BEFORE WE DIVE IN
Hi there,
I’d like you to say the following word out loud:
Enough.
Very good. Now moving on please say this word:
Women.
Thanks. And finally, please say this:
Nation.
Lovely, thanks for playing along.
Done correctly you would have pronounced those words in the following way:
Enough /inof/ → the gh sounds like f
Women /uimen/ → the o sounds like i
Nation /neishon/ → the ti sounds like sh
So, according to one famous English joke:
GH = F
O = I
TI = SH
Which means…
GH + O + TI = FISH
Or, in other words:
“Ghoti” should be pronounced “fish.”
(No, this is not a real word)
Of course, this is a joke.
You cannot just take one sound from one word, another sound from another word, and create a new pronunciation rule.
That is not how English works.
But the joke feels true because English spelling and pronunciation often don’t match.
And for Spanish speakers, this can be especially frustrating.
In Spanish, pronunciation is usually much more predictable.
In English, you need to learn the patterns, not just trust the spelling.
That is the real lesson.
English is not always logical.
But it is learnable.
And when you start seeing the patterns behind the confusion, English becomes clearer.
Pronunciation is the most difficult piece of the English puzzle
This week’s three tips:
SOMETHING TO AVOID 🫣
🤦🏻♀️ “It’s pronounced how it’s written”
Don’t say this. A more natural sentence is:
✅ “It’s pronounced the way it’s written”
Or:
It’s pronounced exactly as it’s spelled.
Spanish is usually pronounced the way it’s written. English definitely isn’t.
SOMETHING TO SOUND CONFIDENT 🧐
👔 Business expressions
“There’s no one-size-fits-all rule”
This means there is not one single rule, method, or solution that works in every situation.
There’s no one-size-fits-all rule for English pronunciation. You need to understand the pattern, the context, and sometimes the history of the word.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for managing a team. Different people need different approaches
SOMETHING TO WATCH 📺
NEXT STEPS ➡️
Keep learning,
Jack & Krystallo
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