Ough is a four-letter sequence, a tetragraph, used in English orthography and notorious for its unpredictable pronunciation.Adam Brown, Understanding and Teaching English Spelling: A Strategic Guide, 2018, , p. 214 It has at least eight pronunciations in North American English and nine in British English, and no discernible patterns exist for choosing among them.

History

In Middle English, ough was regularly pronounced with a back rounded vowel and a velar fricative (e.g., , , or ).

List of pronunciations

Pronunciation Examples Note Brough, chough, clough, enough, Hough, rough, shough, slough (see below), sough, tough Rhymes with puff, stuff. Clough and sough are also pronounced . or cough, Gough, trough Rhymes with off, scoff. Trough is pronounced (troth) by some speakers of American English, and a baker's trough is also pronounced in that variety. bough, clough, doughty, drought, plough, slough (see below), Slough, sough Rhymes with cow, how. Clough and sough are also pronounced . Plough is generally spelled plow in American English. although, brougham, dough, furlough, Ough, though Rhymes with no, toe. Brougham is also pronounced . abought, besought, bought, brought, fought, nought, ought, sought, thought, wrought Rhymes with caught, taught. Regularly so used before , except in doughty and drought . Realized as or in dialects exhibiting the cot-caught merger. brougham, slough (see below), through Rhymes with true, woo. Brougham is also pronounced . borough, Poughkeepsie, thorough, Willoughby, yarborough Pronounced when at the end of a word in American English (borough and thorough thus rhyme with burrow and furrow), but reduced to when followed by another syllable in many dialects (such as in thoroughly). , hiccough Variant spelling of the more common hiccup. Greenough Pronounced as the name of a river in Western Australia, and usually pronounced as a surname. hough Rhymes with dock, lock. More commonly spelled hock from the 20th century onwards. Brough, Clough, lough, turlough Rhymes with Scots loch. Many speakers substitute for .

Slough has three pronunciations, depending on its meaning: (for the noun meaning a skin shed by an animal, for the verb derived from it, and for the adjective derived from it) (for the noun meaning a muddy area, and for the verb derived from it. Also for the noun meaning a state of depression) (alternative American pronunciation for the noun meaning a muddy area, and for the verb derived from it)

The town of Slough in the Thames Valley of England is .

An example sentence using the nine pronunciations commonly found in modern usage (and excluding hough, which is now a rarely used spelling) is, "The wind was rough along the lough as the ploughman fought through the snow, and though he hiccoughed and coughed, his work was thorough."

Another, slightly shorter example would be, "The rough, dough-faced ploughman fought through the borough to the lough, hiccoughing and coughing."

Other pronunciations can be found in proper nouns, many of which are of Celtic origin (Irish, Scottish or Welsh) rather than English. For example, ough can represent in the surname Coughlin, in Ayscough, and in the name Colcolough () in the United States.

The two occurrences of in the English place name Loughborough are pronounced differently, resulting in . Additionally, three parishes of Milton Keynes—Woughton , Loughton and Broughton — have different pronunciations of the combination.

Tough, though, through and thorough are formed by adding another letter each time, yet none of them rhyme (in American English, however, though and thorough both have ).

Some humorous verse has been written to illustrate this seeming incongruity: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode, coughing and hiccoughing, thoughtfully through the streets of Scarborough." "O-U-G-H" by Charles Battell LoomisO-U-G-H "Ough, a Phonetic Fantasy" by William Thomas GoodgeOugh, a Phonetic Fantasy "I take it you already know" by T. S. Watt "Enough Is Enough" by Rosemary Chen

Spelling reforms Because of the unpredictability of the combination, many English spelling reformers have proposed replacing it with more phonetic combinations, some of which have caught on in varying degrees of formal and informal success. Generally, spelling reforms have been more widely accepted in the United States and less so in other English-speaking areas.

In April 1984, at its yearly meeting, the Simplified Spelling Society adopted the following reform as its house style:"The Society's 1984 Proposals". Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society (February 1988)."Tough Though Thought – and we call it correct spelling!" . Simplified Spelling Society (1984).

Change to when it is sounded as : enough → enuf, tough → tuf Change to when it is sounded as or : cough → cof Shorten to when it is sounded as : bough → bou, drought → drout, plough → plou Shorten to when it is sounded as : though → tho (but doh for dough) Change to when it is sounded as : bought → baut, ought → aut, thought → thaut Shorten to when it is sounded as : through → thru

Notes and references