✏️
Greek spellings: ph, ch, rh, ps and mn
photograph, chorus, rhythm, psychology.
Grades 6-12
The rule
Words English borrowed from Greek keep Greek letter patterns. Once you recognise them, a surprising number of hard words become predictable.
How it works
| ph says /f/ | photograph, physics, sphere, alphabet |
| ch says /k/ | chorus, chemistry, character, echo |
| rh says /r/ | rhythm, rhyme, rhinoceros |
| ps says /s/ | psychology, psalm, pseudonym |
| pn says /n/ | pneumonia, pneumatic |
| mn says /n/ | mnemonic |
| y as a vowel | gym, myth, system, symbol, hypothesis |
Watch out for
- The y is the giveaway: a y in the middle of a word usually signals Greek origin (synonym, physical, oxygen).
- French borrowings do the opposite with ch, which says /sh/: machine, chef, chandelier.
- This is why chlorophyll and psychiatry — both National Spelling Bee winning words — are spelled the way they are.