“Ough”

English is simultaneously easy and difficult as a language. In it’s favour, there’s no need to worry about whether an orange is feminine or masculine, but there’s also much going against in terms of pronunciation.

I’ll get onto the weirdness of “Belvoir”, “Fetherstonehough”, and other strangely pronounced words in another post, but for now I want to give a respectful nod to the complexity of “ough”.

This seemingly benign little collection of letters can be pronounced in at least ten different ways. Here are a handful of examples:

Examples	Comments on Pronunciation
Tough, Enough, Rough	Pronounced with an “uff” sound, like Stuff
Trough, Cough	Pronounced with an “off” sound, like Toff
Plough, Bough	Pronounced with an “Ow” sound, like How
Though, Dough	Pronounced with an “O” sound, like Show
Thought, Sought, Brought	Pronounced with an “Aw’t” sound, like Short
Hiccough	This one is hilariously pronounced with an “Up” sound, like Cup.
Lough	Pronounced with an “Ock” sound, like Clock

There are several less common variations too, but this gives you a good idea of the strangeness if you’re not a native English speaker. To add further to the complications, these pronunciations aren’t necessarily the same across the language used in all countries, and only really apply to British English.

So if you’re not a native speaker and have a thought that you’ll go to Peterborough, to buy a Plough, you might find it tough!