So you've got to be careful about the way you write down the words that are supposed to give people a rough and ready clue. So you say "ruff" instead of "rough" for that purpose, and "true" instead of "through". English isn't so irregular that it's too hard avoiding the kind of pitfall Mudguard points out.

And using some other more phonetically consistent language wouldn't really work for people who haven't a clue how its phonetics work. After all, I am assured that Welsh is a very regular language which doesn't have these problems...