103 English words which have

different pronunciations in different contexts.

Most  just change stress; but those with –ate endings change their vowel length too.

Lead, read, tear;     bow, row, sow;     abuse, excuse, use, close, house;    mass bass;    

buffet, live, minute, mouth,  pasty,  Polish/ polish, pussy, second,  slough, wind, wound;

content,  frequent,  invalid,  perfect,  attribute,  commune,  compact,  compound,  concert,  conduct,  conflict,  conscript,  console,  consort,  construct,  contest,  contract,  contrast,  converse,  convert,  convict,  defect, desert,  digest,  discharge,  entrance,  escort,  export,  extract,  fragment,  impact,  incense,  insert,  object,  permit,  present,  produce,  progress,  project,  prospect,  protest,  rebel,  rebound,  recall,  record,  refund,  refuse,  reject,  relay,  subject,  survey,  suspect,  torment,  transfer,  transport; 

advocate,  alternate,  appropriate,  approximate, articulate,  associate,  co-ordinate,  degenerate,  delegate,  deliberate,  designate,  desolate,  dictate,  duplicate,  elaborate,  estimate,  graduate,  intimate,  laminate,  moderate, separate,    subordinate,  syndicate, triplicate.

 

 

Young children’s reading progress is most impeded by 190 very common words in which the which the spellings  a,  ea,  o,   o-e,  ou,  ow  and  oo  are not pronounced in their usual way, as shown below. All  common words with reading problems are listed after them.

A  after  all  an  and  answer  any  anyway  asked  at  bad  bag  bananas  band  basket  bath  call  calm  camp  can  can't  cash  castle  cat  catch  change  chap  chat  clamp  clap  class  crab  crash  dad  dancing  danger  drag  fall  family  fast  father  flag  flap  flat  glad  grab  had  half  hand  happy  hat  lamp  lap  last  many  mash  match  nasty  pass  past  pat  path  quack  rash  sand  sat  scratch  slam  snatch  splash  stamp  stranger  strap  tall  than  thank  that  trap  wall  wander  want  was  wash  watch  water 

Already  beach  beard  beast  beat  beautiful  bread  break  breakfast  breath  breathe  clean  cream  creature  dead  deaf  dear  dream  dreamt  each  ear  early  earn  earth  easy  eat   great   head  healthy  hear  heard  heave  heavy  instead  jealous  jeans  leap  leapt  learned  learnt  least  leave  meadow  mean  meant  measure  meat  near peach  peanut  please  reach  read / read  ready  real  scream  sea  seal  search  seat  speak  spread  steady  tea  teach  tear / tear   thread  treasure  wear  year

Another  block  both  box  brother  clock  clop  colour  cot  dog  don't  dot  flop  fog  fox  front  got  hot  job  jog  jot  lock  lost  lots  Monday  most  mother  nod  not  nothing  oh  once  only  other  plop  pop  pot  pots  programme  sock  somersault  son  spots  stop  strong  tongue  won  won’t  worried  worry

do  go  no  so  to  into onto  two  who  

Alone  above  broke  bone  choke  come  cone  covered  done  drove  gone  home joke love  loved  lovely  money  move  over  poke  pole prove  one  rode  rope  some  stone today tomorrow

About  blouse  bought  bounce  brought  cloud  could  country  couple  crouch  double  enough  famous  fought  found ground  group  house  loud  mountain  mouse  moustache  mouth  ouch out  pouch  rough  round  should shoulder shout  snout  sound  soup spout  thought  thousand  through  touch  tough  trouble  trousers  without  would  you  young         course  court  four favourite  flour  our  sour your

Blow  blown   bow / bow  brown  clown  cow  crow  crown  down  flown  frown  glow  grow  growl  grown  how  know  known  low  mow  mown  now  owl  own  row / row  show  shown  slow  snow  town  wow

Balloon  blood  boo  book  boot  coo  cook  door  droopy  flood  floor  food  foot  good  hook  hoop  hoot  kangaroo  look  mood  roof  room  root  school  shampoo  shook  soon  spoon  too  took  tooth  wood  wool  zoo