Many people mispronounce the word says. Even though we have vowel ay /eɪ/ in the word say, says has vowel ɛ. This is the vowel in our anchor phrase red tent. Says rhymes with fez and rez. Also make sure you use a /z/ sound on the end of the word. Say "sez" /sɛz/, not "s-ay-s" /ses/. For more help with vowel /ɛ/, go to our practice for vowel /ɛ/. https://www.speechmodification.com/online-practice-free-trial/how-to-pronounce-vowel-eh For more help with final /z/ sounds, check out our practice for final /z/. https://www.speechmodification.com/online-practice-free-trial/smart-video-course-final-z For more everyday mistakes, see our YouTube playlist and our Quick Fix Practice.
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In American English, we have 15 vowel sounds but only 5 letters which we call vowels. The way we spell the 15 sounds is not consistent (read more about this here). But there are some simple rules that can help you know what vowel is in a word. In stressed syllables, there are patterns for how vowel sounds are represented. When you are not sure what vowel is in word, the best method is to use a dictionary which uses IPA symbols to represent the vowels. Try these recommended online dictionaries: http://www.learnersdictionary.com/help/ipa https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ In the stressed syllable of a word, if there is only one vowel letter (a, e, i, o, u), the vowel sound is usually the sound listed in the chart below. For more help with American vowels, check out our Vowels Playlist on our Videos page. When the stressed syllable of the word has 2 vowels, they usually say the vowel sounds listed in the chart below. In today's lesson, we reviewed the American English vowels. I suggested learning "anchor words," or words to help you remember the vowel sounds and have a basis for comparison for new words. You can look up any word in the dictionary and see the IPA symbol to know what the vowel is. I recommend the Oxford Learner's Dictionary.
You might find it helpful to use these similar and minimal pair words to listen for the differences between vowels. Look at the vowel quadrangle below and listen to the recording of these words.
The letters "oo" can represent several different vowel sounds. This letter combination is most commonly used for vowel /u/. Next most common is vowel /ʊ/. Below find a list of the most frequently used words with "oo." Since the most frequent accent error pattern for these sounds is to use /u/ instead of /ʊ/, I recommend learning the words with /ʊ/. Note that several of these words serve as suffixes in longer words (for example: hood - neighborhood, adulthood; wood - firewood, deadwood; etc.).
Use the recording and list below to test your listening - can you tell which vowel sound is in the word? Consider writing the words with IPA symbols in place of "oo." Check your work with the lists above.
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