Learn English – How to guess the pronunciation of some inconsistencies in English

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I’m not a native English speaker, and I have a lot of problems when is comes to pronouncing words like archive, archon, zealot, heal, health.

Why is the ch sometime pronounced like a k?

Why is the ea sometime pronounced like a French i or è?

Are there rules to follow when it comes to pronouncing these words, or do we just need to know them?

Edit

This question is not a duplicate — sorry if I was not clear. I was not looking for an history course; I wanted rules or tips to help myself when it comes to pronounce these words. @brick's comment was pertinent.

I found something in Wikipedia that might be interesting English spelling for this question. But after looking at all these rules and exceptions, I understand why everyone fallback to the easy answer that you just have to know how it is pronounced.

Best Answer

Quite often, it helps to know the history or origin of a word. You wonder why "ch" is sometimes pronounced "k". This is often the case for words of Greek origin (archive, chronological). Sometimes it is pronounced like "sh". This is usually true of words originating from French (chamois, ricochet).

The "rules" of English spelling are fluid to say the least. Don't worry if you get it wrong, especially with words borrowed from other languages.