O is the 15th letter and the fourth vowel in the English alphabet.
This letter O is a letter that is used in big words like opulent and orangutan. Do you know what these words mean?
Opulent means ostentatiously rich and luxurious or lavish! Wow some more big words!
Ostentatious means showy and designed to impress, but so over the top it turns out to be tacky like some rooms you see that are all gilded and golden – just too much and really it is not that impressive at all.
Orangutan: I am sure everyone knows this is a kind of monkey/ape, a primate that lives in jungles.
The letter Oo is also used in proper nouns – names of people and places – like Ophelia and Oscar.
Ophelia is an olden day name. The man called William Shakespeare who wrote some of the best-known plays in English history used the name Ophelia for a character in one of his plays, a drama called Hamlet. Ophelia is a young noblewoman of Denmark, who was intended to be the wife of Prince Hamlet.
Oscar: Many of us know someone called Oscar. Do you?
Using the letter Oo as a vowel will let you use the long “ooooooo” sound and the short “Oh” sound.
Boat is a long sound and fox, box, lox, son, love are short o sounds.
In English, O – as in the capital letter – can be used alone in front of a word with a capital letter like O Canada or O Captain! My Captain!
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is one of William Shakespeare’s best-known plays. You may hear people quote lines from the play, which is often just called Hamlet.
Hamlet was written between 1600 and 1602, and first printed in 1603, that is a long time ago and is still popular, although these days the character Ophelia has had her role changed a bit in some of these modern-day plays.
As always, the story line is one of love, murder, mistaken identity and – in this case – a bit of madness. The poor, unfortunate father of Ophelia was mistakenly murdered, and his daughter gets so upset she falls into the river and drowns.
The plot has twists and turns that include poison drank by the wrong person, sword fights, and a ghost! And then there is Ophelia.
The madness she suffered from the death of her father is medically recognised in our modern day as depression. This is a big problem for many people. Shakespeare did not write a medical journal but a drama-play, yet all these centuries later, the play is still performed, and we can recognise his character’s problems. Shakespeare was a genius.
Hamlet is one of the hardest parts for an actor to perform. It is one of the largest roles written by Shakespeare. Many people disagree about what Hamlet is really thinking. For many actors, playing Hamlet is one of the most important parts of their career.
