Why English Is Like That
Discover the hidden history buried in the words you use every day. Learn why English spelling makes no sense, why we have two words for everything, and how invasions reshaped our grammar.
Like Duolingo, but for Why English Is Like That. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Cracking Modern Quirks and How the Machine Was Rebuilt. It starts from scratch.
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Key ideas in Why English Is Like That
- In 1066, William the Conqueror led the Norman French invasion of England
- The new ruling class spoke Norman French while ordinary people continued speaking Old English
- Centuries of coexistence merged the two layers into modern English rather than wiping either out
- Basic bodily actions, tools, and family bonds retain ancient Anglo-Saxon (Old English) words
- Government, administration, law, and fine cuisine entered English through the Norman French ruling class
- The domain of a word today reflects the medieval status of the people who used it
- Anglo-Saxon field hands raised the live animals using Germanic names like cow, swine, and calf
- French-speaking nobles ate the served meat using French words like bœuf (beef), porc (pork), and veau (veal)
- This barnyard-versus-table division survived directly into modern English food vocabulary
- Anglo-Saxon words (like 'sorry', 'tell', 'call off') sound visceral, direct, and blunt
- French-derived words (like 'regret', 'inform', 'terminate') add formal polish, distance, or institutional tact
- Modern English speakers switch registers largely by pivoting between these two historical layers
- Old and Middle English speakers pronounced initial consonants like the 'k' in 'knight' and 'g' in 'gnat'
- Spoken English gradually softened and dropped awkward consonant clusters because they were difficult to say
- The spread of the printing press froze existing spellings in place just as pronunciation was dropping those sounds
- Between roughly 1400 and 1600, English speakers moved their tongue positions higher in the mouth, systematically shifting all long vowel sounds
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Why English Is Like That the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
After the 1066 invasion, how did language get split across English society?
Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.
Where Why English Is Like That takes you
- 1
Cracking Modern Quirks
- Spotting the Norman French Split
- Decoding the Chaos of English Spelling
- 2
How the Machine Was Rebuilt
- How Vikings Stripped English Grammar
- The Renaissance and Global Borrowing
2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
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- What you get
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- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Why English Is Like That is taught in the Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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