Vowels: aw sound /ɔ/

Listen to the aw sound

How to pronounce the aw sound

The entire tongue is pushed back and kept low during the pronunciation of the aw sound. The bottom side teeth can be felt alongside the front of the tongue during the sound. The back of the tongue has only a slight rounding upward at the very rear of the mouth. The lips are made into an oval shape, and may stick slightly outward.

The North American aw sound is one of the sounds with the greatest variation in pronunciation even within the continent. Some regions of the United States do not consider this to be a different sound from the short o. However, in many regions of the country it is a unique sound; therefore it is described separately.

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Common aw sound spellings

spelling	example		other pronunciations for spelling
aw	law awful drawn		none
-o- (CVC)[1]	dog lost soft		short o (top) long o (most)
au	caution haunt author		none
augh	caught daughter taught		none
ough(+t)[2]	brought thought fought		none
(w+)a[3]	want wash watch		none

[1] o spelling followed by the letter r
When the consonant following the letter o is the letter r (as in the words for and order), the sound is usually pronounced as the or sound. If the or spelling occurs on an unstressed syllable (as in the words honor and factor), a schwa+r pronunciation is also possible.

[2] ough(+t) spelling
The ough spelling is pronounced with the aw sound when it is followed by the letter t. There are no pronunciation patterns when ough occurs at the end of a word. For example, the words enough, through, and though each have different pronunciations for the ough spelling.

[3] (w+)a spelling
The letter a is often pronounced as the aw sound when it occurs between the letter w and a consonant. Exceptions to this pattern include the words wax, waste, and wagon.

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The aw sound in suffixes

none

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Non-phonetic aw sound words
The aw sound is underlined in the following words:
gone talk walk almost

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Pronuncian Lessons

  

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