外教教你學英語音標 后元音[?]

/?/ is a back vowel sound where the lips are rounded.

The tip of the tongue is relaxed and touching behind the lower front teeth for all vowel sounds.

To make the /?/ sound, you need to release the back of your tongue and bring your lip corners slightly forward like this.

/?/.

Most often, the challenge with the /?/ sound is that the speaker will neglect to bring the lip corners forward...

...so the sound is a bit more like /ɑ/.

A great way to practice the specificity of this sound is to work the lip corners.

Here's another exercise you can do with chopsticks.

This time, you'll need two.

First, release your jaw so there is about one finger width between the top and bottom teeth.

Next, place one chopstick between each lip corner like this.

Make sure that you are keeping the jaw released.

Now, gently squeeze the lip corners bringing them toward each other, while using the resistance of the chopsticks.

Now, let's do this together.

Squeeze, release, squeeze, release, squeeze, release, squeeze and hold, and release.

Good! Now, let's try the /?/ sound together and in a few words and sentences.

Here we go.

Ought.

Thought.

Hawk.

Salt.

Launch.

Exhaustion.

And, a few sentences.

The automatic faucet was faulty.

He thought his daughter would become an author.

Keep up your practice on EnglishCentral and good luck.