Accent Modification
The Different Sounds of the Letter ‘O’
The pronunciation of the letter ‘o’ can be difficult for students who are trying to modify their accent. This is because English spelling does not reliably tell you how a word is pronounced. In this blog, we’ll look at 10 different sounds of the letter “o” in English, with clear examples.
/a/ sound: broad, shop, golf, soft, copy, body, cost, lost, bought, document
/oʊ/ sound: boat, coat, float, note, vote, road, load, code, coast, focus, moment, notice, total, though, motive, totally, only, ocean, over, gross, local, postpone
/ɔ/ sound: store, more, divorce, mortgage, north, storage, board, court, story
/Ʌ/ sound: oven, none/nun, one (won), wonder, glove, love, come, flood, blood, touch, tough, cover, country, above, month
/u/ sound: whose, move, movement, prove, food, mood, roof, proof, lose (verb), choose, loose
/ʊ/ sound: book, look, cook, hook, took, wolf, should, stood, good, foot
/ɝ/ stressed -er sound: word, worth, worse, worst, world, worship
/aʊ/ sound: loud, cloud, proud, count, sound, found, round, foul, owl, towel, vowel, flower/flour, hour
‘ʌw’ (Canadian Raising) house, mouse, mouth, south, out, shout, about, sprout, doubt, trout, drought, scout, stout, spouse, couch
/ɪ/ sound: women
The letter “o” doesn’t have just one sound—it has many, and the correct pronunciation depends on spelling patterns, stress, surrounding sounds, and sometimes regional accents.
If you would like to practice the different sounds of the ‘o’ letter, please email us [email protected].
Accent Modification
