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Practice makes Perfect

American English Vowel Sounds

2/11/2016

2 Comments

 
Pronouncing American English vowels can be tricky because written English does not have letter-sound correspondence, which is to say that one letter does not represent one sound.  This is particularly true for the letters which represent vowels, namely A, E, I, O and U.  Below you will find a guide to the spelled vowels and the sounds they can represent.  For an overview sorted by sounds with recordings of each vowel sound, read more here.

Letter


A



A


A



A



A



E



E



E




I


I

I




O


O


O

O


O



U


U



U



IPA
symbol


/eɪ/


/æ/

/ɔ/


/a/


/ʌ, ə/



/i/


/ɛ/


/ʌ, ə/



/ɪ/


/aɪ/


/ʌ, ə/



/o/


/aʊ/


/oɪ/

/u/


/ʌ, ə/



/u/


/ʊ/



/ʌ, ə/



SMART vowel name

vowel ay



vowel a

vowel aw



vowel ah



vowel schwa



vowel ee



vowel eh


vowel schwa



vowel ɪ


diphthong aɪ


vowel schwa



vowel o


diphthong ow


diphthong oy

vowel oo


vowel schwa



vowel oo


vowel U




vowel schwa




spelling


a, ai, eigh, aigh, ay, ea, ey

a

a, aw, au, augh, ough


o, a,


a, e, i, o, u, vowel combinations


ee, e, ea, y, ey, ie,i, ei

e, ea, ie, ai, a

a, e, i, o, u, vowel combinations


i, e, o, u, ui,


i, igh, y, eye, ie

a, e, i, o, u vowel combinations


o, oe, ow, ough, eau, ew

ow, ou


oy, oi

oo, ue, u, oe, ought, ui, o, ou

a, e, i, o, u, vowel combinations

oo, ue, u, oe, ought, ui, o, ou

oo, u, ou


a, e, i, o, u, most other vowel combinations




sample words


agent, able, ate, aim, name, same, wait, eight, straight, may, break, they

after, at, answer, and, apple, that, sat, nap, bad


awe, awesome, awning, author, audit, ball, straw, taut, taught, bought

father, water, hot, not


about, across, again, ability Canada - company - organize - relative, extra, pizza, agenda


see, me, seat, baby, key, brief, ski, receive



met, bed, went, men, get, ten, when,  bread, friend, said, again, many


agency - camera - concentrate - enemy, quiet, secret


is, if, it, with, him,  below, delete, women, business, build

I, ice, iPod, bite, nice, might, type, eye, pie


participate, indicate, family - Philippines - policy



no, toe, low, although, beau, sew


ow, now, how, wow, out, about, count, amount, house, around, found

toy, boy, annoy, employ, coin, choice, avoid, voice, noise
spoon, mood, boot, shoe, through, fruit, who, group

blood, customer - ignorant - introduce



blue, flute, through, fruit, suit, route, group


bush, look, good, could, would



us, up, under, much, such, truck, circumstance - measurement - Portugal



2 Comments
Paulina
2/8/2017 08:36:31 am

When do you pronounce the article "A" as (ah) and when as (ay)?

Reply
Christine Dunbar link
2/8/2017 09:01:04 am

Hi Paulina,
The article "a" is always pronounced as vowel schwa /ə/ in American English. It sounds like "uh." I posted a video from my SMART Course about saying this word for you: http://www.speechmodification.com/online-practice-free-trial/how-to-pronounce-the-article-a-in-american-english

You can see more videos like this with a subscription, available on the store page.
Christine

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