Clear English - Page 24

Strange Spelling and Pronunciation Items - Page 5

Words Ending in GUE In all words except one the UE is silent.
  1. These words include: analogue, catalogue, colleague, league, dialogue, epilogue, fatigue, tongue, plague, intrigue, monologue, morgue, prologue, rogue, travelogue, vague and vogue.
  2. The one exception is dengue which is pronounced as "deng-ge." Dengue is a high fever disease caused by mosquitos and generally known as dengue fever.
Words Ending in TIAL
  1. There are some 118 of these.
  2. In most of these the TIAL gets pronounced as SHEL. These include deferential, credential, essential, experiential, initial, partial, martial, potential and many others.
  3. In those with an S in front of the TIAL the TIAL gets pronounced as CHOL. These include bestial and celestial.
Words Ending in CANT and CENT
  1. There are about 50 ending with CENT. In these the CENT gets pronounced as SENT.
  2. These include accent, adjacent, cent, ascent, decent, docent, innocent, iridescent, lucent, nascent, percent, recent, relucent, reticent, translucent and others.
  3. There are about 30 ending in CANT. In these the CANT gets pronounced as KANT or KENT.
  4. Those getting pronounced as KANT include cant, decant, descant, recant, and scant.
  5. Those getting pronounced as KENT include indicant, intoxicant, lubricant, peccant, significant, secant, and vacant.
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