OK, so "tough" is undeniably proounced "tuff", the "-ough" suffix here being "uff". What should we infer from this? To one way of thinking, the "-ough" suffix

OK, so "tough" is undeniably proounced "tuff", the "-ough" suffix here being "uff". What should we infer from this? To one way of thinking, the "-ough" suffix is "uff"... well, mostly... and this says nothing about (say) "gh" as a prefix, which has its own rules. But to another, clearly "gh" can sometimes be pronounced "f"; and, since we have "tough" and "bough", by extension we can assume nothing from (say) "ghost". Either way, whatever you think of "ghoti", "bough" vs "tough" is (in my view) enough to demonstrate that the current state of affairs is what you might well spell "er kluctureghoucc".