The O in "hot": American /ɑ/ vs British /ɒ/
Americans say “hot” with an open, unrounded vowel, /ɑ/, close to the vowel in “father”; standard British English uses a short vowel with rounded lips, /ɒ/. The spelling is the same, and the words are among the most common in English: “not”, “got”, “stop”, “job”, “lot”. That is why the vowel quickly tells a listener which accent you use.
All audio on this page is an AI voice (neural text-to-speech), one American and one British.
How does the vowel in “hot” change?
Linguists call this group of words the LOT vowel. In American English, the lips stay relaxed and the jaw opens wide, so “hot” can sound like “haht” to British ears. In British English (Received Pronunciation), the lips round a little and the tongue is further back, so the vowel is shorter and darker.
| Word | American | British |
|---|---|---|
| hot | /hɑt/ | /hɒt/ |
| stop | /stɑp/ | /stɒp/ |
| job | /dʒɑb/ | /dʒɒb/ |
| lot | /lɑt/ | /lɒt/ |
| shop | /ʃɑp/ | /ʃɒp/ |
hot American: British:
stop American: British:
job American: British:
lot American: British:
shop American: British:
Watch the lips if you say the words in a mirror. For the American vowel they stay neutral. For the British vowel they move slightly forward and round.
Many Americans also use this same /ɑ/ in “father” and “palm”, so “bother” and “father” rhyme. In British English they do not rhyme: “father” has the long /ɑː/, “bother” has the short /ɒ/.
Hear it in a sentence
“I got a job at the shop.” has three LOT words: got, job and shop.
American: British:
Listen also to “got a”. The American voice taps the T, so it sounds close to “godda”. The British voice keeps a clear T.
What a scorer hears
We scored both AI voices against both scoring accents. We used the same scoring engine and settings that AnyAccent uses in the app. For British English, the scorer gives each word and each sound a score, but it does not name the sound it heard.
Example result: single words, scored as British English
| Word | American AI voice: word | American AI voice: vowel | British AI voice: word |
|---|---|---|---|
| job | 69 | 84 | 100 |
| shop | 82 | 89 | 100 |
| stop | 88 | 89 | 94 |
| hot | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| lot | 100 | 100 | 100 |
How to read this:
- In “job”, “shop” and “stop”, the British scorer gave the American vowel its lowest sound score in the word. That is the place where the two accents differ.
- In “hot” and “lot”, it gave the American voice 100. The difference did not cost points in every word.
- Scored as American English, the British voice got 97 or more on every word. The American scorer named its vowel /ɑ/, the American sound, so it did not separate the two accents here.
- On the full sentence, both voices scored 100 against British English and 96 against American English.
Both voices are correct for their own accent. The scorers only disagreed on a few words.
The scores above are from single runs on AI voices. Your own scores will depend on your recording.
How to practise it
For the American /ɑ/
- Open your jaw wide and keep your lips relaxed, not rounded.
- Keep the tongue low and flat, as in “father”.
- Let the vowel be a little longer than the British one.
- Drill words that rhyme in American English: “bother / father”, “cot / caught” (for many American speakers).
For the British /ɒ/
- Open your jaw less than for “father”.
- Round your lips slightly, as if you start to say “oh”, then stop.
- Keep the vowel short and pull the tongue back.
- Check the contrast: “father” (long /ɑː/) against “bother” (short /ɒ/), and “cart” (/kɑːt/) against “cot” (/kɒt/).
Common questions
Why does “hot” sound like “haht” in American English?
Because American English uses an open, unrounded /ɑ/ in this word. British English rounds the lips, which gives the darker /ɒ/.
Do “cot” and “caught” sound the same in American English?
For many Americans, yes: they use one vowel for both. Others keep them apart. In British English they are always different: “cot” is /kɒt/ and “caught” is /kɔːt/.
Is the British /ɒ/ the same as “o” in “go”?
No. The vowel in “go” is a glide, /əʊ/ in British English and /oʊ/ in American English. The vowel in “hot” is one short sound with no glide.
Practise with a scorer
AnyAccent lets you pick the accent you practise against. For American English, you get sound-level diagnosis: the app names the sound you missed. For British English, you get word and sentence scores.
See the full sound guides for American English and British English.