We use –gh– in very common words like: though, right, daughter, weigh, cough, brought, enough…
And we use it in common letter patterns: ough, augh, eigh, igh.
But why have we got these “stupid” looking and sounding words?
It’s all to do with the history of gh. though, right, daughter, weigh, cough, brought, enough… are very old Anglo-Saxon words, and we used to pronounce the ‘gh’ as a throaty hard sound like in the Scottish loch
Anglo-Saxon spellings (in brackets): daughter (dohtor), night (niht), light (liht), bright (beorht), dough (dāg), bough (bōh), rough (ruh)
But then the French invaded in 1066, and changed spellings. They added a ‘g’ the ‘h’ to reflect the hard ‘h’ sound. The ‘gh’ eventually became silent, or an end “f” sound. We leave the ‘gh’ in there to show the origins and history of the world.
–ough has seven sounds
Read this “Have you thought this through thoroughly enough?” (4 sounds in this sentence)
Sometimes the -gh at the end is silent sometimes it has a “f” sound.
1. through (“throo”)
2. cough, trough (“off”)
3. enough, rough, tough (“uff”)
4. dough, though, although (“doe, tho”)
5. bough (“bow”)
6. borough, thorough (“buro, thuro”)
7. bought, brought, fought, nought, ought, sought, wrought, thought (“ort”)
–augh normally sounds like “or”
daughter, naughty, slaughter, taught, haughty
but laugh/laughter is pronounced with a long or short ‘a’ “laff” or “larff”
–eigh normally sounds like “ay”
say, day eight, neighbour, weigh, weight, sleigh
But height rhymes with bite!!
–igh sounds like “eye”
in tie high, sigh, thigh,
-ight light, delight, sight, might, night, right, tight, flight
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What’s the past tense of bring?
The correct word is brought
What’s the past tense of think?
The correct word is thought
What’s the opposite of smooth?
The correct word is rough
Begins with “r”
When you are very detailed and careful to include everything – you are
The correct word is thorough
Begins with “th”
The past tense of buy is
The correct word is bought
When something or someone is very hard.
The correct word is tough
Begins with “t”
What’s the past tense of catch?
The correct word is caught
What’s the female version of son?
The correct word is daughter
Write the number 8 is words
The correct word is eight
When you think something is funny, you usually ______ out loud.
The correct word is laugh
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The irregular past tense with –ght– in them. They’re difficult spellings because they’re very old spellings!
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