How to Pronounce OUGH American English

the letters Oh ugh went together in a

word are quite an interesting case in

American English sometimes they make a

vowel sound sometimes a diphthong sound

and sometimes a vowel and consonant

sound first the Oh as in no diphthong

for example doe Thoreau although I’m not

gonna go to the party although my best

friend is going to be there the next

case is the ow as in now diphthong

samples of this case bow plough drought

we lost our crop to the drought last

year

next the ooh as in boo vowel through

throughout I check my email throughout

the day the aw as in law vowel sound

thought thought but I bought it

yesterday those are the four vowel or

diphthong sounds now there are three

cases in which these four letters make a

vowel sound plus a consonant sound in

the first case it makes an oo as in

father and F sound cough trough I have a

terrible cough and a headache it can

also make the UH as in butter with the F

consonant sound rough enough that is

enough roughhousing and finally a word

that is an alternate spelling and as far

as I know this is the only case for this

pronunciation of oh ugh and that is the

word hiccup it is more commonly spelled

H I CC you P but it can be spelled with

an O ugh and then it takes the schwa

with the P sound hiccup

hiccup I’ve had the hiccups for three

hours so to recap the seven ways these

four letters can be pronounced went

together in a word our oh ow

ooh off off up though bow through

thought cough enough hiccup