Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell fought

hear it/fɔt/verbSilent and tricky

What it means: Battled or struggled against someone or something.

In a sentence: The brave knight fought the dragon to save the village.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as faut or fout.

Same family: fighting, fighter, fights, fought over, fight back. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Fought” comes from Old English “feohtan,” meaning to fight, and developed its unusual -ought spelling through historical sound changes in Middle English. It is part of a small family of irregular verbs with similar patterns, like “bring–brought” and “think–thought.”

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