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‑ought or ‑aught?

For a long time, I’ve had trouble spelling English words that end in -ought and -aught.

So I made a big list. Most of these words are past participles.

-ought

  • buy > bought
  • bring > brought
  • fight > fought
  • seek > sought
  • think > thought
  • work > wrought†

-aught:

  • catch > caught
  • distract > distraught†
  • teach > taught

Notice a pattern?

†These past participles are based on older forms.

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This entry was posted on May 8, 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “‑ought or ‑aught?”

  1. Hi, interest post. I’ll write you later about few questions!

  2. [...] British government has just cought caught on to this confusion and is now asking teachers to stop using this [...]

  3. What do you think about my project of simplified English spelling? http://inglishspelling.wordpress.com/why-reform-english-spelling/ According to my system, words in -aught and -ought would all be spelled with -aut (braut, caut, taut, etc.)

    As for your other post “I before E, except in all these words”, I suggest spelling such words with an ee (except words ending in -eing): ceeling, receeve, seeze, etc.

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