Four English Vocabularies to Spell, written in a clear, conversational style, posits that the English language has four distinct yet interconnected systems for spelling. The text borrows from the work of linguists Henry Lee Smith, Jr. and Henry J. Sustakoski, who first advanced a multiple-system approach with modern work in phonosymbolism. Author Melvin J. Hoffman proposes a new spelling pedagogy through the identification of the major characteristics and separate spelling strategies of each of the four spelling systems.