English Pronunciation: How to say words ending in -OUGH & -AUGH

Learn how to say these difficult words correctly in English! Does "cough" rhyme with "off" or with "cow"? How about "drought", "laugh", and "through"? How would you pronounce these words? I understand these may confuse you, because the pronunciations are different depending on the word. In this lesson, we will look at the different sounds of words with the endings "-ough" and "-augh". This lesson will improve your speaking and listening skills, so be sure to watch and complete the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/english-....pronunciation-how-to

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. In today's lesson we're going to look at words that generally confuse people, especially when it comes time to say them, words that have the "ough" or the "augh" inside them. And the reason they're confusing is because they don't sound anything like they look. Now, this is a common problem in English. English is not a phonetically-spelled language. In other languages, the way a word looks is the way it sounds. In English, not so much. So we're going to look at the different sounds that you can have with these letters. And the thing you're going to have to remember is: This is about memorization. Now, I know that some of you are asking me: "Well, why do I say it like this?" or "Why do I say it like that?" I don't know. I'm sorry to tell you that. There is no answer. You have to remember each word, how it's pronounced, and just remember it, and use it, and practice it, etc.

So if you look here, you'll notice that I have eight different sounds for "ough" or "augh". Okay? Let's start with "uff", "uff": "tough", "rough", "enough". So, even though it's "o-u-g-h", there's no "ough". Okay? That... There's no such sound as "ough" in English. All of these have a specific sound. We're starting with "uff": "tough", "rough", "enough". Now, this word I'm going to get back to in one second. Okay?

Let's look at the next one. "Oo". Very straight: "oo". "Through", like you go through the wall. If you're going really fast and you break through the wall, you're through. "Ghoul", "ghoul". A ghoul like is a some... Is like a... An animal that waits... Or it's like a mystical or... Sorry. A fictional animal that waits for somebody to die and gets pleasure out of other people's death. When people, for example, if you're driving on the highway and you see a really bad car accident and you slow down to have a look, people might call you a ghoul because you want to see blood, you want to see death. Not a good word, but that's how it's pronounced. "Ghoul", "oo".

Now, let's go back to this word. The reason why I put it in the middle here is because this word actually has two meanings, each one pronounced differently: "slough", "slough". Okay? Different meanings. Sl-... It's not a word you're going to use very often, but "slough" is a... It's basically like a marsh, like a very wet area. It's not a lake, it's not a pond. There's a lot of weeds and lots of plant in it, and it's very thick, but that's... Another word for that is "slough". "Slough", now, a lot of people will write it like this: "slew". Especially American English, you can spell it like that. "Slough" means a lot. So: "He's got a slough of problems", means he's got a lot of problems. This is more common usage, but again, you're going to see this more often than you're going to see that. But if you do see that, like if you're reading British English, for example, you're going to see that. Just understand in context which word it is, "slough" or "slough". Okay.

Next: "af". So notice I'm using the "a" here, not the "o", so that gives you a little bit of a hint, but not exactly because we're going to look at something else. "Laugh", everybody knows "laugh", hahaha. Right? And "draught". Now, again, American English, they don't bother, they just spell it like that, "draft", exactly how it sounds, exactly as it looks. But "draught" has different meanings. One, you can have a draught beer, like a beer from the keg. You can drink that, draught beer. There's also a draught, like a drawing. Like an architect, for example, when he... When he or she designs a building they make a draught of the plans, and once everything's agreed and everything's settled then they make the actual final plans. You can also have draughts of your essays. First draught, second draught. You make all the edits and changes, and you get to the end. So, "af", and the "t" we're going to come back to... Remember that "t", we're going to talk about that in a second.

Now, "up". There's only one word that sounds like "up", and it's spelt with an "ough". [Hiccoughs]. Oop, sorry, that was a hiccough. Okay? Again, American English will spell it like this: "hiccup". British English will spell it like this, but they sound the same. "Hiccough". Okay.