How to Pronounce the Open “o”
To start with, the open “o” or /ɔ/ is not a vowel sound that is found in Spanish, but that can be present in other languages such as French. That is that this particular sound must be learned by the student to successfully reduce his/her accent in English.
It’s important to keep in mind that the open “o” is not a rounded vowel; it actually is an unrounded one. If you pronounce the word “no” in Spanish, you have to notice how your lips get rounded and “close,” like in a smooching position. However, if you have a native speaker, or one of your professors, pronounce the word “law” in English, you will see how they unround their lips, and their mouth is sort of open.
The one feature (characteristic) both back vowels share is the fact that tension is present when we pronounce them. Yet, the most important difference in these two vowel sounds is the “unroundedness” in the English /ɔ/.
| Comparative Chart | ||
| Feature | English Open /ɔ/ | Spanish Rounded /o/ |
| Similarity in IPA | NO | NO |
| Rounded Lips | NO | YES |
| Unrounded Lips | YES | NO |
| Tense Vowel | YES | YES |
| Back Vowel | YES | YES |
| Please, understand IPA as a synonym for “pronunciation” is this chart. | ||
Before we get into practicing the sound, please take a look at the following video from BBC Learning Services. Although they use a different phonetic symbol for the open "o," it is still the same vowel sound for /ɔ/.
Now it’s time to start practicing with the open “o,” so click on the following links to start experiencing this vowel sound.
1. Contrastive words: /a/ vs. /ɔ/
2. Contrastive words: /ɔ/ vs. /a/
3. Contrastive words: /ɔ/ vs. /ow/
4. Contrastive words: /ɔ/ vs. /ʌ/
