⟨ou⟩

Open-mid back unrounded vowel Close back rounded vowel IPA phoneme /aʊ/ Together with the article on decoding difficulties, this page sets out some common (or not...) words teachers can use to help their students become more aware of how they can sound out more correctly the different sounds corresponding to words containing "ou".

The sequence "ou" is sounded out as /aʊ/ in many words. Normally the phrase "the 'ou' sound" refers to /aʊ/. However there are many exceptions.

/aʊ/

• /aʊ/: about - account - amount - announce - around - background - blouse - bound - boundary - cloud - compound - council - counsel - count - county - discount - doubt - encounter - flounder - foul - found - founder - ground - house - loud - mount - mountain - mouse - mouth - noun - out - outcome - output - pound - profound - proud - round - scout - shout - sound - south - surround - thousand - trout - wound (verb wind)
• /aʊə/: flour - hour - our (unstressed /ɑːr/) - sour

/uː/

• coupon - group - rouge - route - soup - toucan - through - wound (injure, v. & n.) - you - youth

/ʊ/

• could - should - would

/ʌ/

• country - couple - cousin - double - southern - touch - trouble - young
• with "ough": enough - rough - tough

/ʌ/ or /ɜː/

The following words are pronounced with /ʌr/ in British English and /ɜːr/ in American English.

• courage - nourish

/ɜː/

• journalist - journey

/əʊ/

• although - boulder - dough - shoulder - soul - though

/ɔː/

• bought - brought - course - court - fought - four - ought - pour - sought - source - thought - your
• tour: Although the dictionary pronunciation of this word is /tʊər/ many native speakers actually say /tɔ:r/. Likewise, dour can be pronounced /dʊər/ or /ˈdaʊər/.

/ə/

• With "ous": anxious - continuous - curious - dangerous - enormous - famous - nervous - numerous - obvious - previous - religious - serious - various
• With "our"^BrE ("or"^AmE): behaviour - colour - favour - favourite - harbour - honour - humour (but humorist) - labour - neighbour

/ɒ/

• cough /kɒf/^BrE /kɔːf/^AmE

/ʊə/

• Missouri

Variant pronunciations

• /ə,^BrE əʊ^AmE/: borough - thorough
• /uː,^BrE, əʊ^AmE/: cantaloupe
• route /ruːt/, also /raʊt/^AmE

Homophones

• /aʊ/: aloud - allowed; council - counsel;
• /aʊə/: flour - flower; our - hour;
• /uː/: route - root;
• /ʊ/: would - wood;
• our /ɑːr, ˈaʊər/ - are /ər, ɑːr/

Non-rhotic accents only

• /ɔː/court - caught; source - sauce

Minimal pairs

• bought - boat; dough - though; foul - full; mouse - moose/mousse; noun - nun/none

Heteronyms

• wound: injury /wuːnd/ - past tense of wind /waʊnd/

See also

• Correcting mistakes
• Decoding and spelling exercises: /əʊ/ vs /aʊ/
• Pronunciation exercises: "ow"
• Spelling exercises: "ou" vs "ow"
• Spelling exercises: "or" vs "our"