Advanced Details: The vowel sounds in thought, tough, through, and though

The combination “ough” in English does not have a single pronunciation; it can be pronounced in several ways, including as

• /ɔː/ in “thought” (like aw in “caught”)
• /ɒf/ or /ʌf/ in “tough”
• /uː/ in “through” (like oo in “too”)
• /oʊ/ in “though” (like oh in “go”)

Because there are so many variations and no definitive rules, you must learn the pronunciation for each word individually.