368. The different ways to pronounce O in English

Hey, welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar and this is episode number 368. And today we're going to talk about the different pronunciations of the letter O. Hey. Hey, everyone. Thank you so much for being here with me today. I'm going to share with you a live class that I recently taught about the different pronunciations of the letter O. As you probably already know, English is not a phonetic language. That means that a single letter does not always represent the same sound like it is in many other languages, for example, Spanish. So in Spanish, when you see the letter O, it is O most likely. Almost always, I think always Spanish speakers, please let me know if I'm incorrect. But I think always when you have the letter O, it represents the O simply because. And I don't know Spanish yet, but simply because Spanish is a phonetic language, so it's very consistent. But American English or English, not just American English, English is not a phonetic language. So in this case, we have quite a few different pronunciations for that one letter, the letter O. And in this live class, I wanted to talk about all of them and specifically the ones that you're likely to pronounce as a pure sound. Now, I taught this class on YouTube, so if you want the visuals, I had slides and everything, I'm going to link to the lesson on YouTube as well. But I also think that there's a lot of value in just listening to it and focusing on the different sounds. So this is why I want to share with you this week's live lesson on the podcast. If you like this, then please consider sharing this episode with other people and even rating and reviewing the podcast so it can get to more people and people would find out about the influency podcast. Anyway, have a beautiful rest of the day. Thank you for being here and enjoy the lesson. Foreign. Welcome to our live lesson. How are you doing? I am live on YouTube and on Facebook, and today we are going to talk about the different pronunciations of the letter O. Now, here's why I think it's important to know this, because as you know, English is not a phonetic language. And that means that what you read, what's on the paper, is not exactly what we say or how it sounds. And specifically with the O, I see that a lot of my students struggle with this particular representation of different sounds because the letter O can represent a bunch of different vowel sounds. So today we're going to organize all those speech sounds in your head and and on the paper so you have the right tools to know how to pronounce words with a letter O. Okay, good. So, like I said, the letter o can represent several different sounds. So let's walk through those different sounds that you might hear when you see the letter o. So, first of all, there is the o, as in go, where it's. It actually sounds like you would pronounce the letter okay, like in the word go, there is the ah, as in father, as in the word cop. And don't worry, we're going to dive deep into each of those vowel sounds. Then we have the or, as in core, or another pronunciation. And then we have the er, as in stir, represented with the o in addition to a few other vowel letters. So here it's pronounced work. Then we also have the sound the cup sound, as in love, and the reduced version of the sound, which is the schwa sound. Reason. We also see the letter o representing the tense oo, as in do, and the lax, as in woman or wolf. So, as you can see, we have a bunch of different vowel sounds. All of them are very different. Let's play them. O or er. Oo. These are the different vowel sounds that the letter o represents. But today we will focus on cases where you are likely to pronounce the letter O as a pure o sound. In a lot of languages, there are only five or six or seven different vowel sounds, and usually they are around the five neutral vowel sounds in human speech. So in many cases, non native speakers may pronounce most of these vowels or most of these words with a pure sound. Let me give you an example. Go, cop, core, work, love, reason. And except for the last two, that you're likely to pronounce them as oo, like a neutral oo, do, and woman. So this is why I said today we will focus on all of those areas, all of those cases where you are likely to pronounce those different vowel sounds as a pure sound, because that's probably what exists in your language or the closest sound to the sound that exists in your language. And as you can see, there's actually not a pure sound in English. The caveat only when it's attached to the r sound. So this is why it's important to organize those different sounds so you are more aware and you feel more confident pronouncing those words easily. So the first vowel sound that the letter o represents is the o, as in go. Now, here it sounds just like the letter o, O, o. It's a diphthong. So that means it's a changing vowel from an O to an ooh, it's not a pure ooh sound. It's a bit more open. But for our purposes, imagine like you're adding a w at the end O. Let's look at a few examples here. Pro. I'm a pro. Won't. Right. I'm not pronouncing it as want. It's whoa, Whoa. Won't. So imagine like there is a w at the end note. Not note. Coma. Photo. Stereo O, O. So practice it with me. If it's hard for you to get to the oo sound, just make it a little longer. It is a longer vowel sound. It's not pro, but pro. It has to be long because you have to get through the entire sound. You have to transition from to oo. O, O, O. Another vowel sound that is often represented with the letter o is the ah, as in father. Now, here's the funny part. While a lot of you might see the word and pronounce that as a pure o. Kop ko le cops. Here, it's actually closer to an open ah sound, as in the word father or spa. Ah. So the lips are not rounded. You drop your jaw, pull the lips back a bit. Ah. Try it with me. Ah. Now, it's easy for you to think about it in the word father because it's spelled with an a. But for some reason, especially if you first learned how to read and write and you first learned the spelling of words, you might be thinking about the sound as a more rounded O. Now, listen, this is for American English. In British English, this sound is indeed a bit more rounded. Let's look at a few examples. And just like I said, it sounds just like an open ah sound in American English. Hot, hot, hot. So, yes, in British English, it would be closer to hot, hot, hot in American English. So there is no rounding of the lips. No roundness here. Shock. I'm so shocked. What a shock. Body. Ba. Ba. And yes, it is different than buddy. He's my buddy, and that's my body. Ba. So the tongue pulls back. It is. It feels like a rounded sound because the sound resonates in the back, but the lips are not rounded. Ah. Ah. Body. Office model. Possible. Okay, so it's not office. Again, it's not a mistake. And if you were to pronounce the word office with a rounded O, probably everyone would understand you. But right now, the purpose of this session is to organize the sounds. It's not a mistake to mispronounce words if it's not your first language. But as A speaker of a second language, you want to be in control. You want to be aware. And especially if you're not understood, you want to know what to do to change that. So again, you can communicate your message clearly. Making mistakes, making pronunciation mistakes is not incorrect. It's not a mistake, especially if you speak a second language or a first language. So are we good with this Hot shock body office model? Possible. Now, if you're watching this, I highly recommend that you actually practice it with me out loud. Okay. Otherwise, it's really hard to understand how it's different from the other sound. Okay, good. We have a few more words here. Content. Project. Project. And I have some notes about this one. Object. Conflict. Contract, as in father. Contract. And progress. Progress. In American English, it's pronounced with the open ah, as in father. Good. The next sound that we will discover when the the letter O is in the spelling is the or, as in for. This one is the closest sound to a neutral O sound. So here we don't need to change a lot. But this sound is always associated with an R sound. It's the or Diphthong. It sounds just like a pure O with an R. Or. Or. Or. Try it with me. Or. Now, the secret about getting this sound right is to keep the tongue down before you get to the R. Why? Because if you prepare for the R too quickly, what might happen is that you might pronounce it as er. Er fur instead of for. And that's already a different sound, which we'll talk about. Okay, so. Or. Or. Or. Let's practice some words. Shore. Core. Corn. Store. Forum. Can you hear it? Drop your jaw. If you tend to pronounce the sound without dropping your jaw, for practice dropping the jaw a little bit, you can stick a wine cork between your teeth to create more space. Because this sound in English requires space, so it resonates well. Forum. Abortion. Organic. Organic. Okay, so let's do this one again. Shore. Corn. Store. Forum. Abort. Organic. Good. Another sound that you will discover that is represented with a letter O is the stir sound. When there is an R sound or, but it's another version of an R vowel. So before we had the pure O and then an R or. But when there is a W O R in the spelling, just like in the word word, you are likely to drop the O completely. So it sounds like you skip the O. That's the stir sound. It sounds like you're going from the W to the R directly. Work. Worm. Right. It's not warm. Warm. Oh, I'm warm. Let's Take my jacket off is spelled with a warm. And then it's the other sound. Okay? The or, as in for when it's W, R, you're likely to pronounce it as were. Were. Worm. World. Worth. Work. World. Right. All of these W R words and worship. Were. Were. Were. Okay, so practice it with me. Now, another sound that is represented with the letter O. I hope I'm not making you exhausted and tired from like trying to figure out all those sounds. Don't worry, we'll practice it. Is the as in cup. Now, this actually sounds like a neutral sound that exists in a lot of languages. Here the jaw drops just a bit, the tongue goes up a little bit, the arch of the tongue, and you just pronounce the sound. Unlike the ah sound, as in cop. Here it's more direct, straightforward, like a punch. Love. Love. That's the cup sound. Let's look at a few words. So it sounds just like a short neutral sound. Month. Not month. Can you hear the difference? Month. Money. Above. Above. Not above. Right. Even though there is an O here, that's a cup sound. Company. Country. Another right. I hear a lot of people saying company, company. Not a mistake. Everyone will understand you. But now you can see that the O actually doesn't represent the sound, but company, company, company. Okay, now the final one is one of my favorite ones, and that's schwa. The schwa is a neutral vowel sounds that reduces vowels in unstressed positions. So the schwa can be represented with any vowel letters. A, o, u, I, e, or any combination of the five. But also, when it comes to the o sound, like in this word, carret, there is no o. It's not carot, there is no o. It's a. So it sounds just like the O is reduced to, or like you are skipping the vowel altogether. Let's practice it. Le. Men. Not Lemon. There is no O. Again, not a huge mistake. But listen closely, and as you improve your listening skills, you will also improve your pronunciation skills. Okay? Lemon. Min. So, you know, instead of thinking of pronouncing it like a different sound, just think of reducing the O altogether. Lemon. Lemon. Adam. Adam. So the T is a flap T because it's between two vowels in an unstressed syllable. And then the O is reduced because the syllable is unstressed. Adam. So the schwa is what happens to all vowels in unstressed syllables. Words with 2, 3, 4 syllables are very likely to have at least one schwa, if not more so. The schwa is a neutral sound. Sounds something like this. Adam. Adam. The next word is computer. Computer, not con, even though it's quick computer. So practice. Try something new. Contain kin. Kin. Kin. Contain dinosaur. Dina. Nuh. Nuh. Can you hear it spelled with o pronounced as dinosaur? And finally, all the ion suffixes are pronounced as, or in this case, shin. Shin, Shin. Action, Situation, Graduation. And yes, Adam is pronounced at Adam. A d, a n, pronounced exactly the same because the flat t actually sounds like a D. That is a flat T. It's not D. Anyway, both of them are pronounced as Adam. Adam. Adam. All right, good. And I want to go back to the different pronunciations, just as a quick reminder. So we said that the letter o can be O as in go or O as in cop. Now, remember that these two are the most common pronunciations of the letter o when it's in stressed positions, O or ah. Right? They're the mo. Most frequent vowel sounds that are represented with the letter o when the syllable is stressed. Otherwise, it would be a schwa. Okay? And when there is an R right after, it is probably going to pronounce as the or as in core. Right? So if there isn't an R right after the okay, it's probably either o as in go, or as in father. If there is an R, it's probably the or as in core. If there is a w before that, it's probably the r, as in stir, as in work. Okay, now, there are some cases where the o represents the cup sound. In this case, I would just recommend to memorize those words because it's not a big list of words where the o represents the cup, the neutral sound. And then we have the o that represents the schwa here. You would need to go a little deeper into learning about the schwa, because I have a bunch of lessons about the schwa. I highly recommend for you to dive deep because it's the secret to English pronunciation, really. And then it would solve you the issue with the letter o, but also other situations where it's hard for you to pronounce longer words. The schwa really is the secret. Is the secret for getting the right rhythm and also the right pronunciation of specific syllables in words. Okay, now we will ignore the do and woman, because, like I said, you are likely to pronounce those words as a neutral oo and not as an o. I haven't heard someone saying, what do you do? Because the spelling has o in it, Right? So when it comes to perception, you can see how spelling affects your perception of how to pronounce a word, right? It's not enough to be exposed to a sound because all of you have been exposed to people saying months, and yet you might still say months. Right? All of you, if you've listened to English on tv, you've heard the word cop, right? And yet you are. You might still say cop because it has to do with how you categorize the sound. What is the closest sound in your language that this sound sounds like? All right, I know it's a little confusing, but when you hear sounds, it's not enough for you to hear the right pronunciation. It also depends on your first language and where you categorize the sound. Right? Is it O? Is it oo? But also the spelling. So there are a lot of components that affect how you would end up pronouncing a certain sound or a certain word. Right? This is why you would still say do. But you may say cop. Right? The do does sound like an oo sound, and that's stronger than the spelling. I hope that makes sense. Let me see. So Alma is asking which o is the most common in English. So, like I said, I think the O is in go and o is in father or predict. Probably the most common ones, maybe not that much when it's represented with the schwa. Okay, so now as we practice, we are first going to try to figure out where the primary stress is. Why? Because when we know where the primary stress is, we know that it cannot be a schwa. And then the other syllables should be considered as a schwa because the schwa is always unstressed. Let me show you. In the word control, the primary stress is on the second syllable. Control. Control. Control. We don't say control, but control. Now, if you struggle with the primary stress, I want to tell you that I have a bunch of videos about the primary stress, and you should definitely watch them now that you know the sounds. All right, we have O. Ah. Or it's kind of like now that you have the words, you can make sense of it. So I'm going to say the word. Try to see if you can identify it. Photography. We have two O's. Photography. Can you start hearing it? Can you start recognizing which one's which? Photography. Fuh. Schwa. Right. Can you hear it? It's not fa. It's not faux photography, by the way. If I were to just say the word photograph. Photograph. The first O would be O. Photograph. Photography. Let's go through some more words. I'm going to say it, and you try to identify the sounds based on the sounds that you've learned Morocco. Morocco. Morocco. Good. Practice it with me. Portfolio. Portfolio. Can you hear the sounds? Is it clearer to you what the sounds are? Because that's the purpose of this entire training. You don't need to guess or you don't need to know in advance what the sounds are, but you need to start making sense of the vowels that you hear. Because if you can't hear it, you can't make it. And the first step is for you to hear it. Can you hear it? Put yes or no in the comments. Portfolio. So the first one is the or, as in core. Because we have an R right after port. Port. Port. And then we have fo. O is in go. Leo. And then another O. Portfolio. Just listen to the sounds. Good. Next one. Opinion. What do we have here? Opinion. Can you hear? It's not opinion. Opinion. Pin. Yen. Schwa and schwa. A Pin yen. Monopoly. Now. Monopoly. Monopoly. M. What is it? M. Which one is it? M? M, M, Na. Which one is it? Obviously it's not the O. It's not monopoly. Right. Mana. Very good. It's the cop sound. You see, my jaw is not dropping P, so it's a schwa sound. Reduced vowel. Monopoly. Corporate. This is a tricky one. Listen. Cor. Prit. There are two syllables in this word. Cort, pr. So it's not even a schwa. It's nothing. Okay. There isn't a corporate. Okay, let me explain. For the ones who would want to pick on this, you can say corpor. And then it would be a schwa. Okay? Cor, P, R. We have two schwas. But in many cases where you have three syllables and the middle syllable is a schwa, you may reduce the middle syllable completely. Like memory. Family, Restaurant. So, same thing here. Corpret. Cor. Pret. And this is how I would say it. Cor. Pret. So no O whatsoever. And here, that would be the or, as in for core. Core. Core. Core. Okay, what about this? Listen closely. Co. Op. Here we have two O's that represent two vowel sounds. Listen, O is in go. And then as in father. Coa. Practice it with me. Cooperate. So it's not cooperate. Co. Oh, it's not oo, but co. Op. Co. Co. Rate. Cooperate. What about this? Comfort. What are the sounds that I'm making? Comfort. Comfort. Comfort would be a cup sound. Come. And then a schwa. Comfort. Comfort. Comfort. In the comfort of his car. Comfort. Comfort. Okay, good. Now let's practice tricky ones. Okay? Some tricky, tricky sounds that could be confusing. Model. He's a model. Or she's my model. Versus modal. Especially if you learn English, you learn about modal verbs. Mo. Right? It looks the same. The only difference is E versus A. But these are two different words pronounced differently. Model Modal. Model modal. What about this? Which sound is this? Wonder. Wander. Wonder. Wanderer. So here it's a little confusing because this is a cup sound. Wonder. I wonder what time it is. I wonder what's happening outside. I wonder why they're being so loud. I wonder. All these different things in Wander. I wandered around the streets last night. Wander. That's an ah sound. Wander. Wander. Wonder. Wander. So the one spelled with an O is a cup sound. Wa. Wa. Like the word I won. Right. W. Cup sound. W. O. If there isn't an R right after, it's likely to be a cup sound. One. One wonder. I won the lottery once. One. Wonder. Okay, another one. Try it. Say both out loud. Is there a difference between the two? Collar. My collar is colorful. Color. Collar. Color. Caw. Oz and father. Color. Cup. Sound. Collar. Color. Collar. Color. This is just for fun. It could be horror, which is how it's likely to be pronounced in the U.S. horror. Horror. Or you can also use the Oz and Father. Horror. Horror. Here, just think of making one long R. Horror or horror. Horror. I know it's a horrible word to say, and I think for non native speakers, it might be easier to choose this one because the tongue gets in the way. With this horror, you're likely to keep the tongue up for the R and then it might just sound like one long R. Her. Right? Is that you? Are you making it sound like this? So in that case, just say H R. Horror. Horror. That would make this word a little clearer. Okay, now one last thing before we wrap up. Stress can change the pronunciation of the O. So like I said at the beginning, it really depends where the primary stress is. I told you that when I talked about the word photograph versus photography. So, for example, if we take this word, this could be a noun and a verb. I bought a new record. The primary stress is on the first syllable. And then this is going to be a schwa. Record. Record. Right. When this is a noun. Record. I bought a new record. But when it's a verb, I'm going to record a new video. This is going to be the primary stress. Cannot be a schwa. Then it's the. Or, as in for record. Record. I need to record something. Record. So the stress shift changes the pronunciation. Okay. When it's a noun. She's a convict. Convict. Then this is going to be the Oz and father. Primary stress. Convict. Okay, when it's a verb, it's going to be a schwa because the stress is here. Convict. Convict. Schwa. Conviction. Convict. Convict. Convict. Convict. Produce. Produce. Pro. Always in. Go. Produce. Versus to produce. And if the. If the primary stress is not there, it's probably a schwa. Produce. Produce. Especially when you have two syllables. When you have two syllables and the letter with the O is not the primary stress, 80% of the chance that it's going to be a schwa. Sound. Produce. Produce. No O's here. All right, my friends, that is it. Let me know if you have any questions so far. The purpose of this session is to show you the different pronunciations of the letter O and also to help you start organizing the sounds in your brain. You don't need to be able to pronounce them. You don't need to know in advance how to pronounce each word. But the starting point, and this is what we did today, especially if you're just starting out, is to start making sense of it, is to hear the different sounds. And sometimes the only way to hear those different sounds is to break it down, dismantle everything, and start listening to everything bit by bit by bit. Okay, now the next step, if you want to practice a sound, is of course to repeat it. You need a list of words with the same sound. You need to repeat it again and again and again until it becomes a habit for you to pronounce it. But we're not there yet. If you want to go deeper, you can go check out my website, hadar shemish.com of course, subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven't yet so you can get free lessons every single week. I have a ton of free resources, audio recordings, practice sheets for you to download so you can speak English with clarity, confidence, and freedom. And master pronunciation so you can deliver your message clearly and feel confident. Thank you so much for attending. You guys are awesome. Take care and remember, mistakes is nothing to be afraid of. It's the only way to learn. Take care, my friends. Have a beautiful, beautiful day. Bye. It.