Tricky spellings
These letter groups have more than one pronunciation. Hear each group, loop the whole set, and say the words back.
ough
There is no single ough rule. Word families give better clues than the four letters alone.
Though and dough rhyme; although keeps the same ending.
Through keeps the same sound when you add -out.
The tough–rough–enough family ends in /f/.
Cough and trough rhyme; gh sounds like /f/.
Bough rhymes with cow; plough and drought share its vowel.
The -ought family usually has /ɔː/ and a silent gh.
augh
Usually /ɔː/ with silent gh; the laugh family has /ɑːf/ in British English.
Before t, augh commonly sounds like /ɔː/; daughter and slaughter follow too.
In laugh, laughter and draught, gh is pronounced /f/ instead.
igh
In this spelling, gh is silent and the i usually says /aɪ/, especially in -ight words.
Night, light, right, bright and fight all rhyme.
eigh
Usually /eɪ/, like eight; height and sleight form a small /aɪ/ exception family.
ea
Start with /iː/ as in sea. For /e/, look for word families: -ead (head, bread), -eath (breath, death), and words like ready and heavy. These are clues, not guarantees: bead and heath keep /iː/; great, break and steak say /eɪ/.
The usual sound in sea, eat and teach. Read is /iː/ in the present tense, but /e/ in the past tense.
Often in -ead (head, bread), -eath (breath, death), and the ready–heavy–weather families. Not every word with these letters follows the clue.
A small exception group: great, break and steak share the /eɪ/ vowel.
ow
Two common sounds: /aʊ/ in cow and /əʊ/ in snow. There is no dependable position rule; bow and row change sound with meaning.
Cow, now and brown rhyme; flower begins with the same sound.
Snow, show and grow rhyme; window and yellow end with this sound.
oo
Usually /uː/ as in moon; book, good and foot belong to a common /ʊ/ family. Blood and flood are /ʌ/ exceptions.
Start here for unfamiliar oo words; food and moon share the /uː/ vowel.
Book and look rhyme; good and wood rhyme. Learn these frequent words together.
Only a small group, including blood and flood, has this vowel.
ear
Often /ɪə/ as in hear; nearby consonants sometimes signal a different word family, but there is no universal rule.
Hear, near, clear and year rhyme in British English.
Bear, wear, pear and swear form a rhyming family.
Learn, earth, early and heard share this vowel in British English.
Heart and hearth form a small exception family.