The GH Sound

The “gh” digraph is a combination of the letters “g” and “h” that can produce different sounds—or sometimes no sound at all!

1. Learn the Sounds of GH
   Sounds of the “gh” Digraph
   

• Silent “gh”
  In many words, the “gh” is silent.
  Examples: light, night, high, sight, right
  Rule of Thumb: “gh” is often silent when it comes after a vowel.
  Learn more about the silent gh

• “F” Sound
  In some words, the “gh” sounds like /f/.
  Examples: enough, laugh, tough, cough
  Rule of Thumb: “gh” makes the /f/ sound when it appears at the end of a syllable.

• Hard “g” Sound (Rare)
  In a few words, the “gh” makes a hard “g” sound.
  Examples: ghost, ghastly, ghoul

2. Examples of Words with GH
   The following diagram shows some examples of words with gh: F sound, G sound, and silent. Scroll down the page for more examples and solutions.
   
    
   

3. Songs and Rhymes
   Gh Songs: Use songs or create simple rhymes that emphasize the gh sounds.

Learn how to pronounce the GH sound
Learn how to pronounce the ‘gh’ sound in English. In this pronunciation lesson you will learn about the hard ‘g’ sound, silent ‘g’ sound, /f/ sound, and the compound noun sound.

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Learn about the digraph “gh”
A digraph is when two letter sounds or phonemes combine to make one sound or phoneme.
In some words the gh has the sound of f. Learn about the digraph gh as you listen to the f sound in words that contains the gh digraph.

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Phonics with Silent GH and GH that Sounds Like F

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4. Learn other Consonant Digraphs.

Consonant Digraphs
CH Sound	PH Sound	Soft TH
Hard TH	WH Sound	PH Sound
GH Sound	NG Sound	Consonant Digraphs

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