English Pronunciation is Fun!

I take it you already know
Of tough [tʌf] and bough [baʊ] and cough [kɒf] and dough [doʊ]?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough [ˈhɪkʌp], thorough [ˈθʌrə ‖ ˈθʌroʊ], slough [slʌf ‖ slaʊ ‖ sluː], and through [θruː].
Well don’t! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.
Beware of heard [hɜːrd], a dreadful word
That looks like beard [bɪəd] but sounds like bird [bɜːrd].
And dead [ded]: it’s said like bed [bed], not bead [biːd],
For goodness sake don’t call it deed [diːd]!
Watch out for meat [miːt] and great [ɡreɪt] and threat [θret]
(They rhyme with suite [swiːt] and straight [streɪt] and debt [det]).
A moth [mɒːθ] is not a moth as in mother [ˈmʌðər]
Nor both [boʊθ] as in bother [bɒðər], nor broth [brɒːθ] as in brother [ˈbrʌðər],
And here [hɪə] is not a match for there [ðeə],
Nor dear [dɪə] and fear [fɪə], for bear [beə] and pear [peə].
And then there’s dose [doʊs] and rose [roʊz] and lose [luːz]—
Just look them up—and goose [ɡuːs] and choose [ʧuːz]
And cork [kɔːrk] and work [wɜːrk] and card [kɑːrd] and ward [wɔːrd]
And font [fɒnt] and front [frʌnt] and word [wɜːrd] and sword [sɔːrd]
And do [duː] and go [ɡoʊ], then thwart [θwɔːt] and cart [kɑːrt],
Come, come! I’ve hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Why man alive!
I learnt to talk it when I was five.
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn’t learnt it at fifty-five.