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How to pronounce Low v Law in English

The /ɔː/ Sound

Cómo pronunciar Low y Law

Cómo pronunciar Low y Law

The vowel sounds we are going to be looking at in this pronunciation lesson often cause problems for our students, and cause confusion when knowing how to pronounce pairs of words such as low and law.

The main sound we are going to be focusing on is the /ɔː/ sound, which is the vowel in words such as ball, fall and call.

If all words that used this vowel sound were written with –all, life would be easier. However, this sound can be spelt in many different ways (–oa, –ough, –a, –al, –all, –aw, –au, –augh, –or, –oor, –oar, –our, –ar y –awer).

 

In this lesson, you are going to learn:

  • How to pronounce the /ɔː/ sound
  • Some common words that use this sound
  • Confusing pairs of words that use the /ɔː/ and /əʊ/ sounds (e.g. law v low)

The /ɔː/ Vowel Sound in British English

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Lesson Notes

 
Two–sound words
To help you practice using this sound, here are some two-sound words that use the /ɔː/ vowel (i.e. words that consist of one consonant phoneme followed by the /ɔː/ sound):
 
  • Boar
  • Core
  • Door
  • Four
  • Law
  • More
  • Poor
  • Pour
  • Paw
  • Raw
  • Soar
  • Tour
  • War
 
 
Different Spellings / Common Words
Here are the different ways we can spell the /ɔː/ sound in English, along with some examples of common words that use this sound.
 
– oa
abroad – board
 
– ough 
thought – bought – brought – thought – fought
 
– a  
water
 
– al  
talk – walk – almost – already – always
 
– all  
ball – called – small – wall
 
– aw  
law – raw – saw – yawn – dawn
 
– au  
August – autumn – cause – pause – launch
 
– augh
caught – taught – daughter
 
– or  
born – fork – horse – more – sword
 
– oor
door – floor –poor
 
– oar  
boar – board – oar – roar – soar
 
– our  
four – pour – tour
 
– ar  
war – quarter – war – warm
 
– awer  
drawer
 
 
 
Minimal Pairs: /ɔː/ vs /əʊ/
Minimal pairs are pairs of words that only differ in one sound (all the other sounds in the word are the same). This different sound can often changes the meaning of the word radically!
 
This is the case with the words Law and Low – two words which have no relation to each other and are differentiated by just one vowel sound.
 
Law, has the /ɔː/ sound that we have been looking at in this lesson, whereas Low uses the /əʊ/ sound (the sound in go and no).
 
Here are more examples of minimal pairs using these two similar sounds: 
 
 /əʊ/ /ɔː/
Low Law
Boat Bought
Bold Bald
Bowl Ball
Cold Called
Hole Hall
Row Raw
Sew Saw
Woke Walk
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Practicar inglés avanzado con Greg Pioli

Gregory Stephen Pioli

Owner of OLA Online Language Academy

★Degree in French (University of Kent at Canterbury)
★DELE Superior (Spanish) (Instituto Cervantes, Leeds)
★TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) (i-to-i.com)

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