Hello everyone and welcome back to Pronunciation with Emma. In this video we're going to be
looking at the /ɔː/ sound. So firstly, let's focus on how we pronounce it. Now, when I
teach this sound to my students I tell them to imagine something really really cute and
when you first see that thing you go "aww". Aww. That's the sound we need. I sometimes
nickname the sound the cute sound simply for that reason. The cute sound /ɔː/. Let's
have a look at some words, so, first one we have is ought. What happens with a lot of
students is they get influenced by the spelling and they say something like "oat". So, be
careful, because now you're saying another word. Oat. Ought. It's just one vowel sound.
/ɔː/. Now, you see my mouth is not too rounded and it doesn't transition like that diphthong
does. Ow. Ow. Now we're producing a diphthong. Different sound. /ɔː/. Not oo. /ɔː/. Quite
relaxed is this sound. So let's go back to our word. Ought. Ought. Another one, awning.
Awning. A lot of students say this as "aWning", so be really careful. It means you're getting
influenced by the spelling. Awning. The next one is caught. Caught. Again, a lot of students
pronounce this as cAUt because they're getting influenced by the spelling once again. Caught.
It's just one vowel sound. Another one that's very similar is thought. Again, people tend
to make this into a diphthong and they're getting influenced by the spelling and they
say thOUt. thOUt. Thought. Thought. One vowel sound. And the last one, fought. Fought. Again,
not fOUt, fought. Now let's look at some words in final position. Or. Or. Now this word is
just the one vowel sound, there are no other sounds. However, you may also hear this word
pronounced as /ə/, as a schwa. This would be the weak form, what I'm showing you today
is the strong form, or. Another one is law. Law. Again, students get influenced by the
spelling, they saw lAU, so be careful. Law. And the next one saw, saw. Again, students
get influenced by the spelling and they say sAU. Saw. Saw. Now let's look at some sentences.
I'll read you some sentences and you can repeat in your own time and practise your pronunciation
at home. I thought about studying law. I thought about studying law. I thought about studying
law. She ought to have fought more. She ought to have fought more. She ought to have fought
more. And that's it for this video, I hope you enjoyed it and learnt something new, apologies
for the construction background music that I have today, unfortunately, I'm surrounded
by construction work, so at least I don't need to add er.. background music. It's already
there. The sounds of machinery and drilling. If you have enjoyed this video and you've
learnt something new, don't forget to like and subscribe to my channel. If you hit that
bell icon it means that you will get notified about a new video every single week and I
tend to bring out a new video every single Friday. I hope you have a fantastic week and
I will see you next lesson. Bye bye.