English vowels : 'o' pronounced ʌ

[Maciamo]

One of the most difficult aspects of learning English for a non native is its pronuciation. English spelling is notoriously unphonetic, which causes native speakers to mispell words and non natives who have mostly learnt it written to mispronounce words. This is especially true for speakers of related European languages which have many words in common but pronounced differently.

I have found that the words containing a 'o' pronounced as an Open-mid back unrounded vowel (like in the words 'sun, cut, enough, come, etc.') are among the most likely to be mispronouced. Many non natives will just read them as a Open mid-back rounded vowel (BrE version) like in the words 'cod, shock, block, etc.

The 'o' �n the following words rhyme with 'shut', not 'shot' :

brother
come
cover, discover, coverage
covert (except in AmE)
covent
covet(ed), covetous
colander
colour
company
comfort
compass
dove
dozen
honey
love
mother
Monday
money
monk
monkey
nothing
one
other
stomach
ton(ne)
tongue
wonder
worry

Ditto for the 'ou' in these words :

cousin
country
double
touch
young

[misa.j]

Originally Posted by Maciamo

Many non natives will just read them as a Open back rounded vowel (BrE version) like in the words 'cod, shock, block, etc.

In my case it's the opposite, I actually have a harder time with those kind of words. I often mispronouce the words such as "crop" "haller" "fossil" "logic" and say them with 'o' pronounced as an Open-mid back unrounded vowel.

And yes, English pronouciation is one of the hardest things to overcome for a non-native English speaker. It's insane!

[Maciamo]

Originally Posted by misa.j

In my case it's the opposite, I actually have a harder time with those kind of words. I often mispronouce the words such as "crop" "haller" "fossil" "logic" and say them with 'o' pronounced as an Open-mid back unrounded vowel.

I may made a mistake in my explanation. I think both sounds are in fact 'open mid-back' vowels, but the one in 'shut' is unrounded, while the one in 'shot' is rounded. Have a look at the chart below; they are next to each others in 'open-mid' and 'back'. The sound in my list above is the one on the left ( ). Americans usually pronounced the normal British English 'o' (to the right ) as the 'open back rounded vowel' ( ) below in words like 'shot, block, cod, etc.'



Anyway, the vowel as pronounced in my list above do not exist in Japanese (or in Romance languages). In fact they are usually rendered as 'a' instead of 'o' in romaji/katakana. The Japanese 'o' is is between 'close-mid back' and 'open mid-back' I think.

[misa.j]

That makes me realize how different vowels are pronounced in Brithish and American English. I think in American English, the words on your list are pronounced with the phonetic symbol upside down 'e'-sorry, I couldn't paste the exact symbol.

There are only five vowels in Japanese which makes it hard for them to pronounce a lot of English words.

[Apri1]

English really makes no sense. Dont feel bad if you have trouble spelling words. They sound so different than how they are spelt a lot of the time. English is my native language and I still have trouble spelling words. Japanese is much easier =) I have no idea how anybody learns english. I think people who do are brilliant. I know I'd never have been able to learn it if I wasnt a native speaker.

[Tsuyoiko]

Originally Posted by Maciamo

The 'o' �n the following words rhyme with 'shut', not 'shot' :

(list follows)

English has so many regional accents that it is difficult to generalise. In your list I pronounce 'covert', 'colander', 'one' and 'tongue' to rhyme with 'shot'. The 'oo' is also very different. In my town we always pronounce it like in 'too', so 'book', 'cook', 'look' etc all have a round 'o' sound, whereas most people pronounce them with a 'u' sound. We get a lot of stick for it too.