Gotta go! Contrasting /ɒ/ and /əʊ/ in English

Another listener request this week, again looking at that short /ɒ/ sound, but this time contrasting it with the diphthong /əʊ/. These are both sounds we’ve looked at more in depth before - /ɒ/ in the ‘Top Dog’ episode in Season 1 (as well as last week), and /əʊ/ in ‘Go, go, go’, also in season 1. This time the contrast between the sounds *should* be easier, as while /ɒ/ is a vowel and your mouth will not change position as you make it (though of course will when transitioning from and to the surrounding sounds), /əʊ/ is a diphthong, which means that your mouth position *will* change as you make the sound, from the schwa /ə/ to the /ʊ/. Go back and check out that season one ‘Go, go, go’ episode if you need to review this. Knowing there *should* be that clear distinction there doesn’t mean it’s easy in practice, though, especially if your language doesn’t have one or both of these sounds, or treats them differently.

We’ll start with a very quick look at each sound separately before moving on to some minimal pairs. /ɒ/ first, and the same ten words and sentence again as last week: make sure that you’re keeping the sound really short, and that you’ve got the back of your tongue low in your mouth and your lips rounded.

The ten words first:

bosscoffeecostgotholidayimpossiblelostnotstopwatch

…And the sentence. Listen, and repeat.

The forest is popular with      orange frog spotters.

And now /əʊ/. Again, these are some of the words from that ‘Go, go, go’ episode.

Listen and repeat.

1. ago

2. below

3. both

4. Euro

5. follow

6. hello

7. most

8. no

9. phone

10. show

… And one sentence.

I  wrote the hotel a note: I’ve lost both my phones.

Ok, now it’s time to look at plenty of minimal pairs with /ɒ/ and /əʊ/. As often, there’s some pretty high-level vocabulary in here, so get your dictionaries out if you need to! Again, the organisation is alphabetical this week: in the miminal pairs the /ɒ/ and /əʊ/ sounds are almost always in the middle of the words, with just a couple where they’re at the beginning.

For the first ten, we’ll read both words. Listen, and repeat.

block - blokeblot - bloatbossed - boastclock - cloakcod - codecomma - comacop - copecost - coastcot - coatcrock croak

For the second ten, I’ll read the /ɒ/ word, and you read both /ɒ/ and /əʊ/. We’ll do the first one together as an example:

foggy

Wow, that was some tricky vocabulary to start with! You should have read

- foggy - fogey Well done if you got it! You don’t actually need to know the meanings to make the sounds, but you may find you start to doubt your mouth if you don’t recognise the word. Trust yourself! Let’s continue.

gothopJohnmopnodnotoddonrod

Now listen, repeat, and check.

foggy - fogeygot - goathop - hopeJohn - Joanmop - mopenod - nodenot - noteodd - owedon - ownrod - road

For the last ten, I’ll read the /əʊ/ word, you read both. We’ll do the first one as an example again.

wrote

Ok, so you should have read: wrote – rot, or rot- wrote: it doesn’t matter which way round you go! Let’s continue:

slopesmokesoakstoketaupetoasttotewon’twoke

Listen to and repeat both and check:

wrote - rotslope - slopsmoke - smocksoak - sockstoke - socktaupe - toptoast - tossedtote - totwon’t - wantwoke - wok

And finally let’s practise some sentences with a lot of those words.

The tot tossed the toast!John got a goat, and Joan got a goat!The cop couldn’t cope with the cost of the coast.My boss boasts that she won’t want to know the code.The stocky bloke wore a taupe top. His smock was smoky, and his socks were soaked, but he looked stoked!