How to pronounce "ch" in English words

The digraph “ch” can be pronounced in four different ways in English. How can this be possible?

Though it is a Germanic language, English has borrowed words from many other languages that it's been in contact with through the centuries, but most influences come from French and the classic languages Greek and Latin.

English letters and letter combinations of Greek origin or influence

While most words that contain ch are pronounced with the / tʃ / sound (like in church), many words that come from French still retain their original pronunciation in a way. That explains why words like chic or champagne are pronounced with a sh-like sound (phonetically /ʃ /).

In this video you can hear many of these words.

On the other hand, words coming from Greek retain the /k/ sound, as they were said by the Greek and the Romans as well. Some well known examples are: architect, orchestra, choir,... and of course, the many words related to medicine that come from Greek and are used in most modern European languages.

Listen to many of these words in this video. If you want to read a thorough list of these words follow this link.





Well, that makes three different sounds: /tʃ /, /ʃ / and /k/, and I said four different sounds. Which is the last one? The sound / χ /, which sounds like a strong aspirated /h/ and is used in Scottish words of Gaelic origin such as loch /loχ/ (lake), which is written lough in Ireland.

For a complete chart with all the phonemes of English, follow this link.