He reads aloud the word ‘cough’, and is told the ‘ough’ rhymes with ‘off’. Then he reads ‘bough’ as ‘boff’, and is told it should be ‘bow’. Then he pronounces ‘through’ as ‘throw’ and is told the ‘ough’ is pronounced ‘oo’. He goes through the same confusion with the words ‘thought’ (where ‘ough’ is pronounced ‘aw’), ‘tough’, where it’s pronounced ‘uff’, and ‘though’ where it’s supposed to come out as an ‘oh’. And this is the same four letters, ‘ough’, that’s pronounced six different ways! Arnaz gives up in frustration—and many an unwary learner of the English language might do so too.
