Podcast episode (Influency Podcast, ep. 390) by Hadar Shemesh offering a short pronunciation lesson on English words spelled with "au" and "aw." The episode explains that these spellings typically represent a single open back vowel (an "aw/ah" sound), demonstrates variants (e.g., more rounded East Coast pronunciation), gives many examples (audio, author, awful, caught, law, paw, etc.), and encourages active repetition and practice.
Chapters
Hey, welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar and this is episode number 390. Today we're going to talk about the pronunciation of words spelled with a u and a W. Hey everyone, thank you so much for being here again. Today we have a quick and sweet and fun pronunciation lesson about words that cause a lot of confusion. I remember when I first started dating Gil and he started helping me with editing my videos and every time we would talk about the audio, he would say audio. And that was like my pet peeve. It's like it's not audio, it's audio. And it's like I'm going to say it how I want to say it. Uh, he's so cool. He, like he doesn't care at all about all my pronunciation lessons. Like he learns from it, but he doesn't care if he mispronounces a word. And I stopped telling him how to pronounce words because I prefer to be in a happy relationship. But at the beginning, it used to drive me crazy the way he said audio. Now it's not a big deal and everyone would understand you if you were to say audio. However, words spelled with au are so deceiving because we're used to seeing it thinking that it's the long ow, like now shower how. But it's not. It's actually a representation of one sound and that is the ah sound. Now actually, it has several different pronunciations. Some are a bit more open, a bit more closed, but it's one sound. It's not a changing sound, it's not audio, it's not o, ful, it's not low, it's audio, awful, and law. And if you have been mispronouncing it, it's not your fault. It's totally the spelling. But I hope that this lesson is going to help you understand that these two words, when they go together, they represent one sound and that is the aw. And that is what we're going to talk about today. So that's it. I think you're going to enjoy it. Just practice along. Remember that when you listen to a pronunciation lesson, it's really important to repeat out loud and after the lesson, just to say it to yourself a few more times so that it sticks, so that you can actually use it regularly in your day to day life. It's not enough to just listen. Okay? So that's something that I want you to take into consideration. And it's especially easy when you are doing other things and maybe you are listening to this podcast while doing other things. So no excuses. Okay, good. One more thing that I wanted to say. Oh. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast and you can also rate and review the podcast. Whether you're listening to this on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts, there is a way to rate the podcast and even leave a review. It's only going to take a couple of minutes, but it's going to make a huge difference. So I'm going to really, really, really appreciate it. All right, let's go ahead and listen to today's episode.
Now, first, let's talk about the pronunciation of this sound. This sound is an open back vowel sound. To make this sound, you want to drop your jaw, relax your lips.
Ah.
And it actually sounds very similar to the ah as in father. Author. Author. Now, this is one pronunciation of the sound, but in some dialects, especially on the east coast in the US you will notice that this sound is a bit more rounded. So instead of author, you will hear author. So the lips are a bit more rounded.
Author.
Whether you choose to pronounce it as a author daughter or author daughter, it doesn't matter. Choose whatever is easier for you as long as you make it the same sound and there isn't a shift there from one sound to another. A shift that you might be making because you see two vowel letters and you might want to pronounce each of them differently. So not authority or low, but author and law. So you want to drop your jaw. The back of the tongue is raised a little bit. The lips are slightly rounded. Author. You can also pronounce it as a more neutral sound, like the oz and father. Author, Author. Choose whatever is easier for you. Just keep it one sound.
Author.
Daughter. Not doter. There isn't a shift here. O. Aw. Daughter, Daughter. Audience. Audience. Authentic authenticity.
Caught.
Drop your jaw. Keep the sound consistent.
Caught. Caught.
Not coat. This is coat, caught and taught. Same thing with the aw spelling.
Here.
It's even more confusing because the W feels like you should be pronouncing an oo sound like you would for the word y and we. But actually there is no W sound. It just represents the exact same sound.
Law.
Not low. Law. Awful. And like I said, you can even relax your lips and pronounce it more like an open ah sound.
Awful.
Law. If you can't hear the difference, don't worry about it. Both of them are very, very similar. Like I said, just open your mouth and make this sound a little longer. Awful.
Awesome.
That is so awesome.
Paw.
Jaw and raw. Raw food, not row raw. All right, that's it. Now I have a task for you. Take one of the words mentioned in the video, say it out loud 30 with the correct pronunciation and then come up with three to four sentences with this word and say it out loud. That is the best way to practice a new word and to practice a new pronunciation of a word that you know and that you've been using but maybe you have been pronouncing it a little differently. That's the way to change it. Okay, so let me know how you're doing in the chat. And if you want more resources and more exercises to practice your pronunciation so you can see, speak English with clarity, confidence and freedom, check out my website@hadar shemesh.com for a ton of resources for you. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day and I will see you next week in the next video. Bye.
