Producing /ɔ/

How to produce /ɔ/

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

/ɔ/
open-mid back rounded
Lips: rounded
Tongue: mid-back
Voicing: voiced
💡 Round your lips, tongue mid-back.

Key production cues:

Round your lips, tongue mid-back.

Practice the sound in isolation

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

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

Try a few isolated words

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

• Beginning: all, awe, bought
• Middle: call, talk, law
• End / in clusters: boss, wrong, soft

/ɔ/open-mid back roundedArticulator diagram · regional variants · drill ↗