Although the bough was tough, the saw cut through it.

4 ways to pronounce "-ough"



Ka-Tra

i before e except after c? That's weird

Definitely this.

Also, the fact that noun case exists only in personal pronouns.
That's pretty weird. Leftover remnants from German.

Same reason as why "I" has to always be capitalized.

read can be pronounced as "reed" or "red"

They've actually stopped teaching the "I before E except after C" thing in schools because there are more words that break the rule than conform to it. At the height of their leisure, neither had the sleight to seize the feisty weird sovereign poltergeist, so they had to forfeit the foreign heifer's counterfeit protein.

Using the strange logic of other words in the English language, the word "fish" could be spelled as "ghoti".

There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apples nor pine are in pineapple. English muffins aren't English, nor are French fries French. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads—which aren't sweet—are meat.

Quicksand is slow, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor a pig. A fat chance and a slim chance are the same thing. We have noses that run and feet that smell. You fill in a form by filling it out.

Aslo, you are pbrolaby rdenaig tihs woituht a plrboem bcaesue it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are. The olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pclae. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

I remember some saying that said that and incorporated "weird society."

Wicked!

the -OUGH phenomenon has confounded foreigners for decades. There are in fact 7/8 possible pronunciations.

1. ought, bought, brought
2. brougham (pron. 'broom'), through
3. dough, though
4. bough, drought, plough
5. hough (pron 'hock')
6. trough, cough
7. enough, tough, rough
8. borough, thorough (UK/AUS not US)

in addition the words sough and slough can rhyme with both bough and tough, and lough can be pronounced both 'lock' and 'loch'.

Did you copy and paste this from somewhere? Or are you a lyrical wordsmith voice of a generation?

I read about the jumbled spelling in a recent Discovery News article

"-ough" you're giving me such a headache...



Ka-Tra

I'm sorry, I don't understand. I can't read or write. How could I, in a language where a house burns up as it burns down? Why do people recite at a play and play at a recital? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Why are they called apartments if they're all stuck together? Why is it called a building if it's already built? Why did the chicken cross the road?

give up is almost the same as give in.

take down is not necessarily the opposite of give up.

take out is definitely not the antonym of give in. (at least when used in a food sense).

Something called a fastener, prevents motion...

Hold fast



Ka-Tra

Hold fast, hold up, hold on, hold off, hold out

Stand up, stand down, stand off, stand out

Put it on, put it off, put it down, put it up

Knock it off, knock it down

Don't let me catch you doing that again!

An island is land



Ka-Tra

Maddening!