The spelling of the word "smidt" may be confusing to some as it does not follow the typical English spelling conventions. However, it can be explained using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcription. "Smidt" is pronounced as /smɪt/. This means that the "i" in "smidt" is pronounced as /ɪ/, which represents the "short i" sound in English. The "dt" sound is pronounced as /t/, which is why it is spelled with only one "t".