The OH-Sound
We’re talking about the OH-sound now.
This sound is one of our special diphthong sounds. It’s a combo sound of the [o] -a close-mid back rounded vowel, or high-mid back rounded vowel, represented by the letter ‘o’, and the [ʊ] - a near-close near-back rounded vowel, or near-high near-back rounded vowel.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbol combination for this sound is /oʊ/.
In General American English and Canadian English, the OH-sound is the sound in the word BOAT or GO or NO.
SYMBOL
On the IPA vowel chart, it is located on the right of the chart and transitions. The sound transitions from a back to near-back vowel (moving slightly further forward in the mouth) and from a close-mid to a near close vowel (meaning mouth opening closes a little more as well).
The Color Vowel® Chart, created by Karen Taylor and Shirley Thompson in 1999, is another visual organizer for spoken English and represents how to learn and think about vowels. It refers to this sound as the ‘ROSE BOAT’ sound or the ROSE vowel. Notice the consistent placement on the mid-right corner of each respective chart.
The Color Vowel® Chart, 5th Edition © 2019. ColorVowel.com. Used with Creative Commons licensing (CC BY-NC-ND).
SOUND
So, the OH-sound in BOAT is a diphthong.
Because the sound is actually a combination of two vowel sounds transitioning from one to the next, it is important to recognize that the sound is a longer sound. It takes more time to complete the sound because the most important difference from pure vowel sounds IS the transition.
Therefore, it is important to exaggerate the mouth movement to clearly distinguish vowel sound #1 to vowel sound #2.
Non-native English speakers tend to produce the sound too quickly and the transition is too brief to distinguish clearly. As a result, the non-native English speaker’s sound may be more similar to [o] or [ʊ] as a pure vowel instead.
The jaw drops for the beginning position, and the lips round for the ending position (with the jaw being less dropped). The lips might round some for the beginning position, but they round even more in the transitional position. The tongue shifts back a little bit at the beginning, and the back lifts in the ending position. Focus on the movement of the jaw. It drops more for the beginning of the diphthong, and let it move up for the ending position as the lips round. At the end of the sound, the lips relax and retract back into neutral lip position instead of the lip rounding position.
FEATURES
Because the OH-sound is a diphthong, its features change from the [o] sound to the [ʊ] sound. I’ve included both below so yo ucan compare.
The [o] sound features are as follows.
Its vowel height is near-close, also known as near-high, which means the tongue is not quite so constricted as a close vowel (high vowel).
Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed. The prototypical [ʊ] has a weak protruded rounding, more like [ɔ] than the neighboring cardinal vowels.
The [ʊ] sound features are as follows.
Its vowel height is near-close, also known as near-high, which means the tongue is not quite so constricted as a close vowel (high vowel).
Its vowel backness is back, which means the tongue is positioned back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
Its roundedness is protruded, which means that the corners of the lips are drawn together, and the inner surfaces exposed. The prototypical [ʊ] has a weak protruded rounding, more like [ɔ] than the neighboring cardinal vowels.
VISUAL REPRESENTATION
In English, the OH-sound is reflected in spelling in many different ways. Depending on the specific English dialect, it may be written using any of the following letters:
o - no go so, only, over, home, those, phone, program, moment, social, focus, control, proposal, appropriate, emotional, associate
oa - approach, coat, boat, goal
ow - slow grow, throw, window, know, row, borrow
ough- although
The /ʊ/-sound never occurs in word-initial position, and rarely in final position. It mainly occurs in the middle of words.
The reason why I’m especially showing you the different spelling combinations that can create this sound is that there will ALWAYS be exceptions, weird spellings, or other things that impact how reliable the written representation will be.
LISTENING
You need to be able to identify the sound; rhyming is an excellent way to match it properly. So, if you are not good already, start practicing rhyming and hearing the sound.
| EE | IH |
AY | EH |
AA | UH | AH | OH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bean | bin | bane | Ben |
ban | bun | bon | bone |
| reed | rid | raid | red | rad | rudd | rod | road |
| teak | tick | take | tech | tack | tuck | tock | toke |
I’m breaking down every single sound down for you so that you can learn how to produce each sound in English accurately. Sometimes, we’ll have easier sounds and sometimes we’ll have harder sounds.
If you’ve grasped this sound, then great! But if you’ve got a tip that might work for others, or you took a while to produce this sound correct but something clicked for you, let me know down below in the comments. My goal is to have a community know what to do when they’re stuck!
