O (letter)

O is the 15th letter of the English alphabet. Its name is pronounced like the exclamation oh!

Use in English

toô also = tŵo number = to preposition are pronounced the same - although of course to is usually weak, so it normally has the schwa sound. The same oô sound is found spelt with one o in do, move and prove.

Example: ‘Hê has hád toô many drínks - díd he háve to drínk tŵo toô many, do yoû thínk? What moved him to?’, ‘But cán yoû prove it?’

ough has nine different pronunciations:

úff óff ŏ before t û enoúgh tróugh nŏught throûgh toúgh cóugh thŏught throughòut roúgh Góugh ŏught

ô òu as schwa (though for AmE speakers, this can be ô) dôugh bòugh bòrough (*búrə) thôugh Slòugh thòrough (*thúrə) althôugh dròught Scàrborough (cf. Édinburgh, both -brə)

úp only in híccough (alternative spelling of híccup)

ó only in lóugh (Irish spelling of lóch)

A list of irregular o’s, usually pronounced oô or ù/oò, never û: spelling pronunciation approve *approôv Boer *Bûer bosom *bùzəm canoe *canoô croissant *kwússón (French nasal -ón) do *doô lasso *lássoô Lesotho *Lesûtu lose *loôz move *moôv prove *proôv shoe foot shoô away to preposition toô also, many = tŵo number tomb *toôm who *hoô whose *hoôz wolf *wùlf woman *wùmən women *wímmin Worcester *Wùstə (AmE -r)

Examples (the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes):

do (*doô). Compare dôe animal = dôugh bake. to preposition (= toô many, also = tŵo number). Compare tôe foot, toúgh strong = túff rock.

ous versus -us: -ous forms adjectives, -us forms nouns.

Adjectives: pàrlous, treméndous, màrvellous, trémulous, cöurteous, magnánimous, précious, disāstrous (minus the e of disāster).

Nouns (especially names): ábacus, sýllabus, ómnibus (whence bús), nímbus, cûmulus, óctopus, sánctus, fôcus, crôcus, Màrcus, Catúllus, Horâtius (*Horâyshəss). The majority of these are from Latin, or Greek through Latin. There are further examples under u. Thelônious Mònk was an exception – but he was originally Thêlius.

The noun suffix -our becomes -or- before -ous: hûmorous, glámorous.

òw and ôw: òw stressed in monosyllables: hòw, nòw, bròwn, còw, fròwn, bòw down, vòw, wòw, AmE plòw (BrE plòugh) and in: còward, còwardly, glòwer, flòwer, pòwer, Gòwer, shòwer, nòwadays.

ôw stressed in monosyllables: lôw, sôw seed (= sew needle) môw, tôw pull (= tôe foot) and unstressed at the end of words of two syllables: yéllôw, shállôw, hóllôw, gállôws, nárrôw, bórrôw, árrôw, fúrrôw, fállôw.

oê, from Greek oi, is quite rare. It can be written as a single letter, œ, but this is rather unusual nowadays, e alone often being used instead, especially in America. But you might see Phœbe, fœtus, œnology, Œdipus, phœnix bird (= Phoênix Arizona), œstrogen instead of Phoêbe, foêtus, oênology, Oêdipus, phoênix, oêstrogen. And, from French, there is œuvre (*ërvrə).

gôes (cf. dòes do, dôes animals) and the plurals, tôes, potâtoes, AmE tomâtoes, BrE tomàtoes, peccadíllôes are of course not Greek oi and just have the ô sound. But not all plurals have the e: volcânos, tornâdos, hâlos, concërtos (consh-). The longer the word has been in the English language, the more likely it is to have -ôes; there is alas no other rule.

pêople has the same vowel sound as œ, but with the letters reversed, and the o completely redundant, as it is also in léopard and jéopardy (cf. jéalousy).

See also

• Letter (alphabet)
• Alphabet
• Writing system
• Orthography
• Written language
• Writing