One syllable: Taught.
tawt
/tɔt/
Taught is pronounced tawt (/tɔt/). It has one syllable (Taught), with the stress on "Taught". Taught is the past tense and past participle of teach, meaning having imparted knowledge or skills. It describes a completed act of instruction or guidance, e.g., a lesson that was delivered. In pronunciation, the word is a single-syllable, with a tense vowel that can be confusable with “taut” in some dialects.
nounTaught is the past tense and past participle of teach, meaning having imparted knowledge or skills. It describes a completed act of instruction or guidance, e.g., a lesson that was delivered. In pronunciation, the word is a single-syllable, with a tense vowel that can be confusable with “taut” in some dialects.
How to Pronounce Taught
"The teacher taught the class how to solve the problem."
"She taught me to swim when I was a child."
"Many lessons were taught by the mentor over the summer."
US/UK/AU IPA: /tɔːt/. The word is a single syllable with an open-mid back tense vowel before the final voiceless stop /t/. Ensure the tongue stays low to mid-back, with the lips neutral and the jaw slightly lowered. In careful speech you’ll hear a clear, brief /ɔː/ before the final /t/. Practice by saying ‘tawt’ with rounded lips minimally to avoid turning it into /tɒt/ or /tɔːd/.
Common errors include merging it with ‘taut’ by making the vowel slightly too tense (/tɔːt/ vs /tɒːt/), or losing the final /t/ in rapid speech (saying /tɔː/). Another frequent mistake is a misarticulated back vowel, leaning toward /aɪ/ or /ɜː/ due to accent influence. Correction: sustain a short, sharp /t/ at the end and keep the vowel as a pure /ɔː/ in all positions; practice with minimal pairs like ‘taught’ vs ‘taut’ and use a mirror to monitor lip posture and jaw height.
In US English, /tɔːt/ with a rhotic-less quality, the vowel is a lax /ɔː/ closer to /ɔ/ in stressed syllables, often shorter in fast speech. UK English sustains a clear /ɔː/ with possibly a slightly longer vowel duration. Australian English tends toward a centralized or slightly fronted /ɔː/ depending on speaker, but generally maintains /tɔːt/ with a softer start. Across all, conspicuously the final /t/ can be unreleased in casual speech, particularly in AmE and AuE.
The difficulty lies in the short, clipped final /t/ following a mid-back vowel that can shift toward /ɒ/ or /ɔ/ depending on accent. The blend requires precise tongue positioning: the tongue body sits mid-back, tip lightly touching the alveolar ridge for a clean stop, and the jaw lowers to shorten the vowel before release. In rapid speech, the /t/ may be unreleased or elide. Pay attention to the contrast with similar words like ‘taut’ to ensure the vowel remains open and not rounded.
Taught is a monosyllable with primary stress on the single syllable by definition. The challenge isn’t stress—instead, it’s vowel quality and the final consonant. Ensure the vowel is a tense, mid-back /ɔː/ with a crisp, aspirated or at least audible final stop /t/. Avoid producing a longer open vowel or an added vowel after the /t/. In connected speech, you might hear a light follow-on consonant if another word starts with a consonant, but keep the /t/ clearly released when emphasizing teaching actions.
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US: /tɔːt/ with a mid-back /ɔː/ and a clear, even release; some speakers may reduce to /tɒt/ in fast speech. UK: /tɔːt/ with a longer, more rounded /ɔː/ typically unreleased in rapid speech; AU: /tɔːt/ with slight vowel centralization depending on region, but the final /t/ remains crisp. In all, the key is maintaining a tense back vowel before the final /t/ and avoiding vowel shift toward /æ/ or /ɒ/. Use IPA as a reference and practice with region-specific minimal pairs.
The verb taught comes from Old English tǣcan, meaning to show or point out, with the past tense form tǣhte being the precursor. It shares a common Germanic root with the modern languages’ does forms of teach, akin to Dutch leeren and German lehren. Historically, the spelling shift from tǣhte to taught reflects changes in English spelling normalization and irregular verb forms, where the /tɔːt/ realization of taught aligns with the short o sound in many dialects, while the t-d blending at the end remains a characteristic of hurried speech. First attested in late Old English with forms such as tǣhte and gehæht/gehæde, the modern “taught” appears in Middle English texts by the 14th century and stabilized in Early Modern English as the standard past tense for teach. The semantic jump from “to lead, show, or instruct” to “having instructed” tracks closely with the English system of strong verbs, where vowel changes signal past tense in irregular verbs. Over time, “taught” consolidated its role as a marker of completed instruction, while the related noun “teaching” emerged to denote the discipline or act itself rather than the completed result.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "Taught" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "Taught" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "Taught"
-ght sounds
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