CHAPTER 26

Using ou and ow

Since the ou and ow combinations often make the same sound, it would seem that there is little difference

between them. This is because, in many cases, the w is being used in place of the u as an auxiliary vowel.

Spelling rule #1: The ou spelling is almost always used in the middle of a word:

(^) Note that the ou is almost never used at the end of a word. There are very few exceptions.
(^) There are barely half a dozen commonly used English words that begin with ou. One of these has a
different sound.
Spelling rule #2: The ow is most often used at the end of a word.
(^) Only a tiny handful of commonly used English words begin with ow. Most of these have different
sounds.
(^) Note that the word owl was once spelled oule.
The spelling ow will occasionally appear in the middle of a word. The use of the w is sometimes
necessary to prevent the occurrence of three consecutive vowels, as ou cannot be followed by a vowel,
but ow can be followed by a vowel or a consonant. A large number of these apparent anomalies were
once spelled with the letter u.
(^) Note these words that were once spelled with ou instead of our modern ow: