#42: review of long and short vowels, long a and short a
Video lesson for a review of what "long" and"short" vowels are, and learn the pronunciation and common spellings for long a and short a . Transcript
Hi everyone, and welcome to Seattle Learning Academy's 42nd American English Pronunciation podcast, and our very first video podcast. My name is Mandy. This podcast was written with video in mind, so seeing the examples of what you are hearing about is ideal, but I did write it so that if you can only listen to it, you won't miss any of the information. This video and its transcripts are both available online at Pronuncian.com.
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Click the "Join Pronuncian" link on the right side of the Pronuncian home page to see our plans! Now let's watch a portion of the first video lesson. This lesson teaches about long and short vowels, and specifically the long a and short a. Subscribers to Pronuncian will have access to the entire lesson, which also includes an introduction to sound and how vowels are pronounced differently than consonants.
I hope you enjoy it.
For lesson 1 and 2, we will only talk about long and short vowels.
It is very important to note, right from the beginning, that the words "long" and "short" do not describe the amount of time we say the vowel sounds. Some short vowel sounds take just as much time to say as long vowels.
So what is the difference between long and short vowels?
Well, when it comes to pronunciation, they are very different. But if you are thinking about spelling, they can be very similar, and sometimes exactly the same. All of the long and short vowels will be taught in depth throughout the first few video lessons.
Long vowel sounds are usually easier to identify because they sound like the vowel letter names, a , e , i , o , and u .
Here is a brief preview of the long vowel sounds.
The long a sounds like ( long a ).
It is the vowel sound in the word cake . The long e sounds like ( long e ) and is the vowel sound in the word keep . The long i sounds like ( long i ) and is the vowel sound in the word bike . The long o sounds like ( long o ) and is the vowel sound in the word home . The long u sounds like ( long u ) and is the vowel sound in the word cute .
Short vowel sounds are not as easy to identify by sound as long vowels are.
It is often the spelling that offers the first clue to a short vowel sound. Just like long vowels, there is a short vowel sound corresponding to each vowel letter.
Here is a brief preview of the short vowel sounds.
The short a sounds like ( short a ).
It is the vowel sound in the word cat . The short e sounds like ( short e ) and is the vowel sound in the word bed . The short i sounds like ( short i ) and is the vowel sound in the word sit . The short o sounds like ( short o ) and is the vowel sound in the word top . The short u sounds like ( short u ) and is the vowel sound in the word sun .
Before I get into specific sound pronunciations, I want you to explore the inside of your mouth with your tongue.
Notice how much your tongue can move. It can move up and down, and forward and backward. You can curl your tongue by moving the tip toward the back of your mouth, and you can also curl the sides up toward the middle. Control of these muscle movements controls sound when we speak.
Now use your tongue to feel the top of your mouth.
Feel your front teeth, then move the tip of your tongue toward the back of your mouth. Feel the tooth ridge, the part of your mouth that slants up, right behind your top front teeth. Feel the flat part of the top of your mouth. This is called the hard palette. If you can, feel the very back of the top of your mouth. Can you feel the soft area in the back of your mouth? That is called the soft palette.
So, the words we will use to describe the inside of the mouth are:
teeth tooth ridge hard palette soft palette
We will also use specific vocabulary for the parts of the tongue as well.
The tip of the tongue is the very front. The main part of the tongue is the tongue blade. The front of the tongue blade is near the tip of the tongue. We also have the back of the tongue, which is where the tongue starts to bend down into the throat.
So, the words we will use to describe the tongue are:
tip front of tongue blade tongue blade back of tongue
All of these areas of your mouth, as well as your nose, lips, larynx, your jaw are important for creating sound.
Your larynx is what vibrates to help create most sounds. It is deep in your throat. Your jaw is the bone that moves to allow you to open and close your mouth.
This video lesson is going to compare the long a and short a pronunciation and spelling.
The long a sounds like ( long a ).
If you listen very carefully to the pronunciation of this sound, you will hear a very brief y sound at the end of it.
( long a ), ( long a ).
The long a is a two-sound vowel.
To create this sound, begin with your tongue in the middle of your mouth, not too low, not too high. Then the tongue moves up and forward so that the front of the tongue blade is very close to the tooth ridge. Listen to the sound again.
( long a ), ( long a )
The key word for the long a sound is cake .
Can you hear the long a sound ( long a ) in cake ?
Compare the long a ( long a ) with the sound of the short a ( short a ).
The key word for the short a is cat .
Can you hear the short a sound ( short a ) in cat ?
The short a sound is a sound that requires a lot of movement in the vocal tract.
First, the jaw opens up a little bit for this sound. Then the whole tongue gets pushed forward. Your lips should remain relaxed during this sound. Listen to the sound again.
( short a , short a
I'm going to say some minimal pairs for the long a and short a sound. The only difference in these words is the vowel sound. I'll say the word with the long a first, then the short a . These words take the same amount of time to say. The word with the long a should not take a longer amount of time than the word with the short a . Remember, the names long and short have nothing to do with how long we say the sound.
bake, back pain, pan jays, jazz eight, at
All four of the long a words in that set show a different a long a spelling.
Yes, there are four common spellings for the long a sound, and many more uncommon ones. This lesson will only cover the four common spellings.
The first word was bake , b-a-k-e.
The word bake demonstrates one of the most standard long vowel spelling rules: the vowel-consonant-e rule.
The vowel-consonant-e rule says that when a single vowel is followed by a single consonant, and then the letter e , the first vowel is said as a long vowel.
The letter e in the vowel-consonant-e rule is silent.
Our key word for long a is cake , c-a-k-e, the a is said as a long a , and the e is silent, cake.
I do not say cake-uh. I don't need to make any sound at all for the e at the end of the word. The only job of that e is to make sure I know that the a is long.
Here are some more examples of the vowel-consonant-e rule:
safe, s-a-f-e, the a is said as a long a, and the e is silent grade, g-r-a-d-e, the a is said as a long a, and the e is silent age, a-g-e, the a is said as a long a, and the e is silent
We will return to the vowel-consonant-e rule for all of the long vowel sounds in this lesson series.
Our next long a word is pain , p-a-i-n.
The word pain demonstrates another common long a spelling, the ai spelling. When we see the letter a and i together in a word, the word is usually said with a long a . Don't try to say two different vowel sounds just because there are two vowels written there. There is only one sound, the long a sound.
Here are some more examples of words with the long a sound because of the ai spelling:
rain, r-a-i-n aid, a-i-d sail, s-a-i-l
The third common spelling for the long a sound is the ay spelling.
You don't need to add any extra y sound to the ay spelling. Remember, the long a already has a y sound as part of its sound. There is no reason to say extra y sound .
Here are some more examples of words with the long a sound because of the ay spelling:
say, s-a-y play, p-l-a-y today, t-o-d-a-y
So far, this lesson has taught the three most common spellings for the long a sound, a-consonant-e , ai , and ay .
The fourth long a spelling is much less common that the first three; it is the - eigh spelling. The letters - gh can make vowel sounds do strange things, so we will study them in all their combinations throughout these lessons.
Here are some more examples of words with the long a sound because of the eigh spelling:
weigh, w-e-i-g-h sleigh, s-l-e-i-g-h neighbor, n-e-i-g-h-b-o-r
Those are the four most common spellings for the long a sound.
Let's review. a-consonant-e: bake ai: pain ay: jays eigh: eight
All of those spellings sound exactly the same, long a ( long a ).
Luckily, the short vowel spelling is much, much simpler.
There is only one rule to remember for the short a sound, the consonant-vowel-consonant , or CVC rule. When a single vowel is between two consonants, it is said as a short vowel sound. This rule is also true if the word begins with a single vowel, followed by a consonant. Don't forget, if the second consonant is followed by an e , the vowel-consonant-e rule takes over! All four of our words from the minimal pairs list we first listened to follow this rule.
Those words were:
back, b-a-c-k pan, p-a-n jazz, j-a-z-z at, a-t
Listen for the short a sound (short a) in each of those words.
back pan jazz at
Now that we know the how to pronounce and spell the long a and short a , let's practice. Hi again.
Hopefully you learned some new things about the long a and short a spelling and pronunciation from that video.
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