Just that. Written English is phonetic, so I can easily read an unfamiliar word by sounding it out. Even though I don’t always get it right, usually I’m close enough to be understood.
How does this work in Chinese, or Japanese?
Edit – OK, yes I get it! English isn’t really phonetic. It’s just that when I was learning to read and write, our school used a method they called phonics. It must have confused the heck out of most kids, because they abandoned the method soon after, but it worked for me. We had a lot of practice in recognizing the various patterns words can take, and the many exceptions. So for me, who always did very well in English class, words tend to be easy to spell out.
I’m really glad not to have to figure it out as an adult, because I’m sure I’d be just as frustrated as some of you friends are! And I promise you that you are much better at English than I am at your language.
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They can be composed smaller symbols that the reader does know. Kind of like our compound words.
Some languages that look like ideograms are actually an alphabet or syllabary. Japanese makes use of come Chinese characters (kangi?) But their commonly used written words are made by symbols with assigned sounds.
Similarly, Korean (hangul) is the one written language that is easiest to learn how to read due to the efforts of Sejeong the great – one of the previous kings of Korean. You can learn the phonetic assignments to their alphabet in minutes and read/pronounce the written language within the day. But learning the grammar and vocabulary comes separately.
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