How to pronounce the Short O sound /ɒ/
/ɒ/ is a short vowel made with the tongue back, low, rounded. Drop the jaw as if for AH, then round the lips slightly. Keep the tongue low and back.
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How to make it
- 1Drop the jaw as if for AH, then round the lips slightly.
- 2Keep the tongue low and back.
- 3Make it short — this vowel is quick in British English.
- 4In most American accents this vowel has merged with the AH of 'father', so 'hot' rhymes with the first part of 'father'.
- Lips
- Slightly rounded.
- Tongue
- Low and back.
- Jaw
- Open, a little less than for AH.
Feel it
Put a hand flat on your throat and say the sound. It should buzz under your fingers from the very start — if the buzz only arrives with the vowel, you are making the voiceless version.Where the sound appears
Keeping it through a whole line
The doctor got a hot coffee from the shop.
Tom watched a lot of odd jobs go wrong.
Minimal pairs to drill
Each of these is two words separated by exactly one sound. If a listener hears the wrong one, the problem is the contrast, not the effort.
If your first language is…
Nothing here is about ability. Every one of these is a sound system doing exactly what it was built to do, applied to a language that asks for something else.
- HindiUrdu
Hindi and Urdu have a mid rounded o, so English short O is often produced too high and too long.
- Mandarin
Mandarin's o only appears in glides, so English 'hot' tends to gain a glide and become 'hwot' or 'hoat'.
- Japanese
Japanese o is mid and rounded, so 'hot' can come out closer to 'hoat'; English wants a lower jaw.
- Korean
Korean has two mid back rounded vowels, so the low English one has to be aimed below both.
- Vietnamese
Vietnamese has a low back rounded vowel close to this one, so it transfers well.
- Spanish
Spanish o is higher and tenser than English short O, so 'hot' can sound like 'hoat'.
- French
French has open and close o, so the open one is close to the English vowel, which helps.
- German
German short o is close to this vowel, so it transfers well.
- Italian
Italian has open and close o, and the close one is often chosen, so 'job' tightens toward 'joab'.
- Russian
Russian o reduces to a schwa when unstressed, so English 'office' can lose its first vowel.
- Arabic
Most Arabic varieties have no short o, so it is produced as a u or a; the rounding and the low jaw both need work.
- Turkish
Turkish o is mid rounded, so English short O tends to be too high.
Straight answers
Is /ɒ/ voiced or voiceless?
It is voiced. Put a hand on your throat and say it: you should feel a buzz the whole time. All English vowels are voiced, so the question only really separates the consonants.
What words start with the Short O sound?
Common ones include odd, office, often. In the middle of a word you get hot, job, watch. Every one of those links to its own pronunciation page here.
How is /ɒ/ spelled in English?
It is written "o", "a", "au", "ou", "ach". English spelling and English sound came apart centuries ago, so the same sound turns up under several spellings and the same spelling carries several sounds — which is why the sound, not the letter, is the thing to learn.
Why do Hindi & Urdu speakers find /ɒ/ hard?
Hindi and Urdu have a mid rounded o, so English short O is often produced too high and too long.
Record the Short O sound and see if it landed
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