wh This combination of letters has some eccentric rules.

1. In words such as who the W is silent and the word gets pronounced as Hu. In the word whole the W is also silent, and it gets pronounced as hole.
2. In what, where, when, why, wheat, whence, whack, whim, white, wheel, whine, whip, whet, whit and others the H is silent. Thus whine gets pronounced exactly as wine, whet as wet, whit as wit, wheel as weal, whence as wince, whey as way and so forth.

qu This combination of letters has some quixotic pronunciations.

1. In quick, question, quail, quarrel, quest, quell, quit, quiet, and many others qu gets pronounced as KW.
2. But queue gets pronounced the same as cue and quay as key. Don't ask why. Also some new words with Q now leave off the U after the Q.

ck The CK combination mostly gets pronounced as just a K with the C having no voice.

1. Thus check is pronounced a chek, peck as pek, mock as mok, and others.

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