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Vowel 19: Diphthong /əʊ/
The first of two rounding diphthongs, /əʊ/ starts with the tongue in mid central position for a schwa, and moves towards the position for /uː/.
The lips move from neutral or slightly rounded during the first part to strongly pouting during the second part.
/əʊ/ is the name of the letter 'O'.
/əʊ/ is a peculiarly English sound, not found in any other language that I am aware of. In most languages, the nearest equivalent is the monophthong /o/, and it's a real give-away when a foreigner pronounces it as a monophthong. We immediately know that that person is not a native speaker.
The archetypal spelling of /əʊ/ is 'o' plus a single consonant plus the 'magic e', as in 'home', 'bone', 'vote', 'nose', 'rose', 'wrote' etc..
Next most common is 'oa' as in 'boat, coat, goat, coast, toast, boast, load, throat'
'o' at the end or words: 'no', 'so', 'hello', 'ago', 'echo', 'dodo'
'ow' as in 'grow': 'flow', 'crow', 'mow', 'slow', 'elbow', 'below', 'pillow' and 'window'.
Rather rarer: 'oe': 'toe', 'woe', 'oboe', and plurals like 'potatoes' and 'tomatoes'.
Long 'o' sound where the spelling doesn't show it: 'old, cold, both, troth'
'ou' as in 'mould', 'shoulder', 'boulder'
'ough' in 'dough', 'though', 'although',
Rare: 'oh' in 'oh' and 'd'oh!'
Then there are an unusual number of spellings with very few examples:
Rare in words of French origin with 'au': 'mauve' (not /mɔːv/), 'chauffeur', 'chauvinist', 'gauche'.
Rare in words of French origin with 'eau': 'chateau', 'gateau', 'plateau', 'bureau', 'tableau' and 'trousseau'.
'ou' in 'soul' only
Odd: 'eo' in 'yeoman'
'ol' with silent 'l' in 'folk' and 'yolk'
French 'ault' only in 'Renault' and other French names ending in '-ault'
'Seoul', the capital of South Korea
'Pharoah'
'Cockburn' anomalous spelling/pronucnation: /ˈkəʊbɜːn, /ˈkəʊbən/
Anomalous spelling 'ew' in 'sew' /səʊ/.
A truly anomalous spelling/pronunciation mismatch is 'brooch', which is pronounced /brəʊtʃ/.
Practice sentences:
The bloated old goat floated past on his boat.
Fifty stoned poets wrote total balony.
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