An Amusing Scene From ‘I Love Lucy’ Shows the Inconsistency of English Words Ending in O-U-G-H

An amusing scene from the classic television series I Love Lucy shows the inconsistency of the English language, particularly when it comes to words ending in “O-U-G-H”.

While awaiting the birth of their first child, Lucy asks husband Ricky to read a child’s book aloud. Ricky, whose first language is Spanish, does very well until he comes to the words “bough”, “rough” “through”, and “cough”. Each is spelled similarly but pronounced very differently. This can be a difficult concept to understand when learning English for the first time and rightfully, Ricky is a bit confused and frustrated.

I’ve had enough. Or should I say “enu”?

This scene is less about making fun of Ricky’s grasp of the English language but of the grammatical rules governing the language instead.

via Miss Cellania