Spelling and pronouncing words in English

English is a highly nonphonetic language: words are often pronounced quite differently from what one might expect from their spellings. Further, the language also uses words that have the same spelling but which carry different meanings depending upon the context. Finally, there are words that are spelled differently, but are pronounced in the same way; once again, the intended word can usually be discerned from the context. There are differences in the meanings of certain words in American English and in British English; there are also variations in the spellings of a few words in American English and in British English; we will, of course, use American spelling for the most part.

In spite of all its quirks, as with fluency in any other language, you will learn to recognize English words when you hear them, and to recognize them at a glance when you see them spelled. You will be able to discern the intended meaning of similarly pronounced words from context, and will learn which spelling to apply. Millions of English speakers have already done so successfully, and we welcome you as you do the same!

Our goal in this page is to give you examples of some of the quirks of the language. The tools that appear in this page will synthesize speech if you tap or click on the button with the label 🔊; in our experience, the best speech synthesis is currently obtained using the Google Chrome browser on Windows or Linux systems. The speech synthesis available in other browsers may not be capable of distinguishing some of the subtleties of English pronunciation; in this case, please ask your teacher to help you with them.

• The word "read" can be pronounced both as reed as well as red, depending on whether the tense is present or past.
• The word "bow" can be read as bo as well as bau, depending on the intended meaning.
• The word "woman" is pronounced wum'n, while the word "women" is pronounced wim'n; that is, it is the unchanged first vowel that is pronounced differently!
• The combination ea can be pronounced in a few different ways:
• as ee, as in the word "each";
• as ah, as in the word "heart";
• as eh, as i the word "head";
• as uh, as in the word "dearth".
• The combination ough can also be pronounced in a few different ways:
• as ooh, as in the word "through";
• as off, as in the word "cough";
• as uff, as in the word "enough";
• as owe, as in the word "though";
• as ow, as in the word "bough".
• The letter combination ice is usually read as one expects, as in "nice" for instance; however, in the words "office" and "pumice", it is read as iss.
• As examples of homonyms—words that are spelled differently (and which have different meanings), but which are pronounced the same—we present the following:
• "cite", "sight", and "site";
• "oar", "or", and "ore";
• "colonel" and "kernel".
• As examples of words spelled differently in American and British English, consider:
• "meter" (American) is spelled "metre" by the British;
• "neighbor" (American) is spelled "neighbour" by the British;
• "maneuver" (American) is spelled "manoeuvre" by the British.

If you're curious as to why English has so many irregular spellings, it's mainly because: (i) it is an old language that has had a long time to evolve; (ii) it is a language that has assimilated words from many other languages over time; and (iii) it has never been the subject of a serious, widespread effort to reform spelling since, perhaps, the advent of the printing press.