O-u-g-h and eight different ways of pronouncing it… Hi everyone my name is Hridhaan and
I welcome you with a very big heart to Let’s Talk. In today's lesson we will understand
how do we pronounce o-u-g-h in all of these words in English language, so let's get started.
The first list that we have today is of the words, ‘thought’, ‘bought’, ‘ought’…
please focus on the o-u-g-h sound in each of these words, how do we pronounce o-u-g-h
sound in each of these words. The sound that's coming out of it is thought, bought, ought…
the sound that is coming is /ow/… the shame, shame sound, very famous on our land. /ow/,
/ow/… “I thought so”, “I bought vegetables”, “I ought to do that” the sound is ‘ow’.
Next list is of the words, ‘rough’, ‘tough’, ‘enough’… o-u-g-h in each of these words
is pronounced as /af/, /af/ and we can write it like this /af/ not the AF that you're thinking,
it's /af/. “The exam was quite tough”, “It has quite a rough surface” and a very
famous sentence, “enough is enough” focus on the sound please, it is /af/ sound. The
next list is of the word ‘plough’, ‘bough’, ‘drought’… how do we say all of these
words with the same sound? And what is that sound that is turning out? Let's first understand
the meaning of these each of these words, what is a plough? Plough is that farming implement
that people use on their farms which has big blades that helps in better farming that is
called plough. What is Bough? Bough is the main branch of a tree, that main branch is
called the Bough. And what is a drought? A situation when there is no water. Let's make
some sentences, “Plough helps in better farming”, “Bough is the most important
part of a tree”, “the city is caught with drought”. The sound that's coming is, /au/
sound. One more time, /au/ sound. Let's say the words again plough, Bough, drought. The
next list is quite similar to this and people get confused between these words quite a lot
of times as they pronounce it. So let's do it together at this time, ‘though’, ‘dough’.
‘Though’ is an exclamation, not an exclamation but people use to kind of contradict the sentence,
the meaning that they are trying to convey. ‘Dough’ is a mixture of wheat and water
because of which we kind of, are able to eat bread, and the sound that comes out of it
is /uh-u/ sound. It is /uh/ and it is /u/ it becomes /uh-u/. ‘Though’, ‘dough’.
“He was prepared, he didn't score well though.” Dough, “do you not know how to make a dough?”
“You would then not know how to make bread”. Dough, please repeat after me, ‘though’
and ‘dough’. The difference between both of these sounds is its /uh-u/ it is /au/,
in this sound you have to open up your mouth a little more, its /au/, it is /uh-u/. Next
is /oo/ sound, let's write it here, ‘through’ o-u-g-h becomes /oo/ in this word ‘through’.
“I have gone through that situation, please don't teach me.” Next one is quite interesting
and it is not as much used in English but I thought of bringing this word for each one
of you in this lesson, because we should be aware of just about every interesting thing
in English language. This word is not ‘laughs’, ‘loaf’ etc. etc. it is lough’… yes!
O-u-g-h is pronounced as /ok/ in this sound, what is it pronounced as? I hope you're repeating
after me… /ok/ Lough is actually an Irish form of lake. So if in English we say, “the
lake is beautiful” l-o-u-g-h would be pronounced as ‘l-ok’ which is an Irish form of lake,
and people would say, “the lough is beautiful”. The second last list is, ‘cough’, ‘trough’,
notice the sound, o-u-g-h, /of/, very different than all the sounds that we have discussed
in so far in the lesson, it is /of/, o-u-g-h is also pronounced as /of/, in the word ‘cough’
and ‘trough’. What is cough? A lot of times people pronounce it as ‘cuff’, that
is wrong English, it is /k-of/, /k-of/ and trough, what is trough? Trough is actually
again a farming container where people, it's an open container where people make animals
eat or drink items, food items or water, so that is cough, trough. Next and the last is
hiccoughing, o-u-g-h is pronounced as /kp/ here. How do we say it? Hiccoughing, hiccoughing…
one more time hiccoughing. “He has been hiccoughing since morning, I think he's not
feeling well.” One more time, hiccoughing. So this was all about how to pronounce o-u-g-h
in each of these words. Let's do it one more time, ‘thought’, ‘bought’, ‘ought’…
please keep on repeating after me, ‘rough’, ‘tough’, ‘enough’… ‘plough’,
‘bough’, ‘drought’… ‘though’, ‘dough’… ‘through’… ‘Lough’,
very interesting… ‘cough’, ‘trough’ and finally ‘hiccoughing’. This was all
about pronouncing o-u-g-h correctly. Now leaving the space, as requested by each one of you,
this was all about o-u-g-h sound, I hope you enjoyed the lesson, take care, God bless and
stay tuned for more interesting lessons on pronunciation.