Irregular Spellings

Some words are not spelled as they sound and present problems for spellers. For example, the word said, which rhymes with led and fed, might be spelled as sed by beginning writers. The use of ai for the sound of short e is an irregular spelling. More words with irregular spellings are listed below.

Word	Pronunciation	Word	Pronunciation
ache	ayk	lawyer	LAW yur
acre	AY kur	light	lyt
again	uh GEN	machine	muh SHEEN
answer	AN sur	mother	MUHTH ur
antique	an TEEK	nymph	nihmf
any	EN ee	ocean	OH shun
because	bih KAWZ	of	uhv
become	bih KUHM	often	AW fun
been	bihn	once	wuhns
bologna	buh LOH nee	only	OHN lee
bridge	brihj	people	PEE pul
castle	KAS ul	phantom	FAN tum
catch	kach	pharaoh	FAY roh
chamois	SHAM ee	phrase	frayz
chaos	KAY AS	physical	FIHZ ih kul
circuit	SUR kiht	please	pleez
climb	klym	quote	kwoht
color	KUHL ur	recede	ree SEED
comfortable	KUHM fur tuh bul	rhyme	rym
could	cud	rough	ruhf
country	KUHN tree	said	sed
cycle	SYE kul	seize	seez
debut	day BYOO	should	shud
depot	DEE poh	straight	strayt
do	doo	sure	shur
does	duhz	they	thay
door	dor	thought	thawttuh
dumb	dorduhm	today	tuh DAY
earth	urth	trough	trawf
enough	ih NUHF	Tuesday	TUZ day
eyes	eyez	unique	yoo NEEK
father	FAH thur	vegetable	VEJ tuh bul
few	fyoo	victuals	VIHT lz
find	fynd	was	wuhz
friends	frendz	water	WAW tur
from	fruhm	Wednesday	WENZ day
height	hyt	were	wur
indict	ihn DYT	what	hwaht
journey	JUR nee	who	hoo
knee	nee	young	yuhng