Have you ever noticed that we pronounce a in many different ways in English? There are many different English accents and dialects around the world. In this activity, we are focusing on mainstream, North American pronunciation.
One of the challenges that English learners face is that the way words are written often doesn’t help us to know how they are pronounced. The letter a is an example of this. Listen to five different pronunciations, and then read the words.
Let’s take a look at each of the sounds.
The long a sounds like the name of the letter a. Try saying the sentence:
Name the change that came.
To form the short a sound, open your mouth and relax your tongue. Try saying the sentence:
The man began last.
This is the ‘ah’ sound that doctors ask patients to make when they are looking in their mouths. Drop your jaw, and round your tongue. Try the sentence:
The law starts in autumn.
Open your mouth slightly and keep your tongue relaxed to make this sound. It sounds like the pronunciation of e in Spanish. Can you pronounce the sentence correctly?
We rarely laugh in the town square.
This sound is called the schwa, and it is pronounced ‘uh’. It is the most common sound in English! The schwa sound can be represented by each one of the vowels.
fountain
elephant
sister
station
support
syringe
Canadian
assistant
student
Check out this schwa exercise by Pronunciation Studio.
Try the quiz!
Can you put the words in the correct columns?
