搞定最容易混淆的英语单词!

English students at any level will no doubt discover that English has an extremely “interesting,”but often times confusing spelling system. Here are some weird English words that you need to watch out for when studying, along with some patterns that will help you understand English spelling a little better and improve your writing skills.

不论是哪个级别的英语学生无疑都会发现英语中有一个非常“有趣”、但更多时候是让人感到困惑的拼写体系。在学习的过程中，你需要注意一些奇怪的英语词汇，加上一些格式将有助于你更好地理解英文拼写以及提高你的写作技巧。

The amount of words with unusual spellings is almost impossible to count,but let’s go over some important spelling patterns and anomalies that you will need to know to get a firm grasp of the English writing system.

拼写不规则的单词数量几乎难以数计，让我们再温习一下一些重要的拼写格式和你需要了解的不规则拼写情形，才能更牢固地掌握英语写作体系。

Through,Dough, Enough

Through（通过）,Dough（生面团）,Enough（足够）

Now,this is a very interesting case. All three of these words clearly use the “ough” suffix,and as you probably know the sound of the word isn’t pronounced like the g of giraffe.

这是一个非常有趣的例子。所有这三个单词显然都使用了ough 这个

后缀，你或许知道这些单词中gh的发音与giraffe（长颈鹿）中的g 不同。

But what makes the spellings of these words even weirder is that each of these words has a completely different pronunciation, even though they all end with “ough’. You would think all these words should rhyme, but in reality they actually sound quite different from each other.

但是，让这些单词的拼写显得更为奇怪是每一个词语都有着完全不同的发音，尽管他们都以ough结尾。可能你认为所有这些单词都应该押韵，但实际上，他们的发音听起来完全不同。

Through(Throo) The road passes through a valley.

这条路从一个山谷中穿过。

Dough(Doe)You need dough in order to make bread.

你需要揉面团来做面包。

Enough--(Enuf) I have enough sodas for everyone at the party.

我为宴会上的每一位客人都备足了苏打水。

Plateau,Bureau, Gateau

Plateau（稳定时期、高原）,Bureau（局、处）,Gateau（奶油蛋糕）Here is another set of interesting spellings. The part that confuses a lot of English students is the combination of two vowels to form eau, and how to correctly pronounce it. Now, here’s something intriguing: If you put these three vowels together, they end up sounding like a 4th

vowel (o).

这是另一组有趣的拼写。这部分内容中让很多英语学生混淆的是两个元音的组合eau、以及如何正确发音。其中有一点非常有趣：如果你把这三个元音放在一起，他们最终的发音听起来像第四个元音(o)。Plateau(Plaat-o) The peace process had reached a plateau.

这个和平进程已经到了一个稳定时期。

Bureau(Byur-o) I work at the National Bureau of Statistics.

我在国家统计局工作。

Gateau(Gaat-o) My grandmother made me a chocolate gateau for my birthday.

奶奶为我的生日做了一个巧克力奶油蛋糕。

Xylophone,Xenophobia

Xylophone（木琴）,Xenophobia（仇外）

The main feature of these words is the x consonant at the beginning of each word. X alone has a sound more similar to the sound eks,but when it is put in front of words, it usually makes the sound z.

这些词的主要特点是辅音x 位于每个单词的开头。X 本身的发音类似于eks，但当它被放置在单词首字母时，它通常发音为z。Xylophone(Zai-la-fone) I used to play the Xylophone when I was in high school.

我以前在高中时期常常玩木琴。

Xenophobia(Zee-na-fobe-eea) Xenophobia is a major issue that needs to

be addressed.

排外是一个急需解决的重大问题。

Doubt,Debt

Doubt（怀疑）,Debt（债务）

These words both end with a bt but instead of making a bit or bet sound when you read them aloud, the b is completely silent!

这两个单词都以bt结尾，但你在朗读时要注意b是完全不发音的，不要读成bit 或者bet 音。

Doubt (Dowt) I doubt his ability to do his job.

我怀疑他能否胜任他的工作。

Debt(Det)I’ve finally paid off all of my debts.

我终于还清了所有的债务。

Critique,Torque, Mosque

Critique（批评、评论）,Torque（扭矩）,Mosque（清真寺）

In this situation, the key understanding how que is pronounced. You might think it’s pronounced similar to the que in queen,but it really only creates a k sound at the end of a word:

在这种情况下，关键是了解que 要如何发音。你可能会认为它的发音与queen中的que 类似，但实际上在词尾它只产生一个k的音：Critique(Cri-teek)He has asked me to critique his artwork.

他要我评论他的作品。

Torque(Tork) The three-litre engine has lots of torque.

这个三升的发动机有很多的扭矩。

Mosque(Mosk)There is a beautiful green mosque inour city.

在我们城市有一座美丽的、绿色的清真寺。

Know,Knight, Knife

Know（知道）,Knight（骑士）,Knife（刀）

This is arguably the most odd spelling that English learners will encounter. When Kn is placed in front of a word, it almost always is read out as N and the letter K becomes silent.

这些大概是英语学习者将会遇到的最奇怪的拼写。当Kn放置在一个单词的词首时，它总是发音成N，而K不发音。

Know(No) I don’t know what this means.

我不知道这意味着什么。

Knight--(Nite) The knight left the castle to look for the princess.

骑士离开城堡去寻找公主。

Knife--(Nife)Please out the knife down[1] [2] .

请把刀放下。

Colonel,Island, Receipt

Colonel（陆军上校）,Island（岛屿）,Receipt（收据）

Now these three words are weird in their own unique ways:

Receipt is another example of a word with a silent letter (in this case the letter p)and this is similar to the words debt and doubt mentioned earlier. 这三个单词都有着他们自己独特的地方：

Receipt （收据）是不发音字母（在这个情形下，字母P）的又一个例子，这与之前提到的debt 和doubt情况类似。

Island also contains a silent letter, and this silent letter is s.

However,the weirdest of these three words is colonel. This is because colonel actually is pronounced quite differently than how it’s spelled; the olo part of colonel is pronounced as er!

Island（岛屿）也包含了一个不发音的字母s。然而。这三个单词中最奇怪的是colonel一词。这是因为colonel的发音实际上与它的拼写截然不同; colonel中的olo的部分发音为er！

Colonel(Kernal)He was a high ranking colonel in the navy.

他是一个排名很高的海军上校。

Island(I-land)Jamaica is a beautiful island in the Caribbean Sea.

牙买加是加勒比海上的一座美丽的岛屿。

Receipt(Reseet) I was given a receipt after I bought my groceries.

我买完食品杂货后拿到了一张收据。

Why do these words have weird spellings?

为什么这些词有着奇怪的拼法？

Briefly,English words have been borrowed from other languages, and have also kept their original spellings and pronunciations. In other words,

when you speak English, you often speak a couple words of French, Latin, Greek, some Arabic and many other languages.

简单地说，英语单词也借用了其他语言，并保留了他们原有的拼写规则和发音方式。换句话说，当你说英语时，你会经常说到法语，拉丁语，希腊语，阿拉伯语和许多其他语言中的一两个词汇。

When English borrows a word from another language, it’s often difficult to change its spelling to make it suitable with the language, and thus the word will maintain its spelling. Examples of this are bureau, plateau and gateau,which all have French origins and still maintain their French spellings.

当英语从其他语系中借用一个单词时，往往很难改变它的拼写规则使其适合自己的语言，所以这个词仍保持自己的拼写规则。这个情形下有很多例子：bureau, plateau 和gateau，它们都源自于法语，而且还保留着法语的拼写规则。

However,as a language evolves, the ways we speak words change, as well. For instance, in the case mentioned of knight and know,there once was a time when the K of these words was actually pronounced! But as spoken English changed,people decided to ignore the k sound in the front of these words, but this didn’t mean the spellings of these words changed. 然而，随着一个语言的发展，我们说单词的方式也在改变。例如，前面提到的knight和know，曾经有一段时间这些单词中的K 是发音的！但由于英语口语的改变，人们决定忽略单词词首K 的发音，可

这并不意味着这些词的拼写规则也改变。

There are often huge debates on the origins of various words, but that’s a topic for another day. The fact of the matter remains,English is a beautiful but complex language, and one of its major complexities is its spelling system.

对于大部分单词的起源历来有很大的争议，但那个话题我们改天再聊。现在事情的事实是，英语是一个美丽而复杂的语言，而其主要的复杂性之一就是它的拼写体系。

So how are you supposed to remember all these unusual spellings? Well, the short answer is, you just kind of have to know them! Just like in any other language, memorization is almost always the only way to remember anomalies. And try this:

因此，你应如何记住所有这些不寻常的拼写呢？好了，简单的回答就是，你一定要认识它们！就像任何其他的语言一样，熟记几乎是记住这些不规则拼写的唯一途径。请试一试：

1.Read as much as you can.

2.Write short passages.

3.Immerse yourself in the wealth of the vocabulary English has to offer.

1.尽可能多的阅读。

2.写写短文。

3.将自己沉浸在英语词汇所带来的财富中。

Spelling is no easy thing, but it is something that can easily be improved

upon if you have the motivation to practice every day.

If you know any other weird English words with really unusual spellings,make sure to leave a comment. Good luck!

拼写不是件容易的事情，但如果你有动力每天去练习，就能轻松地提高。如果你知道其他一些拼写不同寻常的英语单词，请务必留下评论。祝你们好运！