How to pronounce ‘A’ in English (It's not that easy!)

Hi everybody, welcome to www.engvid.com ; I'm  Adam. In today's video, we're going to look  

at some pronunciation work. Now, specifically  a student asked me or mentioned to me on - at  

www.engvid.com in the comments section. She  mentioned that it's very difficult for her  

to understand how to pronounce words with the  letter "A". So, I said I'd make a video because  

it's an interesting question. And the reason I  say that is because you will see that there are  

very different sounds all made with words  using the letter "A". And this is the problem  

with English. This is the problem with  learning how to pronounce things properly,  

because words are not spelled the way they sound  all the time. In fact, quite often, they're  

not spelled the way they sound. And spelling  doesn't actually help you with pronunciation.  

Most other languages - I think almost all  other languages, the way a word looks written  

is the same that it sounds. So, it's very easy  to study - well, not easy, but easier to study  

pronunciation of other languages. Here, on the  other hand, we're going to see some examples.  

All kinds of different spellings and all kinds  of different sounds using the letter A.  

So, for example, let's start with this one:  call, "ah". And if you're not sure what these  

blue things are, these are the phonetic  spellings. This is how the dictionary  

would show it to you according to something called  the IPA, international phonetic alphabet, which I  

highly recommend you download somewhere. Just go  to the internet, do a search: IPA downloadable,  

and get yourself a copy of the IPA. Always have  it with you, because you will need to study this  

alphabet to understand pronunciation. Having said that, if you go to any online  

dictionary, dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster,  etc. If you put in a word, they will show you  

the pronunciation spelling, plus you can hear  it. So, that's the best way to learn how to  

pronounce new words as you learn them. Anyway, let's go back to this example here:  

call. This is the IPA spelling for "ah, ah".  Now, the problem is there are different ways  

to get that sound, "ah". You could just  do a single a between two consonants,  

especially if they end in a double consonant. "au"  with a silent "gh" also sounds like "ah". Caught,  

caught. Swat, same idea, just to show you that  you don't have to have to have the double.  

There are no rules in English spelling. This  is the problem with English spelling.  

Swat, okay? Shot. Now, here obviously I'm not  using an A at all, so this is where it gets a  

little bit tricky, because - just because  you spelled it one way and got one sound  

doesn't mean there aren't other ways to get  that sound. You can get it with an O - fought,  

f-o-u-g-h-t. So, the "gh" again is silent.  But here, I had "au", "ah". Here, I have "ou",  

"ah". Here, you will see "au", "gh" is not  silent - draught. We'll get to that. Fought.  

Awe, just "aw", "aw", same sound, "aw".  So, all the different spellings all coming  

out with the same sound. Likewise, "cat", "aah". Now luckily,  

you're only going to this sound with an A,  so cat, draught. But A or "au", and again,  

there aren't many words that are spelled with  "augh" that sound like "aah", but there is one,  

and there is one of cat, so there you go. This  is the symbol for it, "aah". "Ah", "aah".  

Next, we have "Eh", especially with  R. Care, air. Care, air. And - sorry,  

also pen. I knew there was another one.  Pen, it's the same sound, "Eh, Eh, Eh".  

And if you want, with an E, you can  also say "Err". To err is human,  

to forgive, divine. That's an expression. But  err means to make an error, to make a mistake.  

And if you forgive somebody for their mistakes,  you're holy, you're a good person. "Eh", air.  

With - the R, the I drops a little bit.  Air, air, right? Without the R, pen.  

Okay. That's it for now. Now, this word, I say it "arrow". I pronounce  

this like this. But the dictionary will tell  you to spell it like that, like "arrow". And  

different people say it different ways, so I  just put it in the middle. Both will be okay.  

Let's go around like a clock. So, Cairo, city  in Egypt, Cairo, -iro, "eye". Aisle, aisle,  

so this goes "ie" down into the next syllable.  Here, the S is silent. But, fly, fly. So, "eye,  

eye, eye". With an R, it's a little bit different,  but this is still the symbol for this sound, "eye,  

eye". The R or the consonant just lets you  drop into it. Cairo, aisle, right? You drop  

into the consonant. If there's no consonant,  just "eye" and then break it off. Cairo.  

So, this "eh", "eh". Case, so when you have  a, consonant, e, generally it will be "eh",  

but not always. Pain, "ai", "eh". Different from  this I, same spelling "eh". Same spelling "Eh".  

So, this is very confusing, right? So again,  you have to work hard to do pronunciation.  

Study the phonetics, practice here, practice,  practice, practice. It's a lot of repetition.  

Here: alien, not "Al-ein", alien. Only the "eh",  no I, no other sound, but we still have the same  

sound in this particular case. Alien.  Sometimes you have a prefix, like atypical,  

amoral, same A sound. But you can also do it with an "ay", play,  

play. Now, you can also do it with an "ea",  break, break, "eh". You can do it with - this  

is a bit of a special. You don't really  have too many words like this, but quaint,  

quaint. The W goes into the same "eh" sound. But  you don't have to use an A. Rein, rein. Ballet.  

I'm not looking at the A, I'm looking at the E  here. Again, this is not really an English word,  

it's a French word, but we use it in English.  Ballet. Ballet. Silent T. All "eh" sound.  

Next, now this is a very interesting  word, quay. It looks like "quway", but  

it's actually - it looks like this a little bit.  We actually pronounce this word "key". Now, if  

you're an English learner and you've never heard  anyone say this word while you're looking at it,  

you will never imagine "key". You will say "queh"  or "quwhy". But the way we say it is actually  

"key". This is the sound "e". Now, you can also  obviously get double e, bee. E - key. Quay and  

key, same sound. Or you can just use an I, ski.  So, four different ways to spell the same sound.  

Okay, and we already did these ones. So, what is the message here? The message here is,  

as you're learning new words, you should have a  good idea of the IPA. Now, it's learning a new  

alphabet, but if you want to sound like a native  speaker and pronounce words like a native speaker,  

you're going to have to put in the work.  You're going to have to learn the IPA,  

you're going to have type words into an online  dictionary, press the "record" button and hear  

it and say it and hear it and say it and repeat,  repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. That's the only  

way to work on pronunciation. Nobody can teach  you how to do it. They can show you, but then  

you just have to work hard and take the time and  have the patience to improve, improve, improve.  

Also, don't forget, you have a recorder on your  phone or you can find a recorder somewhere else.  

Listen to the dictionary say it for you and then  repeat and record yourself. And then compare,  

did you say it like the computer said it? You  should be able to hear the same thing and then  

you know you're saying it properly, okay? Again, not much else to that. I will - I did  

put a quiz at www.engvid.com . Basically,  it's just comparing the phonetic alphabet  

to different words. So, you're going to have to do  a little bit of research to be able to answer the  

quiz, but not too difficult anyway. You  should go to www.engvid.com and take the quiz  

and see that you understand  all the pronunciation stuff.  

Also, if you have any questions, you can ask  me in the comment section at www.engvid.com  

and that's it. I hope you liked the video. Give  me a like if you did. Don't forget to subscribe  

to my channel, ring the bell for notifications  so you know when new videos are coming out.  

And I'll see you again soon. I'll have some more  useful lessons for you then. Bye-bye.