Some other writers of Chaucer 's time also wrote in English . Although no manuscript exists in Chaucer 's own hand , two were copied around the time of his death by Adam Pinkhurst , a scribe with whom he seems to have worked closely before , giving a high degree of confidence that Chaucer himself wrote the Tales . Chaucer 's generation of English-speakers was among the last to pronounce e at the end of words ( so for Chaucer the word was pronounced , not as in modern English ) .