Potato or ghoughphtheightteeau

[Conchita]

Would you believe that English spelling rules are, contrary to all evidence, rather sensible? I know, I know, you need a good proof of this. Well, I’ve got one: it’s the word ‘potato’. It could very well have been spelled ‘ghoughphtheightteeau’, but it’s not. See? Things can always get worse...

Another proof is ‘ghoti’ for 'fish':

Say that again: How does GHOTI become FISH?
http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic8581.html

[Yankee]

Hi Conchita

I'm afraid I'm mentally exhausted today, so I was forced to google the explanation of ‘ghoughphtheightteeau’.

Interestingly, the word potato has been associated with a former American Vice President for years now. I can still remember the field day the media had when VP Dan Quayle "corrected" a 12-year-old child's spelling:

12-year-old child's spelling: potato
Vice Presidential spelling: potatoe
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English