Phonetics 2

Icono IDevice Reading activity
Elaboración propia. Derechos cedidos a la Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Extremadura
After the coffee Paco started walking around. He couldn't stop thinking of what he had seen in the museum. He didn't feel like visiting any other place that day, so he thought the best thing to do was to breathe fresh air, if the air that day could be called fresh and walk along the streets of Johannesburg. Obviously, as time went by he got more and more tired. At 8 o'clock in the afternoon, he went back to the hotel. He decided it was time to have dinner and go to sleep. The following day would be another day.
On his way to the hotel, he remembered Sonia's English lessons and how she talked about English sounds and pronunciation. The more sounds Paco learned, the better he spoke English. Two other vowel sounds Sonia taught him were strongly related to the Spanish o. However, Paco learnt that in English the pronunciation of one is longer than the pronunciation of the other. So, now he knows that these vowel sounds are /ɔ/ and /ɔ:/.

Have a look at the following words (most of them from the passage above) and guess which ones are pronounced /ɔ/ and which ones /ɔ:/. If you need any help, ask our friend, the robot, for help.

walk wok
stop
 thought
what
 o'clock
was
 taught
talked
 more


Icono IDevice Further knowledge

If you click here you will find some more examples of words which contain /ɔ/, and by clicking here you will find some others containing /ɔ:/. All of them in contrast with the diphthong /əu/.

Now, watch the videos to see how both sounds are correctly pronounced.

 

/ɔ:/


/ɔ/

Although there are not specific rules to know how to pronounce words or sounds in English, we will try to help you distinguish both vowel sounds by means of common spellings for them.

As you can see in the chart above, there is one common spelling for sound /ɔ/: o, mainly in monosyllables (one-syllable words: e.g. hot, box). On the other hand, there are far more common spellings for sound /ɔ:/.
Click on the pictures below and study the charts of the most common spellings for both sounds.
 
 
 
Elaboración propia. Derechos cedidos a la Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Extremadura

 

 
Elaboración propia. Derechos cedidos a laConsejería de Educación de la Junta de Extremadura

 

Icono de iDevice Actividad de Espacios en Blanco
Write all the words from the sentences below containing /ɔ/ or /ɔ:/ at least once. Use the same order as the words appear in the sentence.
By Eduardo Amorim. C. Commons

1. The top door opened.

a. /ɔ/:

b. /ɔ:/:

2. Paco's father had bought a new fishing rod for them

a. /ɔ/:

b. /ɔ:/:

3. Horses were locked before nobody could say a word.

a. /ɔ/:

b. /ɔ:/:

4. A lot of people there were taught that it was not always a good idea to tell the truth.


By mainblanche. C. Commons
a. /ɔ/:

b. /ɔ:/:

5. The more Paco walked, the more tired he got.

a. /ɔ/:

b. /ɔ:/:

  

Icono de iDevice Pronunciation

Do you remember the rules for the -ed pronunciation?

There are three different ways of pronouncing the -ed ending. The difference depends on the final sound we pronounce in the infinitive form, if it is voiced (when the vocal cords vibrate) or voiceless (when there is no vibration). You can try this by putting your fingers in your throat when pronouncing a word!

  • When the final sound is voiced, the -ed ending sounds /d/.
  • When the final sound is voiceless, the -ed ending sounds /t/.
  • When the final sound is either /t/ or /d/, then it sounds /Id/.

Decide the -ed pronunciation of these verbs: cooked, started, sailed, wanted, cleaned, asked, added, passed, listened.

/t/
/d/
/Id/
     

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