Words like <eye> are often labelled as “common exceptions” or “tricky words” and children in most educational settings are expected to memorise them. This can be difficult for those with dyslexia or delayed literacy but understanding the meaning behind the word can turn confusing spellings into something much more interesting, fun and memorable. That’s why we use a range of techniques including structured word inquiry and multisensory learning, to help our students understand the story behind the words and embed learning, approaches that really appeal to curious dyslexic brains!
The word <eye> can be a difficult word for children to read and spell because it doesn’t follow the usual sound–spelling correspondences taught in phonics programs. It can’t be sounded out in the way children have been trained to decode words. Many words like eye end up being labelled as a tricky word, red word, or exception word and children are told that they must simply be memorised.
Words that are considered to be exception words make up approximately 15% of common English words and yet many of these spellings actually do make sense when we look at their history, structure and the decisions made by early scribes. Eye is one such word. And yet, most children aren’t introduced to this deeper understanding, even when it could help them make sense of the spelling.
The word eye has a long history, going all the way back to Old English. In those early forms of the language, many of the words we use today sounded quite different, so much so that if we could travel back in time, we’d likely struggle to understand everyday speech. Back then, eye was pronounced more like “ay-yuh.” And, as is still the case today, it sounded very similar to I, as in I am. Despite having different meanings and uses, these two words were phonetically close enough to create confusion. These words existed in speech long before anyone tried to write them down.
When scribes eventually began recording the spoken language, they had to decide how to spell words that often sounded alike. That challenge led to some of the more unusual spellings we still use today. In written English, words are often grouped into two broad types: function words and content words. Function words like I, to, of, or in, serve a grammatical purpose. They help sentences make sense, but they don’t carry much meaning on their own. And crucially, they’re hard to picture without context. If you were asked to draw the meaning of the word I, you’d probably end up needing to add something else like a person, an action or a setting to make sense of it.
In contrast, content words like eye, tree, or house, carry a clear meaning. They’re often much easier to visualise. You can draw an eye. You can imagine a tree. These words stand on their own and are easier to represent with images, making them more distinct in written text. When early scribes began recording the spoken language, they had to find ways to make writing more readable. One decision was to allow function words to be as short as necessary, even just one letter, while content words were expected to be at least three letters long. Without that convention, writing could quickly become a confusing string of tiny, similar-looking words.
For the word I (as in I am), they chose the letter <i> – a single letter to represent the whole word. In phonics terms, this letter is also called a grapheme: the written symbol used to represent a spoken sound. In this case, the grapheme <i> represents the sound /ai/ and the word I. It was short, logical and efficient, especially for a function word.
So, if ‘I’ had already been claimed by the function word I am, how could scribes write <eye> as in the one you see with, without confusing the two?
They experimented with different spellings over time before eventually settling on eye. Earlier versions of the word included spellings like ēage, eȝe (using the now-obsolete letter yogh), ey, eie, and even eygh. These variations reflected changes in pronunciation, regional dialects and the practical decisions scribes made as they tried to capture speech in writing. The modern spelling <eye> gradually became standard as English spelling began to stabilise, particularly with the advent of printing.
The central letter <y> was doing important work here. In English, <y> is a flexible letter, it can act as a consonant (like in yes) or a vowel. In words like cry, fly, or sky, <y> represents the same /ai/ sound found in eye. But remember, <eye> is a content word and scribes had already decided these needed to be at least three letters long.
So what did they do? They brought in the trusty letter <e>, which already had multiple uses in English spelling. In this case, it helped extend the word to meet the three-letter rule. The result e-y-e gave the word its now-familiar (and confusing) form.
In many ways, the spelling of eye is simply the letter <y> doing the heavy lifting of the sound, with two <e>s added for structure, not because they’re sounded, but because they served a purpose in making the word easier to read. So while eye might seem like a strange spelling at first glance, it’s actually a window into how English developed. What looks like an exception is, in fact, the result of historical choices, decisions made by scribes trying to make language readable, logical, and consistent in a time before spelling rules were fixed.
Understanding the stories behind words like eye can make spelling feel less arbitrary and more meaningful, especially for children who are curious, frustrated, or struggling to remember what seem like “tricky” words. Often, there’s a reason behind the weirdness.
At Toucan, we encourage children to identify which words they find difficult and explore why. We use a wide range of approaches, from traditional phonics and multisensory techniques to Structured Word Inquiry to help each learner find the tools that work best for them. Our aim is to move away from the idea that English is just a confusing tangle of rules and exceptions. Instead, we empower students to be curious, to ask questions, and to take ownership of their learning. English may not always be simple but with the right support, it’s absolutely conquerable.