8. Sound [au]

Spelling examples: how, brown, out, noun.

Combinations OW, OU

The sound [au] is represented by the combination OW: now, how, cow, row, bow, brow, allow, Dow, plow, crowd, owl, fowl, howl, down, gown, town, clown, brown, drown, crown, browse, browser, powder, prowler.

The sound [au] is represented by the combination OU: out, about, doubt, couch, cloud, loud, proud, foul, noun, ounce, bounce, announce, found, pound, ground, hound, around, sound, surround, count, account, amount, mountain, house, mouse, louse, blouse, mouth, south, scout, shout, bough, plough, drought.

It is pretty difficult to decide where to say [ou] and where to say [au] when they are represented by the combination OW in writing, for example: own - owl, bowl - brown, mow - pow, etc., and besides, there are a few homonyms among them that are spelled the same but pronounced differently, for example, row: [rou] and [rau], bow: [bou] and [bau], sow [sou] and [sau], etc. It's advisable to keep a comparison list of such words.

It is also pretty difficult to decide where to write OW and where to write OU, for example, fowl - foul, browse - blouse. It's useful to have a comparison list of such words, too.

9. Sound [o:]

Spelling examples: more, order, law, call, cause, caught, bought, course, war, water.

Spelling patterns for the sound [o:]

Combinations OR, ORE: cord, Ford, form, born, corn, torn, short, sport, torch, porch; orange, order, orient, normal, mortal, sorry, story, glory, borrow, sorrow, forum, morning; bore, more, before, shore, sore, store, tore, explore, ignore.

Combination AW: law, draw, drawer, saw, thaw, crawl, shawl, dawn, lawn, awful, awkward.

Combinations AL, ALL: all, ball, call, fall, hall, wall, appall, alter, always, already, walk, talk, chalk, false, salt, halt.

Combination AU: cause, pause, applause, sauce, audio, audience, fraud, August, auto, author, Paul, fault, launch, laundry.

Combination AUGHT: caught, taught, daughter, slaughter, haughty.

Combination OUGHT: bought, brought, fought, ought, sought, thought, cough.

Combinations OUR, OAR, OOR: course, court, four, mourn, pour, source, your; board, hoarse, hoard, roar, soar, broad; door, floor.

Combinations WAR, WA: war, warm, ward, warden, warn, warning, award, reward; water, want, wand, wash, wasp, watch, swamp, swan.

Combination QUA (quar, quan, quadr): quart, quarter, headquarters, quantity, quantum, quality, quadrant.

Letter O as [o:] in AmE: long, wrong, boss, lost, cost, dog, gone, coffee.

There are several spelling variants for the sound [o:] that are also used for other sounds, for example: door [o:] - poor [u], pour [o:] - tour [u], cost [o:] - post [ou]. However, the spelling patterns for the sound [o:] are quite recognizable and should be easy to memorize.

Short [o] in BrE and long [o] in AmE

It is interesting to note that in American English there is no sound like the British short sound [o]. Instead of it, the sound that sounds like a hybrid of the long sounds [o:] and [a:] is pronounced in American English where British English has the short sound [o]. This hybrid American sound often clearly sounds like long [a:] and is shown in American transcription as [o] or [a:]. The same hybrid sound [o] / [a:] is often pronounced in American English in the words like "daughter, ought, water", in which long [o:] is considered to be standard. But long [o:] always remains [o:] in the stressed syllable before [r]: more [mo:r], lord [lo:rd], normal, port.

Examples of the words with BrE short [o] or AmE hybrid long [o] / [a:]: got, not, hot, stop, rob, odd, off, dog, log, clock, coffee, gone, long, song, cost, loss, boss, bomb, bond, soft, often, body, hobby, dollar, doctor, document, occupy, college, compliment, conference, model, monitor, option, follow, tomorrow, sorry, orange; want, wash, watch, what, swamp, swallow, swan.

This peculiar sound, as well as the sound [r] that is pronounced in all positions, and the sound [æ] in the words like "class, fast, demand, dance" give American English its characteristic accent.