When you are speaking American English, the letter combination ough can be tricky to pronounce. That is because ough has many different pronunciations in spoken English. Here are examples of the most frequent pronunciations of ough. The categories listed here are adapted from the author and teacher Ann Cook.
In these words ough is pronounced with an /ɑ/ sound as in father.
cough
bought
brought
ought
thought
In these words ough is pronounced with an /o/ sound as in rose.
dough
though
thorough
furlough
In these words ough is pronounced with an /uw/ sound as in blue.
through
throughout
In these words ough is pronounced with the schwa vowel sound /ə/.
rough
tough
enough
Doug
In these words ough is pronounced with an /ow/ sound as in how.
drought
bough
You can see from the examples here that the letter combination ough has five different sounds in spoken American English. Try to memorize these five patterns to be sure that you are pronouncing these words correctly.
Susan Ryan is an American English pronunciation teacher and accent reduction coach. She currently lives in South Florida. Read more articles by Susan at http://www.confidentvoice.com/blog/
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