Why English Pronunciation is so Hard

Today we're going to take a look at why studying English pronunciation can be so hard.

Let's step through a series of words and see what happens to the sounds as we change some

of the letters. Through. Step through. That's a good place to start. Through, a preposition,

a handy little word, begins with the unvoiced TH. Th, the R consonant, thr-, and the oo

vowel. Through. Through. Now what would happen if we drop the R? Thoo, thoo, no, that's not

right. Through, drop the R, not thoo, but actually, though. So, the TH, th, th, is now

voiced. And the vowel sound has changed to the OH diphthong. Though. Ok. What would happen

if we add a T? Thowt. Thowt. No, that's not right. That word is pronounced 'thought'.

Ok, so we've switched back to an unvoiced TH, now we have the AW vowel, and a final

T. Thought. Thought. Ok.

So what would happen if we drop the TH and add a B? Thought becomes bought. And that

IS how that word is pronounced. Excellent! Bought. Now what would happen if we drop the final

T? Bought becomes bah. But it doesn't, it's not pronounced 'bah'. It's pronounced bough.

Ok, so the AW vowel changes to the 'ow' diphthong. Bough, bough. Ok. What would happen now if

we switched out the B for a C? Bough becomes cow. Yes! Cow is a word. But wait, that's

now how cow is spelled, this is how cow is spelled. So this, even though it was bough,

isn't cow, it's cough. Cough. So we have the AW vowel, and somehow, an F consonant has

crept in. Cough. Ok, cough. What would happen then if we drop the C, add an EN? Since it

was cough, surely this must be enough. No, that's not what it is. It's enough. So the

AW vowel changes to the UH vowel. But somehow that F sound stays in there. Enough, enough.

And I think that's about what I've had. I think I've had about enough of OUGH and its

thousands of pronunciations. That's it, I'm out.