Quick Tip #7: The Greek "CH"

These days the Greek seem to be hogging the limelight on the news, whether it be on TV, newspapers or magazines, we’ve all seen how Greek politicians are in the spotlight. So it’s time they put in an appearance here on Keep Smiling English, too. However, what brings them to this blog today is not their political situation, but one of the many aspects of their language that they were kind enough to pass on, which is what I like to call the Greek «CH».

Before I give away all the information, I’d like you to read the following words aloud or pronounce them in your head a couple of times:

echo   –   character   –   school   –   choir   –   chemistry

How did you pronounce the «ch» in all of them? Did you use a /tʃ/ as in «church» or a /k/ as in «car»? If you used a /k/ sound in all of them, you’re a pronunciation star! None of the words above contain a /tʃ/ sound because they have the Greek «CH». This is normally when the «ch» is pronounced /k/ because its pronunciation (not the spelling!) has been inherited from Greek.

Now, I would like you to try the following quiz where you have to choose between these two possible pronunciations (/tʃ/ or /k/) for the different words that appear at the top. Let’s see how well you can do!

How many did you get right? I bet there were a couple of tough (= difficult) ones!

However, you might be wondering: «well, who the hell knows for sure if a «ch» word has a Greek origin or not?«, and you are right to wonder. Unless you’re a Greek culture and language expert like my sister-in-law, you are going to have to learn the pronunciation of these words by heart (= memorise). But the thing is that the list is not that long, so every time you come across a new one, just write it down and make sure you practise it. Maybe you can even use a different colour to write the «ch«. If you do something like this, you’ll have no trouble learning them one by one, step by step.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my support for the Greek people, who are undoubtedly in a difficult situation. But remember the saying, when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and this is something the Greek seem to be living up to these days.

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