Decoding exercises: "ov"

The vowel in the sequence "ov" has several different pronunciations.

• /ɒ/: impoverish, novel, novice, ovulation, poverty, providence, sovereign
• /ʌ/: covenant, cover, discover, government, lover, oven, shovel, slovenly
• /əʊ/: bovine, jovial, nova, ovary, ovation, over, overt, ovoid, retrovirus
• /uː/: approval, movie, removal
• /ə/: controversial, extroverted, improvise, innovation, Muscovite, provide, provision, provocative

• with magic e

/əʊ/: clove, drove, stove

• with silent e

/uː/: approve, improve, move, prove

/ʌ/: above, dove (bird), glove, love

Variant pronunciations

• anchovy /ˈæntʃəviː, ˈæntʃəʊviː^AmE/
• Coventry /ˈkʌvəntriː, ˈkɒvəntriː/

Heteronyms

• dove: /dʌv/ (bird) - /dəʊv/^AmE (past tense of dive)

See also

• Decoding the letter O
• Decoding and spelling exercises: "o" adjacent to "m,” "n,” "v" or "w"