Name: Learn to Pronounce the Short a Sound /æ/ American English Ultimate Pronunciation Master Class
Uploaded: 2025-09-03T18:28:18.000Z
Duration: 11 min 15 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

To-infinitive

Hi everybody Jennifer from Charles speech we are continuing with our pronunciation series master class today, we have the short a sound so I am posting a lesson each week on each sound in American English and then for the rest of the week I post follow-along practice that is a little bit older It's a blast from the past for sure if you would like to have all of those lessons in one place You can check out the iTunes store.

I have Video guides posted there with all of the follow-along practice.

Modal verbs - A2

I also have audio guides, too So be sure to check the description so you get the correct items if you want an audio guide on a different platform I have them available on teachers pay teachers You don't have to be a teacher and I also have them available on the Google Play Store as well so the phonetic symbol for the short a sound is this symbol here if you were listening to this on a podcast and you want to see the Presentation, please head on over to YouTube Act oral speech and you can see the presentation as I go through the lesson You're new here.

This is I am going to present Some ways to know how to read this sound if you're looking at the words We're going to talk about how do you make the sound and then do some practice and then you'll be on Your way.

So let's talk about spelling first I do want to say that when I teach these classes about long versus short vowels in English I am using how we talk about these sounds for children in school When they are reading so this short a sound is one of the sounds that children learn first when they're learning to read in American schools, so if you have children who are learning how to read this will all make sense to you I'm going to start off with the reading and the spelling and I do want to mention that my first spelling pattern is an Extreme exception.

I can't think of another example of this spelling pattern for a short vowel So just keep that in mind Okay, so here is the spelling pattern It is the a a consonant and then an e if you've been watching all of my classes You know, this is a long vowel pattern and what that means is when we see this silent e on A word you're going to say the letter name of that letter vowel That is the long sound and then we are going to not say the e but in this case it is an exception and we are going to make the short a sound and have Another spelling this is the most common is in these short three-letter words It is going to be the short a cat we also have a few more exceptions that a I and plaid a U in Laugh and then an a L and calf where we will not say the L.

That is just a silent letter okay, so How do we?

Say this sound it's always easiest if you can just try to imitate what I'm doing.

Ah ah ah Ah, okay, you give it a try All right, most people will be able to get it it feels kind of weird because this is a very Open sound in English and a lot of my students from language backgrounds where your mouth stays Relatively closed because you have very few vowels This is a really wide open sound So what are we doing?

So what you're doing is your mouth is open in a wide circle The tongue is in the back and the tip of the tongue will be low ah You can see my tongue is kind of taking up the entire back of my mouth The tip is low and my mouth is wide.

Ah Ah ah okay, so Few things make sure that your mouth is open in a round Circle you do not want to just drop the jaw if you just drop the jaw and you don't pull back your mouth it's going to sound like an ah instead of an ah Stay tuned in a few weeks.

Oh sound which is the ah and it's oftentimes confused with this short a sound which is the Ad this is such an American sound we hear this in Fantastic as we use it twice.

All right, so let's go ahead and Do some practice.

So the way I'm going to do this is I'm going to Read these words and I want you to listen and then I'm going to have you repeat after me again if you're listening to this on a podcast head over to YouTube at Tarle speech and you can see all of the words.

Just listen ask Answer Action Absent Advertise Hat class Laugh Standard thankful and Be thankful this sound does not occur at the end of a word ever we never use it there So you don't have to practice it only at the beginning and in the middle So that's why this week.

I will only be posting three follow-along lessons beginning middle Sentences so on Sunday, I will have a short for you.

Okay Now I'm going to say each word and then you give it a try ask Answer Action Absent Advertise That Class Laugh Standard Thankful Okay, now I'm going to say each column And I want you to repeat again if you need to see the words head over to YouTube ask answer action absent advertise Hat class laugh standard thankful You Okay, how did you do I hope you did very very well just remember Super wide open mouth that is going to help a lot Okay.

Now let's try some sentences Again just listen as it stands Stan is still the lab manager And Thanksgiving Day in the US is a day to eat more than average and to give Thanks Right Repeat after me as it stands Stan is still the lab manager As it stands Stan is still The lab manager As it stands Stan is still the lab manager As it stands Stan is still the lab manager As it stands Stan is still the lab manager Sentence number two Thanksgiving Day In the US is a day To eat more than average and to give thanks Thanksgiving Day in the US is a day to eat more than Average and to give thanks Thanksgiving Day in the US is a day to eat more than average and to give thanks Thanksgiving Day in the US is a day to eat more than average and to give thanks Everybody you did it awesome job.

We've finished the class for these short a sound Again, please join me tomorrow and I will be posting a follow-up Lesson repeat after me to practice the short a sound and I will also be posting The middle of words and sentences this week.

So please join me this week and Every day this year as I celebrate 20 years in business.

Yes, that is correct 20 years when posting a lesson every day to celebrate and to say thanks to all of you for being so amazing And for sticking with me for these 20 years.