A student recently shared this meme with me during a class and this led to a conversation about some of the the difficult pronunciation rules in English. We discussed one particular group of letters that causes a lot of confusion for English students learning English- ough.
There are eight different ways this combination of letters can be pronounced.
The bad news for people learning English is there are no rules to help the pronunciation differences. The differences are historical and are partly due to the way language changes and evolves over time, so sorry, you have to learn each one individually. The good news for English learners is there are not a lot of commonly used words in English with this letter combination.
Let’s take a look:
Borough, thorough, – sounds like a in Kookaburra
Though, although, doughnut, – sounds like o in go
Plough, drought, – sound like ow in power
Through, throughout – sounds like oo in too
Rough, enough, tough – sounds like uff in puff
Ought, thought, bought, fought – sounds like aw in law
Cough – sounds like off in offer
Hiccough – sounds like up in up – An alternative and more commonly used spelling is hiccup.
There are two more, but thankfully these are not commonly used words:
Lough – sounds like ock in lock – This is an old Irish word for a lake. ( The old Scottish word for lake is loch).
Slough – In British English it sounds like ow in power the same as plough. Slough is the name of a town near London.
Slough – In American English it sounds like oo in too. like through and it means a place where the land is very muddy, like a swamp. If it sounds like uff in puff it means to dispose of something unwanted.
An example sentence using nine pronunciations is, “The wind was rough along the lough as the ploughman fought through the snow, and though he hiccoughed and coughed, his work was thorough.”
Another shorter example is, “The rough, dough-faced ploughman fought through the borough to the lough, hiccoughing and coughing.”
The English Cambridge dictionary online is a good website for people studying English to check pronunciation as it has the phonemic symbols and audio recordings of the words. The phonemic alphabet is based on received pronunciation, pronunciation can differ between regions.
Another way to help you improve your pronunciation is to work with a teacher. A teacher can correct you as you speak during conversation. Reading to a teacher is also another great way help with pronunciation.
Do you want to learn English and improve your pronunciation? If you want me to help you with your English please book a class today. I’m really looking forward to meeting you and helping you improve your English and improve your English pronunciation!