Name: 低還是法？行還是生？船還是買？美式英語發音 (Low or Law? Row or Raw? Boat or Bought? American English Pronunciation)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T06:47:33.000Z
Duration: 7 min 56 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

This is the “Sounds American” channel.

In this video we’ll compare two vowel sounds:

In our previous videos we already learned how to make them.

Remember the videos for the /oʊ/ sound, as in “go” and the /ɔ/ sound, as in “on”?

This time we’ll focus on the differences between these two sounds.

It’s relatively easy to distinguish between the /oʊ/ and the /ɔ/.

However, when these sounds are pronounced, they are frequently confused and distorted.

In this video we’ll help you fix this by practicing the /oʊ/ and the /ɔ/ sounds  by contrasting them in word pairs.

Before we continue, let’s check how well you can differentiate between the /oʊ/ and the /ɔ/.

You’ll see a pair of words on the screen and hear only one of them pronounced.

Don’t worry if you couldn’t recognize some of the words.

Keep watching for instructions and exercises to help you improve.

Here are the 2 key distinctions between the /oʊ/ and the /ɔ/:

For the /oʊ/ sound, the lips are rounded in a circle and very tense.

For the /ɔ/ sound, the lips are rounded, relaxed and the mouth is open very wide.

For the /oʊ/ sound, the tongue is pulled back in your mouth and tensed.

For the /ɔ/ sound, the tongue is pulled back, relaxed

Let’s pronounce these sounds one after the other:

Next you’ll need to actually pronounce some words aloud.

You didn’t think you could get away with just listening, did you?

The best way to practice the /oʊ/ and /ɔ/ is to pronounce them in word pairs.

You’ll see a word on the screen and hear its pronunciation.

After that you’ll have a few seconds to pronounce the word.

the first word will have the tense /oʊ/ vowel sound,

and the second will have the relaxed /ɔ/ vowel sound.

To check how much you’ve improved, you can go back and do the word pairs test again.

Click this link to go back and compare the results.

By the way, did you know that in American English the letter ‘o’ can represent at least six different sounds?

Most often, it sounds like /ɑ/, as in the words “not” or “box”...

And as /oʊ/, as in the word “no” or “note”,

also like /ʌ/ , as in the word “mother” or “love”.

Sometimes, the letter ‘o’ can represent the /ɔ/ vowel, as in the words “lost” or “on”.

It’s generally an exception, but this letter could also be the /u/ vowel, as in “who” or “shoe”,

and even the /ʊ/ vowel as in “wolf” or “woman”.

Stay tuned on our Sounds American channel!