The 3 Sounds of the Letter O

The letter O is the least reliable vowel in English. Students are often first taught the short o sound, as in dock and mop. The letter O is short when it appears in a syllable that ends with a consonant – a closed syllable.

A closed syllable is a syllable with a single vowel that ends in a consonant. Closed syllable words with the letter O are dot, song, off, chop, soft, boss, dodge, respond, and hospital.

The second sound of the letter O is the long o sound where you hear the letter’s name, as in go, hope, and know. This sound occurs in open syllables (when the syllable ends in the vowel o), in CVCe pattern words, and inside vowel teams.

The third sound of O is often not taught. O often has a short U spelling when the word pattern would typically suggest a short or long o sound. Examples are mother, oven, son, glove, come, and front.

This sound seems to occur most often before the letters M, N, TH, and V. However we also have words with the letter O before these letters that have the traditional short or long sound, as in pond, bone, cloth, and home.

Additionally, in English we don’t put the letters U and V next to each other, so you won’t see words love cuver or luve.

So how should we teach this? Teach your students to be prepared to try the short U sound when the normal O sounds (short o and long o) don’t make sense in the word. I hope this helps you teach your students about the different sounds that the letter O makes.

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