The combination
“OUGH”
The combination “ough” can be pronounced in at least eight different ways. The following sentence contains them: “A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode the streets of the borough; after falling into a slough, he started to cough and hiccough.”
Rough [ruhf]
Dough [doh]
Thoughtful [thawt-fuh l]
Ploughman [plau·muhn]
Borough [bur-oh, buhr-oh]
Slough [slew]
Cough [kawf, kof]
Hiccough [hik-uhp]
Don’t even get me started on the British pronunciation of “Slough”.
Ulrich Gaede