My teacher has a sign in his room that says:
The English Language is a Challenge: This is why “Fish” can be spelled “Pheti”!
Is this true or is just to confuse students?
Answer
StoneyB is absolutely correct in that Pheti is a joke, a play on the idiosyncrasies of the English spelling and pronunciation but it doesn’t end there. In fact, it should arouse a phonic and phonemic awareness in the reader or student reading that word. As it appears to have done so with you.
In order to pronounce this word as “fish” /fɪʃ/, you need be familiar with some of the so-called conventional spelling guidelines.
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ph
is often pronounced as /f/. For example; photos; photocopier; elephant /ˈelɪfənt/. -
e is sometimes pronounced as /ɪ/. For example; England, women /ˈwɪmɪn/. N.B. See how the letter o is pronounced in the same way!
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ti is sometimes pronounced as /ʃ/. For example; inflation /ɪnˈfleɪʃən/; station /ˈsteɪʃən/.
Note that in all the examples I said “is sometimes pronounced” because as nearly everyone knows by now, there are no fixed rules in English spelling or pronunciation.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Young Guilo , Answer Author : Mari-Lou A
