Why doesn't charcoal sound like "Karcoal"? [closed]
Solution 1:
Well, the word "character" comes from Greek, and in words that come from Greek, "ch" is usually pronounced like "k".
According to Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary, the origin of the word "charcoal" is not known with certainty; he says it comes either from Old French or Old English. In any case, "charcoal" certainly doesn't come from Greek, so it's not pronounced like it is in words of Greek origin. It simply uses the usual pronunciation of "ch".