Pronunciation exercises: /ʌ/ vs /ɒ/

Together with the page possible pronunciation difficulties, this page sets out some common words teachers can use to help their students become more aware of how they can improve their pronunciation of the vowel sounds /ʌ/ and /ɒ/.

Depending on their mother tongue (L1)&mdash;and in the case of Spanish depending on their country of origin (see IPA phoneme /ʌ/ &#8203;#Spanish)&mdash;students may have difficulty distinguishing between these two sounds. More often than not, these supposed difficulties depend more on the interference of L1 than on the actual difficulties posed by English, and many, if not most students will greatly improve their pronunciation by simply becoming aware of certain differences - together with a minimum of practice.

Don't forget that intonation, linking and stress, both for individual words and for sentence stress, are also, of course, of vital importance in speaking better English.

/ʌ/

 * with "u": but - fun - just - much - must - number - public - result - run - study - such - sun - Sunday - under - up - us
 * with "o": among - another - brother - come - company - cover - done - love - Monday - money - mother - other

Homophones: nun - none; won - one; sum - some; sun - son

/ɒ/
In General American /ɒ/ is split in /ɑː/ and /ɔː/. See Phoneme /ɑː/ in General American and Phoneme /ɔː/ in General American. In Teflpedia /ɒ/ means /ɒ, ɑː/.


 * /ɒ/ with "o": got - hot - lot - job
 * /ɒ/ with "a": wad - wander - wasp - watch
 * /ɒ, ɔː/ with "o": cough - gone - long - song - strong - wrong
 * /ɒ, ɔː/ with "a": wallet - want - warrant - warranty - wash
 * /ɒ, ʌ/: what

/ɑː/ vs /ʌ/
Received Pronunciation /ɒ/ vs /ʌ/ and General American /ɑː/ vs /ʌ/
 * body - buddy; collar - color/colour; fond - fund; hot - hut; lock - luck; shot - shut; wander - wonder; not - nut;

These words don't rhyme
 * bother - brother

/ɔː/ vs /ʌ/
Received Pronunciation /ɒ/ vs /ʌ/. General American /ɔː/ vs /ʌ/
 * boss - bus; gone - gun; long - lung; song - sung;

These words don't rhyme
 * cough - tough; gone - done; song - among;

O and m, n, v, w
Many words that spelled with o and are adjacent to m, n, v or w are pronounced with /ʌ/.


 * /ʌ/: above, among, another, become, Colombia, come, comfortable, company, cover, discover, done, from, front, government, love, Monday, money, monkey, month, mother, none, nothing, once, one, some, son, tongue, wonder, wonderful
 * /ɒ/: beyond, bomb, bond, involve, model, knock, not, novel, prompt, response, tomorrow, upon
 * /ɒ, ɔː/: gone, on, onto

Ending in "ong"
 * /ʌ/: among
 * /ɒ, ɔː/: along, belong, long, song, strong, wrong

Variant pronunciations
 * /ɒ, ɔː/: donkey

Variant pronunciations

 * accomplish: /əˈkʌmplɪʃ, əˈkɒmplɪʃ/
 * Coventry /ˈkʌvəntriː, ˈkɒvəntriː/
 * from /frəm, frɒm, frʌm/
 * hover: /ˈhɒvər, ˈhʌvər/
 * monetary: /ˈmɒnɪteriː, ˈmʌnɪtriː/
 * of: /əv, ɒv, ʌv/
 * soemebody: /ˈsʌmbədiː, ˈsʌmˌbɒdiː, sʌmˌbʌdiː/
 * was: /wəz, wɒz, wʌz/
 * what: /wɒt, wʌt/

Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1
Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following sections aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.

Spanish
See Pronunciation exercises: /ʌ/ vs /æ/ § Spanish.