# The Chaos > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/The_Chaos > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/The_Chaos.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaos > Source revision: 1309510215 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 1920 poem written by Gerard Nolst Trenité For the studio album by The Futureheads, see [The Chaos (album)](/source/The_Chaos_(album)). For other uses, see [Chaos (disambiguation)](/source/Chaos_(disambiguation)). [The Chaos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Chaos.flac) A reading of the poem (duration: 5:53) *Problems playing this file? See [media help](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Media).* "**The Chaos**" is a poem demonstrating the [irregularity of English spelling and pronunciation](/source/English_orthography#Phonic_irregularities). Written by Dutch writer, traveller, and teacher [Gerard Nolst Trenité](/source/Gerard_Nolst_Trenit%C3%A9) (1870–1946) under the [pseudonym](/source/Pseudonym) of Charivarius, it includes about 800 examples of irregular spelling. The first version of 146 lines of text appeared in an appendix to the author's 1920 textbook *Drop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen*, but "the most complete and authoritative version ever likely to emerge", published by the [Spelling Society](/source/Spelling_Society) in 1993–94, has 274 lines.[1] ## Partial text These lines are set out as in the author's version, with alternate couplets indented and the problematic words italicised.[1] Dearest *creature* in *Creation*, Studying English pronunciation, I will teach you in my verse Sounds like *corpse*, *corps*, *horse* and *worse*. It will keep you, *Susy*, *busy*, Make your *head* with *heat* grow dizzy; *Tear* in eye your dress you'll *tear*. So shall I! Oh, hear my *prayer*, *Pray*, console your loving poet, Make my coat look *new*, dear, *sew* it? Just compare *heart*, *beard* and *heard*, *Dies* and *diet*, *lord* and *word*, *Sword* and *sward*, *retain* and *Britain*, (Mind the latter, how it's written!) *Made* has not the sound of *bade*, Say—*said*, pay—*paid*, *laid*, but *plaid*. Now I surely will not *plague* you With such words as *vague* and *ague*, But be careful how you speak, Say *break*, *steak*, but *bleak* and *streak*, *Previous*, *precious*; *fuchsia*, *via*; *Pipe*, *snipe*, *recipe* and *choir*, *Cloven*, *oven*; *how* and *low*; *Script*, *receipt*; *shoe*, *poem*, *toe*, Hear me say devoid of trickery, *daughter*, *laughter*, and *Terpsichore*, [...] Finally: which rhymes with "enough," *Though*, *through*, *plough*, *cough*, *hough*, or *tough*? *Hiccough* has the sound of "cup"...... My advice is—give it up! ## Dedication A [mimeographed](/source/Mimeograph) version of the poem in Harry Cohen's possession is dedicated to "Miss Susanne Delacruix, Paris", who is thought to have been one of Nolst Trenité's students. The author addressed her as "dearest creature in creation" in the first line, and later as "Susy" in line 5.[2] ## See also - [Ghoti](/source/Ghoti) - "[Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den](/source/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den)" - [Orthography](/source/Orthography) - [English orthography](/source/English_orthography) - [English spelling-to-sound correspondences](/source/English_orthography#Spelling-to-sound_correspondences) - [Spelling reform](/source/Spelling_reform) - [List of reforms of the English language](/source/List_of_reforms_of_the_English_language) - [Shavian alphabet](/source/Shavian_alphabet) ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-spellsoc_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-spellsoc_1-1) Upward, Chris (2004). ["The Classic Concordance of Cacographic Chaos"](https://web.archive.org/web/20050415131319/http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j17/caos.php). The Spelling Society. Archived from [the original](http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j17/caos.php) on April 15, 2005. Retrieved 2005-04-15. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["The Chaos - Gerard Nolst Trenité"](http://ncf.idallen.com/english.html). *ncf.idallen.com*. Retrieved 2022-06-06. ## External links English [Wikisource](/source/Wikisource) has original text related to this article: **[The Chaos](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/en:The_Chaos)** - [The Classic Concordance of Cacographic Chaos, Introduced by Chris Upward](http://ncf.idallen.com/english.html) Text of 274-line version of the poem, with introduction, at The Spelling Society website - [Chaos Challenge project. Interactive application with IPA transcription popping up along with professional narration](https://web.archive.org/web/20140531105518/http://chaoschallenge.org/) - [Text with IPA transcription of first 15 verses in British and American English](http://www.madore.org/~david/misc/english-pronunciation.html), by David Madore - [Audio-visual of shortened version of "The Chaos": Reading in Canadian accent, with scrolling transcript](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5myI9TDFDw) - [The Chaos](https://librivox.org/the-chaos-by-gerard-nolst-trenite/) at [LibriVox](/source/LibriVox) - links to several readings - [Concordant Chaos](https://blogs.harvard.edu/sj/concordant-chaos/) annotated version at the Longest Now, connecting the Spelling Society version with other versions Trenité published over his lifetime. - [Drop Your Foreign Accent (1932)](https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-500372318/view?partId=nla.obj-500372834) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [The Chaos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaos) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaos?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.