NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 3 My Brother's Great Invention — Let us speak

Book page 105 & 106 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

I Read the following sentences from the text: 'As usual, I had to be involved, though I'd have preferred to finish my novel.' / '"We're old enough to look after ourselves, Ma," I said.' The word 'though' is pronounced to rhyme with the word 'low'. The word 'enough' is pronounced to rhyme with the word 'puff'. Now, work in pairs. Pronounce these words out loud and put them in the correct boxes given below (bough, dough, through, cough, thought, plough): Sounds like 'oo' / Sounds like 'off' / Sounds like 'o' / Sounds like 'ow' / Sounds like 'aw'. Share more words that sound similar to the words in the table.

Answer

Sounds like 'oo'	Sounds like 'off'	Sounds like 'o'	Sounds like 'ow'	Sounds like 'aw'
through (rhymes with 'shoe')	cough (rhymes with 'off')	dough (rhymes with 'low')	bough, plough (rhyme with 'now')	thought (rhymes with 'sort')

More words for each box:

Box	More words
'oo'	throughout, breakthrough, slough (of a snake's skin)
'off'	trough
'o'	though, although, furlough, doughnut
'ow'	drought, doughty
'aw'	bought, brought, fought, ought, sought, nought, wrought, thoughtful

Why it happens: English spelling was fixed by printers about five hundred years ago, but the sounds kept changing afterwards. The letters –ough once stood for a throaty sound (like the kh in khush) which then softened in different ways in different words. The spelling stayed; the pronunciation did not. That is why though, through, tough, cough, bough and thought share four letters and share no sound at all.

Check it yourself: There is a sixth sound too — tough, rough, enough all rhyme with 'puff'. Add that as a bonus box in your notebook.

Q2.

II Read the story given below aloud. Check the correct pronunciation with the teacher. 'In spite of a nagging cough, the woman continued working in her farm, right through the rough weather. She filled up the trough with water for her cows and ploughed the fields to plant the seeds. She then plucked some raw mangoes from a low bough of a mango tree to make a spicy chutney. Though the day had been tough, she smiled peacefully as she had already prepared dough to make enough rotis for dinner.'

Answer

Read the passage slowly first, marking every –ough word with the box it belongs to, then read it again at normal speed. Here is the key you need:

Word in the passage	Say it like…	Rhymes with
cough	kof	off
through	throo	shoe
rough, tough, enough	ruf, tuf, i-nuf	puff
trough	trof	off
ploughed	plowd	crowd
bough	bow	now
Though, dough	tho, do	low

Tip: Pause at every comma and drop your voice at every full stop. Reading aloud is not reading fast — a listener needs about three words per second to follow you comfortably.

Q3.

III Now try saying this tongue twister fast as many times as you can clearly. 'The boy with the tough dough on the rose bough fell in the trough and caught a cough.'

Answer

Break the twister into its five sound groups before you speed up:

tough → tuf (puff)
dough → do (low)
bough → bow (now)
trough → trof (off)
cough → kof (off)

Say it three times very slowly, keeping each vowel different. Then say it three times at half speed, then at full speed. Accuracy first, speed afterwards — the point of the exercise is that the five spellings must not collapse into one sound.

Try This: Time yourself with a partner. One person says it five times while the other counts every slip. Swap and compare.

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