To continue our look at vowel sounds, today we will investigate the letter ‘o’.  What is there to say about this letter. Well it is the fifteenth letter of the alphabet and along with the capital letter H, I, and X, the letter O is one of the few letters that look the same if you flip it upside down or view them from behind.  Also the capital letter O and the number 0 (zero) don’t look very different in writing, but you can usually tell them apart in typing because the number is skinnier than the letter.  Okay, enough fun facts about this vowel, now on to how to say it!

o (short vowel sound)

This sound is made with the jaw open wide, the lips are open, relaxed and only slightly rounded, and the tongue low and relaxed.  Almost no movement is made in producing this sound – the mouth is just open and slightly rounded to let air flow out.Example words:
clock
cloth
doll
honest
pot
on
upon

o (long vowel sound)

This sound is made with jaw slightly open.  When making this sound the tongue is tense and moves back in the mouth as you make the sound.  The lips are rounded and apart, but then move closer together.Example words:
ago
chosen
coat
dose
no
open
owe
so
toe

Here is a quick grouping exercise for you to practice what you just learned about the short and long sounds of the vowel ‘o’ while pronouncing some new words.  Look at and say the six words below.  Group them by whether they have either a short or long ‘o’ sound.  Hint: There are three words with short ‘o’ sounds and three with long ‘o’ sounds.

Once you have finished deciding which group each word belongs to you can check your answers by clicking on this link: http://www.abcfastphonics.com/vowel-letters/vowel-o.html.

mop
oak
off
lonely
potatoes
ostrich