into Pitman shorthand writing, which was of great use to journalists and stenographers for many years (and became a symbol of women's equality when women moved into those fields).

Most simplified spelling systems, however, were just as confusing as traditional English, and some were downright incomprehensible!

This book is highly recommended for word nerds, or anyone who's ever been frustrated with English spelling.

[Tyler Critchfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hav yu evr wunderd wy Eenglish speling iz so weerd? If yu cud create yor own speling sistem, how wud yu structur it?

This buk haz sum intreeging ideeas and historee. Tho it kwikly becam redundant 4 me az most ov the chapters seemd to repeet the same storee ov faled reform. The chapter on the Deseret langwaj waz a fun surpriz tho. I wudn't try to lisen to this won - otherwize yu'l mis out on the point ov the buk :)

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never knew there were multiple attempts to simplify American English spelling. I listened to the audio, which did make it harder to understand the nuances of the spelling changes, but I got the gist of it. Suffice it to say, words look weird if spelled phonetically. While the English language can be a pain at times, all the various spellings and meaning and pronunciations, I can't image spelling any other way.

There was mention of modern texting and how that fundamentally changed how we spell, in informal settings anyway. Text spelling can be chaotic and hard to interpret too. Often, I have to look up acronyms. Oh well.

I used to be a great speller, but with the inventing of spell check and of course the internet, my spelling has declined. But I at least know when it's not right!!! :D

[Jason Furman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deliteful, amuzing and ocasionally even lauf-out-loud history of the simplifid speling movement in English.

OR

A delytful, amewzing an okayshnaly eeven laf-owt-lowd histor-ee uv tha simplifyd speling moovmunt in Inglish.

OR

A delɪtfəl, əmuzɪŋ and əkejʒənli ivən laf-owt-lowd hɪstəri ov ðə simplɪfaɪd spelɪŋ muvment in Ŋgliʃ.

OR

Ā dēlītful, ămūzing and ōkāzhunaly ēv’n läf-owt-loud hystōry ov thə simplīfīd spĕl’ing mōovm’nt in Ĭngglish.

OR

Uh deleitfl, umoozing an uhkaezhnuhlee eevn laf-owt-lowd histori uv thuh simpliefied speling moovmunt in Inglish.

OR

𐐈 𐐔𐐇𐐢𐐆𐐙𐐚𐐭, 𐐈𐐣𐐭𐐞𐐆𐐢 𐐈𐐤 𐐈𐐿𐐯𐐖𐐲𐐤𐐢𐐆 𐐀𐐨𐐉𐐤 𐐢𐐰𐐙-𐐲𐐤𐐢-𐐢𐐭𐐶𐐔 𐐐𐐮𐐢𐐻𐐲𐐪𐐨 𐐲𐐺 𐐞𐐯 𐐝𐐮𐐣𐐹𐐮𐐙𐐆𐐞 𐐝𐐯𐐢𐐆𐐤𐐺 𐐣𐐭𐐶𐐣𐐲𐐤𐐻 𐐆𐐤 𐐆𐐤𐐶𐐮𐐛.

These are different ways to spell the opening sentence of this review using different simplified spelling systems that have been developed over the last two hundred years. These reformers were all motivated by the fact that the English language has 26 letters for 44 sounds. But English also has, on average, four different letters for any given sound. As a result scissors could theoretically be spelled millions of different ways and “ghoti” could be pronounced “fish” (as in touGH WOmen noTIon). Gabe Henry gives example after example after example of these types throughout the book, in many cases drawing on the examples used by different reformers, but it never gets old or repetitive.

I wish Henry provided a bit more context, like comparative data on English compared to other languages or rigorous data on dyslexia, learning length or other consequences of our orthographical challenges. But that was beyond his scope (although there is a lively, high-level chapter on the history of English from Celtic through Anglo Saxon through Norse and how the spelling changes did not keep up with the language language changes).

Instead the book is largely a chronological chronicle from the Middle Ages through the present with mostly failures to develop alternative alphabets, remove silent letters (but some succeeded, more in the United States where we don’t labour over colours that each have different flavours), add letters, and more. Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain and many more are deeply involved. For months the U.S. government printed with simplified spelling and for decades the Chicago Tribune did, ending in 1975 with the headline, “‘Thru Is Through’ As Chicago Tribune Ends Spelling Fight”.

The book ends on a more optimistic note than I would have—noting all the ways in which simplified spelling, phonograms, pictograms (e.g., emojis) and more are infiltrating our language from texting to rock lyrics to whimsical product names (Krispy Kreme).

The one possibility of true optimism he does not mention is an idea I heard from Paul Romer (I don’t know if it’s original to him) that we could transition to simplified spelling by taking advantage of the fact that most reading is on screens, old people could read in the old style, younger people in the new style, and it would all effortless transliterate across texts, emails and the like. Maybe that would work? But would be worth better understanding just how large the fixed cost of current spelling is to decide if the big cost of changing would be worthwhile.

[Renato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uppairintlee, thu reedeeng and speleeng uv Eenglish iz naat an eezee task---okay enough of that.

In Enough is Enuf, Gabe Henry does an excellent job (channelling a Bill Bryson feel) of illustrating the problem at hand:

⦿ English is a language of the conquered, where much of it has been absorbed by its differing invaders
⦿ The English alphabet is one with 21 consonants (accounting for 24 sounds) and 5 vowels (accounting for 20 sounds).
⦿ As a result, the alphabet forms a language where there is not only super redundancy, but also where some letters are pulling 4 times their weight.
⦿ Many people believe that English students spend way too much time learning the exceptions in spelling words (especially when comparted to other languages), and that the language should be simplified

And the final problem:

⦿ Over the past 200 years, there have been too many opinionated white men in positions of power who thought that their Simplified Spelling solution was the only way to go, and tried to force new rules of language on the vox populi

This book is an excellent tour of all of these (mostly) failed efforts to simplify English spelling, rife with educational tidbits about language itself and humours stories.

I find myself charmed at some of the strategies that were employed to solve the problem of spelling, which include: using colour to denote pronunciation (Words in Color), converting the alphabet into numbers (Major system) and adapting the musical notation of curves and dots (Stenographic Sound Hand).


I, for one, cannot wait to see the future of Simplified Spelling, as dictated to us by our A.I. overlords.

[Bronwyn Ceridwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a reasonably interesting surface-level overview of the history of simplified spelling, the sort of book that's chock full of little fun facts with which to annoy your significant other. Hey, babe, did you know that Melvil Dewey was so obsessed with decimal-based organization that he even slept for ten hours every night, which he referred to as "sleeping decimally"? And also, that he was a TOTAL CREEPO? However, if you're looking for a book that explores the topic at hand with any actual depth, it might not be enough. (Or enuf, as the case may be.)

My main issue is that the author refuses to grapple with the reasons that spelling reform hasn't taken hold, however well-intentioned it may be. All too often, Mr. Henry simply handwaves his subjects' failure by blaming closed-minded journalists and politicians, or the vague notion that the public simply "wasn't ready". And then he'll spel sum wordz phunny b4 movin on. (Yes, this is largely the extent of the humor present here.) Only in the closing pages does he briefly acknowledge what seemed obvious to me from the start: that language can and will evolve, but it must do so organically, not by one bored author / lexicographer / monk / U.S. President attempting to bend the general public to their monomaniacal will.

If you do decide to check this out, I'd recommend going with the physical dead tree-based book, as the various alphabets proposed use special characters that don't display correctly on a Kindle. Don't make the same mistake I did!

[Sree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the decades, I have wrestled with three foreign (for me, obviously) languages and come out with varying degrees of success (and brain damage). The generous sprinkling of silent and (IMO) completely unnecessary vowels by the French has left my mind embrouillé and désorienté. The infinite number of articles (der, die, das, dem, den...) the German language has to offer has left me bregenklöterig and seemingly unending compound words, that the Deutsch love, has left me breathless and with Sehnenscheidenentzündung literally and physically.
But despite all that, what I am incredibly thankful is to the fact that I got to learn English at a very young age where I am not supposed to ask questions and just learn by rote. If some noob learning English at ripe old age (like I am with German) ask me as to why through, rough and though do not rhyme, I can, just like a native, say "Because.... History...stop asking too many questions!!".

The book gives a quick short and funny run through the history of how the words in English are spelled and pronounced. It is witty and reasonably informative. After reading it I have to say

Enough should be enuf, because enuf is enough

[Jerry Edward Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why don't we English language speakers spell words like "tough" as "tuf" or "though" as "tho"? Or, for that matter why do we write "enough" that way instead of "enuf"? The title of this intriguing book by Gabe Henry sets out this amazing historical line in its very title. The author is identifying many attempts over the years to simplify English spelling. These many attempts actually go back more than one thousand years. There was an early effort which included double vowels and consonants. Henry identifies this early effort as a Mississippi-level of superfluous. Then there is the silent "b" in words like "debt" and "doubt". Finally, the author notes the reason why the final letter in the English alphabet is pronounced "zed" by British English speakers and "zee" by American English speakers. It all comes down to the realities of the history of the British Isles; the historical migration of peoples from Europe to the islands; and the many languages from Celtic to Latin, and French which have influenced the evolutionary growth of the English language. Gabe Henry has authored a wonderful history of the many attempts at simplifying our spelling. None have taken root permanently. Yet I do still on occasion write "tho" for "though". I have, in fact, been influenced as a librarian by Melville Dewey. It is, however, his Dewey Decimal Classification that I most thoroughly understand. Thoroughly? I'm not sure I can simplify that word. I do, however, recommend this book to every reader interested in the historical development of our English language. It is good reading at the best.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a delightful little history. I don't think anyone would disagree that the written English language needs a makeover. Sadly, every attempt to make this happen over the last few centuries has only added more inconsistent and nonsensical rules. I loved learning about Caxton's and his Flemish assistant's influences on English (thanks a lot for the silent Es and Gs). I learned some fun new-to-me Chicago history about McCormick, the Trib, and the White Sox, I didn't see that coming when I pickedup this book! And it re-inforced this feeling that I often get when reading history books, that when one single influential guy gets a hang up about something, he inevitably makes it everybody else's problem too. Lookin' at you Sir James Pitman, Noah Webster, and Benjamin Franklin. Highly recommend.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting to this word lover. I learned a lot, like the fact that trying to make English an easier language to spell has been going on even before the U.S. developed its own form of English. This book does dovetail well with Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2: The Complete and Authoritative Edition (Volume 11) that I've been reading.
Some of the illustrations of "easier" spelling were still easy for me to read and understand and others seemed impossible.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a lot! It dragged a little at some points but I audibly laughed at basically every chapter.

[Erin Slay Slay-Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down! I enjoyed most of this book but felt it got a little long with certain periods of history. Interesting overall!

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review title: The power of the written word

What does it say that the first two books (see also Algospeak: How social media is transforming the future of language) in my reading database that were published in 2025 are both about how our rapidly evolving language is changing? Perhaps it says more about the purchasing choices of my local public library (both books were on the new-books shelf there) and my interests as a reader, since I found and read them based on a shelf scan, not a search for the specific books or topic.

But social media and how we use them definitely are changing language and spelling, and quickly too, regardless of what we think about the rightness (and righteousness!) of the changes. For one thing that Gabe Henry makes clear in this succinct history of efforts to simplify English spelling is that over the many attempts over many centuries (the first formal attempt dates from the 12th century, p. 11) the responses have been intense, usually negative, and sometimes couched in moralistic terms.

Why so serious? A British politician who had introduced a simplified spelling bill in Parliament in 1949 (it failed) wrote of Winston Churchill's opposition to the idea: "As the greatest English orator of the century, he seemed to think that there was something that bound beauty of language with the symbols that formed the written form of it." (p. 179). And I believe he has hit on one key contributing factor to the almost total failure of the many efforts to simplify English spelling: most speakers associate the power of the spoken word in some perhaps mystical or emotional way with the spelling of the written word, no matter how anachronistic the spelling.

Yet as Henry documents, some simplification takes root and lives organically because of its shortening of length (bar-b-q, Dunkin' Donuts) for marketing and signage (p. 186). In short, if the new spellings and resulting words and sentences are fun, functional in time-savings, and instinctively understandable, we'll adopt them without guidance or command from experts in law or language.

Henry is both serious and tongue-in-cheek as he writes this history, both of which approaches are helpful for a topic which seems equally amenable to both approaches. When you read--or attempt to--examples (the Lord's Prayer being a popular exemplar) of some of these proposals to make spelling match pronunciation in a "simplified" and logical way, it becomes immediately obvious why they never became standards. Henry helpfully provides translations back to English for the worst case examples that are simply indecipherable. And he provides footnotes for those who want to torture their brains further in the weeds of the topic.

As I began to see in Algospeak and now Enough, the use of social media on small devices by a huge portion of the world's population is driving linguistic change from the bottom up. Our linguistics experts and classroom teachers may be shocked and horrified, but change is and will continue to be driven by this rapid innovation and adoption. No amount of hand-wringing or attempted enforcement of policies and standards guidelines will change that. Literacy is ultimately defined by understanding the meaning of written text, not by standardized tests.

So staying informed by reading books like this one is our best preparation and defense in this changing world of words.

[Feng Ouyang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enough Is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Eezier to Spell is a brisk, engaging tour through the centuries-long effort to tame English spelling. As a non-native speaker who has stumbled over the language’s eccentric orthography more times than I care to admit, I opened Gabe Henry’s book expecting sympathy. I got that—and a great deal more.

Henry charts a lively history of spelling-reform crusades, showing how each era hitched the cause to its own concerns. Enlightenment thinkers sought rational order; reformers of the nineteenth century hoped simpler spelling would democratize literacy; advertisers wanted eye catching trademarks; stenographers chased speed; entrepreneurs and educators saw a market for spelling lessons and tools; subcultures—text messaging communities, fans of particular plays and songs—looked for a badge of identity. The parade of supporters is surprisingly star-studded: Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, John Dewey, Noah Webster, even President Teddy Roosevelt all lent their voices to the movement. Today, we still see its echoes in preschool “creative spelling” and in the playful, phonetic shorthand of online subcultures.

What the book does best is remind us that spelling is never a neutral record of sound. It is a social technology that reflects (and shapes) power, cognition, even our sense of who belongs inside the language’s gates. Henry’s anecdotes make that point with wit and clarity, turning what might have been a dry chronicle into thought-provoking fun.

Yet the narrative stops short of probing why so many seemingly reasonable reforms fizzled. Henry treats pronunciation-based spelling as self-evidently desirable, but I found that premise shaky. First, English is a global tongue spoken in dramatically different accents—Indians, Americans, Austrians, and Brits pronounce the same words in distinct ways; tying letters tightly to sound risks fragmenting the written language. Second, orthography carries morphology and etymology—clues to a word’s roots and meaning that a purely phonetic system would erase. Third, homophones, far from being mere quirks, enrich puns and poetry and aid early reading. A deeper linguistic discussion of these trade-offs would have strengthened the argument.

Still, the book’s charm outweighs its blind spots. By the final page I felt both entertained and newly alert to the invisible infrastructure of letters that scaffolds our daily lives. Enough Is Enuf opens a fresh window on language, culture, and the stubborn resilience of tradition—a welcome read for anyone who has ever wondered why “through” isn’t spelled “thru,” and why, despite centuries of effort, that simple tweak remains stubbornly out of reach.

[Nell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still recall an instance in third grade when, studying phonics, I was confronted with the word behave. Why is the a long and not short? It makes no sense. Our archaic spelling is difficult for children and foreign speakers to learn, takes extra time to write, and uses extra space on the written page.

Dating from the 16th century and joined by such notable figures as Noah Webster, Brigham Young, Melville Dewey (Melvil Dui), Andrew Carnegie, Theodore Roosevelt, Isaac Pitman of shorthand fame, Colonel McCormick (publisher of the Chicago Tribune), George Bernard Shaw, and Mark Twain, attempts to simplify and regularize spelling have failed every time, often subjecting its proponents to ridicule. The problem is that the English alphabet has 26 letters but more than 40 sounds, so that it’s impossible for the same letter to be pronounced or spelled the same every time it appears. Words that rhyme are spelled differently; words spelled alike are pronounced differently. (Consider mean and mien and cough, tough, bough, through, and though.) Solutions include dropping unpronounced letters (the b in debt); substituting a single letter for a digraph (f for ph), as in enuf; dropping double letters (canceling) or doubling vowels to signal a long sound (treet); creating new alphabets with more letters or unfamiliar symbols; using shorter, temporary alphabets to teach children and, once mastered, replacing them with the usual 26 letters; and many others.

Wholesale reform has fared worse than incremental efforts, accelerated by texting. We have long dropped the ending -ue in words like catalog, although not always consistently, and digraphs like æ. Now, we text using numbers for words and shortened spellings like tho., which are creeping into everyday use. As an incremental measure, I wonder why diacritical marks aren’t mentioned as a clue to pronunciation; for example, why not a macron over the letter a in behave? German uses the umlaut, Spanish the tilde as keys to pronunciation. It would add letters, or characters, to the alphabet, but the letters would be familiar and not strange symbols to learn.

This history of attempts at speling reform of our notoriously difficult English orthography is GR8 fun.

[Alison Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an English major and former writer and editor, I admit I am usually overly anal about spelling. But at the same time, part of me is like...eh who cares?

(Except when some asshole in the comments on a FB post says something like "Your so stupid" and then I'm like OH AM I? because LOL.)

This was a fun read, and kind of fascinating to see just how fixated some people got about making English "better" when their solutions were usually a hundred times more complicated and weird. Certain things, like thru and tho in place of through and though, make sense and are not bothersome to the eye -- plus the whole craziness on the numerous pronunciations of the -ough combo. And I agree that many silent letters are just superfluous and pointless. (And yes, I include all two-L Alisons out there. Your parents were dumb and also cheating at Scrabble.) It does seem that learning English as an adult must be massively difficult, more so than many other languages, and it's understandable that people have tried so many times to "fix" it. But some of these accounts just made me wonder how much cocaine these folks were on. Like, let's take away silent letters and the C and Q and stuff.........and then let's add in 14 new letters that look like you put a pencil in a parakeet's beak and also add accent marks that don't correspond to any accent marks in other languages and also add double or triple letters in some places for no good reason whatsoever!!

I appreciated that we move through this history in a mostly linear format, because you could see that there often wasn't much new under the sun in this arena, even if every new person to attempt to remake our alphabet thought they were doing something brilliant and unique. I will say though that it did start to feel a bit repetitive at a certain point, and I found myself losing a bit of a steam. However, it's fairly short (on Kindle, the actual text is only about half the book, I believe, with the rest taken up with addendum and notes and such) so it was still easy to get through even when it got a bit dry.

Also I love the focus on Prince and his love of 2 and U. All hail the purple lord of brevity!

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enough Is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell by Gabe Henry is a very highly recommended, brief and humorous account of the 500-year history of the various movements to simplify the spelling of English words.

"There's a reason spelling bees are only common in English speaking countries: English spelling is absurd."

This is a sentiment I'm well acquainted with as someone who was out on the first round of my 6th grade spelling bee. I celebrated when spell check came into our lives. As Henry points out, there are two problems: English has 44 sounds but only 26 letters and every sound in English has 4 ways of spelling it. Anyone who has ever taught a child to read understands how complicated it is. A study showed that it takes children take 2-3 times longer to grasp English spelling.

Enough Is Enuf focuses on the linguistic history and other factors that have contributed to the complexity of spelling and those who promoted changing it. Over the years there have been numerous who attempted to simplify spelling including, in part, a 12th century monk named Ormin, John Cheke, Ben Franklin, Noah Webster (who smuggled in dozens of simplifications such as colour to color in his dictionary), Mark Twain, Melvill Dewey, Eliza Burnz, C. S. Lewis, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Darwin, Theodore Roosevelt, U2, Prince, and Def Leppard, and, currently, textspeak.

I was engrossed, informed, and entertained throughout this historical look at those who tried to reform the spelling of the English language. He honestly points out that one drawback to any simplify spelling movement is who really wants to learn how to read all over again? Included at the end is an abbreviated dictionary of simplified spelling based on Noah Webster's writing, a section called "Muzik and Liriks," notes, and an index.

Enough Is Enuf is a well-written, well-researched, and entertaining history. Thanks to HarperCollins for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2025/0...

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humorous and (very) detailed look at the history of efforts to make English spelling simpler and more logical, with a given letter or set of letters corresponding to a single sound (unlike, say, the ough in "rough" "plough" "ought" and "through" and "thorough") and with fewer unneeded silent letters (say, the b in "debt").

A few too many historical examples (for my taste) that all seemed to follow about the same sequence: highly self-confident person with a megaphone identifies flaws, inconsistencies etc. in current spelling; proposes a bunch of new rules and perhaps even some additional characters........and then the public (formerly "publick") fails to obey.

And yet.....spelling changes over time (like "plough" above, which is more often written "plow" now, dropping the British u in behaviour, honour, favour etc.). Author has an interesting chapter at the end on bottom-up changes influenced by texting (funny stats from a survey of geotagged tweets: most common acronym in West Virginia is ily [I love you], but for Virginia idc [I don't care]). BRB, WTF, use of "2" for "to" etc. etc. all gaining currency.

So my takeaway would be that nobody who's already learned to read in English wants to go through having to relearn a new system, but gradual evolution a few at a time, ok

Trigger warning -- if like me you were ever a department chair and tried to read students' name at graduation at rate of one every 2 seconds by reading index cards on which they'd written the name phonetically, you'll find the many many phonetically written passages in this book anxiety-provoking.

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an ESL teacher and someone who has studied language and linguistics for a long time, I have some familiarity with the challenges of English spelling, why those challenges exist, and efforts to simplify the orthography. However, there was plenty here that I learned for the first time, as Gabe Henry gives a comprehensive and entertaining romp through history that explores the origins of English spelling, its permutations through time, and the many, many individuals who have tried to bring it to some better semblance of order.

I particularly enjoyed learning how much influence early printing press operators and lexicographers had on the way we spell things today, such as the shift from Old English/Norse fnese to our modern sneeze and Noah Webster's codification of many of the major differences between British and American spelling in his first dictionary. It was also interesting how many notable people, more famous for other achievements, were involved in the simplified spelling movement — Andrew Carnegie, Teddy Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Melvil Dewey, Upton Sinclair, and more — as well as how simplified spellers often belonged to other counter-cultural movements of their times like abolitionism, women's suffrage, and vegetarianism. Despite its short length, the book does feel a little overlong, and I felt my attention wandering at times, but that's probably just a me-problem.

Thanks to William Morrow and Goodreads Giveaways for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

[Darcia Helle · Rating 5 out of 5]

English is a hard language to learn.

Sometimes “read” is pronounced like red and other times like reed.

Sometimes the “ough” combination is pronounced like aw, as in sought. Sometimes it's pronounced like oo, as in through. And other times it's inexplicably pronounced like uff, as in tough.

So why don't we spell these words the way they're supposed to sound?

ENOUGH IS ENUF by Gabe Henry explores the Simplified Spelling Movement, which attempted, over centuries, to “simplify” spelling.

You can probably guess that it hasn't worked out. Imagine reading this:

❝TU THE REEDER,

We recomend you tu prezurv cairfuly this furst number ov “The Pioneer.” Oenly a limited edishon ov it haz been printed; and it mai wun dai becum a priesles rarity az the furst peeriodical publisht in rashonaly-spelt English.❞

Oof. My spellcheck was having a meltdown.

Of course, no one could agree on the actual rules for any of this, so spelling always wound up more complicated.

I found this book fascinating. I confess to being one of those people constantly cursing the English language for its inconsistent spelling rules. Now I know why it's best left alone!

*Thanks to Dey Street Books (#MorrowPartner) for the free copy!*

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most non-native speakers, I can attest that English is hard. Why can’t you not just write it like it sounds? This hilarious book provides some answers, from the history of the language to its uses and some misguided attempts to simplify its spelling. Impeccably researched, it is packed with fascinating historical facts, including some alphabets created to try to make it more accessible and easier to learn. I could relate to the parts that dealt with the difficulties faced by foreigners, and it is spot on. Many of the questions raised here don’t have a definite answer, just educated guesses, but that’s not the point. A few chapters seemed a little dry for me, but in general it was very entertaining. It is also very funny (the famous songs transcribed using some of the writing systems analyzed in the book were especially witty). The author’s predictions of what the future holds are fascinating, especially considering how much we rely on autocorrect these days. Now, if I could figure out how to spell "analyze"…
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Dey Street Books.

[Brenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Be sure to read it--listening to an audio version you would miss out on all the spelling minutiae. I think of myself as fairly good at spelling but have often been exasperated at how difficult the English language is! I loved learning Spanish and how simple it was to pronounce anything.

Reading this book was entertaining and eye-opening. Learning some of the history of the English language and how the simplified spelling movement has tried and failed over and over again has helped me to realize why spelling bees and mysterious pronunciations will continue.

My kids got sick of me telling them little facts as I read the book: "Wow, did you know the term 'OK' comes from the simplified spelling movement and was originally an insider abbreviation of 'oll korrect'?" ... "For a time, Theodore Roosevelt ordered all government documents to be in simplified spelling and he got a ton of grief because of it" ... "Shakespeare spelled his name lots of different ways. He didn't care about consistent spelling." ... "I wonder if the Deseret alphabet will be mentioned. Woah! There's a whole chapter on it!"