Why does "Towel" sound like "Ta-wel"

[John Little]

We do varios online word games in bed in the morning with our coffee. Quordle (find four words) Wordle ( the originial find the word game) and connections (both part of the New York Times games).

One of the four quordle words was towel ( although that might be a spoiler, sorry). I put the word in and confirmed to my wife that it was towel, pronouncing it clearly so not to be mistaken with "tail" ( although "tail" has only four letters).

But it occured to us that, however you say "towel", the "o" sounds like an "a".

[Davey944676]

You're right, so it does! Weird.

I've just been trying to say the "ow" part on its own - for science, like - and even that comes out something like "a-oh".

[Dana_Dany Danuta]

I think such lessons are also useful. (I recommend watching on "YouTube")

How to pronounce TOWEL & TOWER - American English Pronunciation Lesson

[Linda7Italian]

And yet we say "towpath" and "tow away" with a nice round "oh". Parle is the Italian equivalent of Wordle for five letters, if anyone wants to have a go while sipping their morning Lavazza

[Davey944676]

And just to confuse English-learners even more, even two words spelt exactly the same can have those two different pronunciations...

e.g.

"bow" as in a bow and arrow, which rhymes with the "tow" in towpath.

and

"bow" as in the bow of a ship, which rhymes with the "tow" in towel.

[MoniqueMaRie]

Fortunately, at least in the UK there are enough dialects where pronunciation is not taken so seriously.

Otherwise it would only ever be us poor foreigners who are confused by it.

Look at "tow" and "town" and then guess how "towards" should be pronounced.

[Basler Biker]

We do [...] games in bed in the morning [...] connections (both [...] games) [...]
[...]

Note: The use of [...] is the officially accepted way to indicate omitted words in a quote.
But be warned—leaving out just the right words can change everything.

Isn't that how the news manipulates us?
By slicing up people's statements and stripping away their context?

Anyway—if some puzzles feel too easy, try the Mephistophilis Crossword in the Financial Times.
Too tough? Reach for The Sun — Junior Coffee Time, Easy Clues.
(As seen in a sketch by The Two Ronnies.)

Someone actually tried reverse-engineering the easy puzzle:
https://www.tumblr.com/dtw42/6204845596 ... -crossword

Here you can try to solve it.
https://crossword.info/skirwingle/coffeetime/

[LICA98]

in the Pronunciation respelling key they specifically mention how respelling "ow" is a problem

Particularly, respelling /aʊ/ could prove problematic as there are a variety of monosyllabic words spelled with "ow" and pronounced with /oʊ/: blow, blown, bow, bowl, flow, flown, glow, grow, grown, growth, low, mow, mown, own, row, show, slow, snow, sow, sown, stow, strow, throw, tow, and trow. There is no universal solution to this problem ("ou" also varies as in loud, soup, soul, and touch), so respelling a word including /aʊ/ may be best avoided altogether; however, sometimes the benefit of respelling may outweigh the disadvantage, especially for longer words, so exercise discretion.

[Rickiefl]

In the west of Scotland we pronounce it as it should be …tow-el

[Rickiefl]

Tow as in town, not as in tow truck.

[lrai]

Okay, try saying owl then add the "t" and that is how you say towel. The "e" is silent, the ow is the sound you hear with a "t" and "l", that is the only way I know to explain how it should sound. Not sure if that helps, but you can use this with the following words that rhyme with towel like; bowel, dowel, and trowel.

[Davey944676]

In the west of Scotland we pronounce it as it should be …tow-el

It came out like cartoon Welsh when I tried to do your "tow-el" in a Scottish accent !

[PastelPusheen77]

To even further confuse English speakers, the word "equip" doesn't sound like a word when pronounced how it is spelled. "Equipt" sounds more correct for some reason. Don't ask me why. English is a very strange language, despite also being my birth language.

[HeyMarlana]

Towel and bowel both rhyme. I don't consider bowel to have an 'a' sound. But maybe there are certain accents that say these two words a certain way? I notice the 'ow' sound in both words, which is akin to saying "Ow!" when you hurt yourself. Not "Aw", which is what you might say reacting to a cute kitten.

[duome]

towel [voice=en]towel[/voice]
towel [voice=en-gb]towel[/voice]

How it compares to how you pronounce it? Anywhere near?

[Davey944676]

towel [voice=en]towel[/voice]
towel [voice=en-gb]towel[/voice]

How it compares to how you pronounce it? Anywhere near?

Around here, the "el" at the end wouldn't be pronounced so distinctly. The "tow" and the "l" just kind of merge together.

Saying that, various regional U.K. accents, including some Welsh accents, do pronounce thatt "el" quite distinctly.

[duome]

Apparently they taught us some Welsh accent at school - the "el" was quite distinct as long as I can remember )

[Davey944676]

...the word "equip" doesn't sound like a word when pronounced how it is spelled. "Equipt" sounds more correct for some reason. ..

Just realised what you mean (I think, maybe) - the difference between "ee-kwipmant" and "ek-whipmant"....and everything in between?