Hadar Shemesh teaches how to pronounce the O sound in coffee, job, and office. She demonstrates the back open
Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar and this is how to Pronounce Friday, where we take a confusing word or word pair. We learn how to pronounce it and how to use it with confidence.
Let's get started. Today we're going to talk about how to pronounce the ah as in father. Vowel sound. This vowel sound is very frequent and very common in American English. However, it is often a very confusing sound for non native speakers because of the spelling. The oz in father appears in words like father, but also in words that are spelled with o, as in office job possible. Non native speakers usually associate the vowel letter with a pure vowel sound, therefore pronouncing this O as o. Office job problem. Whereas it's actually a back open ah sound. Office job problem. You want to think of it as if it has two A's in the spelling rather than an O. Ah. To make this sound, you have to open your mouth quite a lot. You have to relax your jaw. Ah. Right? You don't need to force open your mouth ah, but just relax ah. The lips are totally relaxed, maybe around it just a bit. Ah. Not too much because then it's going to sound like and we don't want that ah. The back of the tongue pulls back and it's really low. If it's high ah. Ah, it's going to sound like a central sound, like in cup. And we don't want that. We want more of a back ah. And as in cop ah. Ah. Let's practice a few more words. Possible opportunity. Possibility. Possibility and not possibility. Not and not. Not. Coffee and not coffee. Car coffee. Ah. Ah. You want to relax your jaw, relax your lips, open your mouth and pronounce it as a back open ah sound. Ah. Okay, that's it. So turn those into ahs. Just sigh a lot. Ah. Common spelling pattern of the ozen father is of course o. A as in father, but that's more rare. Ou as in thought. Aw as in awesome. Some people may pronounce more rounded lips awesome, especially on the east coast. That's also okay. Choose the pronunciation that you are comfortable with because you can merge these two sounds, the aw for awesome and ah for awesome.
Right?
So if you're more comfortable with pronouncing it as the ah as in father, go for it. Ah. Okay, so great job. Great job. Job. Now I'm going to go get some coffee. Okay.
That was your how to Pronounce Friday episode. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you like the podcast, then consider subscribing to the podcast. And if you feel really crazy, you can even rate and review the podcast. And you can find me at Hadar Accentsway on Instagram, where you can DM me and ask for all the crazy, fancy, confusing words that you'd like to know how to pronounce. Have a beautiful day and I'll see you next time.
