(8) The ay sound with eigh and aigh:
(^) Note that straight is the only word in this group that uses the ai spelling.
There are additional words that contain the gh spelling:
(^) Note that the Indian word dingi later gained an unnecessary h. The words ghost, ghastly, and aghast
were originally spelled goost, gastly, and agast.
Fortunately, some changes are slowly beginning to appear. The h has been dropped from three of the
nine words listed above:
(^) In the igh group, the spellings brite, flite, lite, and nite are now widely used in advertizing and in trade
names. In time, this spelling will be in general use.
NOTES:
(1) In the ough group, the new spellings tho, altho, and thoro are now minimally acceptable and often
used.
(2) Boro in place of borough is quite common in placenames.
(3) Doughnut is almost always spelled donut.
(4) Beseeched is now more commonly used than besought.
(5) The spelling thru is quite popular. It is widely used on road signs and in the transportation industry
and on restaurants that offer a “drive-thru.” Although it has been around for over one hundred years,
it has not yet been fully accepted.
(6) The word plough has been replaced by plow.
(7) The awkward word drought is pronounced in a number of interesting ways. The most common are
drout and drouth.
(8) In the f group, the board game of draughts is called checkers in North America and the word draught
is now spelled draft.