Improve your British English Pronunciation: The Vowel in Owl / aʊ /

Pronunciation Activation Pack - 20
Owl / aʊ /
In this Pronunciation Activation Pack we will be looking at the eighth and last of the gliding vowels / aʊ /. This is also the last of the 20 British English vowels on our IPA chart.
We will look at the letter combinations that give the / aʊ / sound.
We will look at lots of words which have the / aʊ / sound in them.
Finally, we will activate your ability to hear and produce the / aʊ / sound correctly.
Letter Combinations for / aʊ /
This gliding vowel sound is the vowel sound with the fewest letter combinations, being formed from only:
OU and OW.
Practice
How loud the owls shout about the house!
/ ˈhaʊ laʊd ði aʊlz ʃaʊt ə.ˈbaʊt ðə ˈhaʊs /
Practice
No mouse would scout this owl’s mouth.
/ nəʊ maʊs wʊd skaʊt ðɪs aʊlz maʊθ /
Practice
Foul louts shout and scowl around the town.
/ faʊl laʊts ʃaʊt ənd skaʊl ə.ˈraʊnd ðə taʊn /
Practice
How now brown cow?
/ haʊ naʊ braʊn kaʊ /
Problems for Students
There are two vowel sound which have the potential to cause confusion with the / aʊ / sound. These are the / ɔː / and the / ɑː / sounds.
I looked at the minimal pairs / ɔː / vs / aʊ / in Pronunciation Activation Pack 8 – the Vowel in Horse, so I will not cover it in this lesson.
In this lesson, I will look at the / aʊ / vs / ɑː / minimal pairs.

Resources and Activators
As with all of my English Activation Packs, this Activation Pack has valuable resources to help you activate the language in this lesson.
Download the resources from the link at the top left.
You will also find the Activators at the end of the Pack.
These will give you plenty of exercises to help you make the language in this lesson part of your active vocabulary.
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