O

The English letter O is a vowel and has several pronunciations.

The table below lists the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbol and the standard (std) symbol used to describe the sounds of the letter O. The standard symbol is used in many English dictionaries. The phonetic transcription of each word is in parentheses.

Click on the sample words to listen to the sound files. Pay attention to the sound of the letters in bold.

name IPA std examples
short o ŏ October
(ktb)
hot
(ht)
 
 
long o ō only
(nli)
October
(ktb)
hello
(hl)
 
long u u ū ooze
(uz)
noodle
(nudl)
who
(hu)
too
(tu)
 
    book
(bk)
 
 
schwa oppose
(pz)
opposite
(psIt)
 

Related lessons:

Read lesson
 * en español
 * en français