learning English

Fun Facts About English #42 – Words Spelled With -ough

01/31/2020 by admin

Fun Facts About English 42 Kinney Brothers Publishing

If there’s one thing you learn early in school, it’s that English spelling does not display a one-to-one correspondence with pronunciation. Any expectation that it should will drive you crazy.

Words spelled with the same letter combination but pronounced with different sounds are due to a combination of different etymologies and evolving sound changes. Many like words started out with the same or similar pronunciations and diverged over time.

In Middle English, where the –ough spelling arose, it was pronounced with a velar fricative or x sound (e.g., [oːx], [oːɣ], [uːx], or [uːɣ]). Currently, the spelling has at least eight pronunciations in North American English and nine in British English; with the most common being:

/oʊ/ as in though (cf. tow)
/uː/ as in through (cf. true)
/ʌf/ as in rough (cf. gruff)
/ɒf/ as in cough (cf. coffin)
/ɔː/ as in thought (cf. taut)
/aʊ/ as in bough (cf. to bow [the gesture])

“Slough” alone has three pronunciations depending on its context and meaning:

/sluː/ (cf. flu) as in, “slogging through a slough of mud”
/slʌf/ (cf. off) as in “to slough off”, meaning to shed off
/slaʊ/ (cf. how) as in the town of Slough in England

There have been attempts to rein in the confusion. Formal and informal spelling reforms are generally more accepted in the United States than in other English-speaking countries. Dialects with traditional pronunciation or old-world spellings keep the debate on ‘correctness’ alive.

North-East Scottish dialects still pronounce trough as /trɔːx/ (traux)
In the UK, the word dough can be pronounced /dʌf/ (duff), as in duffpudding
The word enough can be pronounced /ɪˈnaʊ/ (ow) or /ɪˈnoʊ/ (oh) and the spelling enow is an acceptable dialect or poetic spelling (e.g. “And Wilderness is Paradise Enow.“)

Still, some formal spelling reforms have caught on:

hiccup instead of hiccough
hock instead of hough (rare in the U.S.)

Some spellings considered unacceptable in other areas, are standard in the United States:

naught or not instead of nought
plow instead of plough
donut instead of doughnut
slew instead of slough

Informal spellings are generally considered unacceptable anywhere except in signage or the most casual and texting conversations:

thru instead of through: as in “drive thru” or “thru traffic”
tho and altho instead of though and although
’nuff instead of enough

So, what is the best way to help our young learners navigate this unpredictable spelling map? Reading. Instilling a love of reading is one of the best ways to focus the attention on the differences and create a memory of written words. Teach students to take pleasure in the differences and develop an appreciation of the rich history of the English language. And remember, it will never stop evolving!

Editor’s Note: David Olsen, a contributor to A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia, states that slough does not provide a unique pronunciation for -ough, but that hough (pronounced hock) is a Scottish word, meaning the ankle joint of a horse, cow, or foul, or to hamstring, or it is an obsolete British word meaning to clear the throat. Olsen says that in order for the sentence to have 9 different ways of pronouncing -ough, it could be rewritten as: A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed, houghed, and hiccoughed. On the same website, R. E. Davies writes, “Hock [is] well known in Ontario, Canada, where the phrase ‘hock a loogie’ is alive and well.”

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in the conundrum with spelling irregular plurals, all the ways to spell long ‘e’, or why Chicago was originally spelled Stktschagko!

See the previous or next Fun Facts About English

Kinney Brothers Publishing Communication Series includes downloadable color and black and white textbooks, teacher’s answer keys, and audio files! Presented in clear, grammatically simple, and direct language, the series is designed to extend students’ skills and interest in communicating in English.

Teaching Plurals

11/08/2019 by admin

In speaking exercises, I teach my ESL kids plurals early on, for the main reason that it can’t be avoided for very long when teaching even the simplest phrases, such as I like… or I have… Importantly, when I teach kids plural sounds, I’m also preparing them for future lessons using the same morphological rules governing third-person verbs and possessives. My goal is to start the exposure early, be intentional in its roll out, and use the vocabulary as much as possible in later lessons.

Looking at the rules above, it’s a LOT to take in. Even I can’t remember all the letter-to-sound associations! It’s like trying to remember the order of stacked adjectives! Ugh! It’s much easier to get students used to using the language rather than memorizing and then applying the rules.

The Roll Out

My youngest pre-school kids get their first exposure to plurals with picture books, songs, and chants that focus on counting. Then, when I begin formally teaching plurals, I remind them that they’ve already been using the language.

When teaching plurals to my kindergarten and early elementary school students, I don’t teach pronunciation as a set of rules, but instead, stress awareness of the sounds made when modifying nouns to make them plural; the three sounds being /s/, /z/, and /ɨz/. I break this down into a series of lessons that 1) introduce listening to the differences in singular and plural words grouped by final consonant sounds, 2) identifying the voiced and unvoiced sounds with simple interactive activities that include practice making the sounds, and 3) employing plurals in games and activities – all in that order.

I start with singular and plural flash card examples, saying each word and asking students if they can identify where the words are different and what that different sound is. Reading them again, I have students identify which word is being said, sometimes with eyes closed. Next we do the same activity using simple sentences students are already familiar with, e.g., I like cats or I have one cat. A simple Missing Word activity is perfect for getting students to use the words in the context of a game.

Plural Flash Cards Kinney Brothers Publishing

Soon after this, I introduce vocabulary with the -z sound and we compare the final sounds of the words from the previous lessons. How are they different? Can you make the two different sounds? Can you feel the difference in the voiced and unvoiced sounds when you touch your throat?

When the class is ready, I add –ez words. I ask students how the last sounds of cats, dogs, and foxes are different and we practice making the sounds. Once again, I get the kids using the vocabulary with simple flashcard activities such as a Circle Pass amongst students. Be sure to check out my 50+ Flash Card Activities if you’re looking for more game ideas.

Plural Flash Cards 2 Kinney Brothers Publishing

Importantly, leave the cards on a board or table accessible to students during the weeks you are teaching these lessons. This allows kids to experiment on their own without a teacher hovering over them.

Plural Vibes

The reason we use -s and -z sounds is a matter of language efficiency when speaking. You can teach kids to be aware of the vibration (voiced) or lack thereof (unvoiced) in the sound of the last consonant by having them touch their throats when saying the words. In words like cat, there is no vibration (unvoiced) in the last consonant, and the –s continues this non-vibrating sound into the plural. The final g in dog has a vibration (voiced) and, for efficiency in speaking, the –z sound of the plural continues this vibration as a plural. For native speakers, this is one of those “default” rules we employ without even realizing it, but will readily recognize if misspoken. For more on this, check out the video below from the Elemental English Youtube channel.

The effect of these lessons is to build a physical and aural language experience that students can draw from as in Jean Berko Gleason‘s Wug Test below. Keep in mind, this isn’t going to happen without extensive exposure and practice.

J.B. Gleason devised the Wug Test as part of her earliest research (1958), which used nonsense words to gauge children’s acquisition of morphological rules‍—‌for example, the “default” rule that most English plurals are formed by adding an /s/, /z/ or /ɨz/ sound depending on the final consonant, e.g., hat–hats, eye–eyes, witch–witches. A child is shown simple pictures of an imaginary creature or activity, with a nonsense name, and prompted to complete a statement about it: This is a WUG. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two________. The Wug Test also includes questions involving verb conjugations, possessives, and other common derivational morphemes.

Review, review review!

Once the lessons have been introduced, it’s time to find opportunities to use them! Review activities and additional vocabulary will keep the lessons fresh in students’ minds.

Monotonously flipping through flashcard decks isn’t the only way to review. Games are great for keeping your students’ skills up. As your kids get older, you can up-cycle the games you played when they were younger coupled with the new lessons. Vocabulary review activities like Bingo and I Have/Who Has are perfectly adaptable. Be sure to give students the opportunity to practice the language before playing the games.

Plural Games Kinney Brothers Publishing Donald's English Classroom

Charts are another capital way of keeping the vocabulary in front of your students. Include them in interactive notebooks or tack charts on a classroom board to provide students with references that can be used when speaking and writing.

Plural Charts Kinney Brothers Publishing Donald's English Classroom

Later on, my kids are reintroduced to plurals in their Phonics & Spelling books. Being already familiar with nouns as plurals, they’re prepared to create sentences with new vocabulary in context, like these are and those are.

Phonics Plural Lessons Kinney Brothers Publishing Donald's English Classroom

For older students and adults who already have vocabulary at their command, check out this plural set of readings and activities when reviewing or planning your next pronunciation boot camp lessons.

Pronunciation Bingo and I Have Who Has activity sets

Forward Teaching

Again, these early lessons are going to be helpful when you get ready to teach third-person verb conjugations and possessives, as the morphological rules that apply to the ending sounds of verbs are exactly the same as plurals. Remind your students of this simple pronunciation fact!

eat – eats
run – runs
dance – dances

it – its
her – hers
watch – watch’s

From their first exposure with counting books and plural pronunciation activities, your students’ lessons should build toward future fluency goals. Begin early and loop review activities into your lesson plans as students build their language skills. And don’t forget to have fun!

As always, best of luck in your classes!

Donald Kinney
Kinney Brothers Publishing

Fun Facts About English #13 – Spelling Long ‘e’

07/10/2019 by admin

Fun Facts About English 13 Kinney Brothers Publishing

The struggle with spelling that many people have is real. The “i before e” rule is an example where we often run into problems. According to Merriam-Webster, “The “i before e except after c” rule is highly inconsistent in the English language and should not be considered a solid rule.” The influence of different spelling paradigms that included Old German, Norse, and French, has resulted in an orthography that is less than tidy. In roughly three-quarters of all words with either an “ie” or an “ei” pair, the proper spelling is “ie,” as the rule would have you believe. The problem is the “except after c” aspect. In fact, the opposite is true: “cie” words outnumber “cei” words by about three to one.

With all this being said, when teaching young learners, it is helpful to have guiding principles, no matter how contradictory the rules may be as they become more sophisticated spellers. Children can be quite understanding if you just explain. Reading is by far the best way to expose kids (and adults!) to these inconsistencies and become familiar with various spellings.

Here are eight – but not all – ways to spell the long /e/ sound in English.

1. In some cases, the long /e/ sound is spelled with just the letter e. Though usually more than one syllable long, exceptions include words like me, be we, he, and she. It is also used in the prefixes re-, be-, and de-.

2. Many words spell the long /e/ sound with the letters ee. The long /e/ sound can appear in the beginning, middle, or end of the word.

3. Using the letters ea is a common way of spelling the long /e/ sound.

4. Sometimes the long /e/ sound is spelled with an e in the middle of the word and an e at the end of the word in a silent e or magic e form. These words are normally, but not always, more than one syllable long.

5. In the case of ie words, the well-known ‘i before e except after c‘ spelling rule can apply to long /e/ sounds. Numerous exceptions to this rule include weird, either, leisure, and seize.

6. These are examples where the ‘i before e except after c‘ rule applies when spelling the long /e/ sound.

7. You’re probably familiar with these proper names that are spelled with the digraph ae and have a long /e/ pronunciation:

Aesop
Caesar

Here are some long /e/ words that have ae variant spellings:

8. And finally, here are two words using eo to represent an explicit long /e/ sound:

people
theory

Whew! This covers the eight spelling variants in the sentence at the top of this post. I haven’t touched on long /e/ sounds that use y and i, such as happy or niche. We’ll save those for another Fun Facts About English.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in all the variant pronunciations of words spelled with -ough. Check out which letter in the dictionary has the most words or discover the most commonly used letter in the English language!

See the previous or next Fun Facts About English

Vocabulary Charts are a perfect reference for you and your students. Tacked to a classroom board or in student notebooks, charts provide a reference students will return to again and again. Check out all the vocabulary-building charts in Donald’s English Classroom!