The only exception to this (among commonly used words) is height, which is pronounced /haɪt/ (and rhymes with ‘white’). The combination ‘eigh’ is pronounced /eɪ/ (the sound in ‘wait’ or ‘hate’), for example in eight, weight and neighbour. Examples are tight, high, sigh, bright, fortnight and delighted. This is the same for UK and US pronunciation. Words containing the letters ‘igh’ have the pronunciation /aɪ/ (the sound in ‘white’ and ‘nine’). Examples are thought, fought, bought, brought and ought. Words that end in ‘ought’ have the pronunciation /ɔːt/ in UK English (the sound in the word ‘short’) and /ɑːt/ in US English (the vowel sound as in the first syllable of ‘father’). Examples of this are ghost, ghastly, ghetto and spaghetti.
However, there are a few basic rules that can help.įirstly, when ‘gh’ is at the beginning of a word, or at the beginning of a stressed syllable, it is always pronounced /g/.
Unfortunately, many of these pronunciations simply have to be learned. ‘Gh’ can be pronounced /g/ (like ‘goat’), /f/ (like ‘fun’) or it can be silent, but in that case it will affect the vowels that come before it. There are many common words in English that contain the pair of letters ‘gh’.
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