Why are there 3 ways to pronounce 'ch' in English? Pronunciation lesson 👄

72,353 views ・ 2021-09-06

BBC Learning English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:08
The other day, as I was nonchalantly wandering to the chemist
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to get some cheese,
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I thought to myself:
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"Why am I going to the chemist to get cheese?"
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And then I remembered.
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  It's all to do with the letters 'CH'.
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In the word 'nonchalantly', which means in a casual and relaxed manner,
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the C H in the middle of the word is pronounced [sh].
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In chemist, the C H at the beginning is pronounced [k].
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But C H in cheese is pronounced [tch].
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So why is this?
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The truth lies as ever in the history of English.
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English has evolved from many sources.
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It has invented, absorbed and borrowed
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vocabulary from those who invaded us and those who we have invaded.
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The pronunciation of many words can give us a clue where they came from.
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01:02
So what about our friend C H then? What do we know about the origins
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of the words that pronounce these letters differently?
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Words that originally came from the Greek language, like chemist,
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school, mechanic, orchestra, pronounce the C H as [k] .
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These words may have travelled through other languages, but are
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often connected with the fields of study, science and politics.
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The [sh] pronunciation of C H is in words that originally come
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from French: nonchalant, machine, chauffeur, chivalry and quiche.
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Which brings us back to cheese again. Words like cheese, church,
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beach and child can trace their roots back to middle and old English.
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So how does this help us if we don't know any of this history?
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The majority of words with C H are pronounced as [tch],
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this is the biggest group.
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And words that end in C H are almost always pronounced [tch].
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02:11
Almost always, but not always always.
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For example, take the words patriarch, monarch, oligarch,
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they are of Greek origin and all end in the [k] sound.
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Interestingly, they are all based on the same root Greek word,
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which means rule: A R C H,
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which is, of course, pronounced 'ark'.
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No, of course it isn't. It's arch.
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Even though it's a word which comes from Greek, the C H is pronounced [tch].
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And you can still get caught out on the odd,
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very odd,
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word like yacht.
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The first time I saw this word, I thought it was pronounced 'yatchet'.
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03:02
But of course, it's not. The C H is [silent].
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And don't get me started on the schedule/schedule debate,
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Which is correct: [sh]edule or [sk]edule?
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Well, they both are.
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In British English the pronunciation is [sh]edule,
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but in American English, it's [sk]edule.
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According to my schedule, it's time for that cheese.
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I'm off to the chemist.
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