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ESL forum >
Message board > pronunciation of GH
pronunciation of GH
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Mariethe House
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pronunciation of GH
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What is the rule for the different pronunciations of GH , like in Plough, dough, thought .... Why is it "f" in some cases and mute or "g" ? Thank you in advance my dear friends from all over the world!! EDIT Thank you Alex! Actually, I was expecting an answer from you , the best linguist ever!! Thank you  |
3 Apr 2015
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jean-in-japan
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I don �t think there is a rule. It �s just one of the (annoying) aspects of English spelling that comes from the fact that English vocabulary comes from so many other different languages. Slightly off-topic, but I read once that the silent �gh � was actually not silent hundreds of years ago. Google could tell you more about this, but I think it was a soft aspirated �ch � sound kind of like the Scottish �ch � in Loch Ness. After a while the sound disappeared but its trace still remains in the written language. |
3 Apr 2015
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Mariethe House
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Thank you very much Jean. In fact, I did find something! it isn � a rule but the link below explains the origin of 10 words using the "ough" suffix with its different ways of pronouncing it! Quite interesting!
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3 Apr 2015
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almaz
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David Crystal devotes a whole chapter to the �ough� set in his book Spell It Out. He points out that some of the �ough� spellings are perfectly regular/systematic � it�s not the gh which causes the problems, but the vowels.
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4 Apr 2015
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yanogator
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A rough rule is that gh at the beginning of a word is pronounced like g (ghost, ghoul), Inside a word it is silent, unless it is part of a compound word (thought) At the end, it is either silent (through) or pronounced like f (rough), and these just have to be memorized. Bruce |
4 Apr 2015
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