aoh as in Pharaoh
ogh as in Van Gogh
ock as in Cockburn
4 responses to “oh”
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Hi Alison,
You probably know this already, but the Dutch pronunciation of Gogh is quite different to the ‘Go’ mispronunciation many people use.
To be authentic, the Dutch gh is a guttural sound made as if voicelessly clearing the throat of some annoying mucus. The Scottish ch in the word ‘loch’ has a similar pronunciation. Both words are not difficult to say (except perhaps for insistent ‘Go’ and ‘lock’ speakers).
Another question if I may. I am puzzled by the inclusion of ‘soul’ and ‘Seoul’ in the ‘oh’ list, as I thought they both rhymed with ‘hole’. Am I right or wholly wrong on this?
Love your spelling/pronunciation lists, by the way. I have recently discovered them.
Cheers, Ellie
Hi Ellie, thanks for the nice feedback re my lists, much appreciated. I have been to the Netherlands and been told off for saying Van Gogh wrong, but I use the Macquarie Dictionary as my guide to pronunciation, and it says “/væn ˈgɒf/ (say van ‘gof), /ˈgoʊ/ (say ‘goh)” so that’s what I have stuck with, it’s what most English speakers say, as we don’t have the guttural sound in Dutch and Scottish. I’m very confused by your second question as to me ‘soul’ and ‘Seoul’ are homophones that do rhyme with ‘hole’ and that’s why they are on the ‘oh’ list. The Macquarie Dictionary agrees with me. But maybe your accent is not Australian and you say ‘hole’ differently from how I say it? All the best, Alison
Gday Alison. Every other sound on your list makes the long o sound (as in boat) but in Seoul you have switched to short o sound (as in got). I am from NZ. Cheers
Hi Daniel, maybe ‘Seoul’ is pronounced, differently in NZ, but in the Macquarie dictionary the pronunciation is listed as “/soʊl/ (say sohl)” so I think from the point of view of an Australian accent I do have this word on the right list.