pronouncekit

SOUND LESSON

How to pronounce /oʊ/ and /əʊ/: the vowel in go

Learn the vowel in go: American /oʊ/ starts rounded, British /əʊ/ starts central. Finish the glide, and do not read it as a pure Spanish o or Mandarin o.

/oʊ/ and /əʊ/
American English
/oʊ/ · diphthong · mid-back → high-back · rounded
British English
/əʊ/ · diphthong · mid-central → high-back · increasingly rounded
Pronunciation model

Try it in a word

Go home and show me the boat.

Mouth & tongue

Enable JavaScript to view the 3D panda. Pronunciation steps remain available below.

Vocal folds: vibrating

TongueTeethUvula

Simplified human pronunciation. The small uvula hangs from the palate; it is not the vocal folds. The wave indicates voicing.

Voice settings

The mouth starts slightly open. Movement is slowed for observation; the synthetic sound plays once at its original speed. Pause holds the current mouth shape; reset returns to the relaxed position. The panda is a symbolic teaching aid for human pronunciation, not animal anatomy.

What your mouth is doing

This vowel moves within one syllable, ending with rounded lips and the tongue raised toward /ʊ/. American English starts from a rounded mid-back position, and British English from a more central, relaxed one.

Comparing with Mandarin and Spanish

Spellings include o-e, oa, ow and o alone: home, boat, show, go. Because letter o has several values, words such as come and do do not share this vowel.

Mandarin ou is a useful start, and Spanish o is a good start without the glide. Both groups should finish the movement toward /ʊ/ inside one syllable.

Build the sound, step by step

  1. Start the vowel in your chosen accent: rounded for US, central for UK.
  2. Close and round your lips as your tongue rises toward /ʊ/.
  3. Say go, home and boat, finishing the glide before the final consonant.

What to watch for

  • A pure steady vowel moves low toward law. Let the lips close.
  • Letter o is not always this sound: compare go, do and come.

Hear the difference in your own voice

Alternate coat and caught, then note and not. Glide in coat and note. Hold steady in caught and not, and notice the lips close only in the first word of each pair.

Compare these sounds

Keep practicing

References & editorial notes

PronounceKit wrote this lesson as practical guidance. The references below describe the sounds; the comparisons with other languages are editorial teaching suggestions. It describes common American and British patterns, not every accent, and it has not been independently reviewed by a pronunciation specialist. The mouth model is a simplified teaching aid, not a validated simulation.

Published 3 November 2026