A well-known poem on the difficulties of English pronunciation starts:
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, though, and through
Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, though, and through
And we might say that this applies just as much to spelling. Words with ough and augh are often cited as examples of our 'crazy' spelling system, and it's true that ough can have as many as seven or eight different sounds. But there aren't that many of these words, and they're quite easy to master.
