Kindergarten · 21 words · the vowel in octopus

Short o CVC words

Short o is the sound in octopus and in hot, a round, open sound that children often like because it makes their mouths look like the letter itself. It also begins some of the most-loved early words: dog, mop, top, hop.

The list holds every short o CVC word we use, from box to rod. Look for the families: -op (hop, mop, pop, top), -ot (cot, dot, got, hot, lot, pot), -og (dog, fog, hog, jog) and -ob and -od words such as job, nod, pod and rod. There are fewer short o words than short i words here, so this is a shorter list that a child can finish in an afternoon.

All 21 short o CVC words, A to Z

  • box
  • cot
  • dog
  • dot
  • fog
  • fox
  • got
  • hog
  • hop
  • hot
  • job
  • jog
  • log
  • lot
  • mop
  • nod
  • pod
  • pop
  • pot
  • rod
  • top

Printable word list and practice sheet (PDF) — page 1 is the 21 words; page 2 has, for each word, three boxes for its sounds and a line to write it. Free to print, no sign-up.

About the short o sound

The short o sound is /o/, as in octopus. Your mouth opens wide and the sound comes from the back of the mouth. In much of the United States, the sound in hot, mop and top is a flat "ah", close to the sound in father. Some accents sound slightly different, especially in dog and fog, and that is fine.

Teaching tip: link the sound to the shape of your mouth. Children can see an "o" on their own lips and feel the roundness. A mirror helps, and it is a good reason for a giggle.

Box has an x at the end that stands for two sounds, k and s. Read it as a CVC word, but if your child is puzzled, tell them that x is a tricky letter that does the work of two.

Mix-ups to expect

  • Short o and short u, as in hop and hug or pot and pup. Some children say the vowel in the wrong place in their mouth. Say both slowly, and show that o is round and u is flat.
  • Dog and dig, or pot and pit. A quick listen to the middle sound sorts it out. Ask: is it the round one, the smile one or the wide one?
  • The letters p, b, d and q are easy to reverse in pop, job, nod and pod. Draw a little arrow showing which way each letter faces, and trace them with a finger.

How to practice at home

  • Do the "o is round" trick: have your child say "o" with a mouth shaped like a circle, then say each word in the list with the same round mouth.
  • Read the -ot family, then act it out: a hot pot, a dot on a cot, a lot of dots. Silly pictures make good reading practice.
  • Play a flip game with a mop and a top. Say a word, then have your child say it again with just the first sound changed.
  • Write a short sentence together: "The dog hops on the log." Then have your child read it back to you and point to each word.
  • Spread cards on the floor and have your child find the words that rhyme with hop, then with dot.

A word ladder

Here is a ladder that changes one letter at each step and keeps the same round vowel:

hop → hot → pot → pop → top → mop

These are Tutorsaurus’s own lists, built from the words in our reading and spelling practice plus a few common additions. They are not an official list, and your child’s school may use different words.

More CVC word lists