IPA reference · vowel
ɔ — open-mid back rounded vowel
A more open, less tightly rounded back vowel than /o/.
How to make the open-mid back rounded vowel
Drop the jaw from the /o/ position and relax the lip rounding.
English reference points: thought, north (in many accents). If you speak English natively you already produce this sound — the work is recognising it and placing it where the target language wants it.
Languages that use it
Sounds it gets confused with
Most pronunciation errors are not random — they are a substitution of the nearest sound the speaker already owns. These are the usual substitutions for ɔ, and each one is a minimal-pair drill waiting to happen.
Phonemic in several languages; merged by English speakers.
What this means for learners
The cot/caught merger means many North American speakers no longer distinguish /ɔ/ from /ɑ/ at all, which removes a reference point they would otherwise have.
Teaching this sound
Describing a sound in words gets a student roughly half the way there. The other half is hearing it produced correctly, immediately after producing it incorrectly, with both versions available to replay. That is the argument for recording during the lesson rather than after it: the student leaves with your model of ɔ attached to the actual words they got wrong, not to an abstract chart.
Frequently asked questions
What sound does the IPA symbol ɔ make?
ɔ is the open-mid back rounded vowel. A more open, less tightly rounded back vowel than /o/. In English you can hear it in: thought, north (in many accents).
How do you pronounce ɔ?
Drop the jaw from the /o/ position and relax the lip rounding.
Which languages have the open-mid back rounded vowel?
Among the languages covered here: French (port, “port”); Italian (nove, “nine”); Bambara (bɔ, “to go out”).
What is the difference between ɔ and o?
Phonemic in several languages; merged by English speakers.