A couple of years ago on a flight, Tony Buzan and I were duelling with puzzles. He stumped me when he asked me what a 'ghoti' was.

Apparently, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was reportedly fond of pointing out the
absurdities of spelling by proving that ‘fish’ could be spelt ‘ghoti’. That is:
‘gh’ as in ‘rough’, ‘o’ as in ‘women’ and ‘ti’ as in palatial.

I came across this puzzle again when I picked up the new edition of "The Reading Bug... and how to help your child catch it" by Paul Jennings. This is a great book for parents with kids who haven't yet discovered the joy of reading.

In the book, Paul has a slightly different version of the old joke amongst teachers - ghote spells fish.

The f comes from gh as in tough, the i sound comes from the o in women, the sh sound from the t in nation and the e is silent as in tame.

What are your favourite phonic puzzles?