In this English Pronunciation tutorial, you're going to learn to speak English clearly by
learning the difference between the two sounds in English /​ɔː/ and /ʊ/ as in 'wall' and 'wool.'
This video was a request from Kim Su Gil, so thank you Kim for the request.
In the video, I'm going to break down the similarities between the two sounds, you're going to learn the
differences between the two sounds, you're going to learn how to make both sounds on their own,
and you are then going to learn how to put the sounds into words. So you don't
get confused between words where the only difference is those two sounds. It's going
to be a really useful tutorial with loads of exercises for you to get value from and
improve your English. Let's dive in!
Hello and welcome to How To Speak English Clearly and English School Online, the channel that
teaches foreign professionals how to speak English clearly so you're more confident, more valued,
and more professional when you're speaking English. Let's get straight into the tutorial.
As you can see, I've got a beautiful skyline behind me. I've come down to Melbourne in
Australia. So, usually, I'm filming from London, but because I'm down in Melbourne
I thought I'd get out into the city and film a video with the beautiful backdrop
here behind me. Just before we get started, I would love to know where you're from and
what your native language is. So comment below with what your native language is,
that's going to be really really helpful in helping me to create content that's
specifically relevant to your native language because different nationalities and different
languages have different difficulties in English. So comment below your nationality
and your language and that's going to make sure that I'm giving you tons of really really
relevant content to help you speak English more clearly. Let's dive into the lesson.
So, we're looking at the two sounds /ʊ/ and /​ɔː/ again, /ʊ/ and /​ɔː/. So I want to start
with the similarities between these two sounds. First of all, they're both English vowel sounds,
okay. So when a sound is a vowel sound, it means that airflow is coming out of
the mouth unrestricted. There's no tongue, there's no lips or teeth stopping the airflow
coming out. The second thing; if you look at my lips /​ɔː/, /ʊ/. As you can see my lips are
in the rounded position for both vowel sounds. When we look at vowel sounds, you've got two
positions: rounded and unrounded, okay. And it's very important to be aware of both differences so
that you get the vowel sound correctly. So both vowel sounds both /ʊ/ and /​ɔː/, our lips are
rounded. Now that is where the similarities between the two vowel sounds ends, okay,
and this is, from here onwards, where people have difficulty telling the difference and pronouncing
the difference between the two vowel sounds. So, what makes these two vowel sounds different?
Well let me say them both again and I want you to listen to the length of the vowel sounds and tell
me what you notice.
Can you hear how is a short English vowel sound? Good, okay, it lasts the same
length as me clicking my fingers. It's a short English vowel sound. /ʊ/ is a long English
vowel sound. The significance of this point must not be underestimated. The number one reason why
people struggle with these two vowel sounds and many other pairs of vowel sounds in English is
because they're not making short vowel sounds as short vowel sounds and long vowel sounds as
long vowel sounds. It's so so so important for /ʊ/ to hold it as a long vowel sound.
Just making this one alteration to both sounds is going to radically improve the clarity with
which you're pronouncing both these sounds, okay. So /ʊ/ is a long English vowel sound.
Now, a couple of weeks ago I posted a video on the channel called the 2-Second Rule which you should
see popping up here. I highly highly recommend, if you haven't watched that video already, watching
that video because it shows you how to pronounce long vowel sounds correctly so that when you're
speaking and pronouncing long vowel sounds people can understand that you're saying long vowel
sounds and not incorrectly making a short English vowel sound, okay. So there should be up here /ʊ/,
it's a long English vowel sound. So we now know that /​ɔː/ is short and /ʊ/ is long. There is
one other one other difference that we need to know between these two vowel sounds and that is
to do with the height of the mouth. So let me say them both again and just look at my mouth,
okay.
/​ɔː/, /ʊ/.
For /​ɔː/, 'put' my mouth is almost completely closed. Look if I come closer to the camera
/​ɔː/
There's not even space for me to put my little think finger in my mouth because my lips are
tight and together.
/​ɔː/
They're a tiny bit lower in the mouth than the long English vowel
sound /ʊ/, which is the vowel sound at the back of the mouth where the mouth is the closest together.
It's a tiny bit lower, /​ɔː/, but my mouth is still almost completely closed, and the fact that
I can't even put my finger in my mouth shows how together my lips are, okay. /​ɔː/. If we come down
to /ʊ/ my mouth is 3/4 of the way open or 75% of the way open, okay,
/​ɔː/, /ʊ/
The only way I can go lower in my mouth from all is if I make the long English vowel sound
/​ɑː/
/ʊ/, /​ɑː/
/​ɑː/, my mouth is all the way open /ʊ/ my mouth is 3/4 of the way open.
So the difference between /​ɔː/ and /ʊ/, wool and wall, is quite a lot. Look how much wider
my mouth is open /​ɔː/, /ʊ/. These two differences that I've just taught you I
would HIGHLY highly highly recommend practicing until you can go between the two of them and
feel comfortable doing it. So let's just start with me going between the two of
them now. We're going to do /​ɔː/ as a short vowel sound and /ʊ/ as a long vowel sound,
and we're going to go between the two also going between the heights in the mouth,
okay. So, follow along with me, we're going to do this for about 60 seconds.
What I'm going to do now is put a consonant behind the sounds so you can hear how it actually sounds when the sound
is combined with another continent. So I know that the 'T' sound /t/ behind both sounds, okay.
'ut,' 'ought'
Now if I put a consonant in front of these two vowel sounds with the 'P' sound /p/ we get
'put,' 'port'
Practice with me, re-watch that bit of the video, and practice along again and again and again until
these two vowel sounds feel natural and you feel comfortable making both vowel sounds,
okay. I really highly recommend that you don't move on to the next part of this
video until you're comfortable with going between the two sounds on their own okay.
In the next part of the video, which we're going to look at now, we're now going to compare these
sounds when they're at use within words. So what I'm going to do is give you a series of
words where the only difference between the words is these vowel sounds in the middle of the word,
okay. I'm keeping the words nice and short so it's really easy to focus on these two
vowel sounds and not any other parts of the words. So let's get to it, okay.
I've written in the description below the words that you're hearing me use in this video,
so you can follow along and actually see exactly what word I'm making in the correct order,
okay. I've got my notebook here that I'm going to read from, so let's go.
So, let's start with the 'P' at the beginning and 'L' at the end. I'm going
to start by going /ʊ/ sound and the second word you hear will be the /​ɔː/ sound, okay.
'Pull,' 'Paul'
Next sound is going to be actually the two sounds that Kim, who requested the video,
actually requested these two words. So these are wool and wall
'Wool,' 'wall.'
Just a point. When I'm saying with the 'L' sound afterwards am I making the /​ɔː/ sound 'wall,' okay.
I'm really feeling tension
/​ɔː/
all down here, here, here there's tension okay.
English is my language, I teach pronunciation so I'm doing this stuff all the time and yet
I am still feeling tension here, so if this sound isn't natural for you then you should
be feeling a lot of tension here, okay. If you're feeling tension it's a good sign
and not a bad sign, okay. So pair of words number three is going to be full and fall.
'Full,' 'fall.'
Another note to be aware of is that when I'm saying /ʊ/, the /ʊ/ sound,
I find it much easier and more relaxing to make the error sound afterwards when I'm
saying oh and then my tongue comes up to make the L sound because I'm holding the long vowel
sound correctly and I'm holding it or in the mouth, then when the L comes up that's why I'm
feeling the tension here in the lips, okay. So just to look at that pair of words again
'Full,' 'fall.'
The next one is going to be two really really useful words, 'could,' 'court'
'Could,' 'court'
Now the word 'could,' you might be thinking 'hang on what word is he pronouncing there?'
The word 'could' in English, 'I could film a video,' 'we could do this together,'
you don't pronounce the 'L' in it you don't pronounce the 'L' sound in that word
at all. So it's not pronounced 'cold' or anything else like that 'cowld.' It's 'could.'
/k/ /ʊ/ /d/. 'Could'
'Could'
Compared to 'cord.'
'Cord'
The next two:
'Hook,' 'hawk'
I really really hope you're practicing along with me and pausing the video, checking in the
mirror that your lips are in the correct position, okay. What I've seen from my
experience doing this is that those who follow along with me and are checking that
they're doing it correct, they're the ones that make the big big improvements,
okay. Let's keep going. 'Should,' another really useful word, 'I should film more pronunciation videos.'
Exactly the same the 'L' sound you don't pronounce. It's not 'shuld,' it's 'should.'
'Should,' 'shored.'
Okay. Next
'Put,' 'port.'
If I put something down I don't 'putt' it down okay that's another common mispronunciation. I put things down and port.
'Put,' port.'
Okay, next.
'Soot,' 'sort.'
In the word 'sort,' 'let's sort through all these things,' I don't pronounce
the 'R' sound. So it's not 'sorrt' or 'soRt' okay it's /​ɔː/ 'sort.'
'Sort.'
I'm going to give you one final one and that's again a really really really super
useful word that you're using all the time in your English, so let's get it
pronounced correctly right here. 'Would,' 'I would love to speak English clearly.'
You don't pronounce the 'L.' For 'could,' should,' 'would,' you do not pronounce the 'L,,' okay.
'Would'
It's the same pronunciation as 'the wood of a tree,' okay. So now comparing the two words:
'Would,' 'ward.'
So there you go, you've got two points that you need to be aware of: /ʊ/ a short English vowel sound.
Mouth is almost completely closed
/ʊ/
/​ɔː/ long English vowel sound, mouth three-quarters of the way--
three-quarters of the way open
/​ɔː/
Practice these two points, okay, until you feel comfortable.
Just practice, practice, practice until you feel comfortable, okay. Next put them
into the words that we've gone through here together. 'Would,' 'ward,' 'could,' 'court,' 'should,' 'shored'
okay, and I promise you if you do this until it feels comfortable and you're relaxed in doing
it. It's going to make the world of difference to your English Pronunciation, and what my clients
are experiencing is that when they get these words they're using every day in their English speech,
when they suddenly start pronouncing them correctly it changes everything, okay.
So I really cannot highly recommend enough that you practice this exercise, practice these
two sounds, practice the other videos on this channel, because they're all designed to help
you speak English clearly so that you're more respected, come across as more professional
and ultimately have a better quality of life when you're speaking English, okay.
If you found this video useful thumbs up like it please do and share it with someone that you
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and then come back next week for another English Pronunciation tutorial. Comment below with what
has been your most useful takeaway from this lesson, and also where you're from,
what country you're from, and what your native language is. Thumbs up,
do the practice, and I will see you in next week's tutorial!