Welcome to this Seattle Learning Academy video lesson.
The short o sounds like (short o). It's the vowel sound in the word top (t sound, short o,
p sound).
The vocal tract is very open for the short o sound. To create this sound, the jaw drops
and the tongue is low and flat. You'll probably be able to feel your bottom side teeth with
the sides of your tongue.
The lips are open and rounded for the short o sound, but only because that's what naturally
happens when the jaw drops. You don't need to exaggerate making your lips into a big,
round circle for the short o. It's just (short o).
(short o) top (t sound, short o, p sound) /tɑp/ (short o) top (t sound, short o, p sound) /tɑp/
The short o sound has a rather long duration, meaning that the sound is said for more time
than some other vowel sounds.
Repeat the short o after me: (short o) /ɑ/
Repeat our short o key word, top, top. /tɑp/
The short o sound has only one common spelling, the consonant-o-consonant spelling. Remember,
the initial consonant is not strictly required.
Examples of the short o spelled consonant-o-consonant are:
box shock
odd
Even though there's only this single, common short o spelling, the consonant-o-consonant
spelling is still complicated because it's used for two other sounds in American English.
Those sounds are the long o sound (long o) /oʊ/, as in the word most /moʊst/ and the aw sound (aw sound) /ɔ/,
as in the word dog /dɔg/.
A common non-phonetic short o word to be aware of is the word father. Despite being spelled
with the letter a, the first syllable of father is pronounced with a short o sound:
(short o) /ɑ/, father.
lot, job
stop, box
mom, spot
modern, option
concept, comment
adopt, conference
politics, document
Thank you for watching this Seattle Learning Academy video lesson.
Exit: Shocked by a box in some socks