The spelling of the word "steps toes" might confuse some English learners who are not familiar with compound words. It is spelled as /stɛpstəʊz/ in IPA phonetic transcription. The word consists of two words, "steps" and "toes", which are combined to form a noun phrase. The "s" at the end of "steps" is carried over to "toes" to indicate pluralization, resulting in the double "s" sound in the middle of the word. Remembering compound word spellings can take some practice, but it is an essential part of building fluency in English.