Hi everyone, and welcome to Seattle Learning Academy's 62nd American English Pronunciation Podcast, and our fifth video podcast. My name is Mandy.
The show today is about the long o spelling and pronunciation. This podcast is part of video lesson 4, which will cover long o, short o, and the aw sound. I'm breaking the lesson up into three parts so each podcast doesn't get so long!
The o spelling causes so many pronuncian problems and creates so much confusion because that letter can be used to spell all three of those sounds: the long o, short o, and aw sound. I'll explain it in each podcast separately.
Video lesson 4 isn't published on Pronuncian yet, so if you're a subscriber, don't be surprised to not see it if you go to the video section of the website. I'm hoping to get it up by the time I release the next video podcast, hopefully in about 2 weeks.
So, here you go. The spelling and pronunciation of the long o (with a little bit of short o mixed in).
The long o sounds like (long o). If you listen very carefully to the pronunciation of this sound, you will hear a very brief w sound at the end of it.
(long o), (long o)
The long o is a two-sound vowel. To create this sound, begin with your tongue low in the back of your mouth. Then the tongue rises at the same time as the lips close into the same position as a w sound. Listen to the sound again.
(long o), (long o)
My lips need to move into a small circle, like a w sound, for this sound to be said completely. The opening, then closing of the lips is a more defining nature of this sound than the tongue movement inside the mouth.
(long o), (long o)
Let's look at the word hope, with a long o sound. Hope, h-o-p-e. The word hope demonstrates one of the standard long vowel spelling rules: the vowel-consonant-e rule.
The vowel-consonant-e rule says that when a single vowel is followed by a single consonant, and then the letter e, the first vowel is said as a long vowel. The letter e in the vowel-consonant-e rule is silent.
Our key word for long o is home, h-o-m-e, the o is said as a long o, and the e is silent, home. I do not say home-uh. I don't need to make any sound at all for the e at the end of the word. The only job of that e is to make sure I know that the o is long.
Here are some more examples of the vowel-consonant-e rule for the long o spelling.
broke, b-r-o-k-e, the o is said as a long o, and the e is silent
joke, j-o-k-e, the o is said as a long o, and the e is silent
stone, s-t-o-n-e, the o is said as a long o, and the e is silent
Remember, the vowel-consonant-e rule works for all the long vowel sounds, although it is rarely used for the long e sound.
The second long o spelling is the -oa- spelling, as in the word boat, b-o-a-t.
Here are some more examples of words with the long o sound because of the -oa- spelling:
coat, c-o-a-t
toast, t-o-a-s-t
road, r-o-a-d
float, f-l-o-a-t
oath, o-a-t-h
The third common spelling for the long o sound is the ow spelling, as in the word snow, s-n-o-w. The ow spelling can also be pronounced with the ow sound, which sounds like (ow sound), as in the word cow, so be careful with it. The ow sound will be studied in a later lesson.
Let's look at some words that that have the long o sound and are spelled as ow:
low, l-o-w
row, r-o-w
show, s-h-o-w
slow, s-l-o-w
glow, g-l-o-w
A fourth spelling for the long o sound is with the letter o. Most commonly, this is used when the long o sound is the final sound of a word, such as in the words, go and no. When o is alone in the middle of a word, it can have three different pronunciations, long o, short o, and aw sound, so be careful with the pronunciation of this spelling.
Let's look at some words that that have the long o sound and are spelled as o. First we'll look at it at the end of the word, then in the middle of the word.
go, g-o
no, n-o
hello h-e-l-l-o
most, m-o-s-t
both, b-o-t-h
post, p-o-s-t
Let's review the four most common spellings for the long o sound.
o-consonant-e: home
oa: boat
ow: snow
o: most
All of those vowel spellings sound exactly the same, long o (long o).
There you go everyone. Remember to visit Pronuncain.com to see the transcripts to this show, as well as access our forums where you can post your questions about this or any other aspect of English. To have access to the full video lesson, when it comes out, go to www.pronuncian.com/join.
Thanks for listening.
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