There are many good things about the English language, but pronunciation is not one of them! However, learning about certain letter/sound possibilities can help. For example, there are many words in English where the letter ‘O’ is pronounced like the short 'u' in but, up, and fun. To hear the short 'u' sound, click here.
Some examples of words where the letter 'O' sounds like 'u' are: ‘company’ (pronounced ‘cumpany’) and 'month' (pronounced as 'munth')*. As this letter/sound is often mispronounced, even by learners at advanced level, I thought I could try to help readers with this. Having said that, of course teaching pronunciation via written text is far from ideal!
So here’s a challenge for you - read the story below, and underline all of the words where the letter ‘O’ is pronounced as a short 'u' sound.
“One day, in fact it was a Monday, I decided to go to London. I asked my company for three days off and they said yes, as long as Project ‘Compass’ was all done. I had actually finished it last month! So I packed my bags and made sure I had enough money (some sterling, not Euros) and went to the Eurostar terminal. It was very cold, so I bought some gloves. It was not like some time ago in May when I took a dozen days off and went with my son. That time, we went to see my brother and mother, and London was like an oven!
On the train, I bought a cheese and onion sandwich with some lovely honey and carrot cake. I loved the cake, but the sandwich has become my least favourite. I will not buy another one again. Then I looked out the window and saw six doves above the train, among the trees. A somewhat unusual and wonderful sight! After that I read the newspaper. There was an article about someone who ate one thousand onions in a month! I worry how he did it and wondered if his stomach hurt. There was also a story about the UK government, and one where I discovered that some monkeys have blue tongues**! But none of them have green ones.
When I got to London, I walked to the front of the train, and somebody spoke to me. She told me that I had won a prize, which was to come back to London next month and travel to Somerset, or otherwise somewhere else. I was so overcome with joy, I did a somersault!”
How was it? Did you get them all? I’ll publish the answers next Tuesday…
*Important note: In this article I am referring to Standard Southern British English (which used to be known as 'Received Pronunciation', or even more snobbily as 'The Queen's English'. There are many accents in English, none of which is superior to another. However, I teach SSBE because that's more or less the accent I speak and it's popular with English learners.
**Sorry, this is probably not true. Monkeys are unlikely to have blue tongues unless they've eaten a lot of liquorice.
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