List of Latin-script tetragraphs

This is a list of tetragraphs in the Latin script. These are most common in Irish orthography. For Cyrillic tetragraphs, see tetragraph.

Arrernte
Tetragraphs in Arrernte transcribe single consonants, but are largely predictable from their components.

$⟨kngw⟩$ represents.

$⟨rtnw⟩$ represents.

$⟨thnw⟩$ and $⟨tnhw⟩$ represent.

$⟨tnyw⟩$ represents.

English
The majority of English tetragraphs make vowel sounds:


 * $⟨aigh⟩$ represents, as in straight.


 * $⟨aire⟩$ represents in Received Pronunciation (RP), as in millionaire.


 * $⟨arre⟩$ can represent in RP, as in bizarre.


 * $⟨arrh⟩$ represents in RP, as in catarrh.


 * $⟨augh⟩$ can represent, as in caught.


 * $⟨ayer⟩$ can represent in RP, as in prayer.


 * $⟨ayor⟩$ represents in RP, as in mayor.


 * $⟨eigh⟩$ can represent three different sounds: as in weigh,  as in height, and  as in Leigh.


 * $⟨ough⟩$ has ten possible pronunciations, five of which make vowel sounds: as in drought,  as in bought,  as in though,  as in through, and  as in thorough.


 * $⟨ueue⟩$ represents, as in queue.


 * $⟨yrrh⟩$ represents in RP, as in myrrh.

There are four examples of vowel tetragraphs that are found only in proper nouns:


 * $⟨eare⟩$ represents in RP, as found in Shakespeare.


 * $⟨orce⟩$ represents in RP, as found in Worcestershire.


 * $⟨oore⟩$ represents in RP, as in Moore.


 * $⟨ughe⟩$ can represent, as in Hughes.

Three consonant tetragraphs exist in English that are more commonly sounded as two separate digraphs. However, when used in word-initial position they become one single sound:


 * $⟨chth⟩$ at the start of a word represents, as in chthonian.


 * $⟨phth⟩$ at the start of a word represents, as in phthisis.


 * $⟨shch⟩$ at the start of word represents as in shcherbakovite, a mineral named after Russian geochemist and mineralogist, Dmitri Ivanovich Shcherbakov. It is used as the transcription of the Cyrillic letter Щ and usually read as two separate digraphs,  as in pushchairs or  as in Pechishche, a place name in Belarus.

In word-final position, the French tetragraph $⟨cque⟩$ is sometimes used for in some loan words, such as sacque (an old spelling of sack).

French
$⟨illi⟩$ is pronounced in words such as joaillier and quincaillier (which can also be written as joailler and quincailler since 1990).

Additionally, trigraphs are sometimes followed by silent letters, and these sequences may be considered with tetragraphs:

$⟨cque⟩$ is pronounced in words such as grecque and Mecque, where the trigraph  is followed by the feminine suffix -e.

$⟨eaux⟩$ represents when the silent plural suffix -x is added to the trigraph ; e.g., oiseaux.

German
$⟨dsch⟩$ represents in loanwords such as Dschungel ("jungle"), Aserbaidschan ("Azerbaijan"), Tadschikistan ("Tajikistan"), Kambodscha ("Cambodia"), and Dschingis Khan ("Genghis Khan").

$⟨tsch⟩$ represents, which is a relatively common phoneme in German, appearing in words like deutsch ("German"), Deutschland ("Germany"), Tschechien ("Czech Republic"), and tschüss ("bye").

$⟨zsch⟩$ represents in a few German names such as Zschopau and Zschorlau.

Hmong
There are several sequences of four letters in the Romanized Popular Alphabet that transcribe what may be single consonants, depending on the analysis. However, their pronunciations are predictable from their components. All begin with the $⟨n⟩$ of prenasalization, and end with the $⟨h⟩$ of aspiration. Between these is a digraph, one of $⟨dl⟩$, $⟨pl⟩$ , $⟨ts⟩$ , or $⟨tx⟩$ , which may itself be predictable.

$⟨ndlh⟩$ represents.

$⟨nplh⟩$ represents.

$⟨ntsh⟩$ represents.

$⟨ntxh⟩$ represents.

Irish
Between two broad velarized consonants:


 * $⟨adha⟩$ and $⟨agha⟩$ represent.
 * $⟨abha⟩$, $⟨obha⟩$, $⟨odha⟩$ and $⟨ogha⟩$ represent ( in Donegal).
 * $⟨amha⟩$ represents.
 * $⟨omha⟩$ represents.
 * $⟨umha⟩$ represents.

Between two slender (palatalized) consonants:


 * $⟨eidh⟩$ and $⟨eigh⟩$ represent ( in Donegal).

Between a broad and a slender consonant:


 * $⟨aidh⟩$, $⟨aigh⟩$, $⟨oidh⟩$ and $⟨oigh⟩$ represent.

Between a slender and a broad consonant:


 * $⟨eabh⟩$ represents ( in Donegal).
 * $⟨eadh⟩$ represents ( in Donegal) and when unstressed word finally  ( in Mayo and Donegal).
 * $⟨eamh⟩$ represents and when unstressed word finally  in Mayo and Donegal.

Juǀʼhoan
The apostrophe was used with four trigraphs for click consonants in the 1987 orthography of Juǀʼhoan. The apostrophe is considered a diacritic rather than a letter in Juǀʼhoan.

$⟨dcgʼ⟩$ for

$⟨dçgʼ⟩$ for

$⟨dqgʼ⟩$ for

$⟨dxgʼ⟩$ for

Piedmontese
Piedmontese does not have tetragraphs. A hyphen may separate $⟨s⟩$ from $⟨c⟩$ or $⟨g⟩$, when these would otherwise be read as single sounds.

$⟨s-c⟩$ and $⟨s-cc⟩$ represent, to avoid confusion with the digraph $⟨sc⟩$ for.

$⟨s-g⟩$ and $⟨s-gg⟩$ are similarly used to represent.

Others
$⟨eeuw⟩$ and $⟨ieuw⟩$ are used in Dutch for the sounds and, as in sneeuw, "snow" and nieuw, "new". $⟨Uw⟩$ alone stands for, so these sequences are not predictable.

$⟨gqxʼ⟩$ is used in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the prevoiced affricate.

$⟨ngʼw⟩$ is used for in Swahili-based alphabets. However, the apostrophe is a diacritic in Swahili, not a letter, so this is not a true tetragraph.

$⟨nyng⟩$ is used in Yanyuwa to write a pre-velar nasal,.

$⟨s-ch⟩$ is used in the Puter orthographic variety of the Romansh language (spoken in the Upper Engadin area in Switzerland) for the sequence (while the similar trigraph $⟨sch⟩$ denotes the sounds  and ). It is not part of the orthography of Rumantsch Grischun, but is used in place names like S-chanf and in the Puter orthography used locally in schools again since 2011.

$⟨thsh⟩$ is used in Xhosa to write the sound. It is often replaced with the ambiguous trigraph $⟨tsh⟩$.

$⟨tth’⟩$ is used in various Northern Athabaskan languages for, the dental ejective affricate.