Gerard Nolst Trenité (20 July 1870, Utrecht – 9 October 1946, Haarlem), was a Dutch observer of English. Nolst Trenité published under the pseudonym Charivarius (which he pronounced irregularly as ). He is best known in the English-speaking world for his poem The Chaos which demonstrates many of the idiosyncrasies of English spelling and first appeared as an appendix to his 1920 textbook Drop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen. The subtitle of the book means "English pronunciation exercises" (this title has the pre-1947 Dutch spelling engelsche instead of the currently-accepted usage Engelse). Weakened from war and famine, Nolst Trenité died a year after the Liberation at the age of 76. Education Nolst Trenité was the son of a Utrecht minister. After grammar school, he studied classical literature, law and political science at the University of Utrecht from 1890 to 1894, but did not complete any of these courses. Adventurous, he embarked on a self-promised trip around the world in 1894, which ended prematurely in San Francisco, where he became a home tutor for the children of the Dutch consul. Two years later he was back in the Netherlands and resumed his studies in political science, at the same time preparing for the qualification to teach English at secondary level; he obtained the relevant certificate in 1898. In 1901 he obtained his doctorate in political science at the University of Utrecht. Teacher From 1900 to 1918, Trenité was, as he preferred to call himself, a teacher of English and Civil Engineering at the Secondary Education in Haarlem. His school books, The Nutshell. Shortest English grammar (1906), First Pictorial word book (1908) and Drop your foreign accent. Vocal gymnastics (1909), date from that period. His poem The Chaos, included in later editions of the latter book, intended as a practice material for the pronunciation of English words with a word image that is difficult for the Dutch, also became popular outside the Netherlands. It is known in England among the few who seek a spelling reform. In the field of constitutional law he wrote The Constitution (1912). Charivarius From 1903, Trenité wrote a language column for the weekly "De Groene Amsterdammer", which had been published since 1877, under the name with which he acquired his fame: Charivarius, a pseudonym that is probably borrowed from the French satirical magazine "Le Charivari" (1832-1937) and its English counterpart, "Punch, or the London Charivari" (1841-1992); the