Full List of Pronunciations
| Pronunciation | Example | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| /ʌf/ | tough, enough, hough | Compare "huff" |
| /ɒf/ | cough, trough | Trough is pronounced /trɒθ/ by some speakers of American English |
| /aʊ/ | bough, plough | Pronounced like the word 'Ow' |
| /oʊ/ | though, dough | |
| /ɔː/ | thought, bought | Regularly used before /t/, except in drought /draʊt/ |
| /uː/ | through, brougham | |
| /ə/ | thorough, borough | Both pronounced /oʊ/ in American English |
| /ʌp/ | hiccough | Variant spelling of "hiccup", though the latter form is recommended in both British and US |
| /ɒk/ | hough | More commonly spelled "hock" from the 20th Century onwards |
| /ɒx/ | lough | A lake; Irish analogue of Scots "loch" |
Note that "slough" has three pronunciations according to meaning:
- /sluː/ (as in, "slogging through a slough of mud")
- /slʌf/ (as in "to slough off")
- /slaʊ/ the town of Slough in Berkshire in England or the Slough of Despond
Other pronunciations can be found in proper nouns, many of which are of Celtic origin (Irish, Scottish, or Welsh) rather than English. For example ough can represent /ɔːk/ in the surname Coughlin, /juː/ in Ayscough and even /iː/ in the name Colcolough (/koʊkliː/) in Virginia .
The original pronunciation in all cases except hiccough was the one of lough. However the /x/ sound has disappeared from most modern English dialects. As it faded, different speakers replaced it by different near equivalents in different words (namely, /f/, /w/ → /ʊ/, /ː/, or /k/).
The two "ough"s in the English place name Loughborough are pronounced differently, resulting in Luffburruh. Additionally, three parishes of Milton Keynes--Woughton /ˈwʌftən/, Loughton /ˈlaʊtən/ and Broughton /ˈbrɔːtən/--all have different pronunciations of the combination.
Tough, though, through, and thorough are formed by adding an additional letter each time, yet none of them rhymes with another.
Some humorous verse has been written to illustrate this seeming incongruity:
- O-U-G-H by Charles Battell Loomis
- Ough, a Phonetic Fantasy by William Thomas Goodge
- I take it you already know unattributed
- Geisel, Theodore; Richard Marschall (ed.) (1987). The Tough Coughs as He Ploughs the Dough: Early Writings and Cartoons by Dr. Seuss. New York: Morrow/Remco Worldservice Books. ISBN 0-688-06548-1.
Read more about this topic: Ough (orthography)
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