Vowels! (Part Two)┃Learn American English Pronunciation On the Go

Rachel: You're listening to the Rachel's English podcast.  

I'm so glad to have you here. Today is a continuation. It is part two  

in a series on vowels. If you haven't listened to part one, you might want to do that, it's a good  

place to start. If you'd like a transcript for  this podcast, it's absolutely free to download.  

Please visit RachelsEnglish.com/podcast  and look for this episode.  

Okay, I'm here with my husband David, we're discussing the vowels of American English. Last  

week, we did the first five vowels in my list.  We did the ‘aw’ as in father, ‘aw’ as in law,  

‘aa’ as in bat, ‘ee’ as in she, and ‘ih’ as  in sit. American English has 11 vowels. So,  

we've got 6 more to get through  today. David, are you up for that?

David: I'm up for it, let's do it.

Rachel: Let's do it. So, in the last episode, I asked,

if you could come up with all of the  different vowel sounds in English,  

which you couldn't, not surprising. But  one of the ones that you did come up with,  

was the ‘eh’ vowel like in bed. And I forget what word you came up with for it. But I think that it  

was spelled with an E. Now, you know, after working through that first podcast that the  

sounds in American English do not correspond with the letters in a meaningful way.

David: Right.

Rachel: So this ‘eh’ sound can actually  be spelled 8 different ways.

David: Wow.

Rachel: We can spell it with just a letter ‘e’  like in bed. We can spell it with ‘A,  

Y’ letters like in “says”. That one, I think,  is really interesting. We have the word ‘say’,  

what do you say? You say, S-A-Y pronounced with the ‘ay’ diphthong. But then, when you say,  

“he says” and you add the “y”, then we  change the, sorry, when you add the “s”,  

“says”, we somehow end up changing  the vowel to the “eh” sound.

David: Yeah. I'm shaking my head,  and that is so crazy.

Rachel: And actually, that's a pretty common mistake people will say “say”

and then we'll say “says”.  

They'll mispronounce this word, but it's actually says, S-A-Y-S, he says, she says. Now the past  

tense, “said”, he said, she said, same vowel, different spelling now. Now instead of ‘a-y’  

it's ‘a-i’. So, that's another spelling for this  sound. ‘e-a’, like in the word “head”, spelled  

this way or pronounced this way; ‘i-e’ like the word “friend”; ‘eo’ like the word “leopard”. So,  

‘eo’ is not a very common combination, but in the first episode, we learned that it makes the  

e sound like in “people”. And here, we're learning it can also make the “eh” sound like in “leopard”.  

The word “share”, now, this is a little bit  different, because it's followed by an R  

consonant which does color the vowel a little bit.  “Share”, but it is considered the “eh” vowel.

David: That sounds precariously close to a diphthong.

Rachel: Diphthong.

David: Diphthong.

Rachel: Well, that is because of the R sound. It changes the vowel a little bit. Share,  

-are, -are, -are. I actually say that it's  more like the “a” diphthong like in “say”,  

“share”. But it's also not a hundred percent that.

David: Well, you're right, that  doesn't sound quite right.

Rachel: No, not quite right, but it's certainly not a pure ‘eh’, but if you were going to look up the  

word “share”, in the International  Phonetic Alphabet in a dictionary,  

that tells the phonetic spelling, it would say this vowel, it would say ‘eh’. The word ‘bury’,  

B-U-R-Y, another case where it's followed by the ‘R’ so it's not quite pure, but if you  

were going to look this up in a dictionary, it  would say ‘eh’ the letter “u” making “eh”.

David: And a regional thing, too is that  a lot of people say “bury”.

Rachel: Yeah. Yeah, you're right. It might even be.

David: I don't know if it's a lot, I know people in the

region that I grew up with might say that.

Rachel: Well, it might even be considered a secondary pronunciation.

You might even see it in the dictionary,  

I'm not sure. And I agree these example words with an ‘R’, like, I only included  

them, because I couldn't find an example word without an R, the R does change things a little  

bit. And guys, if you're curious about that, I  do have a pretty awesome YouTube video that goes  

over how the R can change the vowels. I will link to that in the show notes for this episode on my  

website. Okay, two more words because I like to have a total of 10. With the ‘eh’ sound are “bed”,  

I'm sorry, I already did that one. “Best”,  “best”, and can you read one, David?

David: Check.

Rachel: Check. That's right. Okay, let's move on to another vowel. How about the ‘ur’ vowel?

David: All right.

Rachel: Okay, this is weird.

This one is weird, guys. So, this is different from British English. If you  

looked up this sound, a word in British English like the word girl, it would have this sound,  

but we do not pronounce it that way in American English. If you look up the phonetics and  

you see a sound, it should be the same no  matter what language you're talking about, 

because that's the whole point of these phonetic symbols, one symbol, one sound. But Americans have  

done something with this sound. It's always followed by ‘R’ and we just combine them into  

one sound. Sometimes I call it an ‘R’ vowel. It's like the R consonant which mean it was a constant,  

but it is functioning as a vowel, like in the  word “bird”, wouldn't you say it's ‘B-er-d?

David: Versus what?

Rachel: Well, versus there being a more vowel sound that will sound separate from the R.

David: Yeah.

Rachel: So it's like an R vowel.

David: I see what you mean, yeah.

Rachel: Yeah, “bird”. The British pronunciation of this word is something like, bird. B-er-, with that

vowel. So, if American English has all of the same sounds plus R consonant, then you would think that  

it would be “bird”, “bird”. But it's not, we don't have that vowel sound before. It's just bird.

David: What are the other words? Burn.

Rachel: Burn.

David: Let's see, yeah.

Rachel: Same. I mean it's always followed by an ‘R’, it's always this ‘ur’ vowel

is basically the R. So, one last thing you have to learn if you know the R, 

then you've got this vowel. So, this vowel always followed by the R.  

It can be spelled IR like in bird,  

–OUR like in journey, –EAR like in learn.  –OR like in word and before I keep going,  

I just want to point out that a lot of  these words are some of the hardest words  

for non-native speakers. This sound is a real challenge. In the noun of the word chauffeur,  

it's spelled –EUR, it's spelled –UR in the word burn, it's spelled –YR in the word myrtle. So  

lots of different spellings, seven different  spellings for this sound. A couple other extremely  

tricky words with this sound, “earth”, that's so hard for non-native speakers. And you look at it  

and you see, EA and you think, “Oh, I need to make some sort of vowel here.”, but no, don't, just  

think R, “girl”, “girl” and “world” are two of the words that I get most requests for, I think.

David: Really?

Rachel: Yeah. No, why are you surprised?  They don't seem hard to you?

David: Right. But R’s and L’s are both  hard, so “girl” makes sense.

Rachel: Well, “world” also has the R and L.

David: Solid point.

Rachel: Yeah it's when this UR vowel is followed by the dark L

is when it gets really tricky. Curl, whirl, world,

girl ir-ll, ir-ll. Try that with me.

David: -IR, ll.

Rachel: mm-hmm, Girl.

David: Girl.

Rachel: Yeah.

A lot of people don't separate the  L sound, and I think it's good sometimes  

to practice it separate, gir-l. And even though it's a one-syllable word, I think that it helps  

people to think of it as being two syllables.  Gir-l, girl, girl. World, wor-ld, world.  

So, I don't know, for those of you listening  out there, maybe that's helping. Okay,  

one thing I want it to do is, I know how I  tell students how to make this sound. David,  

as a native speaker who's never thought  about it, if you were somewhere where  

someone was asking you, “Hey, how do  you make that sound? Ur, I can't figure  

it out.” What would you say? How would you describe how you're making that sound?

David: Rounded mouth.

Rachel: What else?

David: The tongue is going out to the  side, like touching it…

Rachel: Whoa, never heard this. What  is your tongue doing?

David: Touching the side.

Rachel: Okay. The tongue is touching the sides.

David: Yeah.

Rachel: You said going out to the side and I was picturing like sticking out of your  

mouth and turning a corner, R. Okay, so, you said rounded mouth by which I think you mean, lips.

David:

And tension in the soft palate, girl.

Rachel: Girl. Okay.

David: That's what I got.

Rachel: Okay. So, can you come back to the tongue and describe that one more  

time, now that I'm not picturing it  sticking out of your mouth?

David: Well, it’s rounded, it's like a little bit of the  

thing where you fold your tongue.  “Gir”, maybe not. I don't know.

Rachel: Yeah, right? It's so hard  describing this sound. It is  

so hard for non-native speakers  to figure this sound out.

David: Yeah.

Rachel: And the other thing that I think is  true, as I've been studying the sound is,  

I think there are two different ways that  native speakers make it. Some native speakers  

make it by taking the tip of the tongue and  curling it up –ER, is that how you do it?

David: Gir-l.

Rachel: No, me neither. I do it by, like you said,

the tongue is touching the sides of the top  teeth. The insides of the top teeth.

David: Right. That's what I do.

Rachel: Yeah, and then the tip isn't touching anything. 

It just kind of pulls back a little bit. –ER.

David: Yes, that’s what I do. You're  really good at describing it.

Rachel: I've been trying for 10 years.

Yeah. But I've sometimes been describing how I make the R and  

I've heard native speakers say, “That's not  how I do it.” And then they describe curling  

the tongue. One time, I was teaching English at a little language school in Cambridge Massachusetts,  

and I was working with a girl from Korea. She was great, I loved her and we were working on the R,  

working on the R, kept not being right and  then all of a sudden she did something where  

it wasn't perfect, but it was starting  to have the right sound. And I was like,  

“what are you doing?” And she described that she was flipping the tip of her tongue up,  

she was curling it up. Which  does get a similar sound –ER.

David: [12:19 inaudible].

Rachel:

David just made an R sound that no one  in the world could hear. But the thing  

that I found with students when they do that is, it sometimes gets too hollow sounding,  

they drop their jaw too much. –ER and that doesn't sound quite right. It's a more focused sound,  

more in the front of the mouth, –ER.  So, that's why I like to tell people,  

“Lift the middle of your tongue. Let it touch  the insides of your side teeth on the top and  

then pull the tip back so it's not touching  anything.” And I also think a lot of people have  

a mental block with this sound, it's so hard, it's so different from what they're used to,  

that they think the tongue position must be really complicated. But it's actually not that different  

from the mouth at rest, it just lifts a little  bit, –ER. The tip just pulls back a little bit,  

it's not a huge movement. If anyone listening to this thinks they improved their ‘R’,  

I want to hear about it. Let's move on to the next sound, the “ooh” vowel like in “boo”.

David: Poop.

Rachel: Oh, no. I saw this look on his face and I didn't know what it meant but now I know that it meant,  

I'm going to say a dumb word in the podcast. “Poop”, that's right. The “ooh” vowel. Okay,  

so this one actually wins the prize for most spellings,  

Eleven different ways to spell this vowel.

David: Okay I want to go, I want to go.

Rachel: Okay.

David:

-OO as in loop.

Rachel: Yeah.

David: U as in flute.

Rachel: Yes.

David: UI as in fruit.

Rachel: Yes.

David: EW as in crew.

Rachel: Four.

David: IEU as in is the lieu.

Rachel: Wait, what?

David: The lieu is not an English word.

Rachel: Like, in lieu of?

David: Oh, in lieu of. The lieu  is bathroom somewhere.

Rachel: Yeah. In Britain, but it's  spelled “L-o-o”, I think.

David: Oh, well then, in lieu of.

Rachel: Yeah. Okay, good.

David: That’s what I meant.

Rachel: No. I hadn't even come up with that one.

David: The “queue”, like as an in the line.

Rachel: A line, ah-huh. Q-U-E-U-E.  You already said UE.

David: But isn't it EUE?

Rachel: Yeah. I guess you're right. EU, yeah, I guess  it's EUE. That's another one I didn't have.

David: Look at this.

Rachel: Oh my god, David's come up with two that I didn't have. This is incredibly embarrassing,  

I have to go update my website immediately. Okay, should I give you more?

David: Sure.

Rachel: Okay. Let's see, you didn't come  up with OE, like in shoe.

David: Ah, good one.

Rachel: Yeah. OUGH, like in through. OU, like in you. WO, like in two. That's the only word  

where there's a WO making the vowel that I know of. Also, EU like in sleuth but that's  

very related to queue. Actually, I want  to talk about OUGH like in through.

David: Yeah, how come those GH get to countless vowel,  

because in other words, they  might signify like “off".

Rachel: Like in cough. OUGH there, it's,  there's a consonant and a vowel.  

I don't know, David, I don't know how the  pronunciation of those letters evolved,  

but it is crazy town. Let me go  through how crazy town it is.

David: All right.

Rachel: I have actually a fun video,  I will link to that in the  

show notes that also goes over these  four letters. So, T-H-O-U-G-H.

David: Though.

Rachel: Though, right. So, there it's the Oh diphthong.  Put a T at the end, T-H-O-U-G-H-T.

David: Thought.

Rachel: Thought. So there, it's changed, it's  the OO vowel. Take away the ending T,  

put an R after the TH. T-H-R-O-U-G-H.

David: Through.

Rachel: Through. So now, OUGH has changed to the OO vowel. So, so far,  

we've had it being the O diphthong the OH vowel and the OO vowel. I'm, yeah, the OO vowel. So,  

three totally different pronunciations  for OUGH. What about B-O-U-G-H?

David: That's the bough of a ship?

Rachel: Actually, no. That's “Bow”. So,  it's pronounced the same way,  

but it's a different word. I always think  of bow, like from the Christmas song,  

“Hang a shining star upon the highest  bough.” like the bough of a tree.

David: I do not know that Christmas song.

Rachel: You don't know that? Isn't it, it's have yourself a merry little Christmas. Yeah,  

have yourself a merry little Christmas.  Actually, that really makes me want  

to listen to that song even though it  is July as we are recording this.

David: We're such an early holiday starter.

Rachel: I know, I know. I limit myself pretty well,  

though. I mean, I don't, I don't, if  I do listen to Christmas music early,  

I limit myself to like one or two  listenings, one or two times through.

David: Okay.

Rachel: Don't you think?

David: Well, sometimes you start  in September, though.

Rachel: But I'll only listen to it one or two times per month until after Thanksgiving.

David: Okay. I am chuckling because if  that's limiting yourself, I just  

can't imagine if you didn't limit yourself,  you just ran amok with Christmas music.

Rachel: You, guys, here's what I love. I love old jazz standard takes on Christmas songs,  

like Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald,  I love that kind of thing. Oh,  

man come December that is all I want playing in my house. Okay, but back to OUGH. So, BOUGH,  

bough. If you switch out the B and make it a C, is it cow? No, it is not. It is cough.

David: Impossible.

Rachel: So there OUGH has changed, now it's a vowel and a consonant. OUGH, off.  

If you drop the C and add EN, you have  E-N-O-U-G-H and it's enough. So we have an F,  

but we change the vowel cough, off enough, of. So,  

now it's the UH, as in butter vowel plus  F. How crazy are those four letters?

David: Yeah that's unbelievable.

Rachel: O-U-G-H, I think, is the best  example that I can think of,  

of how crazy English spelling is and English pronunciation. Okay, we have three more vowels  

to go over. The vowel in “push”. This is a  vowel you did not come up with in episode one,  

when I was trying to get you to think  of all the vowels you could think of.  

Push. It’s spelled four ways. It's spelled  with just a U like in push or sugar.

David: Okay.

Rachel: It's spelled with two O's and this is  the most common spelling. Like in “look”,  

it’s spelled O-U like in could, should, would,  all of those have a silent L. And it's spelled  

with a letter O like in woman. Woman and  women, these are two words that people are  

often asking me about. So, woman the stressed syllable is “uh” like in push and the plural,  

women it's “ih” like in sit. Okay, so, a few  other words with this vowel book, cookie.

David: Good, took.

Rachel: Pudding.

David: Pudding?

Rachel: Pudding. P-U-D-D-I-N-G.

David: Putting and pudding?

Rachel: Yeah it could also be…

David: The dessert?

Rachel: Yeah, it could be like, he's putting that on the grill with the T, the verb, “put”, he is  

putting would be pronounced the exact same way, whether it's a T or a D, pudding, putting.

David: What's he doing? He's putting  pudding on the table.

Rachel: He's putting pudding on the table. I like it, David. Fire wood, fire wood. Okay, how would you  

describe that vowel? Let's say, I'm totally new to English, trying to learn you're like, “This is  

the ninth vowel in Rachel's podcast, I'm going to teach you how to say it.” What would you say?

David: Uh.

Rachel: Yep. Push.

David: You mean, how to do it?

Rachel: Yeah, what's your mouth doing?

David: It starts closed. Push-push.  That's the P part.

Rachel: That's. This is so funny for me.

David: Rounded. Your lips shoot out. Push-push.

Rachel: Uh-huh. Yep, I say, flared.

David: Flare, flare.

Rachel: The quarters come in a little bit,  which then pushes the lips part out.  

I also sometimes think it's helpful  to think of trying to create a little  

space between your upper lip and your top teeth. Uh helps you bring that lip out a little bit.

David: Mm-hmm. Oh.

Rachel: Okay, great, David. We started with  the lips together, then he realized  

that was the P sound. So good. Okay,  two more vowels. Uh. You did come up  

with this one. You were trying to think  about this. “Butter”, “uh”. This one is  

what I call the core sound of American English. It's what we make when we're thinking. Uhhh,  

I don't know. I call it our thinking vowel and  I think that it, you know, when other languages,  

people make other sounds when they're  thinking. People might be like “eeee”.

David: Right.

Rachel: I mean, that's crazy. You think,  in your own language, your mouth,  

your mind goes to some core  sound for your own language.

David: That's interesting to think about.

Rachel: So, for American English, it's uh. And this is one of the hardest sounds for  

people to get. And I think it's because it  calls for essentially total relaxation. Uh,  

like your lips are totally relaxed, your jaw, your neck, your throat, your tongue, pretty much, too.  

And most people want to tense a little something up, which is why it ends up sounding like “ah”,  

like in “father”, because the tongue has some tension in it, but you got to try to let that go,  

uh. One time, when I was probably fourth or fifth grade, but maybe middle school, my mom and I were  

shooting hoops out in front of her house, we had  a basketball hoop, and she passed it to me real  

quick when I wasn't expecting and it like, totally hit me in the head, big-time, right in the face,  

actually. And I kind of blacked out a little bit. and I always think about that when I'm thinking  

about total relaxation and pronunciation. I always say, you know, think that you just got hit in  

the head with something and you're like a little woozy, a little dizzy, everything's hanging, like  

your jaws hanging, your lips are hanging, your cheeks are hanging, Uhh, basketball face, uh.

David: That's hard, because if someone's  struggling to make the sound,  

the impulse is to try harder.

Rachel: Yes. Trying is, like, one of the  worst things you can do sometimes.

David: Yeah, that's tough.

Rachel: It's tough. Okay, this word, this sound has five spellings. The letter O like in the  

word ‘above’. The letter U like in the word  ‘adjust’, OU like in ‘country’, A country,  

OE like in ‘does’. How does “does” get to  get spelled that way? It's so weird.

David: Yeah.

Rachel: It should be D-U-Z.

David: Duh.

Rachel: Duh? OO, like in ‘blood’.  

So, those are our five spellings, a few  other words with this sound, brother.

David: Month.

Rachel: Other.

David: Public.

Rachel: Rush. Okay, last vowel. This vowel gets its own name.

You know, for every other vowel I had to  

think of a word that I was going to call it by  like the “aa” as in bat or the “i” as in she,  

but this vowel actually has its own name, and it's the schwa.

David: Ahhh. The schwa.

Rachel: Have you ever heard me talk about the schwa?

David: Yeah.

Rachel: Yeah. What do you think the schwa is?

David: Something that you barely say.

Rachel: Okay, yeah. It's always unstressed. Mm-hmm, it's a very quick sound extremely relaxed,  

it's like the sound we were just talking about “butter”, but that sound “uh” can be stressed,  

a little more jaw drop. The schwa is always  unstressed and it's always said extremely fast,  

there's less jaw drop, it's like this, uh,  you got hit in the face with a basketball,  

your jaw drops just a little bit like about.

David: So, the schwa is specifically that “uh” sound. 

I thought it was all the quick little ones.

Rachel: Oh, no.

David: It's just uh.

Rachel: It's just uh.

David: Okay.

Rachel: Yeah that's the schwa. Now, there's something you have to keep in mind with the schwa. So,  

if you were to look up a word in a dictionary that has a schwa, you would see the symbol of an upside  

down e. So, that's the schwa, but you have to be careful with it, because if it's followed  

by one of four consonants, M, N, R or L, you're no longer making a schwa. Those four consonants  

are called syllabic consonants, they take over the syllable. They take over the schwa. So, if you see  

the schwa followed by one of those, you don't try to go ‘uh’, you just go right into the consonant.  

Mmm, nn, M or n, for example. Okay so, let's look at some words. Nine spellings for the schwa. Okay,  

I already said about, “a, a, a”, so there  the schwa spelled with the letter A, “about”,  

it can be spelled with the letter “e”, like in the word ‘anthem’. Now here it's followed by the M,  

so you're not hearing a separate clear vowel, you're not hearing a separate schwa an-them,  

-them, -them, it's more just the M  because the M takes over the schwa.

David: Yeah.

Rachel: Anthem, ocean. Spelled EA, cean-cean-cean, here,  

it's followed by an N. N is one of those four sounds that will suck it up, absorb it.

David: Okay.

Rachel: Ocean.

Okay, before, we talked about the word  chauffeur as a noun, chauffeur. Now, I'm talking  

about it as a verb chauffeur. “I don't want to have to chauffeur you around all night.” Yes,  

so here, it’s spelled EU, the schwa is spelled EU in this word, “er, er, er”. And because it's  

followed by an R, a syllabic consonant, again you're not hearing uh, a separate vowel. You're  

hearing ER, the schwa are mixed together.  The word “possible”, poss-ible, possible,  

spelled with the letter I. The word bottom,  this is just like anthem, where it's caught  

up by that M, but here the letter O is making that schwa. Jealous, jealous ous, ous, ous spelled OU.  

Autumn, not as common as fall but  we do use the word autumn.

David: Yeah, that's pretty commonly used.

Rachel: Here, the schwa is being made by the letter U. Autumn. The word syringe. Yeah, syllabic with the  

R, so it's getting sucked up a little bit, syr syr syr, syringe, spelled with the Y. So, those are  

the nine spellings and I like to have ten words so I'm rounding it out with the word banana.

David: At the end?

Rachel: Well, both places, I chose it  because there are two schwas.

David: Oh, the beginning and the end, oh,  yeah, I didn’t think about that.

Rachel: We have a schwa in the first syllable, ba-, and the last syllable, -a. Ba-nan, banana.

David: That's a lot of schwa.

Rachel: It's a lot of schwa. Okay, so that does it for the 11 vowels. We've talked about the  

many different spellings that can represent any of these vowels. Now, we've also talked  

a little bit about position, mouth position,  David did a great job trying to describe that.  

It's really hard for native speakers to do  who never think about it. David, thanks for  

agreeing to this topic that you know nothing about, a little bit technical at times.

David: Yeah.

Rachel: But I hope you learned something.

David: I did.

Rachel: I think, actually, you know, talking with you about how to describe something like how to  

make the “ur” vowel, you know, it helps me,  too. Hearing what someone who has never tried  

to describe it before, describes it as, kind of helps me think about in a new way, too.

David: Mm-hmm. That makes sense.

Rachel: So, thanks for being here.

David: Oh, I’m glad, yeah,  absolutely. You're welcome.

Rachel: Thanks to everybody for listening to this podcast. If you'd like a transcript of the podcast,  

it's absolutely free to download.  Visit RachelsEnglish.com/podcast,  

and if you're not subscribed, please  subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher. There  

are new episodes released each week and if you'd like, it'd be wonderful to see your  

review in the iTunes Store or on Stitcher.  I read all the reviews and I love to hear  

what people think about the Rachel's English podcast. Until next week, this is Rachel.

David: And David.

Rachel: Signing off from Philadelphia.