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.

Explore Our Learning Zones
Select a destination below to jump directly to our interactive digital games or our curated, ready-to-print activity sheets.

Learning Destination	What You'll Find Inside	Best For
The Digital Arcade	Interactive online games with high-clarity voice audio, immediate corrective feedback, and live score tracking.	Independent tablet or computer time, smartboard group lessons.
Printable Worksheet Hub	Clean, beautifully structured matching sheets, trace-and-write builders, and phonics anchor charts.	Fine motor practice, offline homework, physical classroom centers.

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.

• Show Video

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.

• Show Video

Phonics with Silent GH and GH that Sounds Like F

• Show Video

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

Check out our most popular games!
Fraction Concoction	Fact Family Game	Number Bond Garden
Online Addition Subtraction Game	Penguin Solitaire	Sawayama Solitaire
Ark Solitaire	Eldritch Invasion	Shenzhen Solitaire

Check out more Solitaire games here.

We welcome your feedback, comments and questions about this site or page. Please submit your feedback or enquiries via our Feedback page.