Accent Error Patterns: using vowel /e/ (tense) or /æ/ (too open)
red sounds like raid
men sounds like man
How to Correct This:
open jaw, central, lax tongue and face
use an anchor vowel - red tent
Practice Steps: listen to minimal pairs to make sure you can differentiate /ɛ/
/eɪ/ vs. /ɛ/ pairs:
take tech
fade fed
wait wet
main men
/æ/ vs. /ɛ/ pairs:
man men
had head
sad said
band bend
Next, practice common words with /ɛ/: get, went, said, men, tell, when, then, ten, met
Then try repeated phrase practice:
ten ____ (people, weeks, days, times); Went to ______ (work, school, the store, Europe, the library)
Resources: When Vowel /ɛ/ video: https://youtu.be/-lBd55mXGzI
longer class on Vowel /ɛ/: https://youtu.be/rhLgJEmu7LM
website practice: https://www.speechmodification.com/free/how-to-pronounce-vowel-eh
If you have questions about this topic or anything else we've covered so far in the Five by Five challenge, please feel free to leave comments on this or any other video. I also invite you to join our live Friday Q & A classes, where you can ask about American Accent topics and get your questions answered, we'll be doing that tomorrow and you can find it at this link: https://youtu.be/nBb9u2bgP0w
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