Please note: some r-controlled vowel sound generalisations may vary based on accent/dialect. Wordabase has been formed from the perspective of an Australian accent. Keep reading for more information about /or/ phoneme variations.
R-Controlled OR at a glance:
- Words with or sound include for, pork, born
- Words with a/al sound include talk, walk, all
- Words with au sound include author, audio, taunt
- Words with aw sound include paw, saw, claw
- Words with our sound include four, pour, court
Spelling Frequencies:
- or - 38% (includes ore ā 3%)
- a/al ā 19%
- au ā 17%
- aw ā 9%
- our ā 4%
Rare Spelling Patterns:
- ar (wart)
- oor (door)
- augh (caught)
- oar (soar)
- augh (caught)
- aur (dinosaur)
- oa (broad)
Common Spelling Generalisations or Patterns:
- or is mostly used in the middle of words e.g. cork, horn, horse
- ore is used at the end of words e.g. store, more, core
- au is used at the beginning or middle of a word e.g. author, haunt
- a/al is used at the beginning or middle of a word e.g. all, ball
- aw typically occurs at the end of a word or before the letters l, n or k e.g. dawn, shawl, hawk, draw
- our is usually in the middle or at the end of a word e.g. mourn, four
Accent Variations
- In Australia, /or/ and /aw/ make the same r-controlled vowel sound.
- However, in other parts of the world, they are considered to be two different phonemes
- /or/ as in for & more
- /aw/ as in paw and ball
- āoā is not included as a spelling option for /aw/ as this doesnāt apply with an Australian accent. In other parts of the world, āoā may be included as a spelling alternative for /aw/. In those cases, it is used 14% of the time in words like ālostā.