In blood, flood and brooch oo has other sounds [blud, flud, broach].

    

Ou   is often not as in out  - but  with  long oo of boot,  aw of  saw,   o-e of sole, 

         short oo of wood,  u of cup,   o of  for,   e of her.                                         

Abound,  about,  account,  acoustic,  aloud ,  amount,  announce,  around,  arouse,  astound,  bivouac,  blouse, bough*, bought,  boulder,  bounced,  bound,  boundary,  bouquet,  boutique,  brought,  camouflage,  choux,  cloud,  compound,  couch,  cough,  could,  council,  counsel,  count,  counter,  country,  county,  coup [coo],  couple,  coupon,  courage,  courier,  course,  court,  courtesy,  cousin,  crouch,  double,  doubt,  dough,  douse, drought, encounter,  encourage,  enough,  favourite,  flounder,  flour,  fought,  foul,  found,  foundation,  fountain,   four,  fourth,  ghoulish,  ground,   group,   hiccough [hickup], 

honour [onnor],  hound,  hour [our],  house,  journal,  journey,  loud,  lounge,  lout,  mould, moult,  mound,  mount,  mountain,  mourn,  mouse,  mousse,  moustache,  mouth,  neighbour,  nought,  nourish,  ought,  ounce,  our,  out,  outer,  plough,  pouch,  poultry,  pounce,  pound,  pour,  pout,  profound,  pronounce,  proud,  rebound,  resource,  rough,  round,  rouse,  route,  routine,  savour,  scoundrel,  scout,  should,  shoulder,  shout,  silhouette,  slouch,  slough x2 [sluf, slou],  smoulder,  snout,  sought,  soul,  sound,  soup,  sour,  source,  south,  southern,  souvenir,  spout,  sprout,  stout,  surround,  tambourine,  thorough,  thou,  though,  thought,  thousand,  through,  toucan,  touch,  tough,  tour,  tourist,  tournament,  trouble,  trough,  trousers,  trout,  voucher,  would,  wound x2 [wound/ woond],  you,  young,  your.

 

Ow  can sound like  o  in so  or  ou  in thou

Blow, blown, bow x 2  [bo/bou],  bowl, brow, brown, brownie, browse, clown, cow, coward, crow, crowd, crown, down, drown, drowse, eider-down, flow, flower, flown, frown, glow, gown, grow, growl, grown, growth, how, howl, know, knowledge [nollege], known, low, mow, mown, now, owe, owl, own, powder, power, prowl,  row x 2  [ro/rou],  rowan,  rowdy, scowl,  show, shower, shown,  slow,  snow, sow x 2  [so, sou],  sown, stow, throw, thrown, tow,  toward [tuward],  towel, tower, town, vow, vowel, wow;

    and ‘allow’  is not like   ‘shallow’ or ‘window’ [shallo, windo].

 

-qu  In the following words qu does not spell its main sound (quick question),

         but the k sound.   A few pose other pronunciation difficulties as well.

Cheque, conquer, liquor, liquorice, marquee, mosque, opaque, picturesque, quoit, turquoise.       Antique, croquet,  parquet, queue, unique.

 

Sce/ sci  Sc has mainly an s sound (scene, scenery, scent, science, convalesce, crescent,

                                                           descend, disciple, discipline, fascinating, muscle) 

but sh in conscience,  conscientious and fascism  and sk in  mollusc.

 

 

–se  When -se follows a vowel, it  is pronounced mainly z (erase, cheese, rise, rose, fuse),         

         but in the following words it has a s-sound:

Base,  case,  chase,  purchase,  cease,  crease,  grease,  increase,  release,  geese,  these,  practise,  precise,  premise,  promise,  tortoise,  dose,  goose,  loose,  noose,  purpose,  douse,  mouse.

 

Silent letters make learning to read English more difficult too.

Acquaint, acquire, acquit, adjacent, adjoin, adjust, aisle, anaesthetic, apostle, are, blue, board, bogey, bristle , bruise, build, built, bustle, buy, bye, campaign, caught, clue, coarse, composite, conscious, controlled, copse, corps, creosote, cruise, cupboard, daughter, debris, debt, definite, dense, depot, determine, devalue, dialogue, diaphragm, doctrine, dumb, dungeon, dye, eclipse, elapse, else, empty, engine, epilogue, examine, exceed, excel, except, excite, exhaust, exhibit , expense, exquisite, forehead,  forgive, geese, genuine *, geyser*, ghastly, ghost, give, given, glimpse, glisten, glue,  gnarled, gnash, gnat, gnaw, gnu, gorse, granite, gristle, guarantee, guard, haughty, hoarse, hustle, imagine, impulse, infinite, intense, island, isle , jostle, juice, knack, knacker, knave, knee, knew, knickers, knife, knight, knit, knob, knock, knot, knuckle, lapse, listen, live*, luncheon, luscious, masculine, medicine, meringue, midday, mnemonic, mortgage, naughty, nestle , nuisance , nurse, often , parliament, pharaoh, phlegm, pneumatic, proboscis, pseudonym, pterodactyl, purchase, raspberry, response, reverse, rheumatism, rhubarb, rhyme , rhythm , rinse, roller, rustle , rye, salmon, scholar, school, schooner, scissors, seven, several, shepherd, slaughter, straight, subtle, suggest, suicide, suitable, surgeon, suspense, swollen, scythe, taught, tense, thistle, tortoise , trestle , truncheon, verse, vineyard, Wednesday, were, whack, whale, wharf, what, wheedle, wheel, wheeze, whelk, when, whether, whey, which, while, whimper, whine, whip, whir, whirl, whisk, whiskers, whiskey, whisky, whisper, whistle, white, whiz, why, wore, wrangle, wrap, wreck, wren, wrench, wrestle,  wretch, wriggle, wring, wrinkle, wrist, writ, write, writhe, written, wrong, wrote, wrung, wry, yoghurt.

 

 

U  In the following words u does not have the short u sound of cup,  but

     short oo sound of book,  i of big  and  long oo of spoon

Bush,  busy,  butcher,  cushion,  pudding,  push,  put,  shush,  sugar,  truth. 

 

Ui  has several unpredictable pronunciations: short i,  i-e,  yoo,  yoo-i/oo-i,  oo,  wi, wee.

Anguish,  biscuit,  bruise,  build,  built,  circuit,  cruise,  disguise,  distinguish,  fluid,  fruit,  genuine,  guidance,  guide,  guillotine,  guilt,  guinea-pig,  guitar,  intuition,  juice,  nuisance,  penguin,  pursuit,  recruit,  ruined,  sluice,  suicide,  suit,  suitable,  suite,  tuition.

 

Words ending in –ture

are usually stressed on the first syllable (fracture, furniture, nature), apart from:  

adventure, departure, expenditure, manufacture, mature.

 

Words ending in –ure have variable stress and pronunciation.

Assure, conjure, cure, endure, exposure, failure, figure, fissure, injure, insure, lure, manure, measure, obscure, pleasure, pressure, procedure, procure, pure, secure, sure, treasure.

 

Words with v  nearly all pose problems in learning to read English, because this letter is usually not doubled after a short vowel (e.g. never) and a final –v is usually followed by –e, making it difficult to tell if a vowel before a v is long or short (gave – have) or which vowel is stressed (severe – several).  Words with o before v are especially tricky.

Above, alcove, alive, approve, arrive, avenue, average, aviary, aviation, avoid, behave  , beloved, brave, cavalry, cave, cavern, cavity, chivalrous, civic, civil, civilian, clever, clover, cove, covenant, cover, covet, covey, crave, crevice, deliver, derive, devil, devise, devote, discover, divan, dive, dove, drive, drivel, driven, driver, drove, eleven, eve, even, event, ever , every, evict, evidence, evident, evil, evolution, evolve, fever, five, flavour, gave, give, given, glove, govern, governor, grave, gravel, gravity, gravy, grovel, have, havoc, hive, hover, improve, ivory, javelin, jive, jovial, juvenile, knave, lava, lavender, level, lever, live, lively, love, move, movie, naval, nave, navigate, navy, never, novel, November, novice, olive, oval, oven, over, pavement, pavilion, poverty, previous, private, privilege, prove, proverb, provide, quiver, rave, raven, ravenous, revive, rival, river, rivet, savage, save, scavenge, seven, several, severe, severity, shave, shiver, shove, shovel, shrivel, slave, slovenly, snivel, sovereign, soviet, stove, survive, swivel, thrive, travel, wave, waver, wives, wove.

 

A few  more letters have reading problems in a small number of words.

Said, plait;    says;  here, there, were;   hi, hi-fi -  prix, kiwi, ski;   board, broad;    

clerk,  poignant,  wrath,