How to Pronounce American English Vowel Sounds

One aspect all accents share is a tendency to make errors when pronouncing American English vowels.  The patterns of pronunciation are influenced by the vowel system in your native language.  Vowels are especially difficult due to the fact that the letters we use to represent vowel sounds are inconsistent and do not provide us with a means for describing the sounds.

A useful way to gain understanding of American English vowels is to look at how they are formed in the mouth.  The position of the tongue, both front-to-back and high-to-low, is the primary factor in vowel shaping.  In addition, we use rounded or non-rounded lips, and tense or lax lip and facial muscles.  The chart below shows these elements for each of the vowel sounds.  Click on the symbols to hear the vowel sounds.

In the top left corner of the chart, we find /i/, or "Vowel ee," as in eat.  This vowel has tense lips, a high front tongue and no lip rounding.  Notice that /ɪ/, "Vowel ɪ," as in it, also has a high front tongue, but is slightly lower and further back than vowel ee.  The lips and face are more relaxed (less of a smile) for this sound.  Because they are made in a similar way and sound similar, many people substitute vowel ee for vowel ɪ.  Their native language may not contain vowel ɪ, and vowel ee is the closest vowel.  You can read more about producing these two sounds here, and watch a video. You can practice words with these sounds using free online audio recordings here.

The diagram above uses IPA symbols to represent the sounds.  This website uses a combination of IPA symbols and our own naming system for the vowel sounds.  Below is a list of the vowels, their IPA symbol and name, and example words and spellings.  Click on the IPA symbol or vowel name to hear the vowel sound and a sample word. For more examples of common words with these vowels and recordings to practice, check out our online courses.

/IPA symbol

/i/

/ɪ/

/eɪ/

/ɛ/

/æ/

/ʌ, ə/

/u/

/ʊ/

/o/

/ɔ/

/ɑ/

/ə˞/

Vowel Name


vowel ee

vowel ɪ

vowel ay

vowel eh


vowel a

vowel schwa

vowel oo

vowel U

vowel o

vowel aw

vowel ah

Vowel er

Spelling


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

i, o, u, ui, y

a, eigh, aigh, ay, et, ei, au, ea, ey

e, ea, ie, ai, a, eo


a, ai

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

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

oo, u, ou, o

o, oe, ow, ough, eau, ew

a, aw, au, augh, ough

o, a,

er, or, ur, ear

Sample Words

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

is, women, business, build, hymn

name, eight, straight, may, bouquet, vein, gauge, break, they
met, bread, friend, said, many, leopard

that, plaid

about, below, participate, money, us

spoon, blue, flute, shoe, through, fruit, who, group
good, bush, would, wolf

no, toe, low, although, beau, sew

ball, straw, taut, taught, bought

not, father

her, word, turn, earn

In addition to these single vowel sounds, or monophthongs, we also slide from one vowel to the next in some words.  These 2-vowel slides are called diphthongs, and are represented in the graphic below by the arrows pointing from the first vowel in the slide to the second.  Also included here are words with each of the vowels.  You can listen to these vowels below.

Single vowel sound words

Diphthongs