How would you pronounce "ghoti" and why does it show how difficult the English language is to learn?

Question

Not 'the hardest', I said difficult - apparently.

Answer 1

That's pronounced "fish".
Gh = f as in cough
o = i as in women
ti = sh as in nation.
It shows how ridiculous and complicated English
spelling can be. No consistency whatever!
For another gem of this type, try
"Phtholognyrrh".
Believe it or not, this is pronounced "Turner".
Phth= t as in phthisic
olo = ur as in colonel
gn = n as in gnat
yrrh = er as in myrrh.
Phugn, eh?

Answer 2

Fish

Gh - pronounced F from words like enough
O - pronounced I as in Women
Ti - pronounced Sh as in station

There is also a band I like called Ghoti Hook :-)

Also it proves that the English language can be a bit of a nightmare!

Answer 3

Probably along the same lines as (e.g.) PHYT = FISH
PHYsics FI
naTion SH
There are of course many other examples.
I have been told by a few non native English speakers, that English is fairly easy to learn. Problems begin with the written word.

Answer 4

"Ghoti" represents the word FISH.
gh, /f/ as in laugh, /læf, læːf, laːf/;
o, /ɪ/ as in women, /ˈwɪmɪn, ˈwɪmən/; and
ti, /ʃ/ as in nation, /ˈneɪʃən/.

The reason why it shows how the english language is difficult to be learnt is because its of the english orthography in constrast to its phonetics..in another sense everything spelt isn't always how it is pronouned and this is what phoneticians show.

Answer 5

An episode of I Love Lucy actually addressed this issue indirectly. When Lucy suggests to her husband Ricky (a Cuban immigrant) he should practice reading to their yet-to-be-born child, Ricky has a difficult time reading some words such as "rough", "tough", "boughs". When Lucy corrects him he gets frustrated and gives up, saying english is a crazy language.

Answer 6

This is an old chestnut.
The answer is fish;
f as in enough
i as in women
sh as in promotion.

English has some very odd pronunciation rules in relation to spelling but it's no harder than any other language in that sense.

Answer 7

Personally I would have pronounced it like goatee, however I believe that that one is meant to be pronounced like 'fish'. That in itself pretty much explains how screwed up our language is.

Answer 8

Fish gh=f sound - think about the word enough

Answer 9

i've seen this one ...

GH from "enough"
o form "women"
ti from "action"

put them together and they pronounce FISH

Answer 10

go - tee the english language is apparantly one of the hardest to learn, why ? i dont know sorry