Last week, in English for lunch, we continued tackling tricky English pronunciation.
As we've seen before, English spelling sometimes indicates a previous stage of the English language. The way we write a word might show how it was pronounced by English people centuries ago.
We focused on words written with -augh/-ough, such as 'thought', tough', 'caught' and 'though'. Students normally try to read out these words producing a great variety of sounds, but what's happened is that, despite the spelling, spoken language has changed and they sound very different from what learners might expect.
With the help of a phonemic chart, let's take a look at some of the common sounds we use with these words nowadays:
thought /θɔːt/
caught /kɔːt/
daughter /ˈd ɔːtə/
tough /tʌf /
rough /rʌf/
laugh /lɑːf/
though /ðəʊ/
thorough /ˈθʌrə/
We can see that the first two are the most common sounds / ɔː/ and /ʌf/.
However, when in doubt, always check how we pronounce these words. (Cambridge dictionary is a good resource as it gives you the written pronunciation and you can also listen to it: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/).
Next Thursday, we will carry on dealing with difficult pronunciation. Don't miss it!
Until then, can you figure out how to say the following (very random) sentence: I thought there weren't enough people coughing in Loughborough though. See ya!
As we've seen before, English spelling sometimes indicates a previous stage of the English language. The way we write a word might show how it was pronounced by English people centuries ago.
We focused on words written with -augh/-ough, such as 'thought', tough', 'caught' and 'though'. Students normally try to read out these words producing a great variety of sounds, but what's happened is that, despite the spelling, spoken language has changed and they sound very different from what learners might expect.
With the help of a phonemic chart, let's take a look at some of the common sounds we use with these words nowadays:
thought /θɔːt/
caught /kɔːt/
daughter /ˈd ɔːtə/
tough /tʌf /
rough /rʌf/
laugh /lɑːf/
though /ðəʊ/
thorough /ˈθʌrə/
We can see that the first two are the most common sounds / ɔː/ and /ʌf/.
However, when in doubt, always check how we pronounce these words. (Cambridge dictionary is a good resource as it gives you the written pronunciation and you can also listen to it: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/).
Next Thursday, we will carry on dealing with difficult pronunciation. Don't miss it!
Until then, can you figure out how to say the following (very random) sentence: I thought there weren't enough people coughing in Loughborough though. See ya!
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