The complexities of the English Alphabetic Code
* One sound (phoneme) can be represented by one, two, three or four letters:
e.g. /a/ apple /k/ duck /igh/ night /ai/ eight
* One sound can be represented by multiple spelling alternatives (graphemes):
e.g. /oa/: yo-yo oak bow oboe rope ough plateau shoulder
* One grapheme can represent multiple sounds:
e.g. 'ough': /oa/ though /or/ thought long /oo/ through /ou/ plough schwa /uh/ thorough