O

O (/əʊ/ lower case o) is the 15th letter of the Latin alphabet, as used in English, and the 4th vowel letter.

O o

Decoding

ɔː

force /fɔːrs/

ɔː

north /nɔːrθ/

əʊ

hope /həʊp/

ɒ

lot /lɒt/

The letter O (lower case o, pronounced /əʊ/), as most vowel letters in English, had initially four main pronunciations; however in Received Pronunciation and in General American they are currently three.

• So-called “short o”, IPA phoneme /ɒ/, as in lot, hop, hopping, cloth,^BrE long^BrE or torrid^BrE

Short o spelling, IPA phoneme /ɔː/,^AmE as in cloth,^AmE or long^AmE

• So-called “long o”, IPA phoneme /əʊ/, as in go, hope, hoping or most
• Long "or" monophtong (short vowel spelling), IPA phoneme /ɔː/, as in north, horse, born or torrid.^AmE
• Long vowel "or" spelling, currently also /ɔː/, but it used to be /oə/ as in force, core or glory.

It also can be pronounced /ʌ/ as in love plus other, less common pronunciations, sometimes in combination with other letters, and, of course, it can be used as schwa. There are some helpful rules (to be taken with the habitual pinch of salt).

Distinctions by dialect

Teaching the letter O is one of those cases in which teachers, whichever their preferences might be, need to point out the differences between Received Pronunciation and General American. The best known of these differences is that RP /ɒ/ is normally GA /ɑː/. Also RP /ɒ/ in some cases is GA /ɔː/ as in cloth and long. Also, many North Americans pronounce /ɔː/^BrE as /ɑː/; see also Cot-caught merger.

Dialect	lot	sorry	cloth	thought	north	forest	glory
Received Pronunciation	[ɒ]	[ɒ]	[ɒ]	[ɔː]	[ɔː]	[ɒ]	[ɔː]
General American	[ɑː]	[ɑː]	[ɔː]	[ɔː]	[ɔː]	[ɔː]	[ɔː]
Cot-caught merger	[ɑː]	[ɑː]	[ɑː]	[ɑː]	[ɔː]	[ɔː]	[ɔː]

As /ɒ/

See main article IPA phoneme /ɒ/.
See also So-called “short o” and Decoding exercises: "orV" and "orrV"

• before final consonants: bomb - bond - box - drop - hot - job - lot - not - on - shop - stop - top - upon

across^BrE - along^BrE - cloth^BrE - cost^BrE - dog^BrE - long^BrE - lost^BrE - off^BrE

• before double consonant or “ck": block - clock - coffee - follow - occupy - offer^BrE - possible - shock
• before one consonant: body - gone^BrE - holiday - model - poverty - probably - product
• before two different consonants: compact (adj., n.) - often^BrE - problem

As /əʊ/

See main article IPA phoneme /əʊ/.

• with magic e: alone - bone - phone - stone - whole - zone
• with final e: noble
• mid position: global - local - mobile - motivate - notable - slogan - soldier
• ending in consonants: bold - both - don’t - fold - folk /fəʊk/ - ghost - gold - gross - hold - host - most - old - post - roll - poll - won’t
• ending in "o": ago - also - buffalo - espresso - go - judo - no - potato - radio - so - taco - tomato - tuxedo - video

As /ɔː/

See also Decoding exercises: "orV" and "orrV"

• afford - born - force - form - horse - important - north - order - report - short - sort - store - storm - support - sword
• AmE: across - along - chocolate - cloth - cost - dog - gone - long - lost - off - offer - often

As /ʌ/

See main article IPA phoneme /ʌ/.

• O adjacent to "m": accomplish^BrE - Colombia - come - comfort - comfortable /ˈkʌmftəbəl, ˈkʌmfərtəbəl/ - company - compass - mother - some - stomach
• O adjacent to "m" and "n": among - Monday - money - mongrel - monk - monkey - month
• O adjacent to "n": another - confrontation - done - front - honey - London - none - nothing - one /wʌn/ - once /wʌns/ - onion /ˈʌnjən/ - son - sponge - ton - tongue - tonne
• O adjacent to "n" and "w": won - wonder - wonderful
• O adjacent to "v": above - Coventry /ˈkʌvəntriː, ˈkɒvəntriː/ - cover - covet - discover - dove (bird) - glove - government - love - lover - oven - shovel - slovenly
• Other: brother - color^AmE - colour^BrE - dozen - other - thorough /ˈθʌrə,^BrE ˈθɜːrəʊ^AmE/

As /ɜː/

• attorney - word - work - world - worm - worse - worship - worst - worth

As /uː/

• do - lose - move - tomb - two - who - whose - womb

As /ʊ/

• bosom - woman - wolf

As /ɪ/

• women

As schwa

See main article schwa.

• weak forms: for - from - of - some - to
• at beginning (including many verbs): object (verb) - observe - occasion - occur - official - oppose
• as part of suffix -tion: nation - motion
• as part of suffix -sion: version - vision
• other: antonym - broccoli - compact (verb) - director - ecology - forbid - gorilla

Combinations

As "oa"

See main article Decoding exercises: "oa"

• as /ɔː/: abroad, boar, board, broad, oar, roar, soar
• as /əʊ/: approach, boat, coach, coal, coat, coast, float, foam, goal, goat, load, loan, oats, road, roast, throat, toast

As "oe"

See main article: Decoding exercises: "oe"

• /əʊ/: Joe - mistletoe - oboe - toe

plurals: does (noun) - mosquitoes - potatoes

• /ʌ/: does (verb)
• /uː/: canoe - shoe
• /əʊə/: poem - poet - poetry

As "oi"

See main article: IPA phoneme /ɔɪ/

• /ɔɪ/: choice - oil

As "oo"

See main article: Decoding exercises: "oo"

• /uː/: boot - choose - cool - fool - loose - moon - pool - root - school - soon - stool - tool
• /ʊ/: book - cook - foot - good - hook - look - shook - took - wool - whoops!
• /ʌ/: blood - flood

As "ou"

See main article Decoding exercises: "ou"

• /aʊ/: about - cloud - house - mountain - mouth - out - round
• /aʊə/: flour - hour - our - sour
• /ʌ/: country - cousin - touch - trouble - young
• /ɔː/: bought - course - court - fought - source - thought
• /əʊ/: although - dough - shoulder - soul - though
• /uː/: group - soup - through - you - youth
• /ʊ/: could - would - should
• /ɜː/: journalist - journey
• /ə/: ending in -our^BrE: colour - neighbour - vapour

ending in -ous: dangerous - enormous - famous - obvious - religious - serious

As "ow"

See main article: Decoding exercises: "ow"

• /əʊ/: know - row - window
• /aʊ/: brown - down - towel
• /ɒ/: knowledge

As "oy"

See main article: IPA phoneme /ɔɪ/

• /ɔɪ/: boy - destroy - employ - enjoy - Joyce - royal - toy

Silent "o"

• colonel, jeopardy, Geoffrey, laboratory,^BrE Leonard, leopard, people
• varisyllabic words ("o" is silent or it sounds /ə/): catholic, chocolate, corporate, comfortable /ˈkʌmfərtəbəl, ˈkʌmftəbəl, ˈkʌmftərbəl^AmE/, Deborah, favorite^AmE/favourite,^BrE history, incorporate (adj.), laboratory,^AmE temporary

Homophones

• /əʊ/: lone - loan; no - know; poll - pole; roll - role; so - sew - sow; sole - soul;
• /ʌ/: none - nun; one - won; some - sum; son - sun;
• /ɔː/ all accents: bored - board; or - oar - ore; worn - warn;

only in some accents: shore - sure; stork - stalk

Heteronyms

• compact (noun, verb)

Variant pronunciations

• /ɒ,^AmE ʌ^BrE/: accomplice, accomplish
• /ɜː,^AmE ʌ^BrE/: thorough /ˈθɜːrəʊ,^AmE ˈθʌrə^BrE/, worry

Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following sections aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.