Nuts and Bolts: the three-letter rule.

 The first thing to say about the three-letter rule is that it isn't actually a rule.

On the plus side, it does involve words with three letters.

The basic idea is that in English most words that describe important ideas - things that you're supposed to notice - have at least three letters.

The third letter is sometimes unneeded - as in the word ebb or owe or axe (the last letter of axe is sometimes left out by people in America because Noah Webster thought it unnecessary, but mostly it's held its own). 

Sometimes this helps to distinguish a word from a much commoner one: bee and be for example.

There are many many exceptions to this rule. Some of these many exceptions are words borrowed from other languages, which sometimes retain their original form, even if that form contains only two letters. 

Om! hasn't yet been re-written omm! for instance.

So - the three-letter rule is not a rule. 

But all the same it does kind of make sense, doesn't it.

Word To Use Today: how about buy? Or by? The Old English form of by was bī. The Old English form of buy was bycgan, pronounced with a dg sound, as in budge.