recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Phoneme \ɔː\ in the PALM - LOT - THOUGHT merger

This phonetics article is adapted for an accent where /ɔː/ is always followed always by /r/, and which is present in roughly half of North America but is not General American. For General American see Phoneme /ɔː/ in General American. For British English and Received Pronunciation see IPA phoneme /ɔː/ and IPA phoneme /ɒ/.

**IPA consonants**

In many parts of North America (about half the United States and all of Canada) /ɑː/ and /ɔː/ sound the same, as /ɑː/. See Cot-caught merger.

In this accent /ɔː/ appears only followed by /r/: north, force. This accent also has the diphthong /ɔɪ/.

Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary writes /or/ instead of /ɔːr/ before a vowel ("foreign" as /ˈforən/) and it writes /oɚ/ before a consonant or at the end of the word ("north" as /noɚθ/). In a broad notation it is unambiguous to go from /ɔːr/ to [or] or [oɚ]. Similarly, this dictionary writes /oɪ/ instead of /ɔɪ/.

## Common words

* with "or": afford, born, cork, door, floor, fork, horse, lord, more, nor, or, pork, score, short, store, storm, sword;
* with "oar": boar, board, oar, roar, soar;
* with "our": court, four, pour
* with "ar": quarter, war, warm, warn;

* homophones: bored - board; or - oar - ore.

## /ɑːr/ or /ɔːr/

*See Decoding exercises: "orV" and "orrV"*

The following 5 words are pronounced with /ɑː/ in this accent:

* borrow, morrow (shortening of "tomorrow"), sorrow, sorry, tomorrow

The following words are pronounced with /ɔː/ by most speakers and with /ɑː/ by others.

* corridor, Florida, foreign, forest, historic, horrible, orange, origin, warrior

## References

1. ↑ William Labov,The Organization of Dialect Diversity in North America, The o/oh merger [i.e. The /ɑː - ɔː/ merger].
2. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary, foreign.
3. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary, north.
4. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary, choice.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Wikipedia, English-language vowel changes before historic /r/ § Mergers of /ɒr-/ and /ɔːr-/. Retreived 20 December 2016.
6. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary, borrow. Note that this dictionary writes /ɑː/ in "palm" and "lot", and it writes /ɑ/ in "safari". This wiki always uses /ɑː/.
7. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary, Florida. Note that when this dictionary writes /or/ this wiki writes /ɔːr/.
8. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary, orange.

## See also

* Homophone
* FORCE lexical set
Collins Dictionaries

**Collins Dictionaries** is a free online resource.

* It has an English-English function, as well as bilingual English to and from Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
* It provides sample pronunciation of words.
* It has a thesaurus function.
* It has a section on Words & Language.

## IPA pronunciation key

In the "Learner" section the stressed vowel is underlined, instead of having an IPA stress mark.
Estuary English

**Estuary English** is a variety of Standard English, spoken with a regional accent and, according to the linguist John Wells, "somewhere between traditional Received Pronunciation and cockney". It includes the "form(s) of English widely spoken in and around London and, more generally, in the southeast of England — along the river Thames and its estuary".

It was first referred to in 1984 by David Rosewarne in an article for the *Times Educational Supplement*.

Some features of Estuary English are as follows:

Phoneme /eɪ/ pronunced as [ʌɪ]: *face* as [fʌɪs].
Phoneme /aɪ/ pronunced as [ɑɪ]: *price* as [prɑɪs].
Phoneme /aʊ/ pronunced as [æʊ]: *mouth* as [mæʊθ].
Phoneme /əʊ/ pronunced as [əʊ], [ɒʊ] or [ʌʊ]: *holy* as ['həʊlɪ], *goat* as [gɒʊt] and *loaf* as [lʌʊf]
Phoneme /uː/ pronunced as [ʉ:]: *goose* as [gʉ:s].
## References

1. ↑ John Wells, "Our changing pronunciation", Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, xix, p. 42-48, 1997. Available in UCL (University College London) Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, "Our changing pronunciation".
2. ↑ UCL (University College London) Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, Web documents relating to Estuary English
3. ↑ David Rosewarne, ‘Estuary English’, Times Educational Supplement, 19 (October 1984). Available in UCL (University College London) Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, ‘Estuary English’.
4. ↑ David Crystal. Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language, 1995, p. 327. Available in UCL (University College London) Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, Estuary English.
5. ↑ John Wells, "Transcribing Estuary English: a discussion document", Speech Hearing and Language: UCL Work in Progress, volume 8, 1994, p. 259-267. Available in UCL (University College London) Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, "Transcribing Estuary English: a discussion document".
Syllabic consonant

A **syllabic consonant** is a consonant that forms a syllable on its own, or is the first consonant in a syllable with no vowels. The symbol of a syllabic consonant is a small vertical line below (as in n̩ ). This line is often omitted.

* Syllabic /l/: apple /ˈæpəl/ [ˈæpl̩].
* Syllabic /n/: lesson /ˈlesən/ [ˈlesn̩].

* Syllabic /m/: rhythm /ˈrɪðəm/ [ˈrɪðəm] or [ˈrɪðm̩].

Most dictionaries, even those that use syllabic /n/ and syllabic /l/, don't use syllabic /m/. However some people can ommit the schwa in their pronunciation.
* Some people pronounce a syllabic /ŋ/, as in *lock and key* pronounced [ˌlɒk ŋ̍ ˈkiː]. In this case the small vertical line is written above the letter.

* Syllabic /r/: nurse /nɜːrs/ [nɹ̩s, nɝs], letter /ˈletər/ [ˈletɹ̩, ˈletɚ].

## References

1. ↑ Wikipedia's IPA chart.
2. ↑ Tomasz P. Szynalski, Things you should know about phonetic transcription.
IPA phonetic symbol 〚l̩〛

**IPA consonants**

The IPA phonetic symbol [l̩] (lowercase "L" with a small vertical line below) represents syllabic /l/, a syllable with no vowel (syllabic consonant), as in "people" [ˈpiːpl̩], "level" [ˈlevl̩] or "difficult" [ˈdɪfɪkl̩t]. In a broad notation [l̩] is /əl/: /ˈpiːpəl, ˈlevəl, ˈdɪfɪkəlt/. Some dictionaries write a small schwa as in /ˈpiːpəl, ˈlevəl, ˈdɪfɪkəlt/. Others write no vowel, and the reader has to deduct that /l/ is in a syllable with no vowels: /ˈpiːpl, ˈlevl/.

Not all instances of /əl/ are pronounced [l̩]. For example, "several" is pronunced [ˈsevrəl]. In this wiki we are not concerned with details like this, and therefore we always use a broad notation: /əl/.

## Common words

* with "l": animal - financial - level - local - model - national [ˈnæʃ.ə.nl̩, ˈnæʃ.n̩.l̩, ˈnæʃ.nəl] - political - social - special - total - travel
* with silent e: able - available - example - people - possible - table

## [l̩] vs [əl]

Below we can see the pronunciation of /əl/ depending on the previous consonant according to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD), Collins Dictionary for British English (CD-BE), and Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary (MWLD) for American English.
Note that OALD uses [l] instead of [ḷ] or [əl].

## Unicode and HTML

Unicode: U+0329 Combining vertical line below

HTML:

Hexadecimal: l&#x329;
Decimal: l&#809;
## Notes References

1. ↑ Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionaries, people (noun): ˈpiːpl.
2. ↑ Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, several (determiner): ˈsevrəl.
3. ↑ Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
4. ↑ Collins English Dictionary
5. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary

## See also

* IPA phonetic symbol [m̩]
* IPA phonetic symbol [n̩]
* IPA phonetic symbol [ɹ̩]
* IPA phoneme /ə/
* Varisyllabic words
Decoding exercises: "aw"

**IPA consonants**

The sequence "aw" very reliably represents IPA phoneme /ɔː/.

## /ɔː/

* awe, awesome, awful, awkward, bawdy, brawl, claw, coleslaw, crawfish *(also* crayfish), crawl, dawn, draw, drawer /drɔːr/, flaw, hawk, jaw, law, lawn, macaw, paw, pawn, prawn, raw, saw, scrawny, spawn, straw, thaw, withdraw, yawn

## Different syllables

* /əw/: away - aware - award - awry - Delaware - Hawaii
* /ɑːw/: Malawi

## References

1. ↑ Dictionary.com, Random House Inc., lawyer.
Consonant sound

**IPA consonants**

A **consonant** is a speech sound - not a letter - caused by a constriction or closure at some point along the vocal tract. Every syllable must contain a vowel but does not have to include a consonant.

Most English dialects have 24 consonants (counting semivowels /j/ and /w/). Many consonants are normally spelled with one letter or digraph, but several of them have an inconsistent spelling. For example /ʃ/ can unambiguously be spelled as "sh", but there are several other spellings such as "ti" in nation or "ce" in ocean.

The following letters or digraphs unambiguously spell consonant phonemes: b, ch, d, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, sh, t, v, w, y, z.

The following phonemes can't be spelled unambiguously:

* /θ/ as in **th**ank, because "th" can be either /θ/ or /ð/.
* /ð/ as in **th**en, for the same reason
* /ŋ/ as in thi**ng**, because "ng" can represent /ŋ/ or /ŋg/ (as in "finger")
* /ʒ/ as in plea**s**ure (however "zh" is sometimes used).

Besides, "s" can represent /s/ as in thi**s** or /z/ as in the**s**e. Normally "ss", "c"+"e" and "c"+"i" are used to unambiguously represent /s/.
Triphthong

**IPA consonants**

A **triphthong** is a long sound which is comprised of three combined vowel sounds in a single syllable. Some speakers break triphthongs into two syllables, a diphthong and a schwa.

## Examples

A dot signals syllable boundary.

* /aʊə/: hour /aʊər/ and also /ˈaʊ.ər/. Compare with power, always /ˈpaʊ.ər/.
* /aɪə/: fire /faɪər/ and also /ˈfaɪ.ər/. Compare with liar, always /ˈlaɪ.ər/.
* /jʊə/: cure /kjʊər/ and also /ˈkjuː.ər/. Compare with fewer, always /ˈfjuː.ər/.

The following words are almost always heard as disyllables:

* /eɪə/: player /ˈpleɪ.ər/ could be pronounced /pleɪər/
* /ɔɪə/: royal /ˈrɔɪ.əl/ could be pronounced /rɔɪəl/
* /əʊə/: lower /ˈloʊ.ər/ could be pronounced /loʊər/

## Rising triphthongs

A rising triphthong begins with a semivowel [j] or [w]. In English rising triphthongs are normally analyzed as sequences of two phonemes. There are many rising triphthongs in English, as /j/ and /w/ can combine with many diphthongs.

* /jaɪ/ yikes
* /jəʊ/: yoga
* /jɪə/: year
* /jʊə/: cure
* /waɪ/: quite
* /waʊ/: wow
* /weə/: square
* /weɪ/: way
* /wəʊ/: quote
* /wɪə/: weird

## Note

Linguist John Wells thinks there are no triphthongs in English, and in all cases there are two syllables. This means that the difference between liar /ˈlaɪ.ər/ and lyre /laɪər/ does not exist: many people agree that these two words are homophones. Note that Wells considers *cure* /kjʊər/ to be a monosyllable, but not a triphthong, because /j/ is a semivowel and not a vowel.

## References

1. ↑ John Wells's phonetic blog, triphthongs, anyone?
2. ↑ *Dictionary.com Unabridged.* Random House, Inc., liar.
3. ↑ *Dictionary.com Unabridged.* Random House, Inc., lyre.

## See also

* Diphthong
* Monophthong
Pronunciation exercises: \ʃ\ vs \tʃ\

Together with the page possible pronunciation difficulties, this page sets out some common words that can be used to become more aware of how you can improve the pronunciation of the consonant sounds **/ʃ/** and **/tʃ/**.

Depending on their mother tongue (L1), students may have difficulty distinguishing between these two sounds. More often than not, these supposed difficulties depend more on the interference of L1 than on the actual difficulties posed by English, and many, if not most students will greatly improve their pronunciation by simply becoming aware of certain differences - together with a minimum of practice.

The difference between /ʃ/ and /tʃ/ is that /ʃ/ is fricative and /tʃ/ is affricate. A fricative sound can last a long time as in shhhh /ʃʃʃʃʃ/ (in this case we have a flow of air). An affricate sound is short, even if it ends in a fricative. In the case of /tʃ/ we have a puff of air.

## /ʃ/

* with initial /ʃ/: shine - ship - shoe - shop - should - show
* in mid-position: action - passion - patient - position - station;
* with final /ʃ/: dish - push - wash - wish

/ʃ/ sound spelled with "ch"

* brochure - cachalot - cache - cachet - champagne - chef - Chevrolet - Chevy - Chicago - machete - machine - Michigan - moustache*BrE*/mustache*AmE* - parachute - quiche

## /tʃ/

* with inital /tʃ/: change - charge - cheap - check - cheese - chew - choose
* in mid-position: achieve - kitchen - future - picture - purchase - teacher
* with final /tʃ/: approach - catch - each - lunch - much - pitch - research

## /tʃ/ vs /ʃ/

The following are minimal pairs:

* initial: chair - share; cheap - sheep; cheat - sheet; cheese - she's; chew - shoe; chews/choose - shoes; chip - ship; chop - shop;
* final: catch - cash/cache; match - mash; watch - wash; which/witch - wish.

### "ti"

* /ʃ/: action, additional, condition, essential, information, initiative, nation, national, patient, position, potential
* /tʃ/: Christian, combustion, digestion, exhaustion, indigestion, question, suggestion

### /tʃər/ and /ʃər/

* /tʃər/: culture, feature, future, nature, picture, researcher, structure, teacher
* /ʃər/: extinguisher, pressure, publisher

## Spanish L1

In Spanish /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ are heard as the same sound. For example, "shampoo" is *champú* and "champagne" is *champaña*. Probably all teachers working with Spanish speakers have practiced *cheap, sheep, chip* and *ship*.

In final position /tʃ/ might be even more difficult: "Catch" is pronounced \*[kæʃ] and "catched" becomes either \*[kæʃt] or \*[kæt.ʃ.t] (three syllables, sounds similar to [kæt.ʃə.tə]).

## See also

* Homophones
* Decoding exercises: "ch"
* Pronunciation exercises: /dʒ/ vs /tʃ/
* Pronunciation exercises: /ʒ/ vs /ʃ/
IPA phoneme \ɔː\

This phonetics article is based on British English and Received Pronunciation. For American English see Phoneme /ɔː/ in General American.

In Received Pronunciation, the IPA phonetic symbol **/ɔː/** corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "north", "force", and "thought". Additionally, many people pronounce "sure" as /ʃɔːr/ instead of the more traditional /ʃʊər/. See IPA phoneme /ʊə/.

In General American this phoneme is heard in "north", "force", "thought", and also "cloth" (the latter is pronounced /ɒ/ in Received Pronunciation).

In Received Pronunciation /ɔːr/ is pronounced [ɔː] unless it is followed by a vowel, i.e. when the spelling has an "r", it is normally silent unless it is followed by a vowel.

In General American the "r" in /ɔːr/ is always pronounced.

There are places in the United Kingdom where /ɔːr/ is pronounced [ɔːr], and places in North America where /r/ is silent.

## Common words

Some common words containing **/ɔː/** include the following:

* with "oa": abroad - broad
* with "ough": ought - thought

past tense and past participle: bought - brought - fought - sought - thought
* with "a": water;
* with "al": almost - already - alter - always - chalk - false - salt (also /sɒlt/*BrE*) - talk - walk
* with "all": ball - call - fall - hall - mall - small - wall
* with "aw": dawn - flaw - hawk - jaw - law - lawn - raw - saw - shawl - thaw - yawn
* with "au": auction - August - author - autumn - cause - clause - daughter - fault - launch

past tense and past participle: caught - taught
### /ɔːr/

*See Decoding exercises: "orV" and "orrV"*

Some common words containing **/ɔːr/** include the following (note that the /r/ is silent in Received Pronunciation, unless it is followed by a vowel)

* with "or": afford - born - cork - door - floor - fork - horse - lord - more - nor - or - pork - score - short - store - storm - story - sword
* with "oar": boar - board - oar - roar - soar
* with "our": court - four - pour
* with "ar": quarter - war - warm - warn
* with "awer": drawer

## Homophones

* All accents: bored - board; clause - claws; or - oar - ore; pause - paws; warn - worn;
* Only in non-rhotic accents: court - caught; source - sauce; stork - stalk.
* your /**jɔːr***BrE* jʊər*AmE* jər*BrE* *AmE*/ - you're /**jɔːr***BrE* jʊər*BrE* *AmE* jər*AmE*/

* What is the difference between a cat and a comma?

A cat has its claws at the end of its paws and a comma has its pause at the end of its clause.

## Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

### Spanish

Some Spanish speakers may, at first, have difficulty distinguishing between the vowel sound in "north" and that of **/ɒ/**, as in "not".

It is not uncommon to hear them pronouncing \*/ˈalsəʊ/ or \*/alˈtɜːrnatɪv/.

See also Decoding exercises: "au" § Spanish L1.

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/hashtag/aussum?f=live

## See also

* Pronunciation exercises: /ɒ/ vs /ɔː/
* Pronunciation exercises: /əʊ/ vs /ɔː/
* Pronunciation exercises: /ɒrV/ vs /ɔːrV/

## External links

* British Library, Vowel sounds of Received Pronunciation
IPA phoneme \p\

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol **/p/** corresponds to the initial consonant sound in words like "put", and "play" and the final one in "keep" and "type".

/p/ is an unvoiced consonant; its voiced counterpart is IPA phoneme /b/.

## Common words

Some common words which practice the initial pronunciation of **/p/** include the following:

* part, pause, people, place, problem, put

Some common words which practice the mid-position pronunciation of **/p/** include the following:

* appear, opinion, report, trasport

Some common words which practice the final pronunciation of **/p/** include the following:

* develop, help, hope, shape, shop, stop, type, wipe

Anomaly: hiccough (preferred spelling is "hiccup")

## See also

* Decoding the letter P
* IPA phoneme /b/

## External links

* British Library, Received Pronunciation consonant sounds
Decoding exercises: "orr"

**IPA consonants**

The letter O in the sequence "orr" normally sounds /ɒ/ in Received Pronunciation (as in b**o**rrow). In derived words it sounds /ɔː/ as in abh**o**rring. However from "abhor" /əbˈhɔːr/ we also get "abhorrent" /əbˈhɒrənt/.

In General American /ɒr/*BrE* sounds /ɑːr/ in only 5 words and it sounds /ɔːr/ in the rest.

## Common words

* As /ɒ/,*BrE* /ɔː/*AmE*: correspond
* As /ɒ/,*BrE* /ɑː/*AmE*: borrow - sorry - tomorrow
* As /ə/: correct
* As /ʌ/ or /ɜː/: worry /ˈwʌriː,*BrE* ˈwɜːriː*AmE*/

## Less common words

* As /ɒ/,*BrE* /ɔː/*AmE*: abhorrent - horrible - horror - porridge - torrent - torrid
* As /ɒ/,*BrE* /ɑː/*AmE*: morrow (shortening of "tomorrow") - sorrow
* As /ɔː/: abhorred - abhorring
* As /ə/: correlation - correspondence - corrosion - corruption - haemorrhage*BrE* - hemorrhage*AmE*

## References

1. ↑ Wikipedia, English-language vowel changes before historic /r/ § Historic "short o" before intervocalic R. Retreived 14 May 2015.

## See also

* Decoding the letter O
* Decoding the letter R
* Decoding exercises: "or"
* Decoding exercises: "orV" and "orrV"
* Pronunciation exercises: /ɒrV/ vs /ɔːrV/
So-called “long o”

The so-called **“long o” sound** is an informal term that means **the long sound of the letter o** which is **IPA phoneme /əʊ/**, as in *stone*, *cold* or *hotel*.

In the case of *o* as /əʊ/ it is said that the letter “says its name”. In the case of *stone* or *bone* it is said that the magic *e* “makes the letter say its name”

The terms “long o” and “short o” are not recommended because the opposition between /əʊ/ and /ɒ/ (“short *o*”) is not only a difference in length, but mainly a difference in quality. Instead of saying "*crow* is pronounced with long *o*" it would be better to say "*crow* is pronounced with the GOAT vowel". Alternatively it could be said "*crow* is pronounced like the long sound of the letter o".

## Common words

Monosyllables
* with magic e: alone, bone, close, home, hope, note, phone, stone, those, whole, zone
* ending in consonants: bold, both, don't, fold, gold, gross, hold, host, most, old , post, roll, poll, won't
* ending in "o": go, no, so

Polysyllables
* with silent e: noble
* mid position: control, global, local, mobile, moment, motivate, notable, only, open, over, social, slogan, soldier
* ending in "o": ago, also, photo, potato, radio, video

## “Long *o*” in combinations

When children learn to read they are sometimes told a supposed rule (that holds true only 40% of the time) which says "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking". For this or for other reasons, when *o* is found in combinations sounding /əʊ/, the term “long *o*” is used as well.

* "oa": approach, boat, coach, coal, coat, coast, float, foam, goal, goat, load, loan, oats, road, roast, throat, toast

* "oe": toe, goes

The cases of "ou" and "ow" don't not follow this rule, because these combinations normally sound /aʊ/ as in "mouth" or "brown". Therefore in the following cases, it is better to say that "ou" or "ow" sound as the vowel of GOAT.

* "ou": although, dough, shoulder, soul, though
* "ow": arrow, below, blow, borrow, bowl, crow, elbow, fellow, flow, follow, grow, grown, growth, know, low, narrow, owe, own, row *(line)*, shadow, show, slow, snow, throw, tomorrow, tow, window, yellow

## See also

* Decoding the letter O
* Pronunciation exercises: /əʊ/ vs /ɒ/
* So-called “short” and “long” vowels
IPA phonetic symbol 〚m̩〛

**IPA consonants**

The IPA phonetic symbol [m̩] (lowercase "m" with a small vertical line below) represents syllabic /m/, a syllable with no vowel (syllabic consonant), as in "rhythm" [ˈrɪðm̩] or "system" [ˈsɪstm̩]. In a broad notation [m̩] is /əm/ and most dictionaries prefer that notation: /ˈrɪðəm, ˈsɪstəm/.

## Common words

* bottom, freedom, item, maximum, mechanism, minimum, problem, symptom, system

## [əm] vs [əm]

Below we can see the pronunciation of /əm/ depending on the previous consonant according to the Cambridge Dictionaries Online (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, aka British English section, CALD).
Most other dictionaries always use /əm/.

## Unicode and HTML

Unicode: U+0329 Combining vertical line below

HTML:

Hexadecimal: m&#x329;
Decimal: m&#809;
## References

1. ↑ Cambridge Dictionaries Online, Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

## See also

* IPA phonetic symbol [l̩]
* IPA phonetic symbol [n̩]
* IPA phonetic symbol [ɹ̩]
* IPA phoneme /ə/
* Varisyllabic words
Decoding exercises: "trans"

**IPA consonants**

The prefix "trans" can be pronounced as /træns/ or /trænz/. All words that are pronounced with /trænz/ are shown in some dictionaries with a variant pronunciation of /træns/.

In London this prefix is often pronounced /trɑːns/ or /trɑːnz/. When unstressed it can be pronounced /trəns/ or /trənz/ as in the verb "transfer" pronounced /trənsˈfɜːr/ instead of /trænsˈfɜːr/.

See also Pronunciation and decoding exercises: /s/ vs /z/.

## /s/

* transcribe - transcription - transfer - transform - transfusion - transitive - transitory - transparent - transport

## Variant pronunciations

/s/ or /z/

* transgender - transgress - translate - transistor - transit - transition - translucent - transmission - transmit - transplant - transsexual - transvestite

/z/*BrE* *AmE* /s/*AmE*

* transaction - transatlantic

/s/*BrE* *AmE* /z/*AmE*

* transitory

/z/*BrE* /ʃ/*AmE*

* transient /ˈtrænziːənt,*BrE* ˈtrænʃənt*AmE*/

## References

1. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, available in Word finder trans-.

## See also

* Decoding difficulties
* Decoding written words
* Decoding the letter S
Decoding exercises: "yr"

The letter combination **"yr"** has several different pronunciations, mainly /ɜːr/ and /ɪr/. This article sets out some words that can be used to become more aware of the differences.

* /ɜː/: myrtle - myrrh
* /ɪ/: lyrics - myriad - pyramid - syringe - Syria - syrup - tyranny
* /ə/: martyr
* /aɪ/: gyrate - thyroid - tyrant
* Sequence /aɪə/: lyre - tyre*BrE*

## See also

* Decoding written words
* Decoding the letter Y
* Decoding the letter R
Varisyllabic words

**IPA consonants**

Linguist John Wells calls a word **varisyllabic** if it can be pronounced with a variable number of syllables, as in *family* /ˈfæm.əl.iː, ˈfæm.liː/. Varisyllabic words are formed by compressing two syllables into one. The first syllable is a syllabic consonant /əl/ or /ən/ or the sequence /ər/ and the second syllable begins with a vowel. In the compressed word the syllabic consonant is joined to the vowel, or the /ə/ in /ər/ disappears. The website EasyPronunciation.com provides an IPA transcription in which varisyllabic words are shown explicitly, for example "family" as /ˈfæm(ə)lı/ (only in British English). In the examples the symbol \* means EasyPronunciation does nor record the variant.

* catholic /ˈkæθəlɪk, ˈkæθlɪk/
* chocolate /ˈtʃɒkəlɪt,\* ˈtʃɒklɪt/
* family /ˈfæməliː, ˈfæmliː/
* Nicholas /ˈnɪkələs,\* ˈnɪkləs/
* privilege /ˈprɪvəlɪdʒ, ˈprɪvlɪdʒ\*/

* /ən/ becomes /n/ (or [n̩] becomes [n]):

* maddening /ˈmædənɪŋ, ˈmædnɪŋ/
* maintenance /ˈmeɪntənəns, ˈmeɪntnəns/
* original /əˈrɪdʒənəl, əˈrɪdʒnəl\*/
* veteran /ˈvetərən, ˈvetrən/

* /ər/ becomes /r/:

* adultery /əˈdʌltəriː, əˈdʌltriː/
* average /ˈævərɪdʒ, ˈævrɪdʒ/
* Barbara (also Barbra) /ˈbɑːrbərə, ˈbɑːrbrə/
* beverage /ˈbevərɪdʒ, ˈbevrɪdʒ/
* camera /ˈkæmərə, ˈkæmrə/
* conference /ˈkɒnfərəns, ˈkɒnfrəns/
* coverage /ˈkʌvərɪdʒ, ˈkʌvrɪdʒ/
* dangerous /ˈdeɪndʒərəs, ˈdeɪndʒrəs\*/
* Deborah (also Debrah) /ˈdebərə, ˈdebrə/
* delivery /dɪˈlɪvəriː, dɪˈlɪvriː/
* different /ˈdɪfərənt, ˈdɪfrənt/
* Everest /ˈevərɪst, ˈevrɪst\*/
* favorite*AmE*, favourite*BrE* /ˈfeɪvərɪt, ˈfeɪvrɪt/
* federal /ˈfedərəl, ˈfedrəl/
* general /ˈdʒenərəl, ˈdʒenrəl/
* history /ˈhɪstəriː, ˈhɪstriː/
* interesting /ˈɪntərəstɪŋ,\* ˈɪntrəstɪŋ/. Also /ˈɪntəˌrestɪŋ,\* ˈɪntrestɪŋ\*/
* laboratory /ləˈbɒrətəriː,\**BrE* ləˈbɒrətriː,*BrE* ˈlæbərəˌtɔriː,*AmE* ˈlæbrəˌtɔriː*AmE*/
* liberal /ˈlɪbərəl, ˈlɪbrəl/
* literature /ˈlɪtərətʃər, ˈlɪtrətʃər/
* Margaret /ˈmɑːrgərɪt, ˈmɑːrgrɪt/
* natural /ˈnætʃərəl, ˈnætʃrəl/
* reference /ˈrefərəns, ˈrefrəns/
* restaurant /ˈrestərɒnt, ˈrestrɒnt/
* separate *(adj.)* /ˈsepərɪt, ˈseprɪt/
* several /ˈsevərəl, ˈsevrəl/
* temperature /ˈtempərətʃər, ˈtemprətʃər, ˈtempərəˌtʃʊər,*AmE* ˈtemprəˌtʃʊər*AmE*/

* /ər/ disappears or /r/ moves: comfortable /ˈkʌmfərtəbəl, ˈkʌmftəbəl, ˈkʌmftərbəl*AmE* /

## References

1. ↑ John Wells, Compression, smoothing, prelateral effects
2. ↑ John Well's phonetic blog, comfortable, 16 May 2011
Decoding exercises: "ey"

The letter combination **"ey"** has several different pronunciations. This article sets out some words that can be used to become more aware of the differences.

* As /eɪ/: convey - grey *BrE* - greyhound - obey - survey - they
* As /iː/ or /ɪ/: chimney - donkey - Geoffrey - hockey - honey - Jeffrey - journey - money - Shirley, storey*BrE* - turkey - valley - volleyball
* As /iː/: geyser*BrE* - key - keyboard
* As /aɪ/: eye - geyser*AmE*
* As /eə/: they're

As two separate sounds:

* /ɪj/: beyond

Silent e:

* graveyard - vineyard
IPA phoneme \f\

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol **/f/** corresponds to the initial consonant sound in words like "fish", and "food" and the final one in "life" and "half". This phoneme can alse be written "**gh**", as in "cough" or "**ph**", as in "physics".

/f/ is an unvoiced consonant; its voiced counterpart is IPA phoneme /v/.

## Common words

Some common words which practice the pronunciation of **/f/** include the following:

* with initial "**f**": face, fact, fail, fall, family, far, feel , few, fight, find, first, follow, for, forget, form, friend, from
* with final "**f**": belief, brief, chief, half, if, knife, life, off, relief, safe, self, staff, stuff, wife
* with mid "**f**": after, before, benefit, different, difficult, effect, information, offer, office, often, sulfur,*AmE* therefore
* with "**gh**": cough, enough, laugh, laughter, rough, tough
* with "**ph**": atmosphere, phase, philosophy, phonetics, photograph, phrase, physical, physics, telephone, sulphur*BrE*

### /v/ devoicing

* have to *(meaning “must”)* can be pronounced /ˈhæv tə/ or /ˈhæf tə/
* “of course” can be pronounced /əv kɔːrs/ or /əf kɔːrs/

## Spelling anomaly

* lieutenant /lefˈtenənt,*BrE* luːˈtenənt*AmE*/

## See also

* Decoding the letter F
* IPA phoneme /v/
* Pronunciation exercises: "of" vs "off"

## External links

* British Library, Received Pronunciation consonant sounds
Decoding exercises: "ui"

Together with the article on decoding difficulties, this page sets out some words that can be used to become more aware of how you can sound out more correctly the different sounds corresponding to words containing "ui", basically /uː/ with many exceptions.

## Examples

* /uː/: bruise - cruise - fruit - juice - recruit - suit - suitable

* "u" as /w/

/wɪ/: acquisition - anguish - distinguish - equipment - equivalent - liquid - penguin - quick - quit - quiz
/wiː/: suite
/waɪ/: quiet - quite
* silent "u"

/ɪ/: biscuit (cf. Limp Bizkit) - build - built - circuit - guilt - Guinea - guitar
/aɪ/: guide
/iː/: mosquito - quiche - quinoa /ˈkiːnwɑː/
## Different syllables

* /uːɪ/: altruism - fluid - ruin - suicide - suing

* /juːɪ/: arguing - genuine

## "uir"

* "u" as /w/

/waɪə/: acquire - enquire - require
/wɜː/: squirt
squirrel: /ˈskwɪrəl/*BrE*, /ˈskwɜːrəl/*AmE*
* Silent "u":

/ɪ/: daiquiri
## Homophones

* build - billed; cruise - crews; suite - sweet;
So-called “long e”

The so-called **“long e” sound** is an informal term that means **the long sound of the letter e** which is **IPA phoneme \iː\**.

When studying magic e two vowel phonemes are called “long e”:

* As in *theme*, *we*, or *medium:* IPA phoneme \iː\
* As in *mere*, *sphere*, or *period:* IPA phoneme \ɪə\

For /ɪə/ instead of *“long e* sound” it's better to say *“long e* spelling”.

In the case of *e* as /iː/ it is said that the letter “says its name”. In the case of *theme* or *scheme* it is said that the magic *e* “makes the letter say its name”

The term “long e” should only be used when the spelling is actually “e”. It's confusing to say "*ski* is pronounced with long *e*". If this sentence had to be spoken it would be better to say "*ski* is pronounced with the FLEECE vowel". Alternatively it could be said "*ski* is pronounced like the long sound of the letter e".

The term “long e” is not recommended because /iː/ and /ɪə/ are two phonemes, and not one; and because the opposition between /iː/ (or /ɪə/) and /e/ (“short e”) is not only a difference in length, but mainly a difference in quality.

## “Long e” in combinations

When a combination of *e* and another letter has the sound /iː/ it is said that it has the “long *e*” sound. To explain this there is a saying, which unfortunately is true only 40% of the time: When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.

* "ea": beach - bead - beat - bleach - breathe - cheat - clean - cream - creature - deal - dream - each - easy - eat - feature - heal - heat - increase - jeans - lead *(verb)* - leader - leaf - lean - leave - meal - mean - meat - pea - peach - peak - please - reach - read - repeat - reason - reveal - scream - sea - seal - seat - steal - steam - stream - teach - team - treat - weak - weasel

Note that "ea" sounds /e/ in many exceptions such as *head* or *ready*.
* "ee": agree, between, feel, free, keep, meet, need, see, seem, week
* "ei": ceiling, conceive, receipt

Exceptions as /eɪ/: eight, neighbor, weight
## See also

* Decoding the letter E
* So-called “short” and “long” vowels
So-called “long u”

The so-called **“long u” sound** is an informal term that means **the long sound of the letter u** which is **IPA phonetic sequence /juː/**, as in *cute* or *computer*.

When studying magic e two phonemes are called “long u”, /uː/ and /ʊə/. However, they are usually part of sequences /juː/ and /jʊə/.

* As in *cute*, *huge*, or *menu:* IPA phonetic sequence /juː/
* As in *flute*, *rude* or *conclusion:* IPA phoneme /uː/
* As in *cure*, *pure*, or *fury:* IPA phonetic sequence /jʊə/
* As in *sure* or *rural:* IPA phoneme /ʊə/

For /uː/, /ʊə/ and /jʊə/ instead of *“long u* sound” it's better to say *“long u* spelling”.

In the case of *u* as /juː/ it is said that the letter “says its name”. In the case of *cute* or *huge* it is said that the magic *e* “makes the letter say its name”.

The term “long u” should only be used when the spelling is actually “u”. It's confusing to say "*few* is pronounced with long *u*". If this sentence had to be spoken it would be better to say "*few* is pronounced with the vowel of *cute*. Alternatively it could be said "*few* is pronounced like the long sound of the letter u".

The terms “long u” and “short u” are not recommended because /juː/, /uː/, /jʊə/ and /ʊə/ are different sounds, because /juː/ is better studied as two separate phonemes (/j/ and /uː/), and because the opposition between /juː/ and /ʌ/ (“short *u*”) is not only a difference in length, but mainly a difference in quality.

## Examples

* /juː/: community, computer, cute, f**u**ture, huge, human, menu, music, produce, student, use
* /uː/: flute, conclusion, include, June, rude, rule, truth
* /jʊə/: cure, during, fury, pure, secure, security
* /ʊə/: assure, ensure, insurance, rural, sure

## “Long *u*” in combinations

When children learn to read they are sometimes told a supposed rule (that holds true only 40% of the time) which says "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking". For this or for other reasons, when *u* is found in combinations sounding /juː/ or /uː/, the term “long *u*” is used as well.

* ue: /juː/: argue, cue, hue

/uː/: blue, clue, issue, true
* ui: /juː/: suit

/uː/: cruise, juice
## See also

* Decoding the letter U
* So-called “short” and “long” vowels
Decoding exercises: "ia"

**IPA consonants**

The sequence "ia" normally is part of two syllables (as in "material" or "bias") or the "i" modifies the sound of the previous letter as in "social". This page sets out some words than can be used to become more aware of how you can sound out more correctly the different sounds corresponding to words containing "ia".

## Modified consonant + "ia"

The letters "c", "s" and "t" often change their sound when followed by an "i".

* "cia" as /ʃə/: commercial, crucial, especially, financial, musician, official, politician, Patricia, racial, social, special
* "sia" as /ʃə/: controversial
* "ssia" as /ʃə/: Russia
* "tia" as /ʃə/: essential, initial, initiative, potential, presidential, substantial

* "cia" as /ʃiːeɪ/: appreciate, appreciation
* "tia" as /ʃiːeɪ/: negotiate, negotiation

* "cia" as /ʃiːeɪ/ or /siːeɪ/: associate, asociation

* "sia" as /ʒə/ or /ʃə/: Malaysia, Tunisia

* "sia" as /ʒə, ʃə/ or /ziːə/: Indonesia

## As /jə/

* As /jə/: Australia, Virginia, William
* As /jə/ or /iːə/: California, Pennsylvania

## Two syllables

* /aɪə/: alliance, bias, Brian, dialogue/dialog,*AmE* diamond, giant, liability, reliable, trial
* /aɪæ/: Diana, Diane
* /iːæ/: Indiana, Louisiana, maniac, piano
* /iːeɪ/: variation
* /iːɪ/: foliage
* /iːə/

* Ending in "ia": Austria, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Cynthia, Colombia, India, mania, Maria, Syria, Zambia
* Other: brilliant, civilian, familiar, historian, immediate, industrial, material, variable

* /aɪə/ or /iːə/: via

## Heteronyms

* appropriate /əˈprəʊpriːeɪt/ *(v.)* /əˈprəʊpriːət/ *(adj.)*

## Variant pronunciations

* "cia" as /ʃiːeɪ/ or /siːeɪ/: associate, asociation
* "sia" as /ʒə/ or /ʃə/: Malaysia, Tunisia
* "sia" as /ʒə, ʃə/ or /ziːə/: Indonesia
* "ia" as /aɪə/ or /iːə/: via
* "ia" as /jə/ or /iːə/: California, Pennsylvania

## See also

* Decoding the letter I
* Decoding the letter A
Pronunciation exercises: \l\ vs \r\

Many people, particularly in China, confuse IPA phoneme /l/ and IPA phoneme /r/.

## Minimal pairs

Initial position
* lack - rack; lamp - ramp; late - rate; law - raw; lead - read; lent - rent; light - right; lies - rise; liver - river; load - road; lock - rock; long - wrong; loom /luːm/ - room /ruːm, rʊm/; loot - root; low - row;

Medial position
* bloom - broom; climb - crime; cloud - crowd; elect - erect; flog - frog; fly - fry; glass - grass; gloom - groom; play - pray; plowed,*AmE* ploughed*BrE* - proud;
* Only in some accents (/ɔːl, ɑːl/ vs /ɔːr, oɚ/): false - force; salt - sort;

Final position
* battle - batter; dial - dire; final - finer; label - labor,*AmE* labour;*BrE*
* Only in some accents (/ɔːl, ɑːl/ vs /ɔːr, oɚ/): all - oar, ore; ball - boar, bore; call - core; wall - war;

## Almost minimal pairs

This examples have similar but different vowels in addition to the L/R difference.

* bowling - boring; deal - dear; feel - fear; field - feared; gold /gəʊld/ - gourd /ɡɔːrd, ɡʊərd/; heal - here; hold - hoard; kneal - near; pole - pour; real - rear; tool /tuːl/ - tour /tʊər, tɔːr/;
Pronunciation exercises: \eɪ\ vs \aɪ\

The dipthongs /eɪ/ and /aɪ/ are different in all dialects of English. However /eɪ/ in some accents sounds very similar to /aɪ/ in others.

 Australian English | [æɪ] | [ɑe, ɑi]

You can improve you pronunciation by simply becoming aware of certain differences - together with a minimum of practice. A simple way of practicing is by using minimal pairs like *type* vs *tape* and *light* vs *late*.

## /eɪ/

* date - face - gate - hate - rain
* day - may - pay - ray - way

## /aɪ/

* fine - height - price - time
* die - my - pie - rye - why

## /eɪ/ vs /aɪ/

* ail, ale - aisle, I'll, isle; bait - bite; bay - by, buy; day - die; fail - file; fate - fight; hate - height; lake - like; lane - line; late - light; mail, male - mile; make - Mike; mate - might; may - my; paint - pint; pale - pile; race - rice; rate - right; sane - sign; stale - style; tale, tail - tile; tame - time; tape - type; tray - try; wait, weight - white; way - why; whale - while;
* trade - tried; weighed - wide;
* prays - prize; rays - rise; ways - wise

## *The Rain in Spain*

This famous song is used in the movie *My Fair Lady* to practice the /eɪ/ sound, which in cockney sounds more like /aɪ/ or [æɪ]. Note that cockneys don't confuse *late* and *light* because they pronounce [læɪt] and [lɑɪt].

The full sentence is *The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain*.

## Australian accent

The Australian /eɪ/ sounds [æɪ], which is heard as [aɪ] by many foreigners. Hence the nickname *strine* /straɪn/, a supposed shortening of [ɒˈstraɪliːən]. However in Australian English no confusion exists, because /aɪ/ is pronounced [ɑe] or [ɑi].

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1  Australian English phonology, Wikipedia.
Loanword

**IPA consonants**

A **loanword** (/ləʊnwɜ:rd/) is a word taken from another language with little or no modification. The pronunciation is (nearly) always modified, because it must use phonemes in the receiving language.

English has been an enthusiastic borrower of words from other languages, although with its rise as an international language the tide seems to be running in the other direction. Some countries take steps to protect their languages from "contamination" by English words whilst others seem more relaxed.

## Examples

"->" indicates the original language at the left and the new language at the right (English in most cases).

* Afrikaans: aardvark
* Algonquian: moccasin, raccoon
* Arabic: falafel, alfalfa (via Spanish)
* Arawak (via French): canoe
* Aymara (via Spanish): alpaca
* Catalan *paella* /pəˈe.ʎə/ -> Spanish *paella* /paˈe.ʎa/ -> English paella /paɪˈel.ə, pɑːˈeɪ.lə/
* Chinese: chop suey, feng shui, ginseng
* Dutch: lottery, sketch
* Farsi: caravan, kakhi (via Urdu)
* Finish: sauna
* French *café* [kafe] -> English café or cafe /ˈkæfeɪ,*BrE* kæˈfeɪ,*AmE* kəˈfeɪ*AmE*/

French *lingerie* /lɛ̃ʒ.ʁi/ -> English lingerie /ˈlænʒərɪ,*BrE* ˌlɑːndʒəˈreɪ*AmE*/
fiancé/fiancée, garage, champagne, menu
* German: gestalt, frankfurter, wiener, kindergarten

German *Müsli* or (seldom) *Muesli* [ˈmyːsli] -> English muesli /ˈmjuːzliː, ˈmjuːsliː/
* Guugu Yimithirr: kangaroo
* Hawaiian: ukulele
* Hindi: guru, pundit
* Hungarian: goulash
* Inuit: kayak, igloo
* Italian: soprano, piano, lasagna, pizza

Italian *spaghetto*, pl. *spaghetti* [spaˈɡetti] -> English spaghetti (uncountable) /spəˈɡetiː/
* Japanese: karate, kamikaze, tsunami

Japanese 寿司 *sushi* [sɯᵝɕi] -> English sushi /ˈsuːʃiː/
* Korean: tae kwon do /ˌtaɪ ˌkwɒn ˈdəʊ/
* Latin: ad nauseam, bona fide, modus operandi
* Maori: kiwi /ˈkiːwiː/
* Mapuche (via Spanish): poncho
* Nahuatl (via Spanish): tomato, chocolate
* Norwegian: ski
* Portuguese: cobra, flamingo, marmalade
* Quechua (via Spanish): guanaco, llama, vicuña
* Russian: balalaika, vodka
* Sanscrit: yoga, mantra
* Spanish: canyon, guerrilla

Spanish *piñata* [piˈɲata] -> English piñata or pinata /pɪnˈjɑːtə/
* Swahili: safari
* Swedish *smörgåsbord* -> English smorgasbord
* Taino (via Spanish): maize, potato
* Tupi (via Portuguese): piranha
* Yiddish: chutzpah /ˈhʊtspə/

## References

1. ↑ *Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary* Retrieved May 13, 2009
2. ↑ *The New Oxford Dictionary of English*

## See also

* English is not French
* English is not German
* English is not Italian
* English is not Spanish

## External links

* Kemmer, S. Rice University. "Loanwords: Major Periods of Borrowing in the History of English"
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

**Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary** (OALD) is a free on-line dictionary provided by Oxford University Press in its website Oxford Learner's Dictionaries.

To consult OALD you must select "English" in the drop-down menu of the Oxford Learner's Dictionaries website. The same site also has Oxford Advanced American Dictionary.

## IPA pronunciation key

Most of the phonetic pronunciations of this wiki are based on this dictionary, except that we write the silent /r/ so that in many words the British transcription is identical to the American transcription. We also write syllabic consonants preceded by a schwa (e.g. fashion as /ˈfæʃən/ instead of /ˈfæʃn/).

We highlight in yellow when this wiki and OALD differ.

The official key of OALD can be found at http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/about/pronunciation\_english.

## References

1. ↑ John Wells's phonetic blog, happy again, 7 June 2012; search for the word *situation*.

## External links

* Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
* Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. This is a simple description page. To consult this dictionary you must select "English" in the drop-down menu.
* Wikipedia, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Decoding exercises: "sh"

In English **"sh"** very reliably represents the IPA phonetic symbol /ʃ/, as in "shoe". For more examples see IPA phoneme /ʃ/.

## Exceptions

"Sh" normally is a digraph. In some words "sh" are two letters representing /sh/.

* disharmony - dishearten - mishandle - mishap - mishear

Note that disheveled*AmE*/dishevelled*BrE* is di-shev-elled, not \*dis-hev-elled.

Silent "h"

* dishonest - dishonored*AmE* - dishonoured*BrE*

## Variant pronunciations

* cashmere *(wool):* /ˈkæʃmɪər, ˈkæʒmɪər*AmE*, ˌkæʃˈmɪər*BrE*/
* Kashmir *(region):* /ˈkæʃmɪər, ˈkæʒmɪər, ˌkæʃˈmɪər, ˌkæʒˈmɪər/
Pronunciation exercises: \ɒ\ vs \ɔː\

This phonetics article is based on British English and Received Pronunciation. For a similar article based on General American see Pronunciation exercises: /ɑː/ vs /ɔː/

/ɒ/ and /ɔː/ can be easily confused. Moreover there are many native speakers who don't make a difference. See Cot-caught merger. However, to have a good accent in Received Pronunciation it is best to be able to make the difference.

## /ɔː/

Some common words containing **/ɔː/** include the following:

* with "oa": abroad - broad
* with "ough": bought - brought - fought - ought - thought
* with "a": water
* with "al": almost - already - alter - always - chalk - false - salt - talk - walk
* with "all": ball - call - fall - hall - mall - small - talk - walk - wall
* with "aw": dawn - hawk - lawn - shawl - yawn
* with "au": auction - August - author - autumn - caught - cause - clause - daughter - fault - launch - taught
* with "or": afford - born - cork - fork - horse - lord - pork - short - storm - sword
* with "oar": board
* with "our": court
* with "ar": quarter - warm - warn

Words ending in /ɔː/ or /ɔːr/. These words can't be confused, because /ɒ/ can't appear in this environment-

* with "aw": law, raw, saw
* with "our": four, pour

Homophones

bored - board;
BE: court - caught; stork - stalk.
/ɔːrV/
V is any vowel.

* boring - choral - glory - Laura - storage - story

## /ɒ/

* with "o": doll - golf - hot - lot - off - on - stop - top;

* with "ong": long - song - strong - wrong;

* others: gone - knowledge - want - what.

/ɒrV/
V is any vowel.

* with "**o**": borrow - foreign - horror - orange - sorrow - sorry - tomorrow
* with "**a**": warrant - warranty

## /ɒ/ vs /ɔː/

There are very few minimal pairs. The most famous of them is cot-caught. Many Americans pronounce identically these two phonemes, and comprehension is not affected. See Cot-caught merger.

* cot - caught; Don - Dawn
* coral - choral

* often - orphan: /ɒ/ vs /ɔː/ in Received Pronunciation. /ɔː/ vs /ɔːr/ in General American. And at both sides of the Atlantic the "t" of "often" may be pronounced.

## References

1. ↑ Lost States, Say "Don." Say "Dawn." Now I know where you live, April 2011.

## See also

* Homophones
* Pronunciation exercises: /ɒrV/ vs /ɔːrV/
Pronunciation exercises: \eə\ vs \ɜː\

Together with the page possible pronunciation difficulties, this page sets out some common words that can be used to become more aware of how you can improve your pronunciation of the vowel sounds **/eə/** and **/ɜː/**.

## /eə/

* as "ai": affair - air - chair - fair - hair - pair
* as "a" with magic e: aware - care - compare - prepare - share - square - stare
* as "a": area - various - vary
* other: bear - tear - their - there - wear - where

## /ɜː/

* as "er": certain - concern - determine - her - person - serve - service - term
* as "ir": firm - first - girl
* as "ur": further - occur - purchase - purpose - return - turn
* other: early - learn - research - were - work - world

## /eə/ vs /ɜː/

* fair - fur; hair - her; haired *(as in long-haired)* - heard; pair - purr; stare - stir; wear, where - were;
Decoding exercises: "iu"

The sequence "iu" normally is part of two syllables (as in "genius" or "triumph"). This page sets out some words that can be used to become more aware of how you can sound out more correctly the different sounds corresponding to words containing "iu".

## "ium" at the end of the word

There are (literally) hundreds of words ending in "ium" pronounced /iːəm/ or /ɪ.əm/.

Chemical elements

* aluminium,*BrE* beryllium, calcium, chromium, helium, lithium, magnesium, potassium, radium, scandium, sodium, titanium, uranium, vanadium

Other chemical words

* ammonium

Other

* aquarium, auditorium, condominium, equilibrium, geranium, medium, millennium, premium, solarium, symposium

## Two syllables

* /aɪʌ/: triumph, triumphal
* /aɪjuː/: diuretic
* /iːə, ɪ.ə/: radius

## One syllable

* /uː/: jiu-jitsu
* /ə/: Belgium

## See also

* Decoding the letter I
* Decoding the letter U