Read it like a native · English
Worcestershire is “WUUS-tə-shər.”
English spelling records how words sounded centuries ago and where they came from, not how they sound now. Fluent readers carry a few dozen patterns and a list of famous exceptions. Here are both.
Video lesson in preparation.
Place names that shrink
British place names were worn down by centuries of speech while the spelling stayed put. The trick is to drop the middle.
Worcestershire
Sounds like: “WUUS-tə-shər”
Worcestershire sauce
Worcester is “WUUS-tə”; the county ending -shire is a quick “shər.”
-cester
Sounds like: “-stər”
Leicester (LES-tər), Gloucester (GLOS-tər)
-wich
Sounds like: “-ich” or “-idge”
Greenwich (GREN-ich), Norwich (NOR-idge)
-mouth
Sounds like: “-məth”
Portsmouth, Plymouth
In Britain; in the US, Portsmouth often keeps the full “mouth.”
One spelling, many sounds
English kept spellings from many eras and many languages, so some letter teams have several sounds. Learn the common words by heart.
ough
Sounds like: six sounds
though (oh), through (oo), tough (uff), cough (off), bough (ow), thought (aw)
silent k · w · b
Sounds like: not said
knee, know, write, wrong, lamb, doubt
silent gh · l · p
Sounds like: not said
night, walk, talk, salmon, psychology
magic e
Sounds like: a final e makes the vowel say its name
hop → hope, kit → kite, cut → cute
Stress and the schwa
English rhythm comes from stressed syllables. Most unstressed vowels shrink to a quick “uh,” the schwa (ə).
the schwa
Sounds like: a quick “uh”
banana (bə-NA-nə), about (ə-BOUT), sofa (SO-fə)
The most common vowel in English, and it has no letter of its own.
noun or verb
Sounds like: the stress moves
a REcord / to reCORD, a PREsent / to preSENT
word families
Sounds like: the stress travels
PHOtograph, phoTOgraphy, photoGRAphic
What the spelling remembers
English spelling is a museum. Its odd letters record sounds that were once said, the Romans, the Vikings, the Normans and the scholars who passed through, and where a word was borrowed from.
-chester, -cester, -caster
From Latin castra, a Roman army camp. A town with this ending usually began as a Roman fort.
Manchester · Winchester · Leicester · Gloucester · Worcester · Lancaster
The same Latin family gives castle, and French château.
kn- and -gh-
Once pronounced. German, a close cousin, still says them.
knight / German Knecht · night / German Nacht
ph, ch = k, psy-
Usually a word borrowed from Greek.
photograph (φῶς, light) · chorus, chaos · psychology (ψυχή, soul)
Letters added by scholars
Renaissance writers added letters to show a Latin origin. They were never said.
debt ← debitum · doubt ← dubitare · island (the s came from Latin insula by mistake)
Recordings in preparation: every example read aloud, slowly and then at speed.
Play it
Read this aloud three times: as a BBC newsreader, as a New York cab driver, and as yourself.
Though the night was tough, I thought I’d walk through Leicester and Worcester with a bowl of salmon and a bottle of Worcestershire sauce.
Check yourself
1. How is Worcestershire usually said?
2. Leicester sounds like…
3. Which ough sounds like “off”?
4. In “to reCORD,” the stress is on…
Keep it
Add these patterns to your review cards.
Next: German, where spelling is far more regular (in preparation). Spot an error? hello@agbalumolove.com.