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  • In this American English pronunciation

  • video, we're going to learn how to

  • pronounce the AH as in FATHER vowel.

  • This vowel needs a lot of jaw drop. Ah.

  • The tongue tip lightly touches behind

  • the bottom front teeth, and the back

  • part of the tongue presses down a little bit.

  • Ah. The lips are neutral, very relaxed.

  • Ah. Because the tongue presses down

  • in the back, you can see further into the

  • dark space in the mouth. Let's see

  • that by watching this vowel up close

  • and in slow motion.

  • The lips are relaxed, and the tongue is

  • lowered in the back. The inside of the

  • mouth is dark.

  • The word 'job'. The jaw drops, and the

  • tongue presses down in the back.

  • Ah. When this vowel is in a stressed

  • syllable, the voice will go up and come

  • down in pitch, ah, job, ah. When it's in

  • an unstressed syllable, it won't be as

  • long, and it won't have the up-down

  • shape of the voice, ah, ah. For example,

  • in the word 'blockade', ah, ah, blockade.

  • The mouth position looks the same: jaw

  • drop, relaxed lips, and tongue pressed

  • slightly down in the back. But because

  • the pitch is flatter and the syllable is

  • quicker, it sounds unstressed. Ah, ah.

  • Stressed AH: job, AH.

  • Unstressed ah: blockade, ah.

  • AH, ah. AH, ah.

  • Example words. Repeat with me:

  • Honest, occupation, hot, clock, October, soft.

In this American English pronunciation

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