Pronounce English Accurately

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Vowels 9 & 10: Short /ɒ/ versus long /ɔː/

Short /ɒ/ is the vowel sound in 'hot', and long /ɔː/ is the vowel in 'fort'.

To make /ɒ/, the back of the tongue is low, the lips are quite rounded, but not in a tight pout.

/ɒ/ is short and lax.

/ɔː/ is made in a similar position, but the back of the tongue is higher - about half way up the vowel space, and there is tighter lip rounding

/ɔː/ is long and tense.

Watch my lips:

/ɒ - ɔː- ɒ - ɔː - ɒ - ɔː/

The archetypal spelling of /ɒ/ is the letter 'o', followed by one or more final consonants, as in 'hot', and 'not', and 'lost' and 'stop' and 'pong'.

Also 'o' followed by two consonants as in 'bottle', 'clock' and 'rotting'.

'w' followed by 'a' is often, but not always, /ɒ/.

Examples of /ɒ/ are 'waddle', 'swan' and 'swap', 'swallow, 'Swansea', 'wash', but it's /æ/ in 'swam', 'swag', 'swagger', 'swank' and 'swanky', and /eɪ/ in 'swathe', so it's not very predictable.

'what' rhymes with 'hot', and 'watch' has /ɒ/ too.

More examples are:

'dock'

'dog' - longer because of the following voiced consonant

'lock' - 'log'

'pot' - pod

'potter'

'song'

'wrong'

And some words with odd spellings:

'gone'

'yacht' /jɒt/

'Vauxhall' /ˈvɒks.əl/

'because'

'cauliflower'

'sausage'

'Gloucester'

Long /ɔː/

The archetypal spelling of /ɔː/ is 'or' as in 'or', 'fort', 'horse', and 'more'. Again, there is no /r/ sound in standard British English.

Other common spellings are 'aw' as in 'saw, lawn',

'oar' as in 'oar, board',

'au' as in 'daughter', 'taught', 'caught', 'naught', 'fraught', 'distraught', 'slaughter' and 'onslaught'

and 'ou' as in 'ought', 'thought', 'fought', 'wrought', 'sought'

'a' + 'l': 'all', 'fall', 'tall', 'hall', US 'mall' BUT Pall Mall in London has No. 4, /æ/, twice.

w + 'a': 'water'

'w' + 'ar': 'warn', 'warm', 'war', 'warn', 'warm', and 'wart'

'qu' + 'ar': 'quarter', 'quart'

'oor': 'door, floor'

'our': 'court'

In British English this /ɒ - ɔː/ distinction is always made. There can be no confusion between 'cot' and 'caught'.

In many varieties of American English no difference is made between the 'cot' vowel and the 'caught' vowel; both are pronounced more like [a].

Practice sentences

'Lots of the officers did horrible things to their oranges'.

Horace the horse hogged all the pots of porridge.

Haughty Lord Hall had all the hallmarks of appalling naughtiness.

Paul, you ought not to horde so many oars.