sounds and spelling

Many English letters have more than one sound, and one sound can be written in several ways. So when you learn a new word, learn how it sounds as well as how it's written. The dictionary shows the sound between slashes: /naɪt/ is how you say night.

Vowels: short and long

Each vowel letter has a short sound and a long sound. The long sound is usually the name of the letter. An e at the end of a word is often silent and makes the vowel before it long.

• a: cat (short), cake (long, like the name "ay")
• i: sit (short), site (long, sounds like "sight")
• o: hop (short), hope (long, like "oh")
• u: cut (short), cute (long, like "kyoot")

C and g

C sounds like "k" before a, o and u, and usually like "s" before e, i and y. G sounds like "g" before a, o and u, and often like "j" before e, i and y – but not always: get and give have a "g".

Sh, ch and th

Some pairs of letters make one sound.

• sh is one sound: she, shop, fish.
• ch usually sounds like "tch": chair, cheese, watch. In some words it sounds like "k": school, Christmas.
• th has two sounds. For both, the tongue touches the top teeth. In think, three and bath there's only air. In this, the and mother there's voice too.

Silent letters

Some letters are written but not said.

• k: know, knife
• w: write, wrong, who
• h: hour, honest
• l: half, walk, talk
• t: listen, castle
• b: climb, thumb
• d: Wednesday (sounds like "Wenz-day")

Common mistakes

Saying every letter makes a word hard to understand.

• × "k-now" → "now"
• × "Wed-nes-day" → "Wenz-day"
• × "cas-tle" with a t → "cah-sul"

Saying th as "s" or "t" makes a different word: think said as "sink" or "tink", three said as "tree".