Post #525995 by Unga Bunga on Sat, Apr 24, 2010 11:17 PM

What sequence of letters has the most different pronunciations?

That prize goes to -ough. Say these words: bough, rough, through, cough, dough. You will see that not one of these words sounds like any of the others. These are all native Anglo-Saxon words, not products of foreign borrowings. There are seven different ways to pronounce -ough: 1) though (like o in go), 2) through (like oo in too), 3) cough (like off in offer), 4) rough (like uff in suffer), 5) plough (like ow in flower), 6) ought (like aw in saw), and 7) borough (like a in above).