Typical Synthetic Phonics programme

learning letter sounds (as distinct from the letter names);

For example, mmm not em, sss not es, fff not ef. The letter names
can be taught later but should not be taught in the early stages.

learning the 40+ sounds and their corresponding letters/letter

groups;

The English Alphabet Code 'Key': 40+ phonemes with their

common 'sound pattern' representations.[6] (This is based on the
British pronunciation. The number and mixture of the 40+
phonemes will vary for other English speaking countries such as
Australia, Canada and the U.S.A.): Note: Although professionals in
the field of "phonics" distinguish a "sound" from its letter(s) in a
specific fashion (e.g. the "|ee|" sound), for the purposes of this
article we will use the method employed by some official
publications (e.g. the "/ee/" sound) because it is easier for the lay
person to read.[7][8]
Vowels:

/a/ mat /oa/ oak, rope, bow,

piano
/ae/ ape, baby, rain,
tray, they, eight /oi/ coin, boy

/air/ square, bear /oo (short)/ book, would,

put
/ar/ jar, fast
/oo (long)/ moon, crew,
/e/ peg, bread blue, fruit

/ee/ sweet, me, beach, /ow/ down, house

key, pony
/or/ fork, ball, sauce,
/eer/ deer, ear law,

/er/ computer /u/ plug, glove

/i/ pig, wanted /ur/ burn, teacher, work,

 /ie/ kite, wild, light, fly first

/o/ orange, watch /ue/ tube, unicorn, new,

statue

/uh/ button, hidden

Consonants:

/b/ boy, /l/ lip, bell, /t/ tap,

rabbit sample letter, debt

/c/ /k/ cat, /m/ man, /th/ thrush

key, duck, hammer,
school, quit comb /th/ that

/ch/ chip, /n/ nut, /v/ vet,

watch dinner, sleeve
knee, gnat
/d/ dog, /w/ wet,
ladder /ng/ ring, wheel,
singer queen
/f/ fish,
coffee, /p/ pan, /y/ yes
photo, happy
tough /z/ zip, fizz,
/r/ rat, sneeze, is,
/g/ gate, cherry, cheese
egg, ghost write
/gz/ exist
/h/ hat, /s/ sun,
whole dress, /zh/
house, city, treasure
/j/ jet, giant, mice
cage, bridge
/sh/ ship,
/ks/ box mission,
station, chef

learning to read words using sound blending;

 reading stories featuring the words the students have learned to
sound out;

demonstration exercises to show they comprehend the stories;

Systematic Phonics
Systematic Phonics is not one specific method of teaching phonics;
rather, it is a family of phonics instruction that includes the methods of
both Synthetic Phonics and Analytical Phonics. They are "systematic"
because the letters, and the sounds they relate to, are taught in a
specific sequence;[7] as opposed to incidentally or on a 'when-needed'
basis. However, it should be noted that, in most instances, the term
systematic phonics appears to refer to synthetic phonics because of the
specific instruction methods it uses.[7] (In the United Kingdom, the term
systematic phonics is "generally understood as synthetic phonics"
according to the reading review which was conducted in 2006.[7])

Systematic Phonics does not include methods such as embedded

phonics and phonics mini lessons which are found in the Whole
Language approach and the Balanced Literacy approach.

Analytical phonics

Analytical phonics practitioners do not teach children to pronounce

sounds "in isolation" as is the practice with Synthetic Phonics.
Furthermore, consonant blends (separate, adjacent consonant
phonemes) are taught as units (e.g., in the word shrouds the shr would
be taught as a unit). Some analytical phonics programs (referred to as
analogy phonics) teach children to break-down words into their common
components which are referred to as the "onset" and the "rime". In the
word "ship", "sh" is the "onset" and "ip" is the "rime" (the part starting
with the vowel). In other words, analytical phonics teaches the child to
say /sh/ - /ip/ (ship) and /sh/ - /op/ (shop), whereas synthetic phonics,
teaches the child to say /sh/ - /i/ - /p/ (ship) and /sh/ - /o/ - /p/ (shop). In
analytical phonics, children are also taught to find the similarities among
words (e.g. man, can, tan, fan, and ran). Whereas synthetic phonics
devotes most of its time to learning the letter/sound relationships (i.e.
grapheme/phoneme).

Synthetic Phonics
Synthetic Phonics uses the concept of 'synthesising', which means
'putting together' or 'blending'. Simply put, the sounds prompted by the
letters are synthesised (put together or blended) to pronounce the word.
[1][7]

The Scottish Executive Education Department 2005 report, [9] which

compared these approaches to phonics instruction noted that synthetic
phonics has some of the following characteristics:

The sounds that the letters make (e.g. "sss" not "es", and "mmm"
not "em") are taught before children begin to read books.

Often, the sounds of the most commonly used letters (i.e. /s/, /a/,
/t/, /i/, /p/, and /n/) are taught first. Then, children are taught how
these sounds can be "blended" together to form many three letter
words (e.g. sat, tin, pin, etc.).

Consonant blends (e.g. bl, cl, dr, st, etc.) are not taught separately
because they can be "sounded out".

However, digraphs (i.e. two letters that make one sound such as
/th/ and /sh/), are taught as the separate sounds that they are.

Common terminology
Some common terminology used within this article includes:

alphabetic code (in synthetic phonics): The relationship between

sounds (phonemes) and the letter/s (graphemes) that represent
them are referred to as a "code". For example, the sound /ay/ can
be represented in many ways (e.g. cake, may, they, eight, aid,
break, etc.).[7][10] See also: Alphabetic principle

decoding skills (in phonics): Without the use of context, to

pronounce and read words accurately by using the relationship
between the letter(s) and the sounds they represent. (i.e. "cat"
is /k/-/a/-/t/, "plough" is /p/-/l/-/ow/, and "school" is /s/-/k/-/oo/-/l/.
"Encoding skills" (i.e. spelling) is the same process in reverse. [7]
(Pg. 76)[11]

Direct instruction (also known as Explicit Instruction ): A

teaching style that is characterized by "carefully designed
instruction" that usually includes a fast pace, small steps,
demonstrations, active participation, coaching, immediate
correction, and positive feedback.[8] (Pg. 85)
 intensive instruction: teaching or tutoring that include some of
the following: more time; peer-assisted strategies; and instruction
in small groups or one-on-one.[12] (Pg. 209)

peer-assisted literacy strategies: Children work in pairs (taking

turns as teacher and learner) to learn a "structured sequence" of
literacy skills, such as phonemic awareness, phonics, sound
blending, passage reading, and story retelling.[13] (Pg. 33)

supportive instruction: teaching or tutoring that supports the

student both emotionally and cognitively. This includes
encouragement, immediate feedback, positive reinforcement, and
instructional scaffolding (i.e. clear structure, small steps, guiding
with questions).[12] (Pg. 209)

Vowel phonics patterns

Short vowels are the five single letter vowels, a, e, i, o, and u,

when they produce the sounds // as in cat, // as in bet, // as in
sit, // or // as in hot, and // as in cup. The term "short vowel" is
historical, and meant that at one time (in Middle English) these
vowels were pronounced for a particularly short period of time;
currently, it means just that they are not diphthongs like the long
vowels.

Long vowels have the same sound as the names of the vowels,
such as /e/ in baby, /i/ in meter, /a/ in tiny, /o/ in broken, and
/ju/ in humor. The way that educators use the term "long vowels"
differs from the way in which linguists use this term. In classrooms,
long vowel sounds are taught as having "the same sounds as the
names of the letters". Teachers teach the children that a long
vowel "says" its name.

Schwa is the third sound that most of the single vowel spellings
can represent. It is the indistinct sound of many a vowel in an
unstressed syllable, and is represented by the linguistic symbol //
or //; it is the sound of the o in lesson, of the a in sofa. Although it
is the most common vowel sound in spoken English, schwa is not
always taught to elementary school students because some find it
difficult to understand. However, some educators make the
argument that schwa should be included in primary reading
programs because of its vital importance in the correct enunciation
of English words.
 Closed syllables are syllables in which a single vowel letter is
followed by a consonant. In the word button, both syllables are
closed syllables because they contain single vowels followed by
consonants. Therefore, the letter u represents the short sound //.
(The o in the second syllable makes the // sound because it is an
unstressed syllable.)

Open syllables are syllables in which a vowel appears at the end of

the syllable. The vowel will say its long sound. In the word basin,
ba is an open syllable and therefore says /be/.

Diphthongs are linguistic elements that fuse two adjacent vowel

sounds. English has four common diphthongs. The commonly
recognized diphthongs are /a/ as in cow and // as in boil. Three
of the long vowels are also technically diphthongs, /a/ (ah-EE or
"I"), /o/, and /ju/, which partly accounts for the reason they are
considered "long".

Vowel digraphs are those spelling patterns wherein two letters

are used to represent a vowel sound. The ai in sail is a vowel
digraph. Because the first letter in a vowel digraph sometimes
says its long vowel sound, as in sail, some phonics programs once
taught that "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the
talking." This convention has been almost universally discarded,
owing to the many non-examples. The au spelling of the // sound
and the oo spelling of the /u/ and // sounds do not follow this
pattern.

Vowel-consonant-E spellings are those wherein a single vowel

letter, followed by a consonant and the letter e makes the long
vowel sound. The tendency is often referred to as the "Silent-e
Rule", with examples such as bake, theme, hike, cone, and cute.
(The ee spelling, as in meet is sometimes, but inconsistently,
considered part of this pattern.)

R-controlled syllables include those wherein a vowel followed by

an r has a different sound from its regular pattern. For example, a
word like car should have the pattern of a "closed syllable"
because it has one vowel and ends in a consonant. However, the a
in car does not have its regular "short" sound (// as in cat)
because it is controlled by the r. The r changes the sound of the
vowel that precedes it. Other examples include: park, horn, her,
bird, and burn.
 The Consonant-le syllable is a final syllable, located at the end of
the base/root word. It contains a consonant, followed by the letters
le. The e is silent and is present because it was pronounced in
earlier English and the spelling is historical.

Consonant phonics patterns

Consonant digraphs are those spellings wherein two letters are

used to represent a single consonant phoneme. The most common
consonant[dubious discuss][where?] digraphs are ch for /t/, ng for //, ph for
/f/, sh for //, th for // and //. Letter combinations like wr for /r/
and kn for /n/ are technically also consonant digraphs, although
they are so rare that they are sometimes considered patterns with
"silent letters".

Short vowel+consonant patterns involve the spelling of the

sounds /k/ as in peek, /d/ as in stage, and /t/ as in speech. These
sounds each have two possible spellings at the end of a word, ck
and k for /k/, dge and ge for /d/, and tch and ch for /t/. The
spelling is determined by the type of vowel that precedes the
sound. If a short vowel precedes the sound, the former spelling is
used, as in pick, judge, and match. If a short vowel does not
precede the sound, the latter spelling is used, as in took, barge,
and launch.

These patterns are just a few examples out of dozens that can be used
to help children unpack the challenging English alphabetic code. While
complex, English spelling does retain order and reason.

English orthography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations.
(November 2011)

English orthography is the alphabetic spelling system used by the

English language. English orthography, like other alphabetic
orthographies, exhibits a set of relationships between speech sounds
and the corresponding written words. In most other languages, these
relationships are regular enough to be called rules. In standard English
spelling, however, nearly every sound can be spelled in more than one
way, and most spellings and all letters can be pronounced in more than
one way and often in many different ways. This is largely due to the
complex history of the English language,[1] together with the absence of
systematic spelling reforms implemented in English, in contrast to the
position in a number of other languages.

In general, English spelling does not reflect the sound changes in the
pronunciation of the language that have occurred since the late fifteenth
century.[2]
Contents

1 Function of the letters

o 1.1 Phonemic representation

o 1.2 Word origin

o 1.3 Homophone differentiation

o 1.4 Marking sound changes in other letters

2 Silent letters

o 2.1 Multiple functionality

o 2.2 Underlying representation

3 Diacritics

4 Ligatures

5 Phonic irregularities

6 Spelling irregularities

o 6.1 History

o 6.2 "Ough" words

7 Spelling patterns

o 7.1 Spelling to sound correspondences

7.1.1 Vowels

7.1.2 Combinations of vowel letters

7.1.3 Consonants

7.1.4 Combinations of other consonant and vowel

letters
 o 7.2 Sound to spelling correspondences

8 See also

o 8.1 Germanic languages

o 8.2 Romance languages

o 8.3 Celtic languages

o 8.4 Historical languages

o 8.5 Artificial languages

9 References

10 Bibliography

11 External links

Function of the letters

Note: In the following discussion, only one or two common
pronunciations of American and British English varieties are used in this
article for each word cited. Other regional pronunciations may be
possible for some words, but indicating all possible regional variants in
the article is impractical.

Phonemic representation

Further information: Phonemic orthography

As in most alphabetic languages, letters in English orthography may

represent a particular sound. For example, the word cat /kt/ consists of
three letters c, a, and t, in which c represents the sound /k/, a
the sound //, and t the sound /t/.

Multiple sequences of letters may perform this role as well as single

letters. Thus, in the word ship (pronounced /p/), the digraph sh (two
letters) represents the sound //. In the word ditch, the three letters tch
represent the sound /t/.
Less commonly, a single letter can represent multiple successive
sounds. The most common example is the letter x which normally
represents the consonant cluster /ks/ (for example, in the word six,
pronounced /sks/).

The same letter (or sequence of letters) may be pronounced in different

ways when it occurs in different positions within a word. For instance,
the digraph gh represents the sound /f/ at the end of some words, such
as rough /rf/. At the beginning of syllables (i.e. the syllable onset), the
digraph gh is pronounced //, as in the word ghost (pronounced /
ost/). Conversely, the digraph gh is never pronounced /f/ in syllable
onsets and is almost never pronounced // in syllable codas (the proper
name Pittsburgh is an exception).

Word origin

See also: Hard and soft C, Hard and soft G, Silent k, and Palatalization

Another type of spelling characteristic is related to word origin. For

example, when representing a vowel, the letter y represents the sound
// in some words borrowed from Greek (reflecting an original upsilon),
whereas the letter usually representing this sound in non-Greek words is
the letter i. Thus, the word myth /m/ is of Greek origin, while pith /
p/ is a Germanic word. Other examples include ph pronounced /f/
(which is usually spelt f), and ch pronounced /k/ (which is usually
spelt c or k) the use of these spellings for these sounds often mark
words that have been borrowed from Greek.

Some researchers such as Brengelman (1970), have suggested that, in

addition to this marking of word origin, these spellings indicate a more
formal level of style or register in a given text, although Rollins (2004)
finds this point to be exaggerated as there would be many exceptions
where a word with one of these spellings, such as ph for /f/ (like
telephone), could occur in an informal text.

Homophone differentiation

Spelling may also be useful to distinguish between homophones (words

with the same pronunciation but different meanings), although in most
cases the reason for the difference is historical and was not introduced
for the purpose of making a distinction. For example, the words heir and
air are pronounced identically in most dialects (as /r/). However, they
are distinguished from each other orthographically by the addition of the
letter h. Another example is the pair of homophones plain and plane,
where both are pronounced /plen/ but have two different spellings of
the vowel /e/.[3]

In written language, this may help to resolve potential ambiguities that

would arise otherwise (cf. He's breaking the car vs. He's braking the car).
Nevertheless, many homophones that are unresolved by spelling still
exist (for example, the word bay has at least five fundamentally different
meanings).

Some proponents[who?] of spelling reform view homophones as

undesirable and would prefer that they were eliminated. But this would
create more spelling inconsistencies (such as the break/brake example
above) that would need to be resolved via the linguistic context, as they
are in the spoken language.

Marking sound changes in other letters

See also: Silent e

Another function of some letters in English is to provide information

about the pronunciation of other letters in the word. Rollins (2004) uses
the term "markers" for letters with this function. Letters may mark
different types of information. For instance the letter e in the word
cottage /ktd/ indicates that the preceding g is pronounced /d/,
rather than the more common value of g in word-final position as the
sound //, such as in tag /t/. The letter e also often marks an
altered pronunciation of a preceding vowel. In the pair ban and bane, the
a of ban has the value //, whereas the a of bane is marked by the
e as having the value /e/. In this context, the e is not pronounced,
and is referred to as "silent e". A single letter may even fill multiple
pronunciation-marking roles simultaneously. For example, in the word
wage the e marks not only the change of the a from // to /e/, but
also of the g from // to /d/.

Silent letters
Further information: Silent letter

Multiple functionality
A given letter or (letters) may have dual functions. For example, the
letter i in the word cinema has a sound-representing function
(representing the sound //) and a pronunciation-marking function
(marking the c as having the value /s/ opposed to the value /k/).

Underlying representation

Like many other alphabetic orthographies, English spelling does not

represent non-contrastive phonetic sounds (that is, minor differences in
pronunciation which are not used to distinguish between different
words). Although the letter t is pronounced by some speakers with
aspiration [t] at the beginning of words, this is never indicated in the
spelling, and, indeed, this phonetic detail is probably not noticeable to
the average native speaker not trained in phonetics. However, unlike
some orthographies, English orthography often represents a very
abstract underlying representation (or morphophonemic form) of English
words.[4]

[T]he postulated underlying forms are systematically related to the

conventional orthography ... and are, as is well known, related to the
underlying forms of a much earlier historical stage of the language.
There has, in other words, been little change in lexical representation
since Middle English, and, consequently, we would expect ... that lexical
representation would differ very little from dialect to dialect in Modern
English ... [and] that conventional orthography is probably fairly close to
optimal for all modern English dialects, as well as for the attested
dialects of the past several hundred years.[5]

In these cases, a given morpheme (i.e. a component of a word) has a

fixed spelling even though it is pronounced differently in different words.
An example is the past tense suffix -ed, which may be pronounced
variously as /t/, /d/, or /d/ (for example, dip /dp/, dipped /dpt/, boom /
bum/, boomed /bumd/, loot /lut/, looted /lutd/). As it happens, these
different pronunciations of -ed can be predicted by a few phonological
rules, but that is not the reason why its spelling is fixed.

Another example involves the vowel differences (with accompanying

stress pattern changes) in several related words. For instance, the word
photographer is derived from the word photograph by adding the
derivational suffix -er. When this suffix is added, the vowel
pronunciations change largely owing to the moveable stress:
 Spelling Pronunciation

photograph /fotrf/ or /fotrf/

photographer /ftrfr/

photographical /fotrfkl/

Other examples of this type are the -ity suffix (as in agile vs agility,
acid vs acidity, divine vs divinity, sane vs sanity). See also: Trisyllabic
laxing.

Another such class of words includes sign /san/ and bomb /bm/ with
"silent" letters g and b, respectively. However, in the related words
signature and bombard these letters are pronounced /sntr/ and
/bmbrd/, respectively. Here it could be argued that the underlying
representation of sign and bomb is |san| and |bmb|, in which the
underlying || and |b| are only pronounced in the surface forms when
followed by certain suffixes (-ature, -ard). Otherwise, the || and |b|
are not realized in the surface pronunciation (e.g. when standing alone,
or when followed by suffixes like -ing or -er). In these cases, the
orthography indicates the underlying consonants that are present in
certain words but are absent in other related words. Other examples
include the t in fast /fst/ and fasten /fsn/, and the h in heir /r/
and inherit /nhrt/.

Another example includes words like mean /min/ and meant /mnt/.
Here the vowel spelling ea is pronounced differently in the two related
words. Thus, again the orthography uses only a single spelling that
corresponds to the single morphemic form rather than to the surface
phonological form.

English orthography does not always provide an underlying

representation; sometimes it provides an intermediate representation
between the underlying form and the surface pronunciation. This is the
case with the spelling of the regular plural morpheme, which is written
as either -s (as in tick, ticks and mite, mites) or -es (as in box, boxes).
Here the spelling -s is pronounced either /s/ or /z/ (depending on the
environment, e.g. ticks /tks/ and pigs /pz/) while -es is usually
pronounced /z/ (e.g. boxes /bksz/). Thus, there are two different
spellings that correspond to the single underlying representation |z| of
the plural suffix and the three surface forms. The spelling indicates the
insertion of // before the /z/ in the spelling -es, but does not indicate
the devoiced /s/ distinctly from the unaffected /z/ in the spelling -s.

The abstract representation of words as indicated by the orthography

can be considered advantageous since it makes etymological
relationships more apparent to English readers. This makes writing
English more complex, but arguably makes reading English more
efficient.[6] However, very abstract underlying representations, such as
that of Chomsky & Halle (1968) or of underspecification theories, are
sometimes considered too abstract to accurately reflect the
communicative competence of native speakers. Followers of these
arguments believe the less abstract surface forms are more
"psychologically real" and thus more useful in terms of pedagogy.[7]

Diacritics
Main article: English terms with diacritical marks

See also: British and American keyboards and keyboard layouts

English has some words that can be written with accent marks. These
words have mostly been imported from other languages, usually French.
As imported words become increasingly naturalised, there is an
increasing tendency to omit the accent marks, even in formal writing.
For example, words such as rle and htel were first seen with accents
when they were borrowed into English, but now the accent is almost
never used. The words were originally considered foreign and some
people considered that English alternatives were preferable but today
their foreign origin is largely forgotten. Words most likely to retain the
accent are those atypical of English morphology and therefore still
perceived as slightly foreign. For example, caf and pt both have a
pronounced final e, which would otherwise be silent under the normal
English pronunciation rules. However caf is now sometimes facetiously
pronounced "caff", while in pt, the acute accent is helpful to
distinguish it from pate.

Further examples of words sometimes retaining diacritics when used in

English are: ngstrm (partly because the scientific symbol for this unit
of measurement is ""), appliqu, attach, blas, bric--brac, Brtchen,[8]
clich, crme, crpe, faade, fianc(e), flamb, nave, navet, n(e),
papier-mch, pass, piata, protg, rsum, risqu, ber-, voil.
Italics, with appropriate accents, are generally applied to foreign terms
that are uncommonly used in or have not been assimilated into English:
for example, adis, crme brle, pice de rsistance, raison d'tre,
ber (bermensch), vis--vis.

It was formerly common in American English to use a diaeresis mark to

indicate a hiatus: for example, coperate, das, relect. The New Yorker
and Technology Review magazines still use it for this purpose, even
though it is increasingly rare in modern English. Nowadays the diaeresis
is normally left out (cooperate), or a hyphen is used (co-operate). It is,
however, still common in loanwords such as nave and Nol.

Written accents are also used occasionally in poetry and scripts for
dramatic performances to indicate that a certain normally unstressed
syllable in a word should be stressed for dramatic effect, or to keep with
the metre of the poetry. This use is frequently seen in archaic and
pseudoarchaic writings with the -ed suffix, to indicate that the e should
be fully pronounced, as with cursd.

Ligatures
In certain older texts (typically British), the use of the ligatures and
is common in words such as archology, diarrha, and encyclopdia.
Such words have Latin or Greek origin. Nowadays, the ligatures have
been generally replaced in British English by the separated digraph ae
and oe (encyclopaedia, diarrhoea); but usually economy, ecology, and in
American English by e (encyclopedia, diarrhea; but usually paean,
amoeba, oedipal, Caesar). In some cases, usage may vary; for instance,
both encyclopedia and encyclopaedia are current in the UK.

(See also: the section "ae and oe" in the article "American and British
English spelling differences".)

Phonic irregularities
See also: English spelling reform

English spelling, compared to many other languages, is quite irregular

and complex. Although French, among other languages, presents a
similar degree of difficulty when encoding (writing), English is more
difficult when decoding (reading), as there are clearly many more
possible pronunciations of a group of letters. For example, in French the
[u] sound (as in "food"), can be spelled ou, ous, out, or oux (ou, nous,
tout, choux), but the pronunciation of each of those sequences is always
the same. In English, the /u/ sound can be spelled oo or u, u-e, ui, ue,
o, oe, o-e, o-b, ou, ough, or ew (food, truth, rude, fruit, blue, to, shoe,
move, tomb, group, through, flew), but 10 of those 12 sequences have
other pronunciations as well: flood, rub, build, go, toe, drove, comb,
out, rough, sew. In the case of the ough sequence, many English
speakers do not even know how to pronounce certain unfamiliar words
containing it, especially names such as Gough, Hough, or Slough.

English has never had any formal regulating authority for spelling, such
as the Spanish Real Academia Espaola or the French Acadmie
franaise.

Spelling irregularities
Attempts to regularize or reform the language, including spelling reform,
have usually met with failure. The only significant exceptions were the
reforms of Noah Webster which resulted in many of the differences
between British and American spelling, such as center/centre, and
dialog/dialogue. (Other differences, such as -ize/-ise in realize/realise
etc., came about separately; see American and British English spelling
differences for details.)

Besides the quirks the English spelling system has inherited from its
past, there are other idiosyncrasies in spelling that make it tricky to
learn. English contains, depending on dialect, 2427 separate consonant
phonemes and 1420 vowels. However, there are only 26 letters in the
modern English alphabet, so there cannot be a one-to-one
correspondence between letters and sounds. Many sounds are spelled
using different letters or multiple letters, and for those words whose
pronunciation is predictable from the spelling, the sounds denoted by
the letters depend on the surrounding letters. For example, the digraph
th represents two different sounds (the voiced interdental fricative and
the voiceless interdental fricative) (see Pronunciation of English th), and
the voiceless alveolar grooved fricative can be represented by the letters
s and c.

It is, however, not the shortage of letters which makes English spelling
irregular. Its irregularities are caused mainly by the use of many different
spellings for some of its sounds, such as the sounds /u/, /i/ and /o/
(too, true, shoe, flew, through; sleeve, leave, even, seize, siege;
stole, coal, bowl, roll, old, mould), and the use of identical sequences
for spelling different sounds (over, oven, move).
Furthermore, English no longer makes any attempt to anglicise the
spellings of loanwords, but preserves the foreign spellings, even when
they employ exotic conventions like the Polish cz in Czech (rather than
*Check) or the Norwegian fj in fjord (although fiord was formerly the
most common spelling). In early Middle English, until roughly 1400, most
imports from French were respelt according to English rules (e.g. bataille
- battle, bouton - button, but not double, trouble). Instead of loans being
respelled to conform to English spelling standards, sometimes the
pronunciation changes as a result of pressure from the spelling. One
example of this is the word ski, which was adopted from Norwegian in
the mid-18th century, although it did not become common until 1900. It
used to be pronounced /i/, which is similar to the Norwegian
pronunciation, but the increasing popularity of the sport after the middle
of the 20th century helped the /ski/ pronunciation replace it.[citation needed]

There was also a period when the spelling of a small number of words
was altered in what is now regarded as a misguided attempt to make
them conform to what were perceived to be the etymological origins of
the words. For example, the letter b was added to debt (originally dette)
in an attempt to link it to the Latin debitum, and the letter s in island is a
misplaced attempt to link it to Latin insula instead of the Old English
word land, which is the true origin of the English word. The letter p in
ptarmigan has no etymological justification whatsoever, only seeking to
invoke Greek despite being a Gaelic word.

The spelling of English continues to evolve. Many loanwords come from

languages where the pronunciation of vowels corresponds to the way
they were pronounced in Old English, which is similar to the Italian or
Spanish pronunciation of the vowels, and is the value the vowel symbols
[a], [e], [i], [o], and [u] have in the International Phonetic Alphabet. As a
result, there is a somewhat regular system of pronouncing "foreign"
words in English,[citation needed] and some borrowed words have had their
spelling changed to conform to this system. For example, Hindu used to
be spelled Hindoo, and the name Maria used to be pronounced like the
name Mariah, but was changed to conform to this system.

Commercial advertisers have also had an effect on English spelling. They

introduced new or simplified spellings like lite instead of light, thru
instead of through, smokey instead of smoky (for "smokey bacon"
flavour crisps), and rucsac instead of rucksack. The spellings of personal
names have also been a source of spelling innovations: diminutive
versions of women's names that sound the same as men's names have
been spelled differently: Nikki and Nicky, Toni and Tony, Jo and Joe.

As examples of the idiosyncratic nature of English spelling, the

combination ou can be pronounced in at least four different ways: // in
famous, /a/ in loud, // in should, /u/ in you; and the vowel sound /i/ in
me can be spelt in at least nine different ways: paediatric, me, seat,
seem, ceiling, people, machine, siege, phoenix. (These examples
assume a more-or-less standard non-regional British English accent.
Other accents will vary.)

Sometimes everyday speakers of English change a counterintuitive

pronunciation simply because it is counterintuitive. Changes like this are
not usually seen as "standard", but can become standard if used
enough. An example is the word miniscule, which still competes with its
original spelling of minuscule, though this might also be because of
analogy with the word mini.[citation needed] A further example is the modern
pronunciation of tissue.[specify]

History

Inconsistencies and irregularities in English pronunciation and spelling

have gradually increased in number throughout the history of the
English language. There are a number of contributing factors. First,
gradual changes in pronunciation, such as the Great Vowel Shift, account
for a tremendous number of irregularities. Second, relatively recent loan
words from other languages generally carry their original spellings,
which are often not phonetic in English. The Romanization of languages
(e.g., Chinese) using alphabets derived from the Latin alphabet has
further complicated this problem, for example when pronouncing
Chinese proper names (of people or places).

The regular spelling system of Old English was swept away by the
Norman Conquest, and English itself was supplanted in some spheres by
Norman French for three centuries, eventually emerging with its spelling
much influenced by French. English had also borrowed large numbers of
words from French, which naturally kept their French spellings as there
was no reason or mechanism to change them. The spelling of Middle
English, such as in the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, is very irregular and
inconsistent, with the same word being spelled in different ways,
sometimes even in the same sentence. However, these were generally
much better guides to the then pronunciation than modern English
spelling is.

For example, the sound //, normally written u, is spelled with an o in

son, love, come, etc., due to Norman spelling conventions which
prohibited writing u before v, m, n due to the graphical confusion that
would result. (v, u, n were identically written with two minims in Norman
handwriting; w was written as two u letters; m was written with three
minims, hence mm looked like vun, nvu, uvu, etc.) Similarly, spelling
conventions also prohibited final v. Hence the identical spellings of the
three different vowel sounds in love, grove and prove are due to
ambiguity in the Middle English spelling system, not sound change.

There was also a series of linguistic sound changes towards the end of
this period, including the Great Vowel Shift, which resulted in the i in
mine, for example, changing from a pure vowel to a diphthong. These
changes for the most part did not detract from the rule-governed nature
of the spelling system; but in some cases they introduced confusing
inconsistencies, like the well-known example of the many pronunciations
of ough (rough, through, though, trough, plough, etc.). Most of these
changes happened before the arrival of printing in England. However,
the arrival of the printing press froze the current system, rather than
providing the impetus for a realignment of spelling with pronunciation.
Furthermore, it introduced further inconsistencies, partly because of the
use of typesetters trained abroad, particularly in the Low Countries. For
example, the h in ghost was influenced by Dutch.[9] The addition and
deletion of a silent e at the ends of words was also sometimes used to
make the right-hand margin line up more neatly.[9]

By the time dictionaries were introduced in the mid 17th century, the
spelling system of English had started to stabilise. By the 19th century,
most words had set spellings, though it took some time before they
diffused throughout the English-speaking world. In The Mill on the Floss
(1860), English novelist George Eliot satirized the attitude of the English
rural gentry of the 1820s towards orthography:

Mr. Tulliver did not willingly write a letter, and found the relation
between spoken and written language, briefly known as spelling,
one of the most puzzling things in this puzzling world.
Nevertheless, like all fervid writing, the task was done in less time
 than usual, and if the spelling differed from Mrs. Glegg's,why, she
belonged, like himself, to a generation with whom spelling was a
matter of private judgment.

The modern English spelling system, with its national variants, spread
together with the expansion of public education later in the 19th century.

"Ough" words

Main article: Ough (combination)

The most notorious group of letters in the English language, ough, is

commonly pronounced at least ten different ways, six of which are
illustrated in the construct, Though the tough cough and hiccough
plough him through, which is quoted by Robert A. Heinlein in The Door
into Summer to illustrate the difficulties facing automated speech
transcription and reading. Ough is in fact a word in its own right; it is an
exclamation of disgust similar to ugh.

though: /o/ as in toe; (other examples: dough)

tough: /f/ as in cuf; (other examples: rough, enough, and the

name (but not the word) Hough)

cough: /f/ as in of; (other examples: Gough (name, some

pronunciations))

hiccough (a now uncommon variant of hiccup): /p/ as in up;

(unique)

plough: /a/ as in cow; (other examples: sough, drought, bough,

doughty, and the names Slough and Doughty)

through: /u/ as in blue;

nought: // as in caught; (other examples: ought, sought,

thought, brought)

lough: /x/ with a rough breathing sound like the ch in loch

Finally, there is the place name Loughborough, where the first ough has
the sound as in cuf and the second rhymes with thorough.
Spelling patterns
Spelling to sound correspondences

Vowels

In a generative approach to English spelling, Rollins (2004) identifies

twenty main orthographic vowels of stressed syllables that are grouped
into four main categories: "Lax", "Tense", "Heavy", "Tense-R". (As this
classification is based on orthography, not all orthographic "lax" vowels
are necessarily phonologically lax.)

General American Received Pronunciation (British)

Lett Tens Heav Tense- Lett Tens Heav Tense-

Lax Lax
er e y R er e y R

a // /e/ // // a // /e/ // / /
 man mane mar mare man mane mar mare

// /i/ // // // /i/ // //
e e
met mete her here met mete her here

// /a/ // /a/ // /a/ // /a/

i i
win wine fir fire win wine fir fire

// /o/ // // // //
o o
mop mope for, fore mop mope for, fore

// /ju/ // /j/ // /ju/ // /j/

u u
hug huge cur cure hug huge cur cure

// //
/u/ // /u/ //
u pus u pus
rude sur, sure rude sur, sure
h h

For instance, the letter a can represent the lax vowel //, tense /e/,
heavy //, or (often allophonically) [] before |r|. Heavy and tense-r
vowels are the respective lax and tense counterparts followed by the
letter r.

Tense vowels are distinguished from lax vowels with a "silent" e letter
that is added at the end of words. Thus, the letter a in hat is lax //, but
when the letter e is added in the word hate the letter a is tense /e/.
Similarly, heavy and tense-r vowels pattern together: the letters ar in
car are heavy /r/, the letters ar followed by silent e in the word care are
/r/. The letter u represents two different vowel patterns, one being
//, /ju/, //, /j/, the other //, /u/, //. There is no distinction between
heavy and tense-r vowels with the letter o, and the letter u in the /-u-/
pattern does not have a heavy vowel member.

Besides silent e, another strategy for indicating tense and tense-r

vowels, is the addition of another orthographic vowel forming a digraph.
In this case, the first vowel is usually the main vowel while the second
vowel is the "marking" vowel. For example, the word man has a lax a
pronounced //, but with the addition of i (as the digraph ai) in the word
main the a is marked as tense and pronounced /e/. These two strategies
produce words that are spelled differently but pronounced identically, as
in mane (silent e strategy), main (digraph strategy) and Maine (both
strategies). The use of two different strategies relates to the function of
distinguishing between words that would otherwise be homonyms.

Besides the 20 basic vowel spellings, Rollins (2004) has a reduced vowel
category (representing the sounds /, /) and a miscellaneous category
(representing the sounds /, a, a, a/ and /j/+V, /w/+V, V+V).

Combinations of vowel letters

To reduce dialectal difficulties, the sound values given here correspond

to the conventions at Wikipedia:IPA for English. This table includes H, W
and Y when they represent vowel sounds. If no information is given, it is
assumed that the vowel is in a stressed syllable.

Deriving the pronunciation of an English word from its spelling requires

not only a careful knowledge of the rules given below (many of which are
not explicitly known even by native speakers: speakers merely learn the
spelling of a word along with its pronunciation) and their many
exceptions, but also:

a knowledge of which syllables are stressed and which are

unstressed (not derivable from the spelling: compare hallow and
allow)

which combinations of vowels represent monosyllables and which

represent disyllables (ditto: compare please and create)

Example
Major Minor
s of Examples of Exceptions[c
Spelling value values
major minor value larification needed]
(IPA) (IPA)
value

a // hatchet, /e/ ache, bass, /i/ karaoke

before banner, chamber // father
multiple marry // yacht
consonants acrobat,
 final vowel
in word cat
national,
followed by camera,
2 or more reality
unstressed nationhood
syllables arid,
granite,
next
palace
syllable
contains //

before
-nge, -ste arrange,
waste
before grace,
single famous, many, any
consonant //
violate manor, have // gala,
/e/ //
before cons table, chocolate, sonata
//
+ (-le or hatred, orange
r+vowel) April
chaos,
before aorta
heterosylla
bic vowel

before final r or r
bar, cart
+ cons.
// barred, // scarce
(and in derived
marring
terms)

uncaring,
wary,
before r + vowel // // Paris // are
various,
glare

lemma,
word-final // /i/ bologna
banana

in word-final -ary // ordinary,

necessar
 y

watch,
after /w/ except
// warrior, // quango
before /k/, //, //
quantity

after /w/ before warning,

final r or r + // dwarf,
cons. war

another,
unstressed // about, artistically
woman

unstressed, in damage,
//
-age bondage

baa,
aa, ah // /e/ quaalude
blah

encyclop
aedia
(encyclo /e/ reggae
pdia), aesthetic (regg)
usually /i/ //
paediatri (sthetic) /a/ maestro
cian (mstro)
ae (pdiatri
() cian)

aerial
(rial),
aeroplan
before r //
e
(roplan
e)

ai, said, again,

bait,
ay // says // plaid
stressed /e/ cocaine,
/a/ samurai, /i/ quay
day
kayak, aye

before r // cairn,
millionair
 e, dairy

bargain,
unstressed // mountai // Britain
n

ao /e/ gaol /a/ Taoism /o/ pharaoh

sausage,
taut, because,
// /e/ gauge
au, aw // author, laurel
// /o/ mauve
lawn, aunt, draught,
laugh

e
before
single
consonant
receding,
before cons detail,
+ (-le or gene ukulele, cafe,
r+vowel)
metre, crepe
/e/
secret metal, lemon,
final, only /i/ //
vowel in be, she heron

word simile, livelihood,
catastrop fateful
final, Greek he
loans neon

before
heterosylla
bic vowel

// better, /i/ lethal // pretty

before fetch, axes (plural of
multiple merry axis)
consonants get, legally
watershe
final vowel
d evil
in word
legacy,
followed by elegant,
2 or more delicate
unstressed
 syllables
crevice,
next perish,
syllable epicness
contains //

before final r or r
herd,
+ cons. clerk,
// kerb, //
(and in derived sergeant
referral
terms)

serious, therefore,
//
before r + vowel // series, werewolf // were
//
here very

mate,
discipline
word-final /i/ recipe
, starve
plague

hatchet, taken,
unstressed // target, // decency,
poet moment

create,
usd, before
area,
heterosyllabic /i/
atheist,
vowel
hideous

beach, bread,
/e/ break,
usually /i/ eating, // healthy,
great, steak
please cleanse

earth,
before r + cons. // learn, // hearty, hearth // beard
ea
early

before final r or r
clear,
+ vowel bear, pear,
// hearing, //
(and in derived swear
yearly
terms)

eau /o/ bureau, /ju/ beauty //

 plateau,
bureaucracy
tableau

bee, /e/ matinee,

usually /i/
feed fiancee
ee cheering,
before r // beer,
eerie

seize, key,
veil, // heifer,
/i/ geyser
usually /e/ reign, leisure
/a/ height, heist,
obey /a/ eye
gneiss

deceive,
after c /i/ ceiling,
conceit
ei,
heir, weird, weir,
ey before r // //
their eyrie

foreign,
unstressed // counterf
eit

monkey,
unstressed, word-
/i/ curtsey,
final
jersey

leopard, /o/ yeoman

eo // /i/ people
jeopardy // leotard

eu(e feudal,
), queue,
ew( dew,
usually /ju/ /o/ sew
e), ewe,
ieu, lieu,
iew view

after /r/, //, //, /u/ rheumati

/j/, cons. + /l/ sm,
jewel,
 blew

amateur,
before r /j/ neural,
Newry

Jewry,
both of the above //
pleurisy

i shine,
cited,
before
guide
single
title,
consonant
idle,
before cons vibrant
+ (-le or wild, pivot, give,
r+vowel) kind, engine
/i/ machine,
/a/ sighed, //
before -nd, ski
ensign wind (one
-ld, -gh, -gn alumni, meaning)
alibi,
word-final
radii
before vial,
heterosylla quiet,
bic vowel prior,
pious

// hitch, /a/ pint, ninth // meringue

before fiddle, /i/ ski(ing)
multiple mirror silently
consonants bit
cinema, whitish
final vowel
liberty,
in word
military
followed by
2 or more finish,
unstressed spirit,
syllables minute
hideous,
next position,
syllable
Sirius
contains //
 before
cons. + e/i
+ vowel

before final r or r
+ cons. bird, fir,
// // menhir
(and in derived stirrer
terms)

hire,
before r + vowel /a/ firing,
enquiry

livid,
unstressed // // pencil, cousin business
typical

familiar,
usd, before
alien,
heterosyllabic /i/
radii,
vowel
idiot

finally /a/ die, tie

field,
// sieve
medially /i/ series, /a/ flies, tries
// friend
ie siege

pier,
before r // fierce,
bulkier

o // or dot, // won, monkey, // wolf

before // doctor, /o/ front
multiple torrent /u/ gross, comb,
consonants opera, brokenly
colonise, tomb, womb
final vowel
cooperat
in word
e
followed by topic,
2 or more solid,
unstressed promise
syllables
 next
syllable
contains //

before
single omen,
consonant grove,
moral, proper,
total
before cons shone
noble,
+ (-le or // to, who,
cobra
r+vowel) /u/ move, lose // woman
/o/ banjo, go
// come, love, // women
word-final boa,
// done
poet,
purpose,
before stoic
Europe
heterosylla cooperat
bic vowel e
(inc.
unstressed)

ford,
before r // boring, // for, morning
more

word,
after w, before r // work, // worn
worst

eloquent,
unstressed // wanton,
author

boat,
usually /o/ coal, // broad
oa load

boar,
before r //
coarse

oe usually /i/ amoeba

() (amba)
,
 coelacan
th
(clacan
th),
phoenix
(phnix)

shoe (sh),
toe (t), // does
finally /o/ /u/ canoe
foe (f) (ds)
(cano)

oedema
unstressed //
(dema)

manoeu
oeu /u/
vre

usually // coin, boy

reservoir
oi, ,
oy before r /w/ memoir, // loir /wa/ choir
repertoir
e

hoop, wool, foot,

usually /u/ // /o/ brooch
booze soot

look, food, brood, // blood,

oo before k,d // /u/
wood spook flood

door,
before r // // poor
mooring

ou soup, you,
through
out, /u/ touch, // courier,
stressed /a/ aloud, // trouble, should
bough /o/ country // cough
soul, dough,
boulder

before r // tourist, /a/ hour, our, // courier

contour, devour
 journey,
pour // courteous, // courage
scourge

camoufla
ge,
unstressed //
labour,
nervous

cow,
//
stressed /a/ sow, /o/ know, show
acknowledge
allow

ow before r /a/ dowry

yellow,
unstressed /o/ rainbow,
narrow

u
before
multiple butter,
put, full,
consonants // dump, //
pudding
current
final vowel
in word

/ju/ luminous // sugar // busy

before , mute,
single tuba
consonant bugle,
rubric
before cons
duel,
+ (-le or
r+vowel) fatuous,
druid,
before January
heterosylla
bic vowel
(inc.
unstressed)

word-final
 rule,
chute,
above after /r/, June, flu
//, //, /j/, cons. + /u/ truant,
/l/ fluent,
menstru
ate

before final r or r
curdle,
+ cons.
// burr,
(and in derived
furry
terms)

lure,
before r + vowel /j/ purity, /j/ failure // bury
curing

above after /r/, rural,

//, //, /j/, cons. + // jury,
/l/ plural

guess, argue, ague

/ju/
after g, before e, i disguise, linguistics,
/w/
tongue segue

// minute,
unstressed // supply
lettuce

/we/ suede
cue,
/wi/ suite
usually /ju/ hue,
// build,
nuisance
ue, biscuit
ui blue,
above after /r/,
tissue,
//, //, /j/, cons. + /u/
fruit,
/l/
juice

buy,
uy /a/
guyed

y // myth, /a/ hyphen,

before cryptic psyche
multiple cylinder,
 consonants

followed by
2 or more typical,
unstressed pyramid cyclically
syllables cynic

next
syllable
contains //

before typing,
single style,
consonant
paralyze
cycle,
before cons /a/
+ (-le or cypress
r+vowel) sky,
supply,
word-final, bye
stressed

before final r or r
+ cons. myrtle,
//
(and in derived myrrh
terms)

lyre,
before r + vowel /a/ tyrant,
gyrate

sibyl,
unstressed //
martyr

unstressed, word- city,

/i/
final happy
Consonants

See also: Digraph (orthography)

Notes:
 In the tables, the hyphen has two different meanings. A hyphen
after the letter indicates that it must be at the beginning of a
syllable, e.g. j- in jumper and ajar. A hyphen before the letter
indicates that it cannot be at the beginning of a word, e.g. -ck in
sick and ticket.

More specific rules take precedence over more general ones, e.g.
"c- before e, i or y" takes precedence over "c".

Where the letter combination is described as "word-final",

inflectional suffixes may be added without changing the
pronunciation, e.g. catalogues.

The dialect used is RP.

Isolated foreign borrowings are excluded.

Major Other
Examples of Examples of
Spelling value value
major value other values
(IPA) s

bit, rabbit, bdellium, debtor,

usually /b/
obtain subtle
b,
bb finally after m
climb, comb,
(and in derived
numbing
terms)

cellar, city,
cyst,
/t/ cello, vermicelli
before e, i, y, face, prince,
/s/ // special, liquorice
ae, or oe nicer
/k/ Celts, chicer
caesium,
c
coelacanth

initially before cnidarian,

n, t ctenoid

elsewhere /k/ cat, cross victual, indict

cc before e, i or y /ks/ accept, /k/ soccer, recce,

eccentric, /t/ siccing
occidental /s/ bocce, breccia,
cappuccino
 flaccid

account,
elsewhere /k/ accrue,
occur, yucca

chase, chin, /k/ ached

usually /t/ attached, /h/ chutzpah
chore yacht

chasm,
Greek-derived
/k/ chimera,
ch words
chord

chaise,
French-derived machine,
//
words cached,
parachute

ck /k/ tack, ticket

graduate,
gradual (both
dive, ladder, /d/
d, dd, dh /d/ also /dj/ in RP)
jodhpurs
Wednesday,
handsome

lodger,
-dg- before e, i, or y /d/
pidgin, edgy

f, -f /f/ fine, of /v/ of

g gentle,
magic, get, eager, algae
before e, i, y, //
/d/ gyrate, (RP)
ae, or oe //
page, algae collage, gigue
(GA)

diaphragm,
in -gm, gn- or gnome, signify,
//
-gn signing, repugnant
reign

elsewhere // go, great, /d/ margarine

 guest

stagger, suggest,
gg // /d/
flagging exaggerate

ghost,
initially //
ghastly

/f/
/x/ or
gh laugh, enough
dough, high, /k/
lough
elsewhere right, //,
ugh!
daughter /k/, or
hiccough
/x/
/p/

vehicle, honest,
usually /h/ he, alcohol
hono(u)r, piranha
h
exhibit,
after ex /h/ exhale
exhaust

/j/ Hallelujah
// Jean
j- /d/ jump, ajar
/h/ jalapeno, fajita
Marijuana

key, bake,
k, usually /k/ trekking,
-kk, sheikh
kh
initially before n knee, knock

halve, balk,
line, valve,
l, ll /l/ salmon
valley /j/
tortilla

mine,
m, usually /m/
hammer
mm
initially before n mnemonic

n, usually /n/ nice, funny

nn
before /k/ or // // link, bangle,
 anchor

finally after m
hymn,
(and in derived
autumn
terms)

finally and in
long, kingly,
terms
// singer,
derived from
clingy
ng-final words
ng
anger, finger
medially // danger,
otherwise /nd/ ginger,
dingy

pill, happy,
usually /p/ soup, corpse, coup, receipt
p, script
pp pneumonia,
initially before
psyche, /p/ psst
n, s, t
ptomaine

photograph,
ph, pph /f/ /v/ Stephen
sapphire

q (not before u) /k/ Iraq, Iqaluit

ray, parrot,
usually /r/ rhyme, iron
diarrhoea

r, rr,
before
rh, consonant in non- cart, burr,
rrh rhotic fir, care,
finally dialects walker, tear,
such as RP hurt
before
final e

See below for combinations of vowel letters and the letter r

 scissors,
dessert,
/z/ dissolve, Islam
song, ask,
// sugar, tissue,
usually /s/ message,
// aggression
misled
vision
islet, aisle,
debris

-s- between
s, vowel sounds
/z/ rose, prison /s/ basis
ss (see also "se"
below)

word-final -s
morpheme
/s/ pets, shops
after a voiceless
sound

word-final -s
morpheme beds,
/z/
after a lenis magazines
sound

scene,
scepter, /sk/ sceptic, scirrhus
sc- before e, i or y /s/
scissors, // fascism
scythe

schedule (in RP,

school, otherwise: /sk/),
//
sch- /sk/ scheme, schist
/s/
schizo schism (in RP,
otherwise: /sk/)

sh // shin, fashion

t, usually /t/ ten, bitter, // ratio, Martian

-tt cation, /t/ question,
chaste, /d/ bastion
wallet kindergarten
castle, chasten,
 ballet

in unstressed
listen, rustle, tungsten,
-sten, -stle, /t/
soften existent
-ften

batch,
-tch /t/
kitchen

thyme
/t/
eighth
// thin, both, /t/
th outhouse,
// the, bothers /th/
potherb

asthma

v, -vv /v/ vine, savvy

two, sword,

sward, answer, gunwale
w /w/ /u/
swerve, wale cwm
/v/
Weltanschauung

/w/ or /hw/
in Hiberno-
usually Eng. and wheel
Southern
Am. Eng.
wh-
/h/ or /hw/
in Hiberno-
before o Eng. and who, whole /w/ whopping, whorl
Southern
Am. Eng.

/r/ or /wr/ in
wr- Scottish wrong, wrist
Eng.

x initially /z/ xylophone

elsewhere /ks/ extent, /z/ exit (in some

excuse, axe // pronunciations)
/k/ luxury (in some
pronunciations)
 anxious
faux-pas

excellent,
-xc before e or i /ks/
excited

y- /j/ yes, young

schizophrenic,
/ts/
z, -zz /z/ zoo, pizzazz pizza

rendezvous

Major Minor
Spellin Examples of Examples of Exceptio
value values
g major value minor value ns
(IPA) (IPA)

ayer,
/(r)/ layer, mayor
ayor

dowry, tower,
ower /ar/
flowery
Combinations of other consonant and vowel letters

Major Examples Minor

Examples of
Spelling value of major values Exceptions
minor value
(IPA) value (IPA)

ah // blah

pal,
al /l/ talcum, /l/ bald, falcon
algae, alp

/f/ (RP) alfalfa,

alf calf, half /l/ /lf/ palfrey
/f/ (GA) malfeasance

walk,
alkaline, /lk/
alk /k/ chalking, /lk/
grimalkin balkanise
talkative

all /l/ call, /l/ wallet, /l/ (GA)

/l/ fallout, /()l/ swallow marshmallow
smaller allow, dialled , pall-mall
shall,
 callus,
fallow

calm (also:
/lm/),
/m/ (all dalmatian,
almond
three salmonella /m/ salmon
(also: /lm/
alm examples almanac /()lm/
/lm/), /lm/
have alt. (also: /lm/), signalman
palmistry
pronunc.) almost
(also: /
lm/)

/lt/ gestalt
alter, malt, alto, shalt,
/lt/ (RP) /lt/ (GA)
alt salty, saltation
/lt/ (GA) /lt/ /()lt/ royalty,
basalt altar, asphalt
penalty

pharaoh,
aoh, oh /o/
oh

unstressed
special,
ci- before a // /si/ species
gracious
vowel

acquaint, lacquer,
-cqu /kw/ /k/
acquire racquet

word-final
-ed
morpheme /d/ waited
after /t/ or
/d/*

word-final
-ed
morpheme topped,
/t/ /d/ biped, unfed
after a surfed
voiceless
sound*

word-final /d/ climbed, /d/ imbed,

-ed failed, misled,
morpheme ordered infrared
after a lenis
sound*

eh /e/ eh

word-final
washes,
-es /z/
boxes
morpheme**

unstressed exist,
ex- before a /z/ examine, /ks/ exhale
vowel or h exhaust

bilingual,
guard,
gu- before a /w/ guano, //
guarantee
language

word-final -le
after a /l/ little, table
consonant

aisle, isle,
-(a)isle /al/ enisle,
lisle

dengue (also
tongue,
/i/),
word-final harangue,
// /e/ distingu,
-ngue meringue
merengue
(dessert)
(music/dance)

scaffold,
blindfold,
old /old/ /ld/ kobold (also
older, bold
/ld/

olk /ok/ yolk, folk

doll,
roll, stroller,
follow,
oll /l/ /ol/ polling,
colletc.,
tollway
holler

olm, enrolment, /om/ holm

olm /lm/ /olm/
dolmen holmium (oak)
 wrong,
// (RP) Congress,
ong strong, //
// (GA) congregation
song

queen, liquor,
qu- /kw/ /k/
quick mosquito

quar- before quarter,

/kw(r)/
consonant quart

word-final mosque, /kju/

/k/ /ke/ risqu
-que bisque barbeque

word-final
-re after a /r/ ogre
consonant

ro /r/ rod /ro/ roll /(r)/ iron

unstressed
conscience omniscient
sci- before a /t/ /si/
(// in RP) (RP only)
vowel

sci-
/sa/ science
(stressed)

corpuscle,
-scle /sl/
muscle

house,
-se (noun) /s/
mouse

house,
-se (verb) /z/ /s/ chase
raise

/zi/
physiology,
unstressed
division, busier,
-si before a // expansion //
illusion caesium
vowel
flimsiest
/si/ tarsier
unstressed
potassium,
-ssi before a // mission /si/
dossier
vowel

unstressed leisure,
/r/
-sure treasure

unstressed
nation, /ti/ patio, /ta/
-ti before a // // equation
ambitious cation
vowel

unstressed nature,
/tr/
-ture picture

unstressed seizure,
/r/
-zure azure

* There is no way to tell if it is the morpheme or an integral part of the

word. Compare snaked and naked.

** Same as above; compare the two pronunciations of axes.

Small text indicates rare words. Loans words: SP for Spanish, FR for
French.

Sound to spelling correspondences

The following table shows for each sound, the various spelling patterns
used to denote it. The symbol "" stands for an intervening consonant.
The letter sequences are in order of frequency with the most common
first. Some of these patterns are very rare or unique, such as au for the
[] sound in laugh (some accents). In some cases, the spellings shown
are found in only one known English word (such as "mh" for /m/, or
"yrrh" for /r/).

Consonants

IPA Spelling Examples

/p/ p, pp, gh pill, happy, hiccough

/b/ b, bb bit, rabbit

/t/ t, tt, ed, pt, th, ct ten, hitter, topped, pterodactyl, thyme,
 ctenoid

d, dd, ed, dh, t (in some

dive, ladder, failed, dharma, waiter,
/d/ dialects), tt (in some
flatter
dialects)

// g, gg, gue, gh go, stagger, catalogue, ghost

c, k, ck, ch, cc, qu, cqu,

cat, key, tack, chord, account, liquor,
cu, que, kk, kh, q, x
/k/ acquis, biscuit, mosque, trekker, khan,
(changing its /ks/ sound
burqa, excitement
into its /k/ sound)

m, mm, mb, mn, mh, mine, hammer, climb, hymn, mho,

/m/
gm, chm diaphragm, drachm

n, nn, kn, gn, pn, nh, cn, nice, funny, knee, gnome, pneumonia,
/n/
mn piranha, cnidarian, mnemonic

// ng, n, ngue sing, link, tongue

/r/ r, rr, wr, rh, rrh ray, parrot, wrong, rhyme, diarrh(o)ea

fine, physical, of, laugh, sapphire,

/f/ f, ph, ff, gh, pph, u
lieutenant (Br)

/v/ v, vv, f, ph, w vine, savvy, of, Stephen, weltanschauung

th, chth, phth, tth, fth thin, chthonic, phthisis, Matthew,

//
(in some dialects) twelfth

// th, the them, breathe

s, c, ss, sc, st, ps, sch

song, city, mess, scene, listen,
(in some dialects), cc,
/s/ psychology, schism, flaccid, horse, juice,
se, ce, z (in some
citizen
dialects)

s, z, x, zz, ss, ze, c (in has, zoo, xylophone, fuzz, scissors,

/z/
some dialects) breeze, electricity

shin, nation, special, mission, expansion,

sh, ti, ci, ssi, si, ss, ch, s,
// tissue, machine, sugar, conscience,
sci, ce, sch, sc
ocean, schmooze, crescendo

// si, s, g, z, j, ti, sh (in division, leisure, genre, seizure, jet,

 some dialects) equation, Pershing

ch, t, tch, ti, c, cc, tsch, chin, nature, batch, bastion (some
/t/
cz accents), cello, bocce, putsch, Czech

magic, jump, judgment, bridge,

g, j, dg, dge, d, di, gi,
/d/ graduate, soldier, Belgian, dungeon,
ge, gg
exaggerate

/h/ h, wh, j, ch he, who, fajita, chutzpah

/j/ y, i, j, ll, e yes, onion, hallelujah, tortilla, eoarchean

/l/ l, ll, lh line, hallo, Lhasa

w, u, o, ou, wh (in most

/w/ we, persuade, choir, Ouija board, what
dialects)

wh (in Hiberno-Eng. and

/hw/ wheel
Southern Am. Eng.)

/wr/ wr (in Scottish Eng.) wren

Vowels

IPA Spelling Examples

be, beach, bee, cede, Caesar, deceit,

e, ea, ee, ee, ae, ei, machine, field, people, amoeba (variant
/i/ ie, ie, eo, oe, ie...e, of ameba), hygiene, quay (RP only; /e/ in
ay, ey, i, y, oi, ue, ey, a GA), key, ski, city, chamois, Portuguese,
geyser (RP only; /a/ in GA), karaoke

bit, myth, build, pretty, been (some

i, y, ui, e, ee, ie, o, u, a,
accents), sieve, women, busy, damage,
// ei, ee, ia, ea, i...e, ai, ii,
counterfeit, carriage, mileage, medicine,
oe
bargain, shiitake, oedema

tool, luminous, who, flute, soup, jewel,

oo, u, o, ue, ou, ew,
true, lose, fruit, maneuver, manoeuvre
ue, oe, ui, eu, oeu, oe,
/u/ (Br. variant of prec.), canoe, through
ough, wo, ioux, ieu,
(form. variant of "thru"), two, Sioux,
oup, w, u
lieutenant (GA), coup, cwm, thru (inf.)

// oo, u, o, oo...e, or, ou, look, full, wolf, gooseberry, worsted,

 oul courier, should

bass, rate, quaalude, reggae, rain,

a, ae, aa, ae, ai, ai...e,
aig, aigh, al, ao, au, ay,
e (), e...e, ea, eg, ei,
/e/
ei...e, eig, eigh, ee (e),
eh, er, es, et, ey, ez, ie,
oeh, ue, uet
cocaine, arraign, straight, Ralph (dated
Br.), gaol (Australian var. of "jail"), gauge
(var. of gage), pay, ukulele (caf), crepe,
steak, thegn, veil, beige, reign, eight,
matinee (soire), eh, dossier, demesne,
ballet, obey, chez, lingerie (US),
boehmite (also: /o/), dengue (usually:
/i/), sobriquet (also: /t/; var. of
"soubriquet")

another, anthem, awesome, atrium,

a, e, o, u, ai, ou, eig, y,
// mountain, callous, foreign, beryl,
ah, ough, ae, oi
Messiah, borough (Br), Michael, porpoise

o, oe, oa, ow, ou, oe, so, bone, boat, know, soul, foe, brooch,
/o/ oo, eau, oh, ew, au, beau, oh, sew, mauve, pharaoh,
aoh, ough, eo furlough, yeoman

e, ea, a, ae, ai, ay, ea met, weather, many, aesthetic, said,

// e, ei, eo, ie, ieu, u, ue, says, cleanse, heifer, jeopardy, friend,
oe lieutenant (Br), bury, guess, foetid

hand, plaid, salmon, laugh (some

// a, ai, al, au, i
accents), meringue

u, o, oe, oe, ou, oo, sun, son, come, does, touch, flood,
//
wo twopence

fall, author, jaw, bought, caught, cord,

a, au, aw, ough, augh,
// broad, door, walk, fluorine (Br),
o, oa, oo, al, uo, u, ao
sure (some accents), extraordinary

lock, watch, bureaucracy, yacht,

// o, a, eau, ach, au, ou
sausage, cough

// a, ah, aa, i father, blah, baa, lingerie (US)

/a/ ae, ai, aie, aille, ais, ay, maestro, krait, shanghaied, canaille (RP),
aye, ei, eigh, ey, eye, i, aisle, kayak, aye, heist, height, geyser
ie, ia, ie, ic, ig, igh, is, (US), eye, mic, fine, diaper, tie, indict,
oi, ui, uy, uye, y, y...e, sign, high, isle, choir, guide, buy, guyed,
 ye tryst, type, bye

oi, oy, awy, uoy oye, foil, toy, lawyer, buoy, gargoyle,
//
eu Freudian

/a/ ou, ow, ough, au, ao out, now, bough, tau, Taoism

bazaar, car, are, bizarre, heart,

aar, ar, are, arre, ear,
/r/ sergeant, our (some accents), guard,
er, our, uar, arrh
catarrh

aar, aer, air, aire, ar, Aaron, aerial, hair, millionaire, ware,
are, ayer, ayor, ear, eir, vary, prayer, mayor, bear, heir,
/r/
er, ere, err, erre, ey're, stationery (some accents), where, err
e'er (variant), parterre, they're, e'er

ear, eer, eir, eor, ere, ear, beer, weir, theory (US), here,
/r/
ers, e're, ier, iere, ir revers, we're, pier, premiere, menhir

er, or, ur, ir, yr, our, ear, fern, worst, turn, thirst, myrtle, journey,
/r/ err, eur, yrrh, ar, oeu, earth, err, amateur, myrrh, grammar,
olo hors d'oeuvre, colonel

u, ue, eu, ue, iew, music*, use, feud, cue, view, beautiful*,
/ju/ eau, ieu, ueue, ui, ewe, adieu*, queue, nuisance*, ewe, few, * in
ew some dialects, see yod-dropping