English orthography

English orthography is the alphabetic spelling system used by the English language. English orthography, like other alphabetic orthographies, exhibits a set of relationships between speech sounds and the corresponding written words. In most other languages, these relationships are regular enough to be called rules. In standard English spelling, however, nearly every sound can be spelled in more than one way, and most spellings and all letters can be pronounced in more than one way and often in many different ways. This is largely due to the complex history of the English language, together with the absence of systematic spelling reforms implemented in English, in contrast to the position in a number of other languages.

In general, English spelling does not reflect the sound changes in the pronunciation of the language that have occurred since the late fifteenth century.

Function of the letters

Note: In the S H I T B I T C H F U C K A S S HAT

Phonemic representation

Further information: Phonemic orthography

As in most alphabetic languages, letters in English orthography may represent a particular sound. 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/.

Multiple 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 three letters ⟨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 /sɪks/).

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).

Word origin

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

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

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 (as /ˈɛər/). However, they are distinguished from each other orthographically by the addition of the letter ⟨h⟩. Another example is the pair of homophones plain and plane, where both are pronounced /ˈpleɪn/ but have two different spellings of the vowel .

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 that are unresolved by spelling still exist (for example, the word bay has at least five fundamentally different meanings).

Some proponents of spelling reform view homophones as undesirable and would prefer that they were eliminated. But this would create more spelling inconsistencies (such as the break/brake example above) that would need to be resolved via the linguistic context, as they are in the spoken language.

Marking sound changes in other letters

See also: Silent e

Another function of some letters in English is to provide information about the pronunciation of other letters in the word. Rollings (2004) uses the term "markers" for letters with this function. Letters may mark different types of information. For instance the letter ⟨e⟩ in the word cottage /ˈkɒtdʒ/ 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 ban and bane, the ⟨a⟩ of ban has the value /æ/, whereas the ⟨a⟩ of bane is marked by the ⟨e⟩ as having the value . 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 , but also of the ⟨g⟩ from /ɡ/ to /dʒ/.

Silent letters

Further information: Silent letter

Multiple functionality

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

Like many other alphabetic orthographies, English spelling does not represent non-contrastive phonetic sounds (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.

[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.

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 /ɨd/ (for example, dip /ˈdɪp/, dipped /ˈdɪpt/, boom /ˈbuːm/, boomed /ˈbuːmd/, loot /ˈluːt/, looted /ˈluːtɨd/). 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 photographer is 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	/ˌfoʊtəˈɡræfkəl/

Other examples of this type are the -⟨ity⟩ suffix (as in agile vs agility, acid vs acidity, divine vs divinity, sane vs 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 signature and 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 /ɪnˈhɛrt/.

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 /z/ (e.g. boxes /ˈbɒksz/). 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 /ɨ/ 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. 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.

Diacritics

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. 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 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, 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 (Übermensch), vis-à-vis.

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). It is, however, still common in loanwords such as naïve and Noël.

Written accents are also used occasionally in poetry and 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.

Ligatures

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 encyclopaedia are current in the UK.

(See also: the section "ae and oe" in the article "American and British English spelling differences".)

Phonic irregularities

See also: English spelling reform

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"), 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 oo or u, u-e, ui, ue, o, oe, o-e, o-b, ou, ough, or ew (food, truth, rude, fruit, blue, to, shoe, move, tomb, group, through, flew), but 10 of those 12 sequences have other pronunciations as well: flood, rub, build, go, toe, drove, comb, out, rough, sew. In the case of the ough sequence, many English speakers do not even know how to pronounce certain unfamiliar words containing it, especially names such as Gough, Hough, or Slough.

English has never had any formal regulating authority for spelling, such as the Spanish Real Academia Española or the French Académie française.

Spelling irregularities

Attempts to regularize or reform the language, including spelling reform, have usually met with failure. The only significant exceptions were the reforms of Noah Webster which resulted in many of the differences between British and American spelling, such as center/centre, and dialog/dialogue. (Other differences, such as -ize/-ise in realize/realise etc., came about separately; 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 14–20 vowels. However, there are only 26 letters in the modern English alphabet, so there cannot be 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 interdental fricative and the voiceless interdental fricative) (see Pronunciation of English th), and the voiceless alveolar grooved fricative 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 fiord was 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, 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.

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 s in 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, 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. 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, Jo and Joe.

As examples of the idiosyncratic nature of English spelling, the combination ou can be pronounced in at least four different ways: /ə/ in famous, in loud, /ʊ/ in should, /uː/ in you; and the vowel sound /iː/ in me can be spelt in at least nine different ways: paediatric, me, seat, seem, ceiling, people, machine, siege, phoenix. (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. A further example is the modern pronunciation of tissue.

History

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 phonetic in 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 mm looked 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.

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. 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.

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

Main article: Ough (combination)

The most notorious group of letters in the English language, ough, is commonly pronounced 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 is in fact a word in its own right; it is an exclamation of disgust similar to ugh.

• though: /oʊ/ as in toe; (other examples: dough)
• tough: /ʌf/ as in cuff; (other examples: rough, enough, and the name (but not the word) Hough)
• cough: /ɒf/ as in off; (other examples: trough, Gough (name, some pronunciations))
• hiccough (a now uncommon variant of hiccup): /ʌp/ as in up; (unique)
• plough: /aʊ/ as in cow; (other examples: sough, drought, bough, doughty, and the names Slough and Doughty)
• through: /uː/ as in blue;
• nought: /ɔː/ as in caught; (other examples: ought, sought, thought, brought)
• lough: /ɒx/ with a rough breathing sound like the ch in loch

Finally, there is the place name Loughborough, where the first ough has the sound as in cuff and the second rhymes with thorough.

Spelling patterns

See also: Help:IPA for English

Spelling-to-sound correspondences

Vowels

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.)

General American Letter Lax Tense Heavy Tense-R a /æ/ man mane /ɑ/ mar /ɛ/ mare e /ɛ/ met /i/ mete /ɜ/ her /ɪ/ here i /ɪ/ win wine /ɜ/ fir fire o /ɑ/ mop mope /ɔ/ for, fore u /ʌ/ hug /ju/ huge /ɜ/ cur /jʊ/ cure u /ʊ/ push /u/ rude /ʊ/ sur, sure

Received Pronunciation (British) Letter Lax Tense Heavy Tense-R a /æ/ man mane /ɑː/ mar /ɛə/ mare e /ɛ/ met /iː/ mete /ɜː/ her /ɪə/ here i /ɪ/ win wine /ɜː/ fir /aɪə/ fire o /ɒ/ mop /əʊ/ mope /ɔː/ for, fore u /ʌ/ hug /juː/ huge /ɜː/ cur /jʊə/ cure u /ʊ/ push /uː/ rude /ʊə/ sur, sure

For instance, the letter a can represent the lax vowel /æ/, tense , 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 /ɑr/, the letters ar followed 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 main the 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

To reduce dialectal difficulties, the sound values given here correspond to the conventions at Wikipedia:IPA for 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 please and create)

Spelling		Major value (IPA)	Examples of major value	Minor values (IPA)	Examples of minor value	Exceptions
a	before multiple consonants final vowel in word followed by 2 or more unstressed syllables next syllable contains /ɨ/	/æ/	hatchet, banner, marry acrobat, cat national, camera, reality arid, granite, palace	/eɪ/	ache, bass, chamber nationhood	/i/ karaoke /ɑː/ father /ɒ/ yacht
	before -nge, -ste before single consonant before cons + (-le or r+vowel) before heterosyllabic vowel	/eɪ/	arrange, waste grace, famous, violate table, hatred, April chaos, aorta	/ɛ/ /æ/ /ɨ/	many, any manor, have chocolate, orange	/ɑː/ gala, sonata
	before final r or r + cons. (and in derived terms)	/ɑː/	bar, cart barred, marring			/ɛə/ scarce
	before r + vowel	/ɛə/	uncaring, wary, various, glare	/æ/	Paris	/ɑː/ are
	word-final	/ə/	lemma, banana			/i/ bologna
	in word-final -ary	/ɛ/	ordinary, necessary
	after /w/ except before /k/, /ɡ/, /ŋ/	/ɒ/	watch, warrior, quantity	/æ/	quango
	after /w/ before final r or r + cons.	/ɔː/	warning, dwarf, war
	unstressed	/ə/	another, about, woman	Ø	artistically
	unstressed, in -age	/ɨ/	damage, bondage
aa, ah		/ɑː/	baa, blah			/eɪ/ quaalude
ae (æ)	usually	/iː/	encyclopaedia (encyclopædia), paediatrician (pædiatrician)	/ɛ/	aesthetic (æsthetic)	/eɪ/ reggae /aɪ/ maestro
	before r	/ɛə/	aerial (ærial), aeroplane (æroplane)
ai, ay	stressed	/eɪ/	bait, cocaine, day	/ɛ/ /aɪ/	said, again, says samurai, kayak, aye	/æ/ plaid /iː/ quay
	before r	/ɛə/	cairn, millionaire, dairy
	unstressed	/ɨ/	bargain, mountain	/ə/	Britain
ao		/eɪ/	gaol	/aʊ/	Taoism	/oʊ/ pharaoh
au, aw		/ɔː/	taut, author, lawn,	/ɒ/ /ɑː/	sausage, because, laurel aunt, draught, laugh	/eɪ/ gauge /oʊ/ mauve
e	before single consonant before cons + (-le or r+vowel) final, only vowel in word final, Greek loans before heterosyllabic vowel	/iː/	receding, detail, gene metre, secret be, she simile, catastrophe neon	/eɪ/ /ɛ/ Ø	ukulele, cafe, crepe metal, lemon, heron livelihood, fateful
	before multiple consonants final vowel in word followed by 2 or more unstressed syllables next syllable contains /ɪ/	/ɛ/	better, fetch, merry get, watershed legacy, elegant, delicate crevice, perish, epicness	/iː/	lethal axes (plural of axis) legally evil	/ɪ/ pretty
	before final r or r + cons. (and in derived terms)	/ɜː/	herd, kerb, referral	/ɑː/	clerk, sergeant
	before r + vowel	/ɪə/	serious, series, here	/ɛə/ /ɛ/	therefore, werewolf very	/ɜː/ were
	word-final	Ø	mate, discipline, starve plague	/iː/	recipe
	unstressed	/ɨ/	hatchet, target, poet	/ə/	taken, decency, moment
	usd, before heterosyllabic vowel	/i/	create, area, atheist, hideous
ea	usually	/iː/	beach, eating, please	/ɛ/	bread, healthy, cleanse	/eɪ/ break, great, steak
	before r + cons.	/ɜː/	earth, learn, early	/ɑː/	hearty, hearth	/ɪə/ beard
	before final r or r + vowel (and in derived terms)	/ɪə/	clear, hearing, yearly	/ɛə/	bear, pear, swear
eau		/oʊ/	bureau, plateau, tableau	/juː/	beauty	/ɒ/ bureaucracy
ee	usually	/iː/	bee, feed			/eɪ/ matinee, fiancee
	before r	/ɪə/	cheering, beer, eerie
ei, ey	usually	/eɪ/	veil, reign, obey	/iː/ /aɪ/	seize, key, geyser height, heist, gneiss	/ɛ/ heifer, leisure /aɪ/ eye
	after c	/iː/	deceive, ceiling, conceit
	before r	/ɛə/	heir, their	/ɪə/	weird, weir, eyrie
	unstressed	/ɨ/	foreign, counterfeit
	unstressed, word-final	/i/	monkey, curtsey, jersey
eo		/ɛ/	leopard, jeopardy	/iː/	people	/oʊ/ yeoman /ɪə/ leotard
eu(e), ew(e), ieu, iew	usually	/juː/	feudal, queue, dew, ewe, lieu, view			/oʊ/ sew, shew
	after /r/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /j/, cons. + /l/	/uː/	rheumatism, jewel, blew
	before r	/jʊə/	amateur, neural, Newry
	both of the above	/ʊə/	Jewry, pleurisy
i	before single consonant before cons + (-le or r+vowel) before -nd, -ld, -gh, -gn word-final before heterosyllabic vowel	/aɪ/	shine, cited, guide title, idle, vibrant wild, kind, sighed, ensign alumni, alibi, radii vial, quiet, prior, pious	/ɪ/	pivot, give, engine wind (one meaning)	/iː/ machine, ski
	before multiple consonants final vowel in word followed by 2 or more unstressed syllables next syllable contains /ɪ/ before cons. + e/i + vowel	/ɪ/	hitch, fiddle, mirror bit cinema, liberty, military finish, spirit, minute hideous, position, Sirius	/aɪ/	pint, ninth silently whitish	/æ/ meringue /iːɪ/ ski(ing)
	before final r or r + cons. (and in derived terms)	/ɜː/	bird, fir, stirrer			/ɪə/ menhir
	before r + vowel	/aɪə/	hire, firing, enquiry
	unstressed	/ɨ/	livid, typical	/ə/	pencil, cousin	Ø business
	usd, before heterosyllabic vowel	/i/	familiar, alien, radii, idiot
ie	finally	/aɪ/	die, tie
	medially	/iː/	field, series, siege	/aɪ/	flies, tries	/ɪ/ sieve /ɛ/ friend
	before r	/ɪə/	pier, fierce, bulkier
o	before multiple consonants final vowel in word followed by 2 or more unstressed syllables next syllable contains /ɪ/	/ɒ/ or /ɑː/	dot, doctor, torrent opera, colonise, cooperate topic, solid, promise	/ʌ/ /oʊ/ /uː/	won, monkey, front gross, comb, brokenly tomb, womb	/ʊ/ wolf
	before single consonant before cons + (-le or r+vowel) word-final before heterosyllabic vowel (inc. unstressed)	/oʊ/	omen, grove, total noble, cobra banjo, go boa, poet, stoic cooperate	/ɒ/ /uː/ /ʌ/ /ə/	moral, proper, shone to, who, move, lose come, love, done purpose, Europe	/ʊ/ woman /ɪ/ women
	before r	/ɔə/	ford, boring, more	/ɔ/	for, morning
	after w, before r	/ɜː/	word, work, worst			/ɔə/ worn
	unstressed	/ə/	eloquent, wanton, author
oa	usually	/oʊ/	boat, coal, load			/ɔː/ broad
	before r	/ɔə/	boar, coarse
oe (œ)	usually	/iː/	amoeba (amœba), coelacanth (cœlacanth), phoenix (phœnix)
	finally	/oʊ/	toe, foe	/uː/	shoe, canoe	/ʌ/ does
	unstressed	/ɪ/	oedema (œdema)
oeu		/uː/	manoeuvre (manœuvre)
oi, oy	usually	/ɔɪ/	coin, boy
	before r	/wɑː/	reservoir, memoir, repertoire	/ɔɪə/	loir	/waɪə/ choir
oo	usually	/uː/	hoop, booze	/ʊ/	wool, foot, soot	/oʊ/ brooch
	before k, d	/ʊ/	look, wood	/uː/	food, brood, spook	/ʌ/ blood, flood
	before r	/ɔə/	door, mooring	/ʊə/	poor
ou	stressed	/aʊ/	out, aloud, bough	/uː/ /ʌ/ /oʊ/	soup, you, through touch, trouble, country soul, dough, boulder	/ʊ/ courier, should /ɒ/ cough
	before r	/ɔː/	tourist, contour, pour	/aʊə/ /ɜː/	hour, our, devour journey, courteous, scourge	/ʊ/ courier /ʌ/ courage
	unstressed	/ə/	camouflage, labour, nervous
ow	stressed	/aʊ/	cow, sow, allow	/oʊ/	know, show	/ɒ/ acknowledge
	before r	/aʊə/	dowry
	unstressed	/oʊ/	yellow, rainbow, narrow
u	before multiple consonants final vowel in word	/ʌ/	butter, dump, current	/ʊ/	put, full, pudding
	before single consonant before cons + (-le or r+vowel) before heterosyllabic vowel (inc. unstressed) word-final	/juː/	luminous, mute, tuba bugle, rubric duel, fatuous, druid, January	/ʊ/	sugar	/ɪ/ busy
	above after /r/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /j/, cons. + /l/	/uː/	rule, chute, June, flu truant, fluent, menstruate
	before final r or r + cons. (and in derived terms)	/ɜː/	curdle, burr, furry
	before r + vowel	/jʊə/	lure, purity, curing	/jə/	failure	/ɛ/ bury
	above after /r/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /j/, cons. + /l/	/ʊə/	rural, jury, plural
	after g, before e, i	Ø	guess, disguise, tongue	/juː/ /w/	argue, ague linguistics, segue
	unstressed	/ə/	supply			/ɨ/ minute, lettuce
ue, ui	usually	/juː/	cue, hue, nuisance			/weɪ/ suede /wiː/ suite /ɪ/ build, biscuit
	above after /r/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /j/, cons. + /l/	/uː/	blue, tissue, fruit, juice
uy		/aɪ/	buy, guyed
y	before multiple consonants followed by 2 or more unstressed syllables next syllable contains /ɪ/	/ɪ/	myth, cryptic cylinder, typical, pyramid cynic	/aɪ/	hyphen, psyche cyclically
	before single consonant before cons + (-le or r+vowel) word-final, stressed	/aɪ/	typing, style, paralyze cycle, cypress sky, supply, bye
	before final r or r + cons. (and in derived terms)	/ɜː/	myrtle, myrrh
	before r + vowel	/aɪə/	lyre, tyrant, gyrate
	unstressed	/ə/	sibyl, martyr
	unstressed, word-final	/i/	city, happy

Consonants

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.

Spelling		Major value (IPA)	Examples of major value	Other values	Examples of other values
b, bb	usually	/b/	bit, rabbit, obtain	Ø	bdellium, debtor, subtle
	finally after m (and in derived terms)	Ø	climb, comb, numbing
c	before e, i, y, ae, or oe	/s/	cellar, city, cyst, face, prince, nicer caesium, coelacanth	/tʃ/ /ʃ/ /k/ /ts/	cello, vermicelli special, liquorice Celts, chicer letovicite
	initially before n, t	Ø	cnidarian, ctenoid
	elsewhere	/k/	cat, cross	Ø	victual, indict
cc	before e, i or y	/ks/	accept, eccentric, occidental	/k/ /tʃ/ /s/	soccer, recce, siccing bocce, breccia, cappuccino flaccid
	elsewhere	/k/	account, accrue, occur, yucca
ch	usually	/tʃ/	chase, chin, attached, chore	/k/ /h/ Ø	ached chutzpah yacht
	Greek-derived words	/k/	chasm, chimera, chord
	French-derived words	/ʃ/	chaise, machine, cached, parachute
ck		/k/	tack, ticket
d, dd, dh		/d/	dive, ladder, jodhpurs	/dʒ/ Ø	graduate, gradual (both also /dj/ in RP) Wednesday, handsome
-dg- before e, i, or y		/dʒ/	lodger, pidgin, edgy
f, -ff		/f/	fine, off	/v/	of
g	before e, i, y, ae, or oe	/dʒ/	gentle, magic, gyrate, page, algae (GA)	/ɡ/ /ʒ/	get, eager, algae (RP) collage, gigue
	in -gm, gn- or -gn	Ø	diaphragm, gnome, signing, reign	/ɡ/	signify, repugnant
	elsewhere	/ɡ/	go, great, guest	/dʒ/	margarine
gg		/ɡ/	stagger, flagging	/dʒ/	suggest, exaggerate
gh	initially	/ɡ/	ghost, ghastly
	elsewhere	Ø	dough, high, right, daughter	/f/ /x/ or /k/ /ɡ/, /k/, or /x/ /p/	laugh, enough lough ugh! hiccough
h	usually	/h/	he, alcohol	Ø	vehicle, honest, hono(u)r, piranha
	after ex	Ø	exhibit, exhaust	/h/	exhale
j-		/dʒ/	jump, ajar	/j/ /ʒ/ /h/ Ø	Hallelujah Jean jalapeno, fajita Marijuana
k, -kk, kh	usually	/k/	key, bake, trekking, sheikh
	initially before n	Ø	knee, knock
l, ll		/l/	line, valve, valley	Ø /j/	halve, balk, salmon, tortilla ?
m, mm	usually	/m/	mine, hammer
	initially before n	Ø	mnemonic
n, nn	usually	/n/	nice, funny
	before /k/ or /ɡ/	/ŋ/	link, bangle, anchor
	finally after m (and in derived terms)	Ø	hymn, autumn
ng	finally and in terms derived from ng-final words	/ŋ/	long, kingly, singer, clingy
	medially otherwise	/ŋɡ/ /ndʒ/	anger, finger danger, ginger, dingy
p, pp	usually	/p/	pill, happy, soup, corpse, script	Ø	coup, receipt
	initially before n, s, t	Ø	pneumonia, psyche, ptomaine	/p/	psst
ph, pph		/f/	photograph, sapphire	/v/	Stephen
q (not before u)		/k/	Iraq, Iqaluit
r, rr, rh, rrh	usually	/r/	ray, parrot, rhyme, diarrhoea	Ø	iron
	before consonant finally before final e	Ø in non-rhotic dialects such as RP	cart, burr, fir, care, walker, tear, hurt
See below for combinations of vowel letters and the letter r
s, ss	usually	/s/	song, ask, message, misled	/z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ Ø	scissors, dessert, dissolve, Islam sugar, tissue, aggression vision islet, aisle, debris
	-s- between vowel sounds (see also "se" below)	/z/	rose, prison	/s/	basis
	word-final -s morpheme after a voiceless sound	/s/	pets, shops
	word-final -s morpheme after a lenis sound	/z/	beds, magazines
sc- before e, i or y		/s/	scene, scepter, scissors, scythe	/sk/ /ʃ/	sceptic, scirrhus fascism
sch-		/sk/	school, scheme, schizo	/ʃ/ /s/	schedule (in RP, otherwise: /sk/), schist schism (in RP, otherwise: /sk/)
sh		/ʃ/	shin, fashion
t, -tt	usually	/t/	ten, bitter, cation, chaste, wallet	/ʃ/ /tʃ/ /d/ Ø	ratio, Martian question, bastion kindergarten castle, chasten, ballet
	in unstressed -sten, -stle, -ften	Ø	listen, rustle, soften	/t/	tungsten, existent
-tch		/tʃ/	batch, kitchen
th		/θ/ /ð/	thin, both, the, bothers	/t/ /tθ/ /th/ Ø	thyme eighth outhouse, potherb asthma
v, -vv		/v/	vine, savvy
w		/w/	sward, swerve, wale	Ø /uː/ /v/	two, sword, answer, gunwale cwm Weltanschauung
wh-	usually	/w/ or /hw/ in Hiberno-Eng. and Southern Am. Eng.	wheel
	before o	/h/ or /hw/ in Hiberno-Eng. and Southern Am. Eng.	who, whole	/w/	whopping, whorl
wr-		/r/ or /wr/ in Scottish Eng.	wrong, wrist
x	initially	/z/	xylophone
	elsewhere	/ks/	extent, excuse, axe	/ɡz/ /ɡʒ/ /kʃ/ Ø	exit (in some pronunciations) luxury (in some pronunciations) anxious faux-pas
-xc before e or i		/ks/	excellent, excited
y-		/j/	yes, young
z, -zz		/z/	zoo, pizzazz	/ts/ Ø	schizophrenic, pizza rendezvous

Spelling	Major value (IPA)	Examples of major value	Minor values (IPA)	Examples of minor value	Exceptions
ayer, ayor	/ɛə(r)/	layer, mayor
ower	/aʊər/	dowry, tower, flowery

Combinations of other consonant and vowel letters

Spelling	Major value (IPA)	Examples of major value	Minor values (IPA)	Examples of minor value	Exceptions
ah	/ɑː/	blah
al	/æl/	pal, talcum, algae, alp	/ɔːl/	bald, falcon
alf	/ɑːf/ (RP) /æf/ (GA)	calf, half	/æl/	alfalfa, malfeasance	/ɔlf/ palfrey
alk	/ɔːk/	walk, chalking, talkative	/ælk/	alkaline, grimalkin	/ɔlk/ balkanise
all	/ɔːl/ /æl/	call, fallout, smaller shall, callus, fallow	/ɒl/ /(ə)l/	wallet, swallow allow, dialled	/ɛl/ (GA) marshmallow, pall-mall
alm	/ɑːm/ (all three examples have alt. pronunc.)	calm (also: /ɑːlm/), almond (also: /ælm/), palmistry (also: /ɑːlm/)	/ælm/ /ɔːlm/	dalmatian, salmonella almanac (also: /ælm/), almost	/æm/ salmon /(ə)lm/ signalman
alt	/ɒlt/ (RP) /ɔːlt/ (GA)	alter, malt, salty, basalt	/ælt/ /ɔːlt/	alto, shalt, saltation altar, asphalt	/ɑlt/ gestalt (GA) /(ə)lt/ royalty, penalty
aoh, oh	/oʊ/	pharaoh, oh
unstressed ci- before a vowel	/ʃ/	special, gracious	/si/	species
-cqu	/kw/	acquaint, acquire	/k/	lacquer, racquet
word-final -ed morpheme after /t/ or /d/*	/ɨd/	waited
word-final -ed morpheme after a voiceless sound*	/t/	topped, surfed	/ɛd/	biped, unfed
word-final -ed morpheme after a lenis sound*	/d/	climbed, failed, ordered	/ɛd/	imbed, misled, infrared
eh	/eɪ/	eh
word-final -es morpheme**	/ɨz/	washes, boxes
unstressed ex- before a vowel or h	/ɨɡz/	exist, examine, exhaust	/ɛks/	exhale
gu- before a	/ɡw/	bilingual, guano, language	/ɡ/	guard, guarantee
word-final -le after a consonant	/əl/	little, table
-(a)isle	/aɪəl/	aisle, isle, enisle, lisle
word-final -ngue	/ŋ/	tongue, harangue, meringue (dessert)	/ŋɡeɪ/	dengue (also /ŋɡi/), distingué, merengue (music/dance)
old	/oʊld/	blindfold, older, bold	/əld/	scaffold, kobold (also /ɒld/
olk	/oʊk/	yolk, folk
oll	/ɒl/	doll, follow, colletc., holler	/oʊl/	roll, stroller, polling, tollway
olm	/ɒlm/	olm, dolmen	/oʊlm/	enrolment, holmium	/oʊm/ holm (oak)
ong	/ɒŋ/ (RP) /ɔːŋ/ (GA)	wrong, strong, song	/ɒŋ/	Congress, congregation
qu-	/kw/	queen, quick	/k/	liquor, mosquito
quar- before consonant	/kwɔː(r)/	quarter, quart
word-final -que	/k/	mosque, bisque	/keɪ/	risqué	/kjuː/ barbeque
word-final -re after a consonant	/ər/	ogre
ro	/rɒ/	rod	/roʊ/	roll	/ə(r)/ iron
unstressed sci- before a vowel	/tʃ/	conscience (/ʃ/ in RP)	/si/	omniscient (RP only)
sci- (stressed)	/saɪ/	science
-scle	/səl/	corpuscle, muscle
-se (noun)	/s/	house, mouse
-se (verb)	/z/	house, raise	/s/	chase
unstressed -si before a vowel	/ʃ/	expansion	/ʒ/	division, illusion	/zi/ physiology, busier, caesium flimsiest /si/ tarsier
unstressed -ssi before a vowel	/ʃ/	mission	/si/	potassium, dossier
unstressed -sure	/ʒər/	leisure, treasure
unstressed -ti before a vowel	/ʃ/	nation, ambitious	/ʒ/	equation	/ti/ patio, /taɪ/ cation
unstressed -ture	/tʃər/	nature, picture
unstressed -zure	/ʒər/	seizure, azure

* There is no way to tell if it is the morpheme or an integral part of the word. Compare snaked and naked.

** Same as above; compare the two pronunciations of axes.

Small text indicates rare words. Loans words: SP for Spanish, FR for French.

Sound to spelling correspondences

The following table shows for each sound, the various spelling patterns used to denote it. The symbol "…" stands for an intervening consonant. The letter sequences are in order of frequency with the most common first. Some of these patterns are very rare or unique, such as au for the [æ] sound in laugh (some accents). In some cases, the spellings shown are found in only one known English word (such as "mh" for /m/, or "yrrh" for /ɜr/).

Consonants
IPA	Spelling	Examples
/p/	p, pp, gh	pill, happy, hiccough
/b/	b, bb	bit, rabbit
/t/	t, tt, ed, pt, th, ct	ten, hitter, topped, pterodactyl, thyme, ctenoid
/d/	d, dd, ed, dh, t (in some dialects), tt (in some dialects)	dive, ladder, failed, dharma, waiter, flatter
/ɡ/	g, gg, gue, gh	go, stagger, catalogue, ghost
/k/	c, k, ck, ch, cc, qu, cqu, cu, que, kk, kh, q, x (changing its/ks/ sound into its /k/ sound)	cat, key, tack, chord, account, liquor, acquis, biscuit, mosque, trekker, khan, burqa, excitement
/m/	m, mm, mb, mn, mh, gm, chm	mine, hammer, climb, hymn, mho, diaphragm, drachm
/n/	n, nn, kn, gn, pn, nh, cn, mn	nice, funny, knee, gnome, pneumonia, piranha, cnidarian, mnemonic
/ŋ/	ng, n, ngue	sing, link, tongue
/r/	r, rr, wr, rh, rrh	ray, parrot, wrong, rhyme, diarrh(o)ea
/f/	f, ph, ff, gh, pph, u	fine, physical, off, laugh, sapphire, lieutenant  (Br)
/v/	v, vv, f, ph, w	vine, savvy, of, Stephen, weltanschauung
/θ/	th, chth, phth, tth, fth (in some dialects)	thin, chthonic, phthisis, Matthew, twelfth
/ð/	th, the	them, breathe
/s/	s, c, ss, sc, st, ps, sch (in some dialects), cc, se, ce, z (in some dialects)	song, city, mess, scene, listen, psychology, schism, flaccid, horse, juice, citizen
/z/	s, z, x, zz, ss, ze, c (in some dialects)	has, zoo, xylophone, fuzz, scissors, breeze, electricity
/ʃ/	sh, ti, ci, ssi, si, ss, ch, s, sci, ce, sch, sc	shin, nation, special, mission, expansion, tissue, machine, sugar, conscience, ocean, schmooze, crescendo
/ʒ/	si, s, g, z, j, ti, sh (in some dialects)	division, leisure, genre, seizure, jeté, equation, Pershing
/tʃ/	ch, t, tch, ti, c, cc, tsch, cz	chin, nature, batch, bastion (some accents), cello, bocce, putsch, Czech
/dʒ/	g, j, dg, dge, d, di, gi, ge, gg	magic, jump, judgment, bridge, graduate, soldier, Belgian, dungeon, exaggerate
/h/	h, wh, j, ch, x	he, who, fajita, chutzpah, Quixote
/j/	y, i, j, ll, e	yes, onion, hallelujah, tortilla, eoarchean
/l/	l, ll, lh	line, hallo, Lhasa
/w/	w, u, o, ou, wh (in most dialects)	we, persuade, choir, Ouija board, what
/hw/	wh (in Hiberno-Eng. and Southern Am. Eng.)	wheel
/wr/	wr (in Scottish Eng.)	wren

Vowels
IPA	Spelling	Examples
/iː/	e, ea, ee, e…e, ae, ei, i…e, ie, eo, oe, ie...e, ay, ey, i, y, oi, ue, ey, a	be, beach, bee, cede, Caesar, deceit, machine, field, people, amoeba (variant of ameba), hygiene, quay (RP only; /eɪ/ in GA), key, ski, city, chamois, Portuguese, geyser (RP only; /aɪ/ in GA), karaoke
/ɪ/	i, y, ui, e, ee, ie, o, u, a, ei, ee, ia, ea, i...e, ai, ii, oe	bit, myth, build, pretty, been (some accents), sieve, women, busy, damage, counterfeit, carriage, mileage, medicine, bargain, shiitake, oedema
/uː/	oo, u, o, u…e, ou, ew, ue, o…e, ui, eu, oeu, oe, ough, wo, ioux, ieu, oup, w, u	tool, luminous, who, flute, soup, jewel, true, lose, fruit, maneuver, manoeuvre (Br. variant of prec.), canoe, through (form. variant of "thru"), two, Sioux, lieutenant  (GA), coup, cwm, thru (inf.)
/ʊ/	oo, u, o, oo...e, or, ou, oul	look, full, wolf, gooseberry, worsted, courier, should
/eɪ/	a, a…e, aa, ae, ai, ai...e, aig, aigh, al, ao, au, ay, e (é), e...e, ea, eg, ei, ei...e, eig, eigh, ee (ée), eh, er, es, et, ey, ez, ie, oeh, ue, uet	bass, rate, quaalude, reggae, rain, cocaine, arraign, straight, Ralph  (dated Br.), gaol  (Australian var. of "jail"), gauge (var. of gage), pay, ukulele (café), crepe, steak, thegn, veil, beige, reign, eight, matinee (soirée), eh, dossier, demesne, ballet, obey, chez, lingerie  (US), boehmite (also: /oʊ/), dengue (usually: /i/), sobriquet (also: /ɛt/; var. of "soubriquet")
/ə/	a, e, o, u, ai, ou, eig, y, ah, ough, ae, oi	another, anthem, awesome, atrium, mountain, callous, foreign, beryl, Messiah, borough  (Br), Michael, porpoise
/oʊ/	o, o…e, oa, ow, ou, oe, oo, eau, oh, ew, au, aoh, ough, eo	so, bone, boat, know, soul, foe, brooch, beau, oh, sew, mauve, pharaoh, furlough, yeoman
/ɛ/	e, ea, a, ae, ai, ay, ea…e, ei, eo, ie, ieu, u, ue, oe	met, weather, many, aesthetic, said, says, cleanse, heifer, jeopardy, friend, lieutenant  (Br), bury, guess, foetid
/æ/	a, ai, al, au, i	hand, plaid, salmon, laugh (some accents), meringue
/ʌ/	u, o, o…e, oe, ou, oo, wo	sun, son, come, does, touch, flood, twopence
/ɔː/	a, au, aw, ough, augh, o, oa, oo, al, uo, u, ao	fall, author, jaw, bought, caught, cord, broad, door, walk, fluorine  (Br), sure  (some accents), extraordinary
/ɒ/	o, a, eau, ach, au, ou	lock, watch, bureaucracy, yacht, sausage, cough
/ɑː/	a, ah, aa, i	father, blah, baa, lingerie  (US)
/aɪ/	ae, ai, aie, aille, ais, ay, aye, ei, eigh, ey, eye, i, i…e, ia, ie, ic, ig, igh, is, oi, ui, uy, uye, y, y...e, ye	maestro, krait, shanghaied, canaille (RP), aisle, kayak, aye, heist, height, geyser (US), eye, mic, fine, diaper, tie, indict, sign, high, isle, choir, guide, buy, guyed, tryst, type, bye
/ɔɪ/	oi, oy, awy, uoy oy…e, eu	foil, toy, lawyer, buoy, gargoyle, Freudian
/aʊ/	ou, ow, ough, au, ao	out, now, bough, tau, Taoism
/ɑr/	aar, ar, are, arre, ear, er, our, uar, arrh	bazaar, car, are, bizarre, heart, sergeant, our  (some accents), guard, catarrh
/ɛər/	aar, aer, air, aire, ar, are, ayer, ayor, ear, eir, er, ere, err, erre, ey're, e'er	Aaron, aerial, hair, millionaire, ware, vary, prayer, mayor, bear, heir, stationery (some accents), where, err (variant), parterre, they're, e'er
/ɪər/	ear, eer, eir, eor, ere, ers, e're, ier, iere, ir	ear, beer, weir, theory  (US), here, revers, we're, pier, premiere, menhir
/ɜr/	er, or, ur, ir, yr, our, ear, err, eur, yrrh, ar, oeu, olo	fern, worst, turn, thirst, myrtle, journey, earth, err, amateur, myrrh, grammar, hors d'oeuvre, colonel
/juː/	u, u…e, eu, ue, iew, eau, ieu, ueue, ui, ewe, ew	music*, use, feud, cue, view, beautiful*, adieu*, queue, nuisance*, ewe, few, * in some dialects, see yod-dropping

See also

• English language
• False etymology
• Spelling bee
• List of English homographs

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

Germanic languages

• Dutch
• German
• Icelandic

Romance languages

• French
• Italian
• Milanese
• Portuguese
• Spanish

Celtic languages

• Irish
• Scottish Gaelic
• Welsh

Historical languages

• Latin
• Old Norse

Artificial languages

• Esperanto

Bibliography

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• Aronoff, Mark. (1978). An English spelling convention. Linguistic Inquiry, 9, 299–303.
• 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, Cambridge, Pegasus.
• Brengelman, Fred H. (1970). Sounds and letters in American English. In The English language: An introduction for teachers (pp. 77–98). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• Brengelman, Fred H. (1970). Generative phonology and the teaching of spelling. English Journal, 59, 1113–1118.
• Brengelman, Fred H. (1971). English spelling as a marker of register and style. English Studies, 52, 201–209.
• Brengelman, Fred H. (1980). Orthoepists, printers, and the rationalization of English spelling. Journal of English and German Philology, 79, 332–354.
• Carney, Edward. (1994). A survey of English spelling. London: Routledge.
• Chomsky, Carol. (1970). Reading, writing and phonology. Harvard Educational Review, 40 (2), 287–309.
• Chomsky, Noam; & Halle, Morris. (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row. (Particularly pp. 46, 48–49, 69, 80n, 131n, 148, 174n, 221).
• Cummings, D. W. (1988). American English spelling: An informal description. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801879566
• Derwing, Bruce; Priestly, Tom; Rochet, Bernard. (1987). The description of spelling-to-sound relationships in English, French and Russian: Progress, problems and prospects. In P. Luelsdorff (Ed.), Orthography and phonology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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• Emerson, Ralph. (1997). English spelling and its relation to sound. American Speech, 72 (3), 260–288.
• Hanna, Paul; Hanna, Jean; Hodges, Richard; & Rudorf, Edwin. (1966). Phoneme – grapheme correspondences as cues to spelling improvement. Washington, D.C.: US Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
• Jespersen, Otto. (1909). A modern English grammar on historical principles: Sounds and spellings (Part 1). Heidelberg: C. Winter.
• Luelsdorff, Philip A. (1994). Developmental morphographemics II. In W. C. Watt (Ed.), Writing systems and cognition (pp. 141–182). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
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• Rollings, Andrew G. (1999). Markers in English and other orthographies. In L. Iglesias Rábade & P. Nuñez Pertejo (Eds.), Estudios de lingüística contrastiva (pp. 441–449). Universidad de Santiago.
• Rollings, Andrew G. (2003). System and chaos in English spelling: The case of the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative. English Language and Linguistics, 7 (2), 211–233.
• Rollings, Andrew G. (2004). The spelling patterns of English. LINCOM studies in English linguistics (04). Muenchen: LINCOM EUROPA.
• Sampson, Geoffrey. (1985). Writing systems: A linguistic introduction. London: Hutchinson.
• Seymour, P. H. K.; Aro, M.; & Erskine, J. M. (2003). Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, 94 (2), 143–174.
• Simpson, J. A.; & Weiner, E. S. C. (Eds.). (1989). Oxford English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Steinberg, Danny. (1973). Phonology, reading and Chomsky and Halle's optimal orthography. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 2 (3), 239–258.
• Stubbs, Michael. (1980). Language and literacy: The sociolinguistics of reading and writing. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Venezky, Richard L. (1967). English orthography: Its graphical structure and its relation to sound. Reading Research Quarterly, 2, 75–105.
• Venezky, Richard L. (1970). The structure of English orthography. The Hague: Mouton.
• Venezky, Richard L. (1976). Notes on the history of English spelling. Visible Language, 10, 351–365.
• Venezky, Richard L. (1999). The American way of spelling. New York: Guildford Press.
• Weir, Ruth H. (1967). Some thoughts on spelling. In W. M Austin (Ed.), Papers in linguistics in honor of Leon Dostert (pp. 169–177). Janua Linguarum, Series Major (No. 25). The Hague: Mouton.

External links

• Transcription Writer freeware program is designed to write English words with the help of phonetic symbols
• Rules for English Spelling: Adding Suffixes, QU Rule, i before e, Silent e, 'er' vs. 'or'
• White Paper Research based Tutoring of English Spelling
• Hou tu pranownse Inglish describes rules which predict a word's pronunciation from its spelling with 85% accuracy
• Free spelling information and Free spelling lessons in QuickTime movie format at The Phonics Page.