#41 - The "ought" Word Family

You know, I don’t think we have ever devoted an entire podcast to pronunciation of words that are hard for English learners to pronounce and spell, am I correct?

You’re right!  So maybe we ought to do that today.

I agree that we ought to do that!

In fact, ought is one of those words that is challenging for learners to pronounce and spell.

Before we start, dear listener, we suggest that you get a pencil and paper so you can write the words that we will talk about in this episode. You can make a list of the words we talk about.

Ready?

So, we said that our first word is ought.  What does “ought” mean? 

We use the verb “ought” to talk about something that we have a duty to do…something that we should do. The children ought to respect their teachers. They should respect their teachers.
Got it!  How do you write ought ? Or…I can ask “How do you spell ought?"

Well, “ought” … has two sounds, right? And it rhymes with “got” and “got” is spelled g- o- t,  so ought should be spelled  “o” + “t” - “got" without the “g” sound, right? 

Bad news, English learners!    We spell ought “o-u-g-h-t “. Please write that down on your paper, dear listener.  What do we see?  We see lots of letters “u, g & h” that make no sound. It’s an “ought” word.

There are some other words that end with that combination of letters “o-u-g-h-t” that have  that same o + t sound.

Like a little family of ought words!  Let’s meet some other “ought words”

Let’s add a “b” in front of “ought” and we have bought – the past tense form of buy.

“I bought eggs and bread yesterday.” Did you add “bought“ to your list, dear listener?

Great! Now we have two “ought" words: ought and bought. Let’s meet another member of the “ought” word family.

 We’ll add a “th” in front of “ought” and we have “thought” t-h-o-u-g-h-t  – the past tense form of think.  "My mom thought it was too early to eat.”  Take a minute to write “thought” on your paper.

Now let’s add an “f”  before “ought” and we have  “fought”, the past tense form of “fight”. "The soldiers fought in the war." You can add “fought” to your list of ”ought” words.

Here’s one more frequently used word in the “ought” family .  Add a “br” to ought and we have brought – the past tense form of “bring” . "She brought her son to class with her. "

Get ready with your pencil; and paper and write down the “ought” word you hear in these sentences.

Only write the ”ought” word. You can look at the podcast narrative to check that you wrote the word correctly.

1.      The woman fought the man who tried to take her purse.

2.      I thought that he lived in Seattle.

3.      We brought some cookies to share.

4.      I ought to get to class earlier.

5.      Sarah bought a new car last weekend. 

 You have met 5 “ought “ words: “ought, bought, thought, fought and brought.” You can practice saying and spelling them until you feel sure about them. 

It was fun meeting the “ought” family. 

Look for more pronunciation and spelling podcasts in the future! 

Tacomaliteracy.org