Practice Your English Pronunciation /əʊ/ vs /ɔː/ Vowel Sounds | Course #5

Hi guys.

This is Fanny.

Welcome to this English pronunciation video.

In this video,

I'm gonna focus on two tricky sounds:

/əʊ/

and /ɔ:/

sounds similar

but they are very different

and you need to hear the difference

and to pronounce them differently.

Let's take two example words shall we

the first word is 'so'.

/əʊ/

is the sound. Can you hear it?

'so'

The second word is 'saw'.

The sound is /ɔ:/.

Can you hear it?

so /səʊ/

saw /sɔː/

Now I know they sound very similar to most of you.

But they are different

and with a little bit of practice,

you will improve your skills.

I promise you by the end of this video,

you will hear and pronounce them differently.

So keep watching.

Let's go guys!

I'm gonna help you make these sounds

/əʊ/ and /ɔ:/ in English.

I want you to hear the difference

and to be able to pronounce them correctly.

Also you should know the IPA spelling.

Watch how I move my mouth.

And please try to repeat after me.

I know you can do this so let's get to it.

First, let's make the sound /əʊ/.

/əʊ/ is actually a diphthong.

So it's two vowel sounds /əʊ/.

So as you pronounce it, as you can see,

my mouth is quite round.

It moves and it becomes smaller.

/əʊ/

Let's practice.

Repeat after me.

/əʊ/-

/əʊ/

/əʊ/

Let's practice now with the word 'so'.

Repeat after me.

so

so

so

And now for the sound /ɔ:/.

As you can see

my mouth is round as well

but it's doesn't move.

And the sound is a tiny bit longer.

/ɔ:/

Let's practice. Repeat after me.

/ɔ:/

/ɔ:/

/ɔ:/

Let's take the word 'saw'.

Please repeat after me.

saw

saw

saw

Good.

Let's now use minimal pairs.

Words that are very similar

but the vowel sounds change.

They're a very good way to practice these vowel sounds.

First, let's just practice the sounds.

Watch how my mouth moves

and repeat after me.

/əʊ/

/əʊ/

/əʊ/

/ɔ:/

/ɔ:/

/ɔ:/

/əʊ/

/ɔ:/

/əʊ/

/ɔ:/

/əʊ/

/ɔ:/

Let's now take our words 'so' and 'saw'.

Repeat after me.

so

so

so

saw

saw

saw

so

saw

so

saw

so

saw

Excellent guys.

Okay students let's now move on to minimal pairs together.

I'm gonna read them to you

you should repeat after me.

And watch my mouth - how it moves.

Let's get started.

boat

bought

bode

bored

bow

bore

code

cord

coke

cork

cone

corn

copes

corpse

choke

chalk

chose

chores

close

claws

crow

craw

doe

door

dome

dorm

doze

doors

drone

drawn

foam

form

foe

for

folk

fork

go

gore

goal

gall

hone

horn

implode

implored

Joe

jaw

know

nor

load

lord

low

law

moan

morn

moaning

morning

mole

maul

motor

mortar

mow

more

o

or

oat

ought

owe

or

poach

porch

poke

pork

sew

saw

scone

scorn

show

shore

show

sure

shown

shorn

snow

snore

stoke

stork

stow

store

toe

tore

tone

torn

tote

taught

quote

quart

Good guys.

Let's carry on.

Okay guys. Let's practice further.

I'm going to show you a couple of words

I want you to read them

with the proper English vowel sound:

/əʊ/ and /ɔ:/

Let's get to it.

Let's start with the first word.

Is it stoke or stalk?

It's stoke.

Next word.

moaning or morning?

It's 'morning' of course.

next word

code or cord?

code

Next word.

stoke or stork?

stork.

Very nice.

Next word.

poke or pork?

It's 'poke'.

Very good.

Next word.

boat or bought?

Its 'bought'.

Next word.

poke or pork?

It's 'pork', guys.

Next word.

hone or horn?

horn

Then we have 'code' or 'cord'.

It's 'cord'.

And finally...

boat or bought?

'boat'

Very nice.

That was excellent guys.

Let's move on.

Ok guys moving on to sentences

containing /əʊ/ and /ɔ:/ sounds.

So pay attention and repeat after me.

The first sentence

I saw four crows fly low.

Second sentence...

Joe chose pork and corn.

And finally...

There's more snow on the low shore.

Great guys.

Let's move on.

Great job guys.

You now have a better understanding of the difference

between the English vowel sounds

/əʊ/ and /ɔ:/

But keep practicing.

It takes time and practice speaking and listening

to master these vowel sounds.

But you can do!

Also, make sure you watch the rest of my pronunciations videos,

very important if you want to master the English language.

See you next time.