Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Water.

  • Love it.

  • Hey, everyone. I'm Alex.

  • Thanks for clicking and welcome to this pronunciation lesson on the short "a"

  • and the long or wide "a" sounds in English.

  • In this lesson, first I'm going to go sound by sound and give you a bunch of words that

  • have the short "a" sound, as well as some sentences that use the short "a" sound.

  • Second, I'm going to give you some words that have the long "a" sound or wide "a" sound,

  • and some sentences that use them.

  • And then finally, we're going to mix them all up and it's going to be a lot of fun.

  • So, when you are doing pronunciation, it can be a little bit ridiculous when you're practicing

  • because you are going to be asked in this video to exaggerate a little bit.

  • And honestly, the exaggeration is necessary if you really, really want to perfect, you

  • know, your English pronunciation, as well as have some fun with it.

  • And also you should know that my English is a Canadian English/Americanish English for

  • this pronunciation lesson.

  • So if you are looking for British pronunciation, this maybe isn't the video.

  • But if you're interested in Canadian/American pronunciation...

  • Yes, I know that there's a difference, don't kill me, to some degree, but here's what we're going to do.

  • So, first we have the short "a" sound.

  • And for this I drew a picture of the mouth.

  • In this sound your tongue is low, in the low position.

  • For both sounds, actually, it's in the low position, and your mouth is only open a little bit.

  • So your mouth makes this sound: "ah", "ah", "ah".

  • Now, let's look at some words.

  • And I just want you guys to repeat the words after me.

  • We'll do it a little quickly.

  • Okay?

  • So, please repeat after me:

  • "cut", "hut", "buddy", "cup",

  • "nut", "shut", "putt", "gut",

  • "cousin", "does", "was",

  • "nothing", "sun".

  • Okay, so you should hear that "ah", "ah", "ah" sound in all of these words.

  • So, just to practice one more time let's go through the list one more time.

  • This is going to help you, I promise.

  • Just follow me for a few minutes here.

  • "Cut", "hut", "buddy", "cup", "nut", "shut",

  • "putt", "gut", "cousin", "does",

  • "was", "nothing", "sun".

  • Okay, good.

  • Now let's look at some sentences with this sound.

  • So here we have three-one, two, three-sentences that use the short "a" sound.

  • So I'm going to say all three first, and after I'm going to go one by one by one, and I want

  • you to try to say them and repeat them after me.

  • So the first one is: "Buffy loves Sundays."

  • The second one is: "My mother won some money."

  • The third one is: "Some of the rugs are dusty."

  • All right, now let's try them one by one.

  • Listen and repeat them after me.

  • We'll go word by word.

  • "Buffy", "loves", "Sundays".

  • One more time, complete sentence: "Buffy loves Sundays."

  • All right, let's try the second one.

  • "My mother", "won", "some", "money".

  • Okay, complete sentence: "My mother won some money."

  • All right?

  • And the third one:

  • "Some", "of", "the rugs", "are dusty".

  • All right, complete sentence: "Some of the rugs are dusty."

  • Did you say it?

  • All right. Good.

  • Now, let's look at the long or wide "a" sound.

  • We're going to do the same routine, so first this sound your mouth is wide open.

  • "Aah".

  • Imagine you are going to the dentist.

  • Okay?

  • And it's a long sound.

  • Your tongue is still low, in the low position, but your mouth is more open.

  • So just try it one more time, like you're at the dentist: "aah".

  • All right, let's do the words now.

  • Repeat after me.

  • "Caught", "hot", "body",

  • "cop", "not/knot",

  • "shot", "pot", "got",

  • "coffee", "doctor", "a lot",

  • "honest", "knowledge".

  • All right, and just like before let's go through them one more time.

  • From the top: "caught", "hot", "body", "cop",

  • "not/knot", "shot", "pot", "got", "coffee",

  • "doctor", "a lot", "honest", "knowledge".

  • Okay, very good.

  • Now, just like before, let's look at three sentences.

  • And I will read all three first.

  • One: "Rob stopped shopping."

  • Two: "John got a job."

  • Three: "It's obviously not!"

  • Okay?

  • So now let's do, like before, one by one.

  • You guys repeat the words after me.

  • "Rob", "stopped", "shopping".

  • All right?

  • Now faster: "Rob stopped shopping."

  • Okay.

  • Second sentence:

  • "John", "got", "a job".

  • Okay, complete sentence: "John got a job."

  • All right, very good.

  • And the third one:

  • "It's obviously", "not".

  • Okay, complete sentence a little faster:

  • "It's obviously not!"

  • All right.

  • Nice job, guys.

  • Now let's mix and match them a little bit.

  • So what I'm going to do, you see the chart I made at the start of the video here.

  • There are some words where it's only this vowel sound that is different and the word changes.

  • So let's go from the top.

  • Repeat after me and see if you can spot the difference:

  • "cut", "caught",

  • "hut", "hot",

  • "buddy", "body",

  • "cup", "cop",

  • "nut", "not/knot",

  • "shut", "shot",

  • "putt", "pot",

  • "gut", "got".

  • Okay.

  • It's a little tough, but the more you practice it, the more you hear these sounds, the more

  • you try to exaggerate when you're doing them, the better you will be.

  • Now, chaos.

  • Things are going to get crazy.

  • We are going to mix all the sounds together to make some, you know, real sentences because

  • you can say: "Buffy loves Sundays", but most people use a variety of vowel sounds when

  • they speak in their sentences.

  • So let's look at some sentences that use both of these sounds.

  • Number one, not even a sentence really, but a noun phrase:

  • "A hot cup of coffee."

  • Okay?

  • I'm going to say them all first, so just follow me.

  • "Stop coming here.",

  • "My cousin was a doctor.",

  • "An honest cop.",

  • "Come on!"

  • All right, so just like before let us go through each of these sentences

  • and phrases one by one.

  • "A hot", "cup", "of coffee".

  • Okay, now just be ridiculous: "coffee", "coffee".

  • Okay, good.

  • Next one.

  • Oh, and let's say it faster first.

  • Before I let you off the hook, let's say this one faster:

  • "A hot cup of coffee."

  • All right?

  • Second one:

  • "Stop", "coming", "here".

  • "Here", obviously, doesn't use these sounds.

  • It's a different sound, but say it faster:

  • "Stop coming here."

  • Excellent.

  • Next, repeat after me:

  • "My cousin", "was", "a doctor".

  • And the whole thing:

  • "My cousin was a doctor."

  • All right? Next, I'm just going to...

  • This one is very short.

  • The last two are very short, so we'll just say them one time.

  • Repeat after me:

  • "An honest cop."

  • One more time: "An honest cop."

  • All right?

  • And the last one:

  • "Come on!"

  • One more time, like imagine someone is telling you a story, you don't believe it:

  • "Come on!"

  • Beautiful.

  • Okay.

  • So, whew, long lesson. Huh, guys?

  • I hope you enjoyed it.

  • The best way to benefit from a lesson like this is to go back, watch it again, listen

  • to the individual sounds, and practice, practice, practice.

  • If you want to improve your English on your own at home and you don't have anyone to speak

  • with, I can be your buddy, I can be your friend.