American English Pronunciation Practice: Short and Long "A" Sounds

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.

We can talk together like this through these videos.

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And there is no quiz for this one because it is a pronunciation video, but you can check

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Til next time, thanks for clicking, and see you guys later.

Bye-bye.