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.