English Pronunciation Tip of the Day
Tip 32
Category:
Spelling-to-sound
Author: JCW
<o>
When the spelling is <o>, the pronunciation may be any of ten different vowel sounds. Can you identify the vowels in these words?
Answers |
|||||||||
| lot |
|
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| nose | |||||||||
| come | |||||||||
| move | |||||||||
| woman | |||||||||
| north | |||||||||
| work | |||||||||
| method |
Even where the vowel is short and stressed it is difficult to know whether /Q/ or /V/ is appropriate.
/Q/ in across belong block confident cost dog jolly olive stop toxic
/V/ in love brother colour company front Monday month nothing son worry
There is a tendency to find /V/ where <o> is next to <m>, <n>, <v> (remember "love of money"). But there is no real rule. Look up each word in the dictionary.
Finally, <o> is pronounced /I/ in women and as /u:/ in to and do.