English orthography

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English orthography is the system of writing conventions used to represent spoken This article contains IPA phonetic
English in written form[1][2] that allows readers to connect spelling to sound to symbols. Without proper rendering
support, you may see question marks,
meaning.[3] boxes, or other symbols instead
of Unicode characters. For an
Like the orthography of most world languages, English orthography has a broad introductory guide on IPA symbols,
degree of standardization. However, unlike with most languages, there are multiple see Help:IPA.
ways to spell nearly every phoneme (sound), and most letters also have multiple
pronunciations depending on their position in a word and the context. Several orthographic mistakes are common even among
native speakers.[4] This is mainly due to the large number of words that have been borrowed from a large number of other
languages throughout the history of the English language, without successful attempts at complete spelling reforms.[5] Most of the
spelling conventions in Modern English were derived from the phonetic spelling of a variety of Middle English, and generally do not
reflect the sound changes that have occurred since the late 15th century (such as the Great Vowel Shift).[6]

Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only
slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most recognized variations being British and American spelling, and its
overall uniformity helps facilitate international communication. On the other hand, it also adds to the discrepancy between the way
English is written and spoken in any given location.[5]

Contents
1 Function of the letters
1.1 Phonemic representation
1.2 Word origin
1.3 Homophone differentiation
1.4 Marking sound changes in other letters
1.5 Multiple functionality
1.6 Underlying representation
2 Diacritics
3 Ligatures
4 Phonic irregularities
5 Spelling irregularities
5.1 History
5.2 "Ough" words
6 Spelling patterns
6.1 Spelling-to-sound correspondences
6.1.1 Vowels
6.1.2 Combinations of vowel letters
6.1.3 Consonants
6.1.4 Combinations of vowel letters and "r"
6.1.5 Combinations of other consonant and vowel letters
6.2 Sound-to-spelling correspondences
6.2.1 Consonants
6.2.2 Vowels
7 See also
7.1 Orthographies of English-related languages
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links

Function of the letters [ edit ]

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 [ edit ]

Further information: Phonemic orthography

Letters in English orthography usually represent a particular sound (phoneme). For example, the word cat /ˈkæt/ consists of three
letters ⟨c⟩, ⟨a⟩, and ⟨t⟩, in which ⟨c⟩ represents the sound /k/, ⟨a⟩ the sound /æ/, and ⟨t⟩ the sound /t/.

Sequences of letters may perform this role as well as single letters. Thus, in the word ship (pronounced /ˈʃɪp/), the digraph ⟨sh⟩ (two
letters) represents the sound /ʃ/. In the word ditch, the trigraph ⟨tch⟩ represent the sound /tʃ/.

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 /ˈsɪks/).

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 /ˈrʌf/. At the beginning of syllables
(i.e. the syllable onset), the digraph ⟨gh⟩ is pronounced /ɡ/, as in the word ghost (pronounced /ˈɡoʊst/). Conversely, the digraph
⟨gh⟩ is never pronounced /f/ in syllable onsets and is almost never pronounced /ɡ/ in syllable codas (the proper name Pittsburgh is
an exception).

Some words contain silent letters, which do not represent any sound in modern English pronunciation. Examples include the ⟨b⟩
in doubt, debt, dumb, etc., the ⟨p⟩ in psychology and pneumatic, and the commonly encountered silent ⟨e⟩(discussed further
below).

Word origin [ edit ]

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

Another type of spelling characteristic is related to word origin. For example, when representing a vowel, the letter ⟨y⟩ represents
the sound /ɪ/ 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 /ˈmɪθ/ is of Greek origin, while pith /ˈpɪθ/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 Rollings (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 [ edit ]

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, but in writing they are distinguished from each
other by their different spellings. Another example is the pair of homophones pain and pane, where both are pronounced /peɪn/ but
have two different spellings of the vowel /eɪ/. Often this is because of the historical pronunciation of each word where, over time,
two separate sounds become the same but the different spellings remain: pain used to be pronounced as /pain/, with a diphthong,
and pane as /peːn/, but the diphthong /ai/ merged with the long vowel /eː/ in pane, making pain and pane homophones (pane–
pain merger). Later /eː/ became a diphthong /eɪ/.

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 remain that are unresolved by spelling (for example, the word bayhas at least
five fundamentally different meanings).

Marking sound changes in other letters [ edit ]

See also: Silent e and Double letter

Some letters in English provide information about the pronunciation of other letters in the word. Rollings (2004) uses the term
"markers" for such letters. Letters may mark different types of information. For instance, the letter ⟨e⟩ in the
word cottage /ˈkɒtɪdʒ/indicates that the preceding ⟨g⟩ is pronounced /dʒ/, rather than the more common value of ⟨g⟩ in word-final
position as the sound /ɡ/, such as in tag /ˈtæɡ/. The letter ⟨e⟩ also often marks an altered pronunciation of a preceding vowel. In the
pair banand bane, the ⟨a⟩ of ban has the value /æ/, whereas the ⟨a⟩ of bane is marked by the ⟨e⟩ as having the value /eɪ/. 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 /æ/ to /eɪ/, but also of the ⟨g⟩
from /ɡ/ to /dʒ/. In the word vague, the ⟨e⟩ marks the long a sound, but the ⟨u⟩ keeps the g hard rather than soft.

Doubled consonants usually indicate that the preceding vowel is pronounced short. For example, the doubled ⟨t⟩ in latter indicates
that the ⟨a⟩ is pronounced /æ/, while the single ⟨t⟩ of later gives /eɪ/. Doubled consonants only indicate any lengthening
or gemination of the consonant sound itself when they come from different morphemes, as with the ⟨nn⟩ in unnatural = un+natural.

Multiple functionality [ edit ]

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 /ɪ/) and a pronunciation-marking function (marking the ⟨c⟩ as having the value /s/ opposed to the value /k/).

Underlying representation [ edit ]

Like many other alphabetic orthographies, English spelling does not represent non-contrastive phoneticsounds (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 [tʰ] 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.[7]

[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.[8]

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 /ᵻd/[9] (for
example, dip /ˈdɪp/, dipped /ˈdɪpt/, boom /ˈbuːm/, boomed /ˈbuːmd/, loot /ˈluːt/, looted /ˈluːtᵻd/). 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 photographeris 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 /ˈfoʊtəɡræf/ or /ˈfoʊtəɡrɑːf/
photographer /fəˈtɒɡrəfər/
photographical /ˌfoʊtəˈɡræfɪkəl/

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

Another such class of words includes sign /ˈsaɪn/and bomb /ˈbɒm/ with "silent" letters ⟨g⟩ and ⟨b⟩, respectively. However, in the
related words signatureand bombard these letters are pronounced /ˈsɪɡnətʃər/ and /bɒmˈbɑːrd/, respectively. Here it could be
argued that the underlying representation of sign and bomb is |saɪɡn| and |bɒmb|, in which the underlying |ɡ| and |b| are only
pronounced in the surface forms when followed by certain suffixes (-⟨ature⟩, -⟨ard⟩). Otherwise, the |ɡ| 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 /ˈfɑːst/and fasten /ˈfɑːsən/, and the ⟨h⟩ in heir /ˈɛər/ and inherit /ɪnˈhɛrɪt/.

Another example includes words like mean /ˈmiːn/and meant /ˈmɛnt/. 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 /ˈtɪks/ and pigs /ˈpɪɡz/) while -⟨es⟩ is usually pronounced /ᵻz/[9](e.g. boxes /
ˈbɒksᵻz/). 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 /ᵻ/ 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.[10] 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.[11]

Diacritics [ edit ]

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.[12]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 rôle and hôtel 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, café and pâté both have a
pronounced final e, which would otherwise be silent under the normal English pronunciation rules. However café[citation needed] is
now sometimes facetiously pronounced "caff", while in pâté, the acute accent is helpful to distinguish it from pate.

Further examples of words sometimes retaining diacritics when used in English are: Ångström (partly because the scientific symbol
for this unit of measurement is "Å"), appliqué, attaché, blasé, bric-à-
brac, Brötchen,[13] cliché, crème, crêpe, façade, fiancé(e), flambé, naïve, naïveté, né(e), papier-
mâché, passé, piñata, protégé, résumé, risqué, über-, voilà. Italics, with appropriate accents, are generally applied to foreign terms
that are uncommonly used in or have not been assimilated into English: for example, adiós, crème brûlée, pièce de
résistance, raison d'être, über, vis-à-vis and belles-lettres.

It was formerly common in American English to use a diaeresis mark to indicate a hiatus: for
example, coöperate, daïs, reëlect. 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) if the
hiatus is between two morphemes in a compound word. It is, however, still common in monomorphemic loanwords such
as naïve and Noël.

Written accents are also used occasionally in poetryand 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 cursèd.

The acute and grave accents are occasionally used in poetry and lyrics: the acute to indicate stress overtly where it might be
ambiguous (rébel vs. rebél) or nonstandard for metrical reasons (caléndar); the grave to indicate that an ordinarily silent or elided
syllable is pronounced (warnèd, parlìament).

Ligatures [ edit ]

See also: American and British English spelling differences § ae and oe

In certain older texts (typically British), the use of the ligatures æ and œ is common in words such as archæology, diarrhœa,
and encyclopædia. 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 encyclopaediaare current in the UK.

Phonic irregularities [ edit ]

See also: English spelling reform

Partly because English has never had any official regulating authority for spelling, such as the Spanish Real Academia Española,
the French Académie française, and the German Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung, 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", but short), 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 /uː/ sound can
be spelled in up to 18 different ways (see the Sound-to-spelling correspondences section below),
including oo, u, ui, ue, o, oe, ou, ough, and ew (food, truth, fruit, blues, to, shoe, group, through, grew), but all of these have other
pronunciations as well (e.g. as in flood, trust, build, bluest, go, hoe, grout, rough, sew). The Spelling-to-sound
correspondences section below presents a summary of pronunciation variations. Thus, in unfamiliar words and proper nouns the
pronunciation of some sequences, oughbeing the prime example, is unpredictable to even educated native English speakers.

Spelling irregularities [ edit ]

Attempts to regularize or reform the spelling of English have usually failed. However, Noah Websterpopularized more phonetic
spellings in the United States, such as flavor for
British flavour, fiber for fibre, defense for defence, analyze for analyse, catalog for catalogue and so forth. These spellings already
existed as alternatives, but Webster's dictionaries helped make them standard in the US.[14] 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, 24–27 separate consonant phonemes and 13–20 vowels. However, there
are only 26 letters in the modern English alphabet, so there is not 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 dental fricative and the voiceless dental fricative) (see Pronunciation of English th), and the voiceless alveolar
sibilant 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 /uː/, /iː/ and /oʊ/
(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 fiordwas 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, or 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 /ʃiː/, which is similar to the Norwegian pronunciation, but the increasing
popularity of the sport after the middle of the 20th century helped the /skiː/ 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 sin island is a misplaced attempt to link it to
Latin insula instead of the Old English word īġland, 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.[citation needed] 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, Joand Joe.

As examples of the idiosyncratic nature of English spelling, the combination ou can be pronounced in at least nine different
ways: /aʊ/ in out, /oʊ/ in soul, /uː/in soup, /ʌ/ in touch, /ʊ/ in could, /ɔː/ in four, /ɜː/ in journal, /ɒ/ in cough, and /ə/ in famous. See the
section Spelling-to-sound correspondences for a comprehensive treatment. In the other direction, the vowel sound /iː/ in me can be
spelt in at least 18 or 21 different ways: be (cede), ski (machine), bologna(GA), algae, quay, beach, bee, deceit, people, key,
volleyed, field (hygiene), amoeba, chamois, dengue, beguine, guyot, and city. See the section Sound-to-spelling
correspondences below. (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.[15][16] A further
example is the modern pronunciation of tissue.[specify]

History [ edit ]

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 phoneticin 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 /ʌ/, 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 mmlooked
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.

In 1417 Henry V began using English for official correspondence, which had no standardized spelling, instead of Latin or French
which had standardized spelling. For example, for the word right, Latin had one spelling, rectus; Old French as used in English law
had 6 spellings, Middle English had 77 spellings. English, now used as the official replacement language for Latin and French,
motivated writers to standardize spellings, an effort which lasted about 500 years.[17]

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.[18]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.[18]

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 [ edit ]
Main article: Ough (orthography)

The most notorious group of letters in the English language, ough, can be pronounced in 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, usually
representing a pronunciation of roughly /ʊx/, is in fact a word in its own right, though rarely known or used: an exclamation of
disgust similar to ugh. The following are recorded throughout Englishes of the world:

/oʊ/ (as in toe) for though and dough

/ʌf/ (as in cuff) for tough, rough, enough, and the name Hough
/ɒf/ (as in off) for trough, cough, and Gough
/uː/ (as in blue) for through
/ɔː/ (as in caught) for thought, ought, sought, nought, brought, etc.
/ə/ (as in comma) for thorough, borough, and names ending in -borough; however, American English pronounces this as /oʊ/
/aʊ/ (as in cow) as in bough, sough, drought, plough (plow in North America), doughty, and the names Slough and Doughty

The following pronunciations are found in uncommon single words:

hough: /ɒk/ (more commonly spelt "hock" now)

hiccough (a now uncommon variant of hiccup): /ʌp/ as in up (unique)
lough: /ɒx/ with a velar fricative like the ch in loch, of which lough is an anglicized spelling

The place name Loughborough uses two different pronunciations of ough: the first ough has the sound as in cuff and the second
rhymes with thorough.

Spelling patterns [ edit ]

See also: Help:IPA/English

Spelling-to-sound correspondences [ edit ]

Vowels [ edit ]

In a generative approach to English spelling, Rollings (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.)

Letter Lax Tense Heavy Tense-R

/æ/ /eɪ/ /ɑːr/ /ɛər/
a
man mane mar mare
/ɛ/ /iː/ /ɜːr/ /ɪər/
e
met mete her here
/ɪ/ /aɪ/ /ɜːr/ /aɪər/
i
win wine fir fire
/ɒ/ /oʊ/ /ɔːr/
o
mop mope for, fore
/ʌ/ /juː/ /ɜːr/ /jʊər/
u
hug huge cur cure
/ʊ/ /uː/ /ɜːr/ /ʊər/
u
push rude sur sure

For instance, the letter a can represent the lax vowel /æ/, tense /eɪ/, heavy /ɑː/, or (often allophonically) [ɛə] 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 /æ/, but when the letter e is added in the word hate the letter a is tense /eɪ/. Similarly, heavy and tense-r vowels pattern
together: the letters ar in car are heavy /ɑːr/, the letters arfollowed by silent e in the word care are /ɛər/. The letter u represents two
different vowel patterns, one being /ʌ/, /juː/, /ə/, /jʊ/, the other /ʊ/, /uː/, /ʊ/. There is no distinction between heavy and tense-r vowels
with the letter o, and the letter u in the /ʊ-uː-ʊ/ 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 /æ/, but with the addition of i (as the digraph ai) in the word mainthe a is marked as tense and
pronounced /eɪ/. 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, Rollings (2004) has a reduced vowel category (representing the sounds /ə, ɪ/) and a
miscellaneous category (representing the sounds /ɔɪ, aʊ, aɪ, aʊ/ and /j/+V, /w/+V, V+V).

Combinations of vowel letters [ edit ]

To reduce dialectal difficulties, the sound values given here correspond to the conventions at Help:IPA/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 waif and naif, creature and creator)

Major
Examples of Minor Examples of
Spelling value Exceptions
major value values minor value
(IPA)
a before
multiple ache, ancient,
consonants chamber, pastry,
final vowel in hatchet, banner, tally /eɪ/ bass, nationhood,
word acrobat, cat scathingly, /ɒ/ yacht
followed by 2 /æ/ national, camera, basis, aphasic, father ∅ sarsaparilla, forecastle
or more reality
unstressed acid, granite, palace
syllables
RP: aft, ask, dance,
next syllable /ɑː/
past
contains /ɪ, ə/
before final - flange, caste (GA)
nge, -ste have, plaque, manor,
before single range, exchange, /æ/ statue
consonant haste macle, sacrifice,
before cons + /eɪ/ gave, opaque, savor, theatrical /ɛ/ many, any, ate (RP)
(-le or status /aɪ/ naive
r+vowel) table, hatred, April
chaos, aorta, mosaic debacle, melange
before
/ɑː/ gala, lava, slalom,
heterosyllabic
sonata
vowel
before final r or r
+ cons. bar, cart /ɛə/ scarce
/ɑː/
(and in derived barred, marring /æ/sarsaparilla (GA)
terms)
arid, parish, mariners,
area, care, garish, /æ/[i] caraway /ɔː/ quarantine (GA)
before r + vowel /ɛ(ə)/[i]
wariness /ɑː/ aria, are, safaris, /ɒ/ waratah
faraway
word-final bra, cha-cha, schwa,
/ɑː/
(stressed) spa
wash, wasp,
quarantine
want, watch, quality, /ɒ/ (/ɔː/)[ii] water, wall, walnut,
/ɑː/ qualm, suave, swami
after /w/ except squash /ɔː/ waltz
/ɒ/ (/ɑː/)[ii] /æ/ swam, aquatic (RP)
before /k/, /ɡ/, /ŋ/ swamp, wapiti, /ɛ(ə)/ aware, square, wary,
/ʌ/ was, what (GA)
swastika, wallet /eɪ/ antiquarian
persuade, wastage,
swathe
after /w/ before
war, award, dwarf
final r or r + cons. /ɑː/ jaguar (GA), quark
/ɔː/ warning, quarter,
(and in derived /ɒ/ warrior (RP)
warring
terms)
 Major
Examples of Minor Examples of
Spelling value Exceptions
major value values minor value
(IPA)
artistically, ordinary,
about, an, salary,
/ə/ to ∅ necessary
woman, /i/ karaoke, bologna(GA)
unstressed /ə/ /ɪ/ chocolate, purchase,
blancmange, opera, /ɑː/ retard (n), canard (RP)
/eɪ/ solace,
via
probate, folate, kinase
unstressed, in - damage, forage,
/ɪ, ə/ /ɑː/ (RP): garage, barrage /eɪ/ teenage
age garbage
/æ/ (/ɛə/) Aaron
aa, ah /ɑː/ baa, aardvark, blah /eɪ/ Quaalude
/ə/ Isaac
/eɪ/ reggae, sundae, gaelic
encyclopaedia,
usually /iː/ /ɛ/ aesthetic /aɪ/ maestro
ae paediatrician
/ə/ Michael, polkaed
before r /ɛə/ aerial, aeroplane /ɪə/ chimaera /ə/ anaerobe
aisle, bonsai, daimon,
/aɪ/ krait /æ/ plaid, plaited, daiquiri
daisy, laid, paisley,
stressed /eɪ/ /ɛ/ said, again, against /aɪiː/ naif, caique
regain, waif
/eɪ ɪ/ dais, laic, mosaic, /i ɪ/ archaism
ai papain
cairn, millionaire,
before r /ɛə/ /aɪ/ hetaira, zaire
dairy
certain, coxswain,
unstressed /ɪ, ə/ bargain, mountain /ə/
spritsail
/eɪ/ gaol /oʊ/ pharaoh
cacao, miaow, /eɪɒ/ kaon, chaos /eɪɔː/ aorta
ao /aʊ/
Taoism /eɪə/ aorist, kaolin /eɪoʊ/ baobab
/ɔː/ extraordinary /ioʊ/ karaoke
because, laurel,
leprechaun
/ɒ/ aunt, draught, /eɪ/ gauge
aura, cause, chauffer, /ɑː/ (/æ/)[iii] laughter /aʊə/ gaur
au /ɔː/
slaughter /aʊ/ degauss, graupel, /ʌ/ because (GA)
/oʊ/ trauma (GA) /ə/ aurora, meerschaum
chauffeur, gauche,
mauve
awed, flaw, hawk,
aw /ɔː/ /ə/ awry
tawny
aye, bayou, kayak,
bayonet, essays, /aɪ/ /iː/ cay, quay, parlay
ay /eɪ/ papaya
grayer, hayride /ɛ/ /əj/ gayal
mayor, prayer, says
e before single ever, lemon, petal,
consonant even, demon, fetal, recollect /eɪ/ crepe, suede, ukulele
before cons + recombine /ɛ/
petrol, debris (RP), /ɑː/ or /ɒ/genre
r +vowel metre, secret, egret, discretion
final, only /iː/ secretion
vowel in word be, she
museum, neon, abbe, cafe(GA), saute
before
theater (GA) /eɪ/ seance, rodeo, /ɛ/ yeah (GA)
heterosyllabic
deity(RP)
vowel
before
multiple
lethal, reflex,
consonants petty, lethargy, merry,
Stephen
final vowel in treble /ɪ/ pretty, English
feces, axes (plural
word get, watershed /ɑː/ or /ɒ/ennui, entourage
/ɛ/ /iː/ of axis)
bef. 2+ legacy, elegant, /eɪ/ eh
legally, devious,
unstressed delicate /ʌ/ feng shui
premium
syllables metric, crevice, epic
evil, scenic, strategic
next syllable
contains /ɪ/
before final r or r
her, coerced, jerk,
+ other cons. berceuse /ɑː/ clerk, sergeant
/ɜː/ merchant /ɛ/
(and in derived error .
erring, preferred
terms)
 Major
Examples of Minor Examples of
Spelling value Exceptions
major value values minor value
(IPA)
compere, there,
/ɛə/ werewolf
here, series,
before r + vowel /ɪə/ /ɛ/ derelict, heresy, /ɜː/ were, weregild
reremice, stereo
/iː/ perish, very
derail, reremind
taken, decency, /ɪ/ erase, erect
unstressed /ə/ /ɪ, ə/ hatchet, target, poet
moment ∅ halfpenny
ibid., word-final discipline, recites, recipes, simile,
∅ /iː/ /eɪ/ latte, mores, protege
and derivatives smile, limitrophe apostrophe, deled
ibid., before
create, area, atheism,
heterosyllabic /i/ /eɪ/ fideism, realpolitik
video
vowel
break, eagre, great,
yea
/eɪ/ hydrangea, likeable, /ɑː/ orgeat, /æ/ poleax
dreams, read, cleans,
/ə/ ocean /ɔː/ ealderman
/iː/ leaf, zeal
usually /ɪə/ idea, ideal, real, realty /ɪ/ mileage, /iːɪ/ lineage
/ɛ/ dreamt, read,
/iːə/ urea, cereal, fealty, /ɛə/ yeah, /eɪɑː/ seance
cleanse, deaf, zealot
/iːeɪ/ laureate /iːæ/ beatify, caveat, reality
ea creating, protease,
reagent
pearly, hearse, hearken, hearty, /ɪə/ beard, peart
before r + cons. /ɜː/ /ɑː/
yearning, earth hearth /eɪə/bearnaise, /i'ɑː/ rearm
before final r or r
+ vowel dearly, hears, /ɛə/ tear, bears, wearing /ɜː/ heard
/ɪə/
(and in derived yearling, tear /iːə/ linear, nuclear, stearin /iː/ tearoom
terms)
bureau, plateau, /ɒ/bureaucracy
eau /oʊ/ /juː/ beauty
tableau /ə/ bureaucrat
/ɪ/ breeches, been (GA)
matinee, fiancees,
bee, breech, feed, /eɪ/ /iːə/ freest, weest
usually /iː/ nee
ee trainee /i/ /iːɛ/ reecho, /iːɪ/ reelect
bungee, coffee
/ɛ/ threepence (also /ɪ/ or /ʌ/)
before r /ɪə/ cheering, beer, eerie /iːə/ freer, seers
caffeine, seize, key,
geyser
/iː/ /ɛ/ heifer, leisure, seigneur
veil, weight, heinous, either, height, heist,
usually /eɪ/ /aɪ/ /æ/ reveille, serein
obey heinie, eye
/iːɪ/ /eɪ ɪ/ fideist, /iˈaɪ/ deice
albeit, being,
cysteine, deist
ei, ey deceive, ceiling, /æ/ ceinture, enceinte
after c /iː/
conceit /eɪɪ/ glaceing /iːɪ/ haecceity
before r /ɛə/ heir, madeira, their /ɪə/ weird, weir, eyrie /aɪ/ oneiric, eirenic
foreign, counterfeit, /ə/ mullein, villein /ɪ/ ageist, herein, ogreish
unstressed /ɪ, ə/
forfeit /i/ volleyed /aɪ/ walleyed
unstressed, /i/ monkey, curtsey,
/eɪ/ survey (n)
word-final /iː/ jersey
eon, geology, reoffer,
feoffee, jeopardy,
teleost /oʊ/ yeoman, /ɛə/ ceorl
/iːɒ/ /ɛ/ leopard
creole, geode, /juː/ feodary, /uːi/ geoduck
eo usually bisyllabic /iːoʊ/ /iː/ feoff, people
leonine, video /eɪoʊ/ rodeo, teosinte
/iːə/ /ə/ luncheon, pigeon,
galleon, leotard, /iˈa/ meow
embraceor
peon, theory
/oʊ/ sew, shew
berceuse, danseuse
deuce, feudal, /ɜː/ /ɛf/ lieutenant
leukemia, lewd,
usually /juː/ queue, /uː/ (RP), /jɜː/milieu
lieu(sic)
dew, ewe, view /iːə/ /iːuː/ reuse, /iːʌ/ reutters
museum, pileus
eu(e), /ʌ/ pileup, ∅ fauteuil
ew(e), after /r/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /j/, rheumatism, sleuth,
ieu, /uː/ /iːə/ nucleus
cons. + /l/ jewel, blew
iew
before r /jʊə/ euro, liqueur, neural /ɜː/ masseur, voyeur /ʊə/ pleurisy, /iːɜː/ theurgy
aneurism, derailleur,
unstressed /jə/
/ju(ə)/ eurhythmic, neurotic grandeur
before r /ə/
amateur, chauffeur
 Major
Examples of Minor Examples of
Spelling value Exceptions
major value values minor value
(IPA)
before single city, give, vicar, risen
/iː/ police, elite, machine
consonant triple, citrus, giblets
cited, dive, mica, /ɪ/ /iː/ litres, in vitro
before cons + pighead, signal,
rise, polite, shine /iː/ chignon, Monsignor
(-le or bewilder, rescind
idle, trifle, nitrous,
r+vowel)
mitres
before -nd, - /aɪ/ sighed, signage,
ld, -gh, -gn wilder, remind ski
final vowel in alumni, alibi, radii /iː/ clientele, fiat, lien,
word vial, quiet, prior, skiing
before pious
heterosyllabic
vowel
before
multiple dissent, mislaid,
consonants slither
dissect, island,
final vowel in kiss, sic, bit, inflict, /æ/ meringue /iː/ artiste,
blithely
word hint, plinth chenille
indict, pint, ninth
bef. 2+ litany, liberal, /iː/ skis, chic, ambergris
/ɪ/ /aɪ/ irony, libelous, rivalry,
unstressed chivalry, misery
miserly
syllables finish, limit, minute
i whitish, writing
next syllable (n) .
shinier, tidied
contains /ɪ/ hideous, position,
before cons. Sirius
+ e/i + vowel
before r + vowel
(except
pirate, mired, mirage,
bef. 2+ /aɪə/ /ɪ/
virus, iris, wiring virile, iridescent, spirit
unstressed
syllables)
before final r or r
+ cons.
/ɜː/ bird, fir, stirrer /ɪə/ menhir
(and in derived
terms)
∅ business, parliament, lieu,
divide, permit (n), giraffe, pencil, cousin, nostalgia
unstressed /ɪ, ə/ /ə/
livid, typical Cheshire /aɪ/ director, minute (adj)
/aɪə/ sapphire
usd, before
liaison, alien, radii,
heterosyllabic /i/ /aɪ/ biology, diameter
idiot
vowel
goalie, oldie, auntie,
finally /aɪ/ belie, die, untie, vie /i/ /eɪ/ lingerie(GA), /ieɪ/ kyrie
movie
allied, pied, skies
/aɪ/ client, diet, science, /ɪ/ sieve, mischief, kerchief
field, siege, rabies, /aɪə/ sliest /ɛ/ friend, hygienic (GA)
medially /iː/
skied /iə/ to /jə/ ambient, alien, oriel, /aɪˈɛ/ biennial, /iːɒ/ clientele
ie
/iˈɛ/ ugliest /iˈiː/ medieval,/iːə/ lien
orient (v), acquiesce
shier, fiery, hierarchy,
/iɛ(ə)/concierge, premiere
cashier, fierce, /aɪ(ə)/ plier
before r /ɪə/ /iˈeɪ/ atelier, bustier, dossier
frontier, pier, /iə/ to /jə/ busier, rapier, glacier,
/iːə/ skier
hosiery
o before
multiple
doctor, bother,
consonants won, monkey, front
donkey
final vowel in /ʌ/ gross, comb, wonted, /uː/ tomb, womb
dot, bomb, wonk,
word /oʊ/ both /ʊ/ wolf
/ɒ/ or /ɑː/ font
bef. 2+ brokenly, probity, /wʌ/ once
opera, colonise,
unstressed diplomacy /ɔː/ (GA) long, broth
botany
syllables meiosis, aerobic
topic, solid, promise
next syllable
contains /ɪ/
 Major
Examples of Minor Examples of
Spelling value Exceptions
major value values minor value
(IPA)
before single
consonant
before cons + proper, gone,
(-le or omen, grove, total shone (RP)
/ɒ/ /ʊ/ woman, bosom
r+vowel) noble, cobra to, who, move, /ɪ/ women
/uː/
word-final /oʊ/ banjo, go doable /wʌ/ one
/ʌ/
before boa, poet, stoic come, love, done,
/ə/ ∅ colonel, chocolate
heterosyllabic cooperate, proactive colander
vowel purpose, Europe
(inc.
unstressed)
/ɜː/ whorl
before r /ɔː/ ford, boring, more /ɒ/ forest, borrow, moral /ʌ/ borough
/oʊ/ forecastle
after w, before r /ɜː/ word, work, worst /ɔː/ worn, sword, swore /ʌ/ worry
eloquent, wanton,
unstressed /ə/ /ɒ/ neuron, proton
author
/oʊə/ boa, inchoate /ɔː/ broad
boat, coal, load,
usually /oʊ/ /oʊæ/ coaxial, ogdoad /uːə/ doable
coaxing
oa /oʊˈeɪ/ oasis, cloaca /oʊˈɒ/ koala
boar, coarse, /ə/ cupboard, starboard
before r /ɔː/
keyboard, soaring /oʊˈɑː/coarctate
doeskin, woeful /ɛ/ foetid, roentgen
/oʊ/
amoeba, coelacanth, shoelace, canoeing /oʊˈiː/ coeval, noesis
usually /iː/ /uː/
foetal, phoenix poetic, soever, /oʊˈɜː/ coerce
/oʊˈɛ/
orthoepic /oʊə/ poetry, orthoepy
/ʌ/ does
oe /uː/ shoes, canoe
/uːə/ doeth, doer
final vowels /oʊ/ foe, goes, toed, woe /oʊɛ/ coed, noel, phloem
/ɜː/ foehn
/oʊə/ goer, loess, poem
/oʊiː/ diploe, kalanchoe
aloe, echoed, oboes,
unstressed /ɪ/ oedema, oesophagus /oʊ/ /uː/ hoopoe
soloed
oeu /uː/ manoeuvre /ɜː/ oeuvre /ɜr/ hors d'oeuvre (GA)
going, egoist, heroin,
stoic /uːɪ/ doing
/oʊɪ/
boing, moist, coin, bourgeois, coiffeur, /wæ/croissant (RP)
usually /ɔɪ/ /wɑː/
envoi patois /iː/ chamois
oi /ə/
connoisseur, /oʊaɪ/ghettoise, oroide
porpoise, tortoise
reservoir, memoir, /waɪə/ choir
before r /wɑː/ /ɔɪə/ coir, loir
moire, soiree /ə/avoirdupois
cool, sooth, boot, wool, soot, foot, /oʊ/ brooch
usually /uː/ /ʊ/
goosebumps gooseberry /oʊ ɒ/ coopt, zoology
cook, shook, wood, kook, spook, food,
oo before k, d /ʊ/ /uː/ /ʌ/ flood, blood
stood brood
/ə/whippoorwill
before r /ɔə/ door, flooring /ʊə/ poor, moor, roorback
/oʊ ɔː/coordinate
soup, you, through
/uː/ /ʊ/ could, should
touch, trouble,
stressed /aʊ/ out, aloud, bough /ʌ/ /ɒ/ cough, fount (printing)
country
/oʊ/ /juː/ ampoule, coupon (GA)
soul, dough, boulder
hour, flour, scours
/aʊə/ journey, courtesy,
ou four, courtesan,
stressed before r /ɔː/ /ɜː/ scourge /ʌ/ encourage, flourish
discourse
/ʊ(ə)/ tour, courier, gourd,
velour
entourage, bivouac,
camouflage, labour, /u/ /ʌ/ hiccough
unstressed /ə/ bedouin
nervous /ʊ/ /w/ ratatouille, ouabaine
potpourri, detour
owl, bow, row, sow, own, bow, row, sow,
stressed /aʊ/ /oʊ/ /ɒ/acknowledge, rowlock
allow alow
ow before r /aʊə/ dowry, cowries /oʊ/ cowrites, showroom
yellow, teabowl,
unstressed /oʊ/ /aʊ/ peafowl, sundowner /əw/cassowary, toward (RP)
landowner
 Major
Examples of Minor Examples of
Spelling value Exceptions
major value values minor value
(IPA)
/oʊj/ oyez
boy, doyenne, foyer,
oy /ɔɪ/ /waɪ/ voyeur, noyade /aɪ/ coyote (GA)
voyage
/i/ buoy (GA)
before budding, cuckold, pudding, cuckoo,
multiple /uː/ truth, ruthless, brut
mullet, usher bullet, cushion
consonants /ʌ/ /ʊ/ /juː/ butte, debut, fuchsia,
but, gull, Dutch, put, full, butch,
final vowel in tulle
hush, fuss shush, puss
word
before single study, punish, bunion,
mute, student,
consonant buses
puny, union, fuses
before cons + /ʌ/ butler, cutlery,
bugle, hubris,
(-le or subrogate
nutrient (RP)
r+vowel) /juː/ /uː/ super, lunar, /ɪ/ busy, business
duo, nuance,
before absolute, revolution
pursuant, ensuing
heterosyllabic . suet, lucrative,
menu, emu,
vowel lugubrious
impromptu(RP)
word-final hindu, tutu, tofu
rule, chute, June,
pluses, runaway,
recluses
above after /r/,/ truculent /ʊ/ sugar
/uː/ scruples, rubric /ʌ/
ʃ/,/ʒ/,/j/, cons.+/l/ runlet, clubroom, /juː/ overuse, underused
truant, fluent, cruelty
rumrunner
flu, guru
u before final r or r turn, occur, curdle,
+ cons. burr
/ɜː/ /ʌ/ recurrent, occurrence /ʊ(ə)/ langur
(and in derived furry, demurral,
terms) blurred, recurring
/ɛ/ bury, burial
before r + vowel /jʊ(ə)/ lure, purity, curing /ʊ(ə)/ allure, guru, Silurian
/jɔː/ sure, assurance [19]
above after /r/,/
/ʊ(ə)/ rural, jury, plural
ʃ/,/ʒ/,/j/, cons.+/l/
after g, before a guard, guest, guide, language, segue,
∅ /w/ /juː/ jaguar (RP), ambiguity
vowel vaguer, languor distinguish
quail, conquest, quay, conquer,
after q /w/ ∅
banquet, quite bouquet, mosquito
annual, evaluate,
arduous, debut
/ju/ influence, plurality,
support, industry, /u/ fruition
unstressed /ə/ /ɪ, ə/ minute, lettuce
useful, medium /jə/ accurate, failure,
/ʌ/ tenure
guffaw, unruly, upend,
vulgarity
ague, argued /weɪ/ segued,/wɛ/ guenon
/juː/
league, tongue, guest, guessed, /wə/ unguent,/wiː/ ungues
after g ∅ /ɛ/
vaguely, intrigued baguette /juːə/ arguer,/eɪ/ merengue
/ə/
guerrilla, beleaguered /iː/ dengue, Portuguese
after r or cons. + true, clue, gruesome, influence, cruel,
/uː/ /uːə/ /uːɪ/ cruet, /uːɛ/ influential
l blues fluent, bluest
ue fuel, constituent,
rescuer /uːɪ/ suet, /uːɛ/muezzin
/juːə/
innuendo, /juːiː/ tenues, /juːeɪ/ habitue
elsewhere virtue, cue, valued, /juːɛ/
/juː/ statuesque, minuet /jʊə/ puerile, /ʊ/ muenster
(except after q) hue, muesli /uː/
Sue, snafued /weɪ/ suede, Venezuelan
/uːə/
(GA:due, revenue) /wɛ/ pueblo, /wɪ/desuetude
GA: duel, pursuer
ui guide, guise, beguile /iː/ beguine, /wiː/ linguine
anguish, penguin, /aɪ/
after g /wɪ/ guild, guitar, /juːɪ/ arguing, aguish
linguist, sanguine /ɪ/
intriguing, roguish /juːə/contiguity, /uːi/GUI
after j, r, or cons. juice, cruise, sluice, fruition, fluid, ruin, /uːə/incongruity, /uːj/ alleluia
/uː/ /uːɪ/
+l fruiting druid, truism /ʊ/Cruickshank
 Major
Examples of Minor Examples of
Spelling value Exceptions
major value values minor value
(IPA)
suit, suitable,
conduit, cuing, nuisance (GA)
/aɪ/ duiker, /ə/circuitry
genuine, /uː/ intuitive (RP),
/juːɪ/ /wɪ/ cuisine, suint
elsewhere Buick, circuitous, /juːə/ promiscuity
/wiː/ suite, ennui, tuille
(except after q) Jesuit /juː/ nuisance (RP),
/ɪ/ /uːaɪ/ suigeneris
build, circuit, biscuit, /uːɪ/ puisne
/weɪ/ feng shui
pursuivant suicide, tui, Inuit,
Hinduism
/uˈʌ/ duumvir
uu /juə/ continuum, residuum /uə/ menstruum /juː/ vacuum
/uː/ muumuu
guyot, cliquy, plaguy
/iː/ /jʊɪ/ toluyl
uy /aɪ/ buy, buyout, guyed tuyere, obsequy,
/wi/ /uːj/ thuya, gruyere
soliloquy
before
multiple myth, cryptic, cyclone, hyphen,
consonants system, symbol psyche, python
bef. 2+ cylinder, typical, hydrogen,
/ɪ/ /aɪ/
unstressed pyramid, dynasty dynasty (GA)
syllables cynic, lyric, lytic, cyclist, hybrid,
next syllable syringe psychic, typist
contains /ɪ/
before single typing, style,
consonant
paralyze, nylon byzantine, synod,
before cons + cycle, cypress, synagogue,
(-le or /aɪ/ /ɪ/
hydrate, lycra Cypriote, sycophantic
r+vowel) awry, by, deny, sky, .
y word-final, supply
stressed
before final r or r
+ cons.
/ɜː/ myrtle, myrrh /ɪ/ pyrrhic
(and in derived
terms)
before r + vowel /aɪə/ lyre, tyrant, gyrate /ɪ/ syrup, Pyrenees
sibyl, martyr,
bicycle, oxygen,
/ə/ pyjamas
polymer,
unstressed /ɪ/ /aɪ/ dynamics,
dyslexia, physique,
/i/ hypothesis, typhoon
synonymous
anyway, everything
unstressed, any, city, happy,
/i/ /aɪ/ ally (n)
word-final only, supply (adv)

i. ^ a b In many if not most North American accents, /ær/ is merged with /ɛr/.
ii. ^ a b The LOT and CLOTH lexical sets are pronounced with /ɑː/ or /ɔː/ respectively in GA, but are merged in /ɒ/ in RP.
iii. ^ The BATH lexical set is pronounced with /æ/ in GA.

Consonants [ edit ]
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
Spelling value Examples of major value Examples of other values
values
(IPA)
 Major
Other
Spelling value Examples of major value Examples of other values
values
(IPA)
bdellium, debtor, subtle,
usually /b/ bit, ebb, limber, obtain, bombe ∅
combe
b, bb
finally after m iamb, climber, numbing,
∅ /b/ iambic, nimb
(and in derived terms) bombed
/tʃ/ cello, vermicelli
cellar, city, cyst,
/ʃ/ special, liquorice
before e, i, y, ae, or oe /s/ face, prince, nicer
/k/ Celts, chicer, syncing
caesium, coelacanth
c /ts/ letovicite
initially before n, t ∅ cnidarian, ctenoid
cat, cross, predict, opuscle, blancmange, indict, muscle,
elsewhere /k/ ∅
picture victual
/k/ soccer, recce, siccing
before e, i or y /ks/ accept, eccentric, occidental /tʃ/ bocce, breccia, cappuccino
cc /s/ flaccid
elsewhere /k/ account, accrue, occur, yucca
/k/ ached, anchor, leprechaun
/ʃ/ machete, pistachio, welch
/h/ chutzpah
usually /tʃ/ chase, chin, attached, chore
/dʒ/ sandwich, Greenwich
/x/ loch
ch ∅ yacht, Crichton
Greek-derived words /k/ chasm, chimera, chord, lichen ∅ drachm
chemist, choir, machination
chaise, machine, cached, /k/
French-derived words /ʃ/ chassis, cheque, chowder,
parachute /tʃ/
niche (GA)
ck /k/ tack, ticket
ached, creased, iced, puffed,
raked
/t/
graduate, gradual (both
d, dd, dh /d/ dive, ladder, jodhpurs /dʒ/
∅ also /dj/ in RP)
Wednesday, handsome,
sandwich
dg before e, i, or y /dʒ/ lodger, pidgin, edgy /dɡ/ headgear
/v/ of
f, -ff /f/ fine, off
∅ halfpenny
gel, pager, gin, algae (GA) /ɡ/ get, eager, gig, algae (RP)
before e, i, y, ae, or oe /dʒ/
gentle, rage, gigantic, regimen /ʒ/ genre, barrage, gigue, regime
g phlegmy, diaphragm /ɡ/ pigmy, signet, indignant
in gm or gn ∅
gnome, signed, poignant, reign /ʒ/ judgment
elsewhere /ɡ/ go, great, guest, leg, margaric /dʒ/ margarine, gaol
/dʒ/ agger, suggest, exaggerate
gg /ɡ/ dagger, smuggest, staggering
/ɡdʒ/ suggest (GA)[20]
initially /ɡ/ ghost, ghastly, ghetto
burgh
/ə/ or /oʊ/
lough, saugh
/x/ or /k/
gh daughter, through, fraught, laughter, trough, draught,
/f/
elsewhere ∅ brougham roughage
/ɡ/
eight, higher, straight, sighed burgher, ogham, yogh
/ɡh/
leghorn, pigheaded
/p/
hiccough
honey, heist, house, manhandle honest, heir, hours, piranha
usually /h/ ∅
doohickey, vehicular annihilate, vehicle, dinghy
h
oh, rhubarb, rhyme, exhibit,
final or after r or ex ∅ /h/ exhale, exhume (in RP)
exhaust
jump, ajar /j/ Hallelujah, fjord
jonquil, Julian /ʒ/ jongleur, julienne, bijou
j /dʒ/
jalap, cajole /h/ jalapeno, fajita
bijugate ∅ marijuana
key, bake, trekking, sheikh,
usually /k/ ∅ beknave, camiknickers
k, kk, kh weeknight
initially before n ∅ knee, knife, knock /k/ knish, Knoebel
 Major
Other
Spelling value Examples of major value Examples of other values
values
(IPA)
valve, balcony, almost ∅ halve, balk, salmon
l, ll /l/ or /ɫ/ valley, flotilla /j/ tortilla
line, colony /r/ colonel (in rhotic accents)
usually /m/ mine, hammer
m, mm
initially before n ∅ mnemonic

/ŋ/ anxiety
nice, funny, anchovis
usually /n/ monsieur, condemner,
monsignor, damnable ∅
n, nn damningly
before /k/ or /ɡ/ /ŋ/ inkling, bangle, anchor /n/ incline, vanguard, mankind
finally after m ∅ hymn, autumn, solemn
finally and in terms
/ŋɡ/ longer, strongest
derived from ng-final /ŋ/ long, kingly, singer, clingy
/ndʒ/ stingy (ungenerous)
words
ng congress, singly, finger,
/nɡ/ congrats, engage, vanguard
/ŋɡ/ language
medially otherwise /ŋ/ hangar, lingonberry, tongue
/ndʒ/ binging, wharfinger, dingy,
/nʒ/ ingenue, lingerie
engaol
usually /p/ pill, happy, soup, corpse, script ∅ coup, corps, receipt, raspberry
p, pp
initially before n, s, t ∅ pneumonia, psyche, ptomaine /p/ psst
/v/ Stephen
ph, pph /f/ photograph, sapphire
/pf/ camphor
q (not before u) /k/ Iraq, Iqaluit
iron , croissant (RP), hors
usually /ɹ/ ray, parrot, rhyme, diarrhoea ∅
d'oeuvre
r, rr, rh, ∅ in non-
rrh before consonant cart, hurt
rhotic fir, walker, tear, burr, myrrh sarsaparilla, forecastle (GA)
finally ∅
dialects like
before final e care
RP
See below for combinations of vowel letters and the letter r
/z/ is, lens, raspberry
/ʃ/ sugar, tension
usually /s/ song, ask, misled
/ʒ/ vision, closure
∅ island, aisle, debris, mesne
-s- between vowel
sounds /z/ phrases, prison, pleasing /s/ bases, bison, leasing
s (see also "se" below)
word-final -
s morpheme /s/ pets, shops
after a voicelesssound
word-final -
s morpheme /z/ beds, magazines
after a lenissound
/sk/ sceptic, scirrhus
sc before e, i or y /s/ scene, scepter, scissors, scythe /ʃ/ fascism
/z/ crescent (RP)
schedule (RP), schist,
school, scheme, /ʃ/
eschalot
sch /sk/ schizoid, /s/
schism (RP)
ischemia, eschar /s tʃ/
mischief, eschew
/s h/ mishap, mishit
shin, fashion, wish, /z h/ hogshead
sh /ʃ/
Lewisham, foreshore, kinship /s ʃ/ tranship
/ʃ h/ threshold
tissue, passion /ʒ/ or /ʃ/:
boss, assign, narcissus /ʃ/ scissure
ss /s/ dissert, posses, brassier, /z/ dessert, possess, brassiere,
finesse, cesspool, missout /s s/ scissor
disseat, misspell, missort
/s/ sword, answer
sw /sw/ swore, swan, swift /zw/ menswear
∅ coxswain
 Major
Other
Spelling value Examples of major value Examples of other values
values
(IPA)
ration, martial, cautious
ten, bitter, etiology, /ʃ/ bastion, nature, fortune,
nastier, attune, piteous, /tʃ/ righteous
usually /t/ cation, /ʒ/ equation
t, tt softer, wallet, gristmill, ∅ soften, ballet, Christmas,
haste, dishearten /d/ mortgage
kindergarten (GA)
in -sten and -stle ∅ hasten, listens, rustling, thistles /t/ tungsten, listless
tch /tʃ/ batch, kitchen
/t/ thyme
/tθ/ eighth
/θ/ thin, both, north, absinthe
th /th/ outhouse, potherb (RP)
/ð/ the, bother, smooth, soothe
/tʃ/ posthumous (GA)
∅ asthma
vine, heavy, savvy, reveled,
v, vv /v/ /f/ fivepence, sovkhoz
revved
∅ two, sword, answer, gunwale
w /w/ sward, swerve, wale /uː/ cwm
/v/ Weltanschauung
usually /w/ [21] wheel /f/ whew (RP)
wh- [21]
before o /h/ who, whole /w/ whopping, whorl
wr /r/ [22] wrong, wrist, awry
initially /z/ xylophone, xenon, xenophobia
taxation, tuxedo, proximity,
/ks/
example, exist, exotic, exult exogenous
before stressed vowel /ɡz/ /z/
Alexander, auxiliary anxiety
/ɡʒ/, /kʒ/
luxurious †
x
/ɡz/ existential, exultation, exit ††
/ɡʒ/ luxury (GA)†
boxes, exercise, expect,
elsewhere /ks/ /kʃ/ anxious, luxury, sexual (GA)
jinxed, next, six, taxi
/z/ plateaux, chateaux
∅ faux-pas, roux
xc before e or i /ks/ excellent, except, excited
exhaust, exhibit /ks/ exhibition, Vauxhall
xh /ɡz/
exhilarating, exhortation /ksh/ exhale, exhume, foxhole
y- /j/ yes, young /ð/ ye (mock archaic)
gazump, seized, crazier, /ʒ/ azure, seizure, brazier (GA)
z, zz /z/ rhizophagous, pizzazz, /ts/ schizophrenic, pizzas
zoo, quiz ∅ rendezvous

† Nearly 80% of Americans pronounce "luxurious" with /ɡʒ/, while two thirds of British people use /kʒ/. Half the American speakers
pronounce "luxury" as /ˈlʌɡʒəri/, the rest says /ˈlʌkʃəri/[23]
†† About half of both British and American speakers say /ˈɛksɪt/, the other half says /ˈɛɡzɪt/.[23]

Combinations of vowel letters and "r" [ edit ]

This section needs
expansion. You can help by adding
to it. (April 2014)

Major Minor
Examples of minor
Spelling value Examples of major value values Exceptions
value
(IPA) (IPA)
stressed /ɑːr/ argyle, car, farce /ɛə/ scarce
ar
unstressed /ər/ circular, pillar
arid, parish, mariners,
area, care, garish, /æ/ caraway /ɔː/quarantine (GA)
arV, are /ɛ(ə)/
wariness /ɑː/ aria, are, safaris, /ɒ/ waratah
faraway
aer /ɛə/ aerial, aeroplane /ɪə/ chimaera /ə/anaerobe
air, aire /ɛə/ cairn, millionaire, dairy /aɪ/ hetaira, zaire
aor
aur
awr
awer
ayr
ayer layer
ayor /ɛər/ mayor
her, coerced, jerk,
berceuse
er /ɜː/ merchant /ɛ/ /ɑː/ clerk, sergeant
error
erring, preferred
compere, there,
/ɛə/ werewolf
here, series, reremice,
erV, ere /ɪə/ /ɛ/ derelict, heresy, perish, /ɜː/ were, weregild
stereo
/iː/ very
derail, reremind
dearly, hears, yearling, /ɛə/ tear, bears, wearing /ɜː/ heard
ear /ɪə/
tear /iːə/ linear, nuclear, stearin /iː/ tearoom
pearly, hearse, /ɪə/ beard, peart
earC /ɜː/ /ɑː/ hearken, hearty, hearth
yearning, earth /eɪə/bearnaise, /i'ɑː/ rearm
eer /ɪə/ cheering, beer, eerie /iːə/ freer, seers
eir /ɛə/ heir, madeira, their /ɪə/ weird, weir, eyrie /aɪ/ oneiric, eirenic
eor
eur /jʊə/ euro, liqueur, neural /ɜː/ masseur, voyeur /ʊə/pleurisy, /iːɜː/ theurgy
ewer
ir /ɜː/ bird, fir, stirrer /ɪə/ menhir
pirate, mired, virus, iris, mirage, virile, iridescent,
irV, ire /aɪə/ /ɪ/
wiring spirit
shier, fiery, hierarchy, /iɛ(ə)/concierge, premiere
cashier, fierce, frontier, /aɪ(ə)/ plier /iˈeɪ/ atelier, bustier,
ier /ɪə/
pier, /iə/ to /jə/ busier, rapier, glacier, dossier
hosiery /iːə/ skier
/ɜː/ whorl
/ɔː/ ford, boring, more /ɒ/ forest, borrow, moral /ʌ/ borough
or ∅ comfortable
after w /ɜː/ word, work, worst /ɔː/ worn, sword, swore /ʌ/ worry
boar, coarse, keyboard, /ə/cupboard, starboard
oar /ɔː/
soaring /oʊˈɑː/coarctate
oer
reservoir, memoir, moire, /waɪə/ choir
oir /wɑː/ /ɔɪə/ coir, loir, Moira
soiree /ə/avoirdupois
/ə/whippoorwill
oor /ɔə/ door, flooring /ʊə/ poor, moor, roorback
/oʊ ɔː/coordinate
hour, flour, scours
/aʊə/ journey, courtesy,
four, courtesan,
stressed /ɔː/ /ɜː/ scourge /ʌ/encourage, flourish
discourse
/ʊ(ə)/ tour, courier, gourd,
our velour
entourage, bivouac,
camouflage, labour, /u/ /ʌ/ hiccough
unstressed /ə/ bedouin
nervous /ʊ/ /w/ratatouille, ouabaine
potpourri, detour
owr, ower /aʊə/ dowry, cowries /oʊ/ cowrites, showroom
ower /aʊə/ flower, tower /oʊ/ lower, stower
oyr
oyer
turn, occur, curdle, burr
ur /ɜː/ furry, demurral, blurred, /ʌ/ recurrent, occurrence /ʊ(ə)/ langur
recurring
/ɛ/ bury, burial
/jʊ(ə)/ lure, purity, curing /ʊ(ə)/ allure, guru, Silurian
urV, /jɔː/ sure, assurance
ure after r, ʃ, ʒ,
/ʊ(ə)/ rural, jury, plural
j, Cl
uer
yr /ɜː/ myrtle, myrrh /ɪ/ pyrrhic
yrV, yre /aɪə/ lyre, tyrant, gyrate /ɪ/ syrup, Pyrenees
Combinations of other consonant and vowel letters [ edit ]

Major Minor
Examples of major
Spelling value values Examples of minor value Exceptions
value
(IPA) (IPA)
ah /ɑː/ blah /ə/ bar mitzvah
al /æl/ pal, talcum, algae, alp /ɔːl/ bald, falcon (also: /æl/)
/
ɑːf/(RP) /ɔlf/ palfrey
alf calf, half /æl/ alfalfa, malfeasance
/ /eɪ/ halfpenny
æf/(GA)
walk, chalking,
alk /ɔːk/ /ælk/ alkaline, grimalkin /ɔlk/balkanise
talkative
/ɔːl/ call, fallout, smaller /ɒl/ wallet, swallow /ɛl/ (GA) marshmallow, pall-
all
/æl/ shall, callus, fallow /(ə)l/ allow, dialled mall
/æm/ salmon, /ɔːm/ halm
alms, balmy, calm, /ælm/ palmate, salmonella, talmud
alm /ɑːm/ /ɑːlm/ almond (GA)*
palmistry /ɔːlm/ almanac, almost , instalment
/əlm/signalment
/ɒlt/(RP)
/ælt/ alto, shalt, saltation /ɑlt/ gestalt(GA)
alt / alter, malt, salty, basalt
/ɔːlt/ altar, asphalt /əlt/ royalty, penalty
ɔːlt/(GA)
/ɑːnʒ /melange
arrange, change,
final -ange /eɪndʒ/ /ændʒ/ flange, phalange /ɒndʒ/blancmange
mange, strange
/ɪndʒ/ orange
chaste, lambaste, cineaste, caste (GA), /ɑːst/(out)caste(RP)
final -aste /eɪst/ /æst/
paste, taste pleonaste /əsteɪ/namaste
unstressed ci-
/ʃ/ special, gracious /si/ species
before a vowel
-cqu /kw/ acquaint, acquire /k/ lacquer, racquet
final -ed after /t/
/ɪd, əd/ loaded, waited
or /d/
final -ed after piped, enserfed,
/t/ /ɛd/ biped, underfed /ɪd, əd/ naked
a voicelesssound snaked
final -ed after limbed, enisled,
/d/ /ɛd/ imbed, misled, infrared
a lenissound unfeared
eh /eɪ/ eh, prehniet, tempeh /ɛə/ yeh /ɛ/ feh /ə/, keffiyeh
final -es after mazes, washes, axes,
/ɪz, əz/ /iːz/ axes, bases, feces, oases
a fricative bases, pieces
unstressed ex- /ɪɡz,
exist, examine, exhaust /ɛks/ exhale
before vowel or h əɡz/
bilingual, guano,
gu- before a /ɡw/ /ɡ/ guard, guarantee
language
final -le after a
/əl/ little, table /l/ orle, isle /leɪ/ boucle
non-l consonant
final -(a)isle /aɪl/ aisle, isle, enisle, lisle
tongue, harangue,
final -ngue /ŋ/ /ŋɡeɪ/ merengue, distingué /ŋɡi/ dengue
meringue
oh, final or
oh, kohlrabi, ohm, /ɔː/ bohrium
before a /oʊ/ /ɒ/ demijohn, johnny
pharaoh /ə/ matzoh
consonant
old /oʊld/ blindfold, older, bold /əld/ scaffold, kobold (also /ɒld/
olk /oʊk/ yolk, folklore /ɒlk/ polka (RP), kolkhoz /oʊlk/ polka (GA)
dollhouse, pollen, tollhouse, swollen, troller, /ɔː/ atoll(GA), /ɔɪ/cholla
oll /ɒl/ /oʊl/
trolley, holly wholly /əl/ caroller, collide
olm /ɒlm/ olm, dolmen /oʊlm/ enrolment, holmium /oʊm/ holm(oak)
/ɑːndʒ/ congeries, longevity, pongee /ʌŋ/ among, tongue
songstress, along, † tonger, bong, dugong, tongs /ɑːnɡ/ † ongoing, nongraded
/ɔːŋ/ † strong, wronger /ɑːŋ/ † longer, strongest, elongate /ənɡ/congratulate, lemongrass
ong
/ɑːŋɡ/† congress, jongleur, /ɔːŋɡ/† monger, humongous, /əndʒ/congeal, congestion
bongo, conger /ʌŋɡ/ mongrel /
/ʌndʒ/ sponger, longe, spongy ɒnʒ/ allonge /oʊnʒ/ congé (GA)
qu- /kw/ queen, quick /k/ liquor, mosquito
/kjuː/barbeque
final -que /k/ mosque, bisque /keɪ/ manque, risqué
/ki/ pulque
final -re after a /ər/ timbre, acre, ogre, /reɪ/, /ri/ cadre (GA), compadre,
 non-r consonant centre /rə/ emigre
genre, oeuvre, fiacre
final -ron after a neuron, moron, /ə(r)n/ iron
/rɒn/ /rən/ baron, heron, environ
vowel interferon, aileron /roʊn/chaperon
/ʃi/conscientious (RP),
unstressed sci- conscience, luscious, fasciated
/ʃ/ /sai/ sciatica, sciamachy, sciential
before a vowel prosciutto /sɪ/ (RP) omniscient,
prescience
-scle /səl/ corpuscle, muscle /skəl/ mascle
final -se after a house, excuse, moose, prose, nose, tease, guise,
/s/ /z/ /zeɪ/marchese
vowel (noun) anise, geese compromise
final -se after a house, excuse, grouse, dose, lease, chase,
/z/ /s/
vowel (verb) choose, arise, please promise
pension, controversial,
unstressed -si vision, occasion, /ʃ/ compulsion
/ʒ/ /si/ tarsier, Celsius
before a vowel explosion, illusion /zi/ easier, enthusiasm,
physiological
unstressed -ssi mission, passion,
/ʃ/ /si/ potassium, dossier, messier
before a vowel Russia, session
unstressed -sure /ʒər/ leisure, treasure /ʃər/ tonsure, censure
question, Christian,
suggestion
/tʃ/ /taɪ/ cation, cationic
unstressed -ti cautious, patient, patios, consortia, fiftieth,
/ʃ/ /ti/ /ʒ/ equation
before a vowel inertia, initial, ration courtier
/ʃi/ /tj/ rentier (GA)
ratios, minutia, initiate,
negotiate
unstressed -ture /tʃər/ nature, picture

* According to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 75% of Americans pronounce "almond" as /ˈɑːlmənd/.
† Where GA distinguishes between /ɑː/ and /ɔː/ in the letter combination ong, RP only has the vowel /ɒ/

Sound-to-spelling correspondences [ edit ]

The following table shows for each sound the various spelling patterns used to denote it, starting with the prototypical pattern(s)
followed by others in alphabetical order. Some of these patterns are very rare or unique (such as "gh" for /p/, "ph" for /v/, "i" for /ɑː/).
The symbol "…" stands for an intervening consonant.

Consonants [ edit ]

In order of the IPA consonant tables

Consonants
IPA Spelling Examples
m, mm, chm, gm, lm, mb, mbe, me, mine, hammer, drachm, phlegm, salmon, climb, combe, forme, mho, femme,
/m/
mh, mme, mn, tm autumn, tmesipteris
nice, inn, cnidarian, Wednesday, gnome, coigne, knee, Lincoln, mnemonic,
n, nn, cn, dn, gn, gne, kn, ln, mn,
/n/ comptroller, handsome, borne, studdingsail, piranha, tonne, topgallant-
mp, nd, ne, ng, nh, nne, nt, pn, sne
sail, pneumonia, mesne
/ŋ/ ng, n, nc, nd, ngh, ngue sing, link, charabanc, handkerchief, dinghy (GA), tongue
/p/ p, pp, gh, pe, ph, ppe pill, apps, hiccough, thorpe, diphthong (UK)*, shoppe
/b/ b, bb, be, bh, pb, (p) bit, ebb, barbe, bhang, cupboard, (thespian (US)**)
t, tt, bt, cht, ct, d, ed, ght, pt, te, th, ten, sett, doubt, yacht, victual, iced, dressed, lighter, pterodactyl, forte, thyme,
/t/
tte, tw cigarette, two
d, dd, de, dh, ed, ld, t, tt (in some
/d/ dialects)
dive, odd, bdellium, horde, dharma, abandoned, solder, kindergarten (GA), (flatter)
c, k, cc, cch, ch, ck, cq, cqu, cque, cat, key, account, zucchini, chord, tack, acquire, lacquer, sacque, biscuit,
/k/
cu, ke, kh, kk, lk, q, qu, que, x burke, khaki, trekker, polka-dotted, quorum, liquor, mosque, excitement
/ɡ/ g, gg, ckg, gge, gh, gu, gue gig, egg, blackguard, pogge, ghost, guard, catalogue
s, ss, c, cc, ce, ps, sc, sce, sch (in
song, mess, city, flaccid, ounce, psalm, scene, coalesce, (schism), horse, finesse,
/s/ some dialects), se, sse, st, sth, sw, ts,
listen, asthma (RP), sword, tsunami, boatswain, waltz (RP), quartz
tsw, tz, z
z, zz, cz, s, sc, se, sp, ss, sth, ts, tz, zoo, fuzz, czar, has, crescent (UK)***, tease, raspberry, dissolve,
/z/
x, ze, c (in some dialects) asthma (GA), tsarina, tzar, xylophone, breeze, (electricity)
shin, speciality, ocean, machine, quiche, marchioness, fuchsia, special, sugar,
sh, c, ce, ch, che, chi, chsi, ci, s, sc,
/ʃ/ crescendo, schmooze, conscience, galoshe, cushion, expansion, tissue, mission,
sch, sci, she, shi, si, ss, ssi, ti
nation
 /ʒ/ g, ge, j, s, si, ti, z, zh, zi genre, beige, bijou, leisure, division, equation, seizure, zhoosh, brazier
f, ff, fe, ffe, gh, lf, ph, phe, pph, v, ve, fine, chaff, carafe, gaffe, laugh, half, physical, ouphe, sapphire, sovkhoz,
/f/
(u) fivepence, (lieutenant (RP))
/v/ v, vv, f, lve, ph, ve, w vine, savvy, of, halve, Stephen, have, weltanschauung
/θ/ th, the, chth, phth, tth thin, absinthe, chthonic, phthisis, Matthew
/ð/ th, the, y them, breathe, ye (mock archaic)
/j/ y, i, j, ll, r yes, onion, hallelujah, tortilla, February †
ch (in Scottish English), gh (in Irish
/x/ English)
loch, lough

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

/ɾ/ In some dialects (seeflapping): tt, dd, t, d better, daddy, united, Cody
/r/ r, rr, l, re, rh, rre, rrh, rt, wr fur, burr, colonel, forewarn, rhyme, murre, myrrh, mortgage, wrong
/l/ l, ll, le, lh, lle, ln (In some dialects) line, shall, aisle, pelham, gazelle, (kiln)

/w/ w, ww, u, o, ou, we, wh (in most we, glowworm, persuade, choir, Ouija board, awesome, what
dialects)
/ʍ/ wh (in somedialects) which
chop, batch, cello, bocce, niche (GA), falchion, Czech, nature, escutcheon,
ch, tch, c, cc, che, chi, cz, t, tche, te,
/tʃ/ righteous, posthumous (GA), bastion (GA), britska (US), putsch, Wiltshire,
th, ti, ts, tsch, tsh, tz, tzs, tzsch
britz(s)ka (US), Nietzschean
g, j, ch, d, dg, dge, di, dj, ge, gg, gi, magic, jump, sandwich (RP), graduate, judgment, bridge, soldier, adjust, barge,
/dʒ/
jj, t veggies, Belgian, hajj, congratulate (US)††
x, xx, cast, cc, chs, cks, cques, cs,
sax, doxxing, forecastle, accent, tachs, backs, sacques, sacs, eczema, burkes,
/ks/ cz, kes, ks, lks, ques, xc, xe, xs,
yaks, caulks, toques, excel, axe, exsert, exscind, coxswain
xsc, xsw
/ǀ/ tsk, tut tsk, tut

* In 2008, 61% of British people pronounced "diphthong" as /ˈdɪpθɒŋ/, though phoneticians prefer /ˈdɪfθɒŋ/.[24]

** In 2008, 20% of Americans pronounced "thespian" as /ˈθɛzbiən/.[25]

*** The majority of British people, and the great majority of younger ones, pronounce "crescent" as /ˈkrɛzənt/.[26]

† In 2008, 64% of Americans and 39% of British people pronounce "February" as /ˈfɛbjuɛri/.[27]

†† The majority of Americans, and the great majority of younger ones, pronounce "congratulate" as /kənˈɡrædʒəleɪt/.[28]

Vowels [ edit ]

Sorted more or less from close to open sounds in the vowel diagram.

IPA Spelling
e, e...e, i, i...e, a, ae, ay, ea, ee, ei,
/iː/ eo, ey, eye, ie, ie...e, is, ix, oe, oi, ue,
ui, uy, y
i, y, a, a...e, ai, e, ea, ee, ei, i...e, ia,
/ɪ/
ie, ii, o, oe, u, u...e, ui
u, u...e, oo, eew, eu, ew, ieu, ioux, o,
/uː/ o...e, oe, oeu, ooe, ou, ough, ougha,
oup, ue, ui, uo, w, wo
/ʊ/ oo, u, o, or, ou, oul, w
a, a...e, aa, ae, ai, ai...e, aig, aigh,
ais, al, alf, ao, au, ay, aye, e (é),
/eɪ/ e...e, ea, eg, ee (ée), eh, ei, ei...e,
eig, eigh, eighe, er, ere, es, et, ete,
ey, eye, ez, ie, oeh, ue, uet
a, e, i, o, u, y, a...e, ae, ah, ai, anc,
au, ea, eau, eh, ei, eig, eo, eou, eu,
/ə/
gh, ie, o...e, oa, oe, oh, oi, oo, op,
ou, ough, u...e, ua, ue, ui, uo
o, o...e, aoh, au, aux, eau, eaue, eo,
/əʊ/ (RP)
ew, oa, oe, oh, oo, ore, ot, ou, ough,
/oʊ/ (GA)
oughe, ow, owe, w
e, a, ae, ai, ay, e...e, ea, ee, eh, ei,
/ɛ/ eo, ie, ieu, oe, u, ue, ee (one
pronunciation)
Vowels
Examples
be, cede, ski, machine, bologna, algae, quay, beach, bee, deceit, people, key,
volleyed, field, hygiene, debris, prix, amoeba, chamois, dengue, beguine,
guyot, city
bit, myth, orange, chocolate, bargain, pretty, mileage, breeches, counterfeit,
medicine, carriage, sieve, shiitake, women, oedema, busy, minute (RP), build
tutu, flute, too, sleuth, leeward, yew, lieu, Sioux, to, lose, shoe, manoeuvre,
cooed, soup, through, brougham, coup, true, fruit, buoy (GA), cwm, two
look, full, wolf, worsted, courier, should, cwtch
bass, rate, quaalude, reggae, rain, cocaine, arraign, straight, palais,
Ralph (Br.), halfpenny, gaol, gauge, hay, played, ukulele (café), crepe, steak,
matinee (soirée), thegn, eh, veil, beige, reign, eight, weighed, dossier,
espaliered, demesne, ballet, crocheted, they, obeyed, chez, lingerie (GA),
boehmite (GA), merengue, bouquet
tuna, oven, pencil, icon, opus, beryl, gunwale, anaerobe, Messiah, mountain,
blancmange, aurora, Eleanor, bureaucrat, keffiyeh, mullein, foreign,
truncheon, timeous, amateur (RP), burgh, mischievous (GA), awesome,
starboard, biocoenosis, matzoh, porpoise, whipoorwill, topgallant, callous,
borough (RP), minute (GA), piquant, guerillla, circuit (GA), languor
so, bone, pharaoh, mauve, faux, beau, plateaued, yeoman, sew, boat,
foe, oh, brooch, forecastle, depot, soul, though, furloughed, know, owe, pwn
met, many, aesthetic, said, says, there, deaf, threepence, feh, heifer, jeopardy,
friend, lieutenant (RP), foetid, bury, guess
 /æ/ a, aa, ag, ah, ai, al, ar, au, ea, ei, i hand, Aaron, seraglio (GA), Fahrenheit, plaid, salmon, sarsaparilla (GA),
laugh (GA), poleax, enceinte, meringue
u, o, o...e, oe, oo, ou, uddi, wo, sun, son, come, does, flood, touch, studdingsail, twopence, (because),
/ʌ/
au (some dialects), ee (one pronunciation) (threepence)
o, a, al, au, au...e, augh, aughe, aw, flora, bald, talk, author, cause, caught, overslaughed, jaw, awe, ealdorman,
/ɔː/ awe, eo, oa, oh, oo, oss, ou, ough, u, broad, bohrium, flooring, crossjack, pouring, bought, surest (RP),
uo fluoridate (RP)
or, ore, aor, ar, aur, aure, hors, oar, or, fore, extraordinary, war, dinosaur, roquelaure, horsd'oeuvre, oar, soared,
/ɔː(r)/ †
oare, oor, oore, our, oure, owar, ure bohrium, door, floored, four, poured, toward (GA), sure (RP)
watch, lock, yacht, sausage, leprechaun (GA), bureaucracy, john, cough,
/ɒ/ a, o, ach, au, eau, oh, ou, ow
acknowledge
a, a...e, aa, aae, aah, aahe, ag, ah, father, garage, salaam, baaed, aah, aahed, seraglio (RP), blah, aunt (RP),
/ɑː/
au, e, ea, i, o sergeant, heart, lingerie (GA), lot (GA)
ar, aar, alla, are, arr, arre, arrh, ear, car, bazaar, topgallant-sail, are, parr, bizarre, catarrh, heart, sergeant, guard,
/ɑː(r)/ †
er, uar, our (some dialects) (our)
i...e, ae, ai, aie, aille, ais, ay, aye, ei, fine, maestro, krait, shanghaied, canaille (RP), aisle, kayak, aye, heist, height,
/aɪ/ eigh, ey, eye, i, ia, ic, ie, ig, igh, ighe, geyser (GA), eye, mic, diaper, indict, tie, sign, high, sighed, isle, choir,
is, oi, oy, ui, uy, uye, y, y...e, ye coyote (GA), guide, buy, guyed, tryst, type, bye
/ɔɪ/ oi, oy, awy, eu, oll, oye, uoy, uoye avoid, toy, lawyer, Freudian, cholla, enjoyed, buoyant, buoyed (RP)
ou, ow, ao, aow, aowe, au, ough, out, now, cacao, miaow, miaowed, gauss, bough, ploughed, vowed,
/aʊ/
oughe, owe, (eo) (Macleod)
are, aer, air, aire, ar, ayer, ayor, ayre,
bare, aerial, hair, millionaire, scarce, prayer, mayor, fayre, ne'er, yeah, bear,
/ɛə(r)/ e'er, eah, ear, eir, eor, er, ere, err,
heir, ceorl, moderne, where, err (variant), parterre, couvert, they're, eyra
erre, ert, ey're, eyr
ere, aer, e're, ea, ear, eare, eer, eere, here, chimaera, we're, idea (RP), ear, feared, beer, peered, weird, theory (RP),
/ɪə(r)/
eir, eor, er, ers, eyr, ier, iere, ir, oea series, revers, eyrie, pier, premiere, souvenir, diarrhoea (RP)
er, ir, ur, ear, ere, err, erre, eur, eure, defer, fir, fur, earl, were, err, interred, voyeur, chauffeured (GA), birr, stirred,
/ɜː(r)/ irr, irre, oeu, olo, or, ore, our, ueur, hors d'oeuvre, colonel, worst, wore, adjourn, liqueur, purr, murre, myrtle,
urr, urre, yr, yrrh myrrh
u, u...e, ew, eau, eo, eu, ewe, ieu, music, use, few, beauty, feodary, feud, ewe, adieu, view, ampoule, cue,
/juː/
iew, ou, ue, ueue, ui, ut, uu queue, nuisance, debut, vacuum

† Identical to previous vowel in non-rhotic dialects like RP.

See also [ edit ]

False etymology
Spelling bee
List of English homographs
The Chaos – a poem by Gerard Nolst Trenitédemonstrating the irregularities of English spelling

Conventions

English plural
I before E except after C
Three letter rule
Variant spelling

American and British English spelling

differences
Misspelling
Satiric misspelling
Sensational spelling
Spelling of disc
Graphemes

Apostrophe
Eth
Long s
Thorn (letter)
Phonetic orthographic systems

English spelling reform

 Interspel
English scripts

English alphabet (Latin script)

American manual alphabet
Two-handed manual alphabets
English braille
American braille
New York Point
Shavian alphabet
Words in English

Lists of English words

Classical compound
Ghoti
English phonology

Regional accents of English

IPA chart for English dialects
Stress and vowel reduction in English
Initial-stress-derived noun
Traditional English pronunciation of Latin

Orthographies of English-related languages [ edit ]

Germanic languages

Danish
Dutch
German
Icelandic
Romance languages

French
Italian
Milanese
Portuguese
Spanish
Celtic languages

Irish
Scottish Gaelic
Welsh
Historical languages

Latin
Old Norse
Old English
Artificial languages

Esperanto

References [ edit ]

1. ^ Venezky, Richard L. (1967), "English orthography: Its 2. ^ Jared, Debra; Seidenberg, Mark S. (Dec 1991), "Does Word
graphical structure and its relation to sound", Reading Research Identification Proceed From Spelling to Sound to
Quarterly, 2 (3): 75– Meaning?", Journal of Experimental Psychology:
105, doi:10.2307/747031 , JSTOR 747031 General, 120 (4): 358–394, doi:10.1037/0096-3445.120.4.358
 3. ^ Van Assche, Eva; Duyck, Wouter; Hartsuiker, Robert J.
(2013), "Phonological Recoding in Error Detection: A Cross-
sectional Study in Beginning Readers of Dutch", PLOS
ONE, 8 (12):
e85111, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0085111 , PMC 3875550
PMID 24386453
4. ^ Horton, Helena (2 December 2015). "Our 51 most commonly
misused words and phrases" . The Sydney Morning Herald.
Retrieved 3 December2015.
5. ^ a b Khansir, Ali Akbar; Tajeri, Mojtaba (Dec 2015), "The
Relationship between Spelling and Pronunciation in English
Language" (PDF), Language in India, 15 (12): 66
6. ^ English language. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
Retrieved November 23, 2010, from Encyclopædia Britannica
Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/188048/English-
language
7. ^ Rollings 2004: 16-19; Chomsky & Halle 1968; Chomsky 1970
8. ^ Chomsky & Halle 1968:54
9. ^ a b The vowel of the suffixes -⟨ed⟩ and -⟨es⟩ may belong to the
phoneme of either /ɪ/ or /ə/ depending on dialect, and ⟨ᵻ⟩ is a
shorthand for "either /ɪ/ or /ə/". This usage of the symbol is
borrowed from the Oxford English Dictionary.
10. ^ Chomsky 1970:294; Rollings 2004:17
11. ^ Rollings 2004:17–19
12. ^ "Common French words also common in English" . The
Good Life France. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
13. ^ Included in Webster's Third New International Dictionary,1981
Bibliography [ edit ]
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Bell, Masha (2004), Understanding English Spelling, Cambridge,
Pegasus.
Bell, Masha (2007), Learning to Read, Cambridge, Pegasus.
Bell, Masha (2009), Rules and Exceptions of English Spelling,
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Brengelman, Fred H. (1970). Sounds and letters in American English.
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20. ^ According to Longman, 77% of Americans pronounce
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