Vowel combination ou & ow
The eight pronunciations of the vowel combination ou and the three pronunciations of ow can be divided into six groups for discussion: /oo/ is the first group; /ō/ and /ǒ/ are the second group; /ö/ is the third group ; /ōō/ and /ǒo/ are the fourth group; /ǔ/ are the fifth group; /ə/ are the sixth group.
The first group, the combination of vowels ou and ow is pronounced as the combined vowel /ou/, such as in the words cloud and sour and brown and flow·er (ou), always ow when it is at the end of a word, such as in the words cow and bow (ou).
The second group, the vowel combination ou and ow is pronounced as the long vowel /ō/ of the vowel o, as in the words shōul·der and thōugh and bōwl, and always ow at the end of a word, as in the words snōw and blōw. In addition, they can also pronounce the short vowel /ǒ/ of the vowel letter o, as in the words cǒugh and knǒwl·edge.
The third group, the vowel combination ou, is pronounced as a dotted vowel /ö/, as in the words böught and föur. Words containing ou and pronounced /ö/ are mainly divided into two situations. One case is when it is followed by the consonant r, as in the words four and course (ö). Alternatively, it is in the past tense and past participle forms of some verbs. At this time, it is often followed by the consonant sequence ght, such as buy-bought, bring-brought. fight-fought, seek-sought and think-thought (ö).
The fourth group, the vowel combination ou is pronounced as the long vowel sound /ōō/, as in the word group (ōō). It can also pronounce the short vowel sound /ǒo/, which is mainly divided into two cases: one case is when it is before the silent consonant l, such as in the words could and should (ǒo), at this time also It can be said that the letter combination oul is pronounced /ǒo/, that is, could and should (ǒo); the second case is when it is in the r-syllable letter combination our, as in the words tour and your (ǒo). At this time, the r-syllable letter combination our is pronounced as /ǒor/, namely tour and your (ǒor).
The fifth group, the vowel combination ou pronounces the short vowel /ǔ/ of the vowel u, as in the words coǔs·in, coǔn·try and coǔr·age. At this time, its pronunciation falls on the vowel letter u. Therefore, it can also be said that ou is a combination of letters formed by the vowel letter u.
In the sixth group, the combination of vowels ou is pronounced the universal light vowel /ə/. At this time, it is in an unstressed syllable, as in the words fa mous and dan ger ous (ə).
The r syllable of the combination of vowels ou, that is, when the vowel ou is followed by a consonant r, its pronunciation is more complicated. For example, in the words sour, four and tour, the pronunciations are /ou/, /ö/ and /ǒo/ respectively. However, the number of such words is relatively small, so it is practical to memorize their spelling and pronunciation one by one.
The following sentence includes eight pronunciations of the vowel combination ou, namely /ou/, /ō/, /ǒ/, /ö/, /ōō/, /ǒo/, /ǔ/ and /ə/, please familiarize yourself Remember this sentence:
