Spelling

Simpli uses phonetic spelling: one sound = one letter. No silent letters.

One objective of this spelling is to help non-native speakers of English achieve clearer pronunciation—or at least to be more easily understood by both native and non-native listeners. Writing words as they are pronounced supports a more consistent accent and reduces misunderstandings.

Alphabet

Vowels: a, e, i, o, u.

a — father, cat
e — bed, red
i — sit, see
o — hot, go
u — put, too

Consonants: p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, f, s, l, r, h, v, w, y. No letter c (removed entirely). Use k for /k/. The sound /tʃ/ is written tj; /dʒ/ is written dj (symmetrical with tj). The [v]/[w] sound is written v (standard); w can still be used for familiarity with English. G always represents the hard /g/ sound (as in go, gud, giv, langwidj).

p — pen
b — bed
t — top
d — dog
k — cat
g — go (always hard /g/; never /dʒ/)
m — man
n — no
f — fan
s — sun
l — leg
r — run
h — hot
v — have (standard for [v]/[w] sound)
w — we (also used for familiarity)
y — yes
tj — /tʃ/ (e.g. tjaild); dj — /dʒ/ (e.g. djob)

Letter mappings

English sounds that don’t exist in Simpli are mapped to the nearest letter:

th → d (dis, dat, dey)
v / w — The [v] and [w] sounds are equivalent in Simpli. The standard spelling uses v: seven, vata (water), vuman (woman), hav, giv, liv, mov, river, even. W can still be used for familiarity (e.g. wata, wi, windo). Speakers may pronounce either way. See Alphabet rationale for the full rule and examples.
ch → tj (no letter c in Simpli): tjaild (child), tiitjer (teacher), tjeendj (change), tjiiz (cheese). For /k/ we always use k: skul (school), akson (action).
ph → f (fon)
sh → s; z → s when needed
g = /g/ (always hard): go, gud (good), giv (give), langwidj (language). G never represents /dʒ/.
dj = /dʒ/ (symmetrical with tj): djob (job), djeneral (general), djaiant (giant), meidjer (major), bridj (bridge).
ou → u — The sound is written u. Standard spelling is yu (you); you is acceptable for clarity or familiarity.

Simplification preferences

Double consonants are not encouraged; they go against simplification. Prefer a single consonant: adres (not address). Double consonants are acceptable, but the simplified form is preferred.

Long vowels

One vowel = short sound; double vowel = long sound. The aim of doubled vowels (and thus long sounds) is to differentiate homonyms (e.g. it vs iit). In general, though, context is enough to understand.

it (it) vs iit (eat)
rod (rod) vs rood (road)
rum (rum) vs ruum (room)
ful (full) vs fuul (fool)
ston (stone), kii (key), leef (leaf)

No silent letters

Every letter is pronounced. Spell the sound you hear:

lait (light), windo (window), dor (door)
bred (bread), faind (find), plei (play)
Diphthongs: /aɪ/ as ai (bai, tjaild), /eɪ/ as ei (plei)

Syllable and stress

Syllables follow (C)V(C): consonant + vowel + optional consonant. Stress usually on the second-to-last syllable (komputer, yesterde, tumoro).

Common endings

Familiar English endings are simplified:

-tion, -sion → -son (akson, vison)
-ture → -tur (natur, futur)
-ous → -us; -ful → -ful (same)

How to define the spelling of a word

Simpli spelling is based on pronunciation, not English spelling. Use this process:

Start from pronunciation, not spelling. Convert the English word to its approximate phonemic form first.
Normalize the phoneme inventory. Apply Simpli sound decisions:
- /θ/ → d or t
- /ð/ → d
- /tʃ/ → tj
- /dʒ/ → dj
- /k/ → k
- /s/ → s
- vowel length handled explicitly (short = single letter, long = doubled)
Then write the Simpli spelling. Only after the sound has been identified.

An automatic rule like “replace c with k” does not work, because English c can correspond to /k/, /s/, /tʃ/, or other sounds depending on the word. The same applies to g, x, th, and vowels. See Alphabet rationale for why letter-by-letter substitution fails and how to work from sounds instead.

Alphabet rationale — V and W (sounds equivalent), why we keep i and y, why automatic substitution fails, and full letter details.