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