Transcript of AE 1001 – Cock vs Cork | Advanced Pronunciation Lesson /ɔ/ vs /oː/

G'day, you mob. Pete here, from Aussie English. Welcome to this pronunciation episode where today I'm going to be teaching you the difference between the vowel sounds ɔ and oː. Let's get into it. All right, guys, so this is an advanced pronunciation lesson today where I'm going to be teaching you how to pronounce the difference between the two vowel sounds ɔ and oː, like in the words "cock and cork or bot and bought".

The lesson is going to be broken up into four different sections. In part one, we're going to practise pronouncing ɔ. In part two, we're going to practise pronouncing oː. Part three is going to be a comparative pronunciation exercise between the two sounds ɔ and oː.

And part four is going to be a listening comprehension test to test your listening skills, to see if you can differentiate between the vowel sounds ɔ and oː in a number of different words. Now, I've got detailed tutorial videos about how to produce each one of these sounds, and I'll show you where you can get access to them later on in the episode. Anyway, let's get into today's content.

So, part one, let's go over the sound ɔ, which is often represented by this symbol in the IPA. You're gonna hear the vowel sound ɔ in words like "what, cock and not". The ɔ vowel sound is a short vowel sound in Australian English pronunciation and will always be followed by a consonant. And here are a list of some of the common ways that you'll see the ɔ vowel sound in English spelt.

For podcast listeners go and check out the video so that you can see the spelling and some example words. All right, so let's practise this sound. I'm going to say the vowel sound ɔ by itself three times, and then I'm going to read through a list of 10 words that include this vowel sound. So, listen and repeat after me. "ɔ, ɔ, ɔ. Cock. Pod. Not. Wok. What. Dock. Rot. Cos. Con." Great work. Let's get into part two.

All right, so now we're going to go over the vowel sound oː, which is represented by this symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet. You're going to hear the vowel sound oː in words like "wart, cork and naught".

The vowel sound oː has a number of different spellings, and you can see them on the screen, now, remember, if you're listening to this podcast, check the video out so that you can see these common spellings and some example words. So, let's practise the oː vowel sound in English, and remember, this is a long vowel sound compared to the short ɔ vowel sound that we just went over, oː is a long vowel sound.

So, in this exercise, I'm going to say the vowel sound oː by itself three times, and then I'm going to say 10 words that include the oː vowel sound. Okay, so listen and repeat after me. "oː, oː, oː. Cork. Poured. Naught. Walk. Wart. Dork. Rawt. Cause. Corn." Great work. Now it's time for part three.

So, in this section, we're going to practise some minimal pairs, which are pairs of words that only differ in one sound, and in this case, it's going to be this vowel sound or these vowel sounds ɔ and oː. Every other sound in these words is exactly the same, the difference is just these vowel sounds, okay. But before we get into that.

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So, join today and let's level up your pronunciation skills together. I'll see you in there. Anyway, back to the lesson. So, practising these two sounds side by side is really important if you want to learn how to pronounce the sounds distinctly. So, I'm going to repeat ten pairs of words, ten minimal pairs, where the only difference between these words is going to be one has the vowel sound ɔ and the other has the vowel sound oː.

The first word in each pair will have the vowel sound ɔ and the second will have the vowel sound oː. Are you ready? Let's go. "Cock. Cork. Pod. Poured. Not. Naught. Wok. Walk. What. Wart. Dock. Dork. Rot. Rawt. Cos. Cause. Con. Corn." Awesome work. Now it's time for part four.

So, in the last section here, we're going to test your hearing skills, your listening skills, to work on differentiating between these two similar vowel sounds in English ɔ and oː. Don't be discouraged if you find this part difficult and you need to repeat it several times. That's just what it takes to dial your ears in so that you can hear the difference between these sounds.

Repetition is going to be key and it's going to be the thing that ultimately allows you to hear the difference between these two vowel sounds, and most importantly, to produce the difference between these two vowel sounds when you're speaking English. So, I'm going to display the minimal pairs we went over previously on the screen here, but I'm only going to say one of these words each time.

So, your job is to write down on a piece of paper, "A, B", for which sound, which word you think you hear. And then I'll give you the answers at the end. So, "A" is going to represent the sound ɔ as in "pot", and "B" is going to represent the long vowel sound oː as in "walk". Let's do it.

"Cock. Poured. Naught. Wok. Wart. Dock. Rot. Cause. Con." Good job, guys, so the answers are now on the screen. I hope you did well. And if you're listening to this on the podcast, the answers are A, B, B, A, B, A, A, B, A. How'd you go? So, that's it for today's episode, guys. Don't forget, if you want to level up your Australian pronunciation, check out my Australian pronunciation course below.

Also, make sure that you like the video if you liked it. Share the video with your mates who are learning Australian English. And don't forget to subscribe to the channel and hit that bell notification button so that you can join me in the next lesson. I'm Pete. This is Aussie English. It's been a pleasure. And I'll see you later. Tooroo.