I realize that there are lots of confusing spellings of words. The ones that get me the most though are the words with the hidden letter W.
Why do you even need to have that W in there? The word answering. Go ahead and pronounce the W. “an swering.” I am not an English major or anywhere close to it, but why is the W even needed there?
Then there is sword. Go ahead and pronounce the W in that. I cannot even figure how to type it so that you pronounce it with the W sound. Lol. I am sure that you get my point though and can figure out how to do it.
There is wrist, wriggle, wrinkle, wreck, wrought, wrong, wrestle. These words you actually cannot pronounce the W as you can in answer and sword. I am trying to think if there are others like answer and sword but I cannot come up with any others.
To me at least wrist, wrinkle, wreck and the others you can leave the W silent at the beginning. The W in the middle of answer and sword drives me crazy.
Are there any of you majors out there that know if there is a reason for this? I really am wanting an “an swer” if you would not mind “an swering.”
Follow the Yellow Brick Road - Laughing All The Way 
Once my Mom noted that English must be a hard language to learn because of some words where the letters aren’t pronounced (such as the words you mention above!) To me, the hardest language is French. They have so many words with non-pronounced letters! It drives me nuts! LOL!
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Really? I did not know that, but I could never learn another language. It impresses me when others can speak many languages!
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