English is not a phonetic language.
That means words in English are not always pronounced the way they are spelled.
Take the word ‘rendezvous’, for instance, which in its noun form means ‘a meeting at an agreed place and time’.
The natural instinct for a Spanish speaker learning English, or any other non-native speaker, for that matter, would be to pronounce the word as ‘ren-dez-vos’.
The correct pronunciation, however, is ‘ron-day-voo’.
As in a lot of other cases we’re going to discuss in this article, there is almost no similarity between spelling and pronunciation.
What’s worse about such words is that there is no way of knowing they are pronounced differently just by looking at the spelling.
You can only learn that through experience and practice.
Let’s take a counter-example to understand the concept better.
Imagine a native English speaker from New Zealand or Australia who lands in La Jolla, California, for the very first time.
How do you think he’s going to pronounce the name of the city?
Anyone unfamiliar with Spanish words is going to go with the phonetic pronunciation ‘la-jolla’ when it is actually pronounced ‘la-hoya’.
The same also goes for the West Coast city of San Jose, which is pronounced ‘san-ho-say’, and not ‘san-jose’.
Welcome to the world of non-phonetic English words.
It comes down to two factors.
First, two centuries of invading armies ravaging the British Isles, where the English language originally developed in Medieval times.
All those armies came from different shores - from France and Germany to Scandinavia and Rome, each bringing over new words and expressions in the process.
Over time, gradual shifts in the articulation of vowels resulted in some words retaining their spelling even though their pronunciation changed.
Different spelling conventions and regional variations in pronunciations were also responsible for this effect.
The second factor is the incredible willingness of the English language to assimilate words from other languages and make them their own.
It can be surprising for many that so many everyday English words like music, cinema, cake, marmalade, democracy, juvenile, etc, are of foreign origin.
Even ‘et cetera’ - commonly abbreviated as ‘etc’ and which means ‘and the rest’ or ‘others like it’ - comes from Latin.
According to some estimates, 80% of the English language (with a vocabulary exceeding 1 million) is made up of words borrowed from other languages.
In addition, English contains words borrowed from an astonishing 350 other languages.
This openness to vocabulary, along with the gradual evolution of the language, is why English has so many words that are not pronounced the way they are spelled.
For the purpose of clarity, we have classified this list of non-phonetic English words according to various rules and patterns of pronunciation.
We also cover words that are not necessarily non-phonetic but still have variable or multiple pronunciations.
Let’s dive right in.
These words contain letters that are not pronounced. For instance, the letter ‘k’ is not pronounced in words such as ‘knife’, ‘knee’, know’, and ‘knight’.
Here are other examples:
B: doubt, comb, plumber, thumb, subtle.
C: muscle, scissors, fascinate, descent, obscene.
G: sign, sigh, reign, foreign, design, align.
H: honest, vehicle, ghost, chemical, echo.
L: almond, salmon, behalf, walk, would.
P: receipt, pseudo, psychology, pneumonia.
T: castle, whistle, gourmet, depot, buffet, debut.
W: write, wrong, wrist, wrangle, wrap, wrinkle.
X: faux, faux pas.
Groups of consonants in some English words are not pronounced as they are spelled.
Take the consonant group ‘gh’ and how it is pronounced in different words.
Though: pronounced ‘th-oh’.
Through: ‘throo’.
Thought: ‘th-awt’.
Ghost: ‘goh-st’.
Enough: ‘en-uff’.
The same happens with the ‘ph’ group of consonants.
Graph: pronounced ‘graf’.
Phone: ‘fone’.
Philosophy: ‘fee-los-o-fee’.
Here are some instances of the same phenomenon with the ‘wr’ group of consonants.
Write: pronounced ‘ryt’.
Wrong: ‘rong’.
Wrist: ‘rist’.
These words retain their historical pronunciation even though their spellings have changed.
For instance:
Colonel: pronounced ‘ker-nul’.
Lieutenant: ‘lef-ten-ant’.
Choir: ‘kwire’
Debris: ‘deb-ree’.
League: ‘leeg’.
Queue: ‘cue’.
Bologna: ‘bello-nee’.
Here are some non-phonetic English words listed according to the language or origin.
Café: pronounced ‘ka-fay’.
Cliché: ‘clee-shay’.
Chauffeur: ‘show-fur’.
Fiancé: ‘fee-ahn-say’.
Attaché: ‘ata-shay’.
Pizza: pronounced ‘peet-sa’.
Pizzeria: ‘pit-se-ria’.
Ballet: ‘bal-ay’.
Cliché: ‘klee-shay’.
Chaos: pronounced ‘kay-os’.
Psychology: ‘sy-kuh-luh-jee’.
Pseudonym: ‘soo-duh-neem’.
Cemetery: ‘sem-uh-tree’.
Cynic: ‘sin-ik’.
Some words have multiple pronunciations depending on accents and regional variations.
Either: pronounced as both ‘ee-thur’ and ‘ai-thur’.
Neither: ‘nee-thur’, ‘nai-thur’.
Schedule: ‘sked-yool’ (US English), ‘shed-yool’ (UK English).
Data: ‘day-tuh’, ‘da-tuh’.
Tomato: ‘tuh-may-toh’ (US), ‘tuh-maa-toh’ (UK).
Leisure: ‘lee-zhur’, ‘leh-zhur’.
Zebra: ‘zee-bruh’ (US), ‘zeb-ruh’ (UK).
Some words are pronounced differently based on whether they are used as nouns or verbs.
For instance:
The following words are spelled exactly alike yet pronounced differently.
Lead: verb - to guide, ‘leed’; noun - a metal, ‘led’.
Read: present tense, ‘reed’; past tense, ‘red’.
Tear: noun - a drop from the eye, ‘tee-er’; verb - to rip apart, ‘tay-ur’.
Bow: noun - a stringed weapon, ‘boe’; verb - to bend forward, ‘bau’.
Sow: noun - a female pig, ‘sau’; verb - to plant seeds, ‘soe’.
Here are a few more English words that break the rules of pronunciation for unknown reasons.
Yacht: pronounced ‘yot’.
Yolk: ‘yoke’.
Gauge: ‘gayj’.
Fuschia: ‘fyoo-sha’.
Mischief: ‘mis-chif’.
Supercede: ‘soo-per-seed’.
Biscuit: ‘bis-kit’.
Sleight: ‘slite’.
Indict: ‘in-dite’.
Epitome: ‘eh-pit-uh-mee’.
The English language is full of subtle nuances not only in terms of its pronunciation but also its grammar, sentence construction, slang, contractions, and colloquialisms.
At Immigo, we understand how difficult it can be for Spanish speakers to navigate these ins and outs of the language.
That’s why our platform provides a science-based immersive learning environment that helps you learn faster and speak with more confidence.
Whether it be through conversations with peers or real-time feedback from top language experts.
Reach out to Immigo today to start speaking English like a native speaker.
