TalkEnglish Logo
0:00
0:00

Pronouncing the letter O

Listen to the lesson

There are multiple sounds using the letter O. In most cases, you make this sound with the rear portion of the mouth. You start with your mouth in an open state. Your tongue should also be away from the top part of the mouth. Then you make the sound by bringing in the lips in a circular manner and the tongue moving upward and towards the front of the mouth ending right in the middle.

If you combine the "oh" and "oo" sound, you have the sound of the letter "O". Along with these sounds, it is common to use "O" with other vowels such as "OU" as in Hour. We will see examples for all these types below.

Let's first take a look at the "oh" sound.

Boat
Older
Mold

"He bought a nice big boat"
"My parents object to my girlfriend because she is much older than I am"
"The mold in the walls is a major cause for concern

Here are some examples of the "oo" sound.

True
Blue
Flu

"The examination was in the standard true and false question format"
"My favorite color is blue"
"I got the flu this year because I didn't take the flu shot"

Two variations of the "O" sound is when it is combined with a different vowel. Let's take a look at them both.

The first one is when you combine "O" and "U". It starts with the "ah" sound and ends with the "oo" sound.

Hour
Sour
Coward
South

"How many hours are you going to study for?"
"The lemon was too sour"
"He was such a coward"
"Ducks fly south for the winter"

The second variation of "O" is when you combine the letters "o" and "i" together.

Oil
Boy
Troy

"The tanker spilled oil that ultimately spoiled the water"
"The little boy wanted to be a cowboy"
"The story of Troy is quite interesting" |

previous lessonnext lesson

Apprenez l'anglais bien PLUS RAPIDEMENT en téléchargeant la version hors ligne de TalkEnglish et impreignez-vous de l'anglais grâce à 8 000 fichiers audio et à plus de 800 pages de leçons !  Vous pourrez alors étudier sans besoin de connexion Internet et écouter à tout moment les fichiers audio sur votre lecteur MP3.  Rendez-vous à la page English Download et téléchargez dès aujourd'hui !