Producing /oʊ/

How to produce /oʊ/

Before anything else, get the articulation right. The right mouth position makes the sound effortless.

/oʊ/
GOAT diphthong
Lips: rounded
Tongue: mid-back
Voicing: voiced
💡 Start at /o/, round lips and glide to /ʊ/.

Key production cues:

Start mid-back rounded, glide up to /ʊ/.

Practice the sound in isolation

Before trying words, practice the sound on its own. Record yourself. Does it match?

1. Say /oʊ/ in isolation — hold it for 2 seconds.
2. Say /oʊ/ quickly, 5 times in a row: /oʊ-oʊ-oʊ-oʊ-oʊ/.
3. Compare your recording to a native reference.

Try a few isolated words

These words all contain /oʊ/ in different positions — beginning, middle, and end:

• Beginning: open, over, no
• Middle: go, so, home
• End / in clusters: road, phone, stone

/oʊ/GOAT diphthongArticulator diagram · regional variants · drill ↗