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

9,398 views ・ 2024-12-14

Rachel's English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:04
Rachel: Welcome to the Rachel's English podcast. I'm  
0
4152
2808
00:06
so glad to have you listening. This is coming to you from Philadelphia P.A. from our son's closet,  
1
6960
5600
00:12
because we think it's the best place in the  room to record. I'm here with my husband, David.
2
12560
4520
00:17
David: Hi, everybody.
3
17080
800
00:17
Rachel: And today we're going  
4
17880
1160
00:19
to be discussing vowels. If you can't understand everything we are saying or you just want a copy  
5
19040
6360
00:25
of the transcript, you can get one absolutely free. Please visit rachelsenglish.com/podcast.
6
25400
9160
00:34
Okay, guys, I've been looking forward  to taping this podcast for a while,  
7
34560
4520
00:39
because I think it's always fun to discuss  something that's technically related to English pronunciation,
8
39080
6755
00:45
that you know, your average  native speaker would know nothing about,  
9
45835
4525
00:50
with my husband David, because he is  your average native speaker. He has  
10
50360
4560
00:54
not studied English or teaching English  or English pronunciation or any of that.
11
54920
5000
00:59
David: Truth.
12
59920
700
01:00
Rachel: So, this should be interesting.
13
60620
3397
01:04
David: [laughter]
14
64017
16
01:04
Rachel: Okay, to start off,  
15
64033
887
01:04
David. How would you define vowels?  What would you say a vowel is?
16
64920
4960
01:09
David: I would say that  
17
69880
1040
01:10
a vowel, they're the most important  letters. That's what I would say.
18
70920
6260
01:17
Rachel: Okay.
19
77180
1180
01:18
David: They – I don’t know what I  would say, they are the vowels.
20
78360
5240
01:23
Rachel: Okay,  
21
83600
1320
01:24
so your definition of a vowel is, the  most important letter, the vowel. [Laughs] 
22
84920
5823
01:30
David: Exactly.
23
90743
997
01:31
Rachel: Yeah, that's good. A rule of thumb is, you do not define  
24
91740
3334
01:35
a word by having that same word in the definition.
25
95074
3320
01:38
David: All right, all right. Vowels, they make  
26
98394
4286
01:42
the important sounds, the most important sounds in the word that link the consonants together.
27
102680
7560
01:50
Rachel: Okay, I want to go back quickly and just  
28
110240
2440
01:52
point out an idiom I use which was rule of thumb, which is the way something is generally done.
29
112680
7160
01:59
David: Right.
30
119840
620
02:00
Rachel: A rule of  
31
120460
660
02:01
thumb is you don't use a word  in a definition for that word.
32
121120
3560
02:04
David: Right.
33
124680
940
02:05
Rachel: Okay,  
34
125620
620
02:06
so you modified it a bit, you talked about  sounds, you talked about consonants. Well,  
35
126240
5880
02:12
let's get down to it, so there are a couple  interesting things about vowels. Well,  
36
132120
4400
02:16
one of them is there are vowel letters in  American English. What are they, David?
37
136520
5240
02:21
David: A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y.
38
141760
2400
02:24
Rachel: That's exactly  
39
144160
960
02:25
right. And then there are vowel sounds. What are they, David. Yeah, it's harder, right?
40
145120
6840
02:31
David: You want me to sound, say the sound?
41
151960
2680
02:34
Rachel: Well, but I guess the point I'm making is every  
42
154640
2240
02:36
native speaker could tell you the vowel letters, mostly because we've all watched Wheel of Fortune.
43
156880
5300
02:42
David: Right.
44
162180
1060
02:43
Rachel: But when you  
45
163240
960
02:44
ask a native speaker about the vowel  sounds, you know, they can name some,  
46
164200
5040
02:49
but they usually can't tell you how many there are off the top of their head for example.
47
169240
5340
02:54
David: How many are there?
48
174580
1460
02:56
Rachel: Eleven. Off the top of your head,  
49
176040
2360
02:58
another idiom I just used which means without needing to really think about it. Okay, so before  
50
178400
7440
03:05
I tell you what the vowels are, I would love  to see if you can tell me what the vowels are.
51
185840
4300
03:10
David: So, I'm trying to find 11 different sounds?
52
190140
2120
03:12
Rachel: Don't worry  
53
192260
780
03:13
about the number. You're not  going to get there, anyway.
54
193040
2080
03:15
David: Oh,  
55
195120
2000
03:17
challenge. Alright here goes, for the letter  “a”, there would be, AY, a long “a” sound.
56
197120
8460
03:25
Rachel: Give me a word example, please.
57
205580
1820
03:27
David: “Lane”.
58
207400
960
03:28
Rachel: That's a diphthong.  
59
208360
2040
03:30
So, that's not a vowel. That  does not count in this category.
60
210400
2508
03:32
David: What?
61
212908
1294
03:34
Rachel: Exactly, we'll get to that later, keep going.
62
214202
3318
03:37
David: A short “a” where I learned to call short “a” as AA like “bath”. Is that a letter?
63
217520
7160
03:44
Rachel: That, that is a letter… [laughter]
64
224680
1266
03:45
David: I mean, is that a sound? I mean, is it a vowel?
65
225946
1963
03:47
Rachel: … and it is a  
66
227909
571
03:48
sound and it is a vowel. You have a score  of one, for the AA sound in “bath”.
67
228480
5820
03:54
David: and AH as in “ball” or AH as in “ball”.
68
234300
5580
03:59
Rachel: “Father”, I call that the  AH as in father vowel, yep.
69
239880
3260
04:03
David: Okay, then for “e”,  
70
243140
1100
04:04
you would have the EE sound like “beef”.
71
244240
3120
04:07
Rachel: Mmh.
72
247360
800
04:08
David: Is that a vowel sound?
73
248160
825
04:08
Rachel: That is a vowel. That is a vowel sound.
74
248985
2195
04:11
David: Why is that not  
75
251180
500
04:11
a diphthong? Well, you said you’ll get to that.
76
251680
1720
04:13
Rachel: I’ll get to that.
77
253400
1440
04:14
David: Also for “e”, you would have EH like “tech”.
78
254840
5480
04:20
Rachel: I call that the EH as in “bed”,  yep that's another vowel.
79
260320
5908
04:26
David: Okay. For “i”, you would have IH as in “is”.
80
266228
3012
04:29
Rachel: I call that…
81
269240
1510
04:30
David: … or the AI sound like “pile”.
82
270750
2150
04:32
Rachel: Yeah that's a diphthong,  
83
272900
1500
04:34
so we won't count that. So, a diphthong is a change in mouth position. It's two different  
84
274400
6680
04:41
vowel sounds that glide together  in one unit. So, like you said  
85
281080
4600
04:45
“pile”, AI. There's a beginning position where you have jaw drop and an ending position where  
86
285680
8720
04:54
your tongue is arching a little bit up to  the roof of mouth, AI, which is different  
87
294400
5800
05:00
from AH like in “father” where you don't move your mouth. There's just the one position.
88
300200
5060
05:05
David: So, it’s 11 vowel sounds, how many diphthongs?
89
305260
4380
05:09
Rachel: Diphthongs.
90
309640
1160
05:10
David: Diphthongs.
91
310800
947
05:11
Rachel: Well, that's up for debate.  
92
311747
813
05:12
It depends on who you ask, five or six,  some people would say a few more than that.
93
312560
6000
05:18
David: Okay, then there's “o”.
94
318560
2560
05:21
Rachel: Okay,  
95
321120
880
05:22
wait, I lost count. I think you were at five.
96
322000
2960
05:24
David: Okay “o” has AH like “on”.
97
324960
4040
05:29
Rachel: Mmh.
98
329000
680
05:29
David: It also has OH, “alone”.
99
329680
3840
05:33
Rachel: Okay, that’s a diphthong.
100
333520
1380
05:34
David: OH, I didn't move my mouth.
101
334900
2020
05:36
Rachel: You are also pronouncing it funny.  
102
336920
1634
05:38
David: Alone.
103
338554
1166
05:39
Rachel: Alone, rounding of lips.
104
339720
3720
05:43
David: And then “u” would be UH as in the word “up”.
105
343440
4280
05:47
Rachel: Yep, great, seventh vowel.
106
347720
3520
05:51
David: “Unity”, is that a diphthong?
107
351240
3400
05:54
Rachel: Yeah.
108
354640
1240
05:55
David: Then,  
109
355880
1240
05:57
I don't know how “Y” becomes  a vowel. “Y” is like “pile”.
110
357120
3120
06:00
Rachel: Yeah, it's like “my” it's like the AI  
111
360240
2000
06:02
diphthong. Okay, so you came up with seven vowels. So I just, you know, as someone who thinks about  
112
362240
6640
06:08
vowels constantly, and you know, the non-native speakers out there have to think about them, too,  
113
368880
5160
06:14
not constantly, but as they're learning them. How crazy is it that you, a native speaker of forty  
114
374040
5480
06:19
plus years, could only come up with like half, about, half of the vowels that you're using on  
115
379520
5000
06:24
a regular basis? Native speakers just do not pay attention to their language. They don't need to;  
116
384520
6280
06:30
they don't have to. It's no big deal that  they don't, I just find it really interesting  
117
390800
4960
06:35
that you're using something so masterfully and having really no idea how it breaks down. Okay.
118
395760
8060
06:43
David: So, what did I miss?
119
403820
1660
06:45
Rachel: Hold on. Before we get there,  
120
405480
3520
06:49
I wanted to ask you if you can think of  any vowels or particular words that you  
121
409000
9200
06:58
know non-native speakers mispronounce, words that you think you've heard mispronounced.
122
418200
6600
07:04
David: So, the only one that I, I’m thinking of a specific time,
123
424800
7200
07:12
where someone was trying to  
124
432000
1160
07:13
say the word “successful” and it came out  more like “successful” like it was mis…
125
433160
8920
07:22
Rachel: The syllable stress is wrong.
126
442080
2520
07:24
David: Mis-stressed.
127
444600
720
07:25
Rachel: Okay so the  
128
445320
800
07:26
word is “successful”, and how are they saying it?
129
446120
2760
07:28
David: They were…
130
448880
640
07:29
Rachel: SUC-cessful.
131
449520
660
07:30
David: Right.
132
450180
500
07:30
Rachel: They were stressing the first syllable.
133
450680
1680
07:32
David: Right, and  
134
452360
760
07:33
it just it took me a while to figure  out literally what they were saying…
135
453120
4800
07:37
Rachel: Yeah.
136
457920
470
07:38
David: … and then once I knew,  
137
458390
1010
07:39
I was like, “oh right, that totally makes sense that you just barely mispronounced it.” But it's  
138
459400
5400
07:44
just barely in one sense, on the other hand, I had no, I did not know what they were saying.
139
464800
4080
07:48
Rachel: Yeah it's interesting. Sometimes, the wrong stress is
140
468880
4682
07:53
 harder to understand than the wrong sounds.
141
473562
1978
07:55
David: Oh, weird. 
142
475540
1141
07:56
Rachel: Yeah.
143
476681
1655
07:58
Okay, I mean, I'm thinking there are  lots of sounds obviously that I've noticed
144
478336
4690
08:03
students mess up. One of the main ones is  the IH vowel like in “sit”.
145
483026
4392
08:07
People don't have it they make a tighter sound like “seat”, and that's pretty common. I mean, actually,  
146
487418
8142
08:15
most people are coming from languages that don't have 11 vowels, plus diphthongs. So,  
147
495560
5320
08:20
they're coming from languages that have fewer of those kinds of sounds and so, generally there are  
148
500880
6000
08:26
several American sounds that are missing from any one student's accent that they didn’t have  
149
506880
6480
08:33
to learn and work on and figure out and train, train, train. It's all about the muscle memory.
150
513360
6560
08:39
David: So, is that because we are, as English speakers,  
151
519920
4048
08:43
the language is an amalgamation of a bunch  
152
523968
2952
08:46
of different things? Why do we have more sounds  than, as you know, the language that I know best,  
153
526920
6040
08:52
other than English, is Spanish. And  I talk about this all the time that  
154
532960
3920
08:56
one letter equals one sound and it's great, but why is -- how did English get all these sounds?
155
536880
5180
09:02
Rachel: You know, I'm not a historian and I'm  
156
542060
2180
09:04
not an expert in the development of the English language, but I do think that you're right,  
157
544240
4640
09:08
that it is related to so many words coming  from different backgrounds into English.
158
548880
5580
09:14
David: Okay.
159
554460
720
09:15
Rachel: And actually,  
160
555180
1500
09:16
that I also think is responsible in part for  the insanity, that is the spelling of English.
161
556680
6340
09:23
David: Yeah.
162
563020
560
09:23
Rachel: And that's actually one thing that we're 
163
563580
1663
09:25
going to get into some here. David,  
164
565243
2037
09:27
your mind is going to be blown out of  the water and I cannot wait to see it.
165
567280
4183
09:31
David: [Laughter] okay.
166
571463
637
09:32
Rachel: So, let's go to David's question.  
167
572100
2287
09:34
What are the vowel sounds in American English, anyway?  
168
574387
3904
09:38
Okay, I'm going to start with one that you did come up with. It's the AH sound like in “father”.  
169
578291
7789
09:46
Okay. Now, I said that spelling is pretty  challenging and I always tell people, you
170
586080
7920
09:54
know letters and sounds don't match up  perfectly. So, we have the sound AH.  
171
594000
6000
10:00
Can you can you guess how many different ways we spell that in American English?
172
600000
4713
10:04
David: So, “Father” that one?
173
604713
1727
10:06
Rachel: Yeah, like that's the letter “A”.
174
606440
1640
10:08
David: Bother.
175
608080
2620
10:10
Rachel: Okay so that’s an “o”.
176
610700
1320
10:12
David: “O”. “Father”,  
177
612020
2780
10:14
“bother”, I don't think of any other  ways, I’m not thinking of others.
178
614800
8400
10:23
Rachel: Yeah, so there are actually five ways that we spell this in English. 
179
623200
4684
10:27
We spell the AH vowel with the letter “o”, like you said in “body”,  
180
627884
4836
10:32
with the letter “a”, like we said in “father”,  also with the letters “ea” like in “heart”.
181
632720
6600
10:39
David: That's just, that one's unfair.
182
639320
2600
10:41
Rachel: H—e—a—rt.
183
641920
2130
10:44
David: That's so impossible to know if you're 
184
644050
4323
10:48
someone who is coming to English from reading primarily.
185
648373
4047
10:52
Rachel: Oh, forget it.
186
652420
1760
10:54
David: How would you not say h-ea-rt?
187
654180
2940
10:57
Rachel: Because E-A is pronounced lots of different ways  
188
657120
2560
10:59
not just AH. Okay, I said it was pronounced  five ways, there are two left, the two are  
189
659680
6080
11:05
not very common at all, but it does exist, the double “A”, like in the word “bazaar”, “Harper's  
190
665760
7800
11:13
Bazaar”. The double “A” there, not at all a common occurrence, but is pronounced as AH. And then also  
191
673560
7240
11:20
the word “sergeant”. Se-a-a- rgeant we have the A,H vowel, but it's spelled with the single letter  
192
680800
8760
11:29
“E”, that’s a hard word to spell. Here I spelled it look at it S - E - R - G - E - A - N - T.
193
689560
9330
11:38
David: Interesting.
194
698890
710
11:39
Rachel: Yeah, I would like to know where that word comes from. 
195
699600
3040
11:42
David: I actually  
196
702640
1240
11:43
thought that “sergeant” was S - A - E.  I knew there was an A – E combo in there somewhere.  
197
703880
4973
11:48
But I wonder if my brain put it at the beginning, because that sound is so weird.
198
708853
5327
11:54
Rachel: It looks like it should be pronounced srr-gent
199
714180
2300
11:56
David: Yeah.
200
716480
880
11:57
Rachel: 
201
717360
2240
11:59
Okay, I'm just going to say a couple more words with the sound “block”, “job”, “product”, “wash”,  
202
719600
9120
12:08
“sock”. The “a” vowel. Okay, now here's one that you did not come up with, and you're not to blame,  
203
728720
13400
12:22
you might not have come up with it, because you don't actually use it. There's another vowel  
204
742120
5160
12:27
that's very similar to the AH as in Father vowel, but it's actually the AW as in “law” vowel. Now if  
205
747280
9120
12:36
you think of the word father, and you think of the word “law”, do you think same sound or different?
206
756400
6940
12:43
David: Now that I'm listening to you do it, I hear it.
207
763340
3820
12:47
Rachel: Yeah. Most people out  
208
767160
1560
12:48
there probably don't, and that's okay. A lot of students can't hear the difference. I actually,  
209
768720
7240
12:55
I don't think I really use the “a” as in  “law” vowel. So, there are places in America,  
210
775960
6480
13:02
I've heard particularly in the West,  where this vowel has just been dropped,  
211
782440
5080
13:07
and it's always just replaced with the “A” as in father. So, rather than “law” it would be “law”. 
212
787520
7480
13:15
And that sounds pretty normal. And I think I kind of do that. Now, Tom Kelly, who, you know, has  
213
795000
6320
13:21
worked with Rachel's English for a long time, he has a really strong AW, very well defined AW and  
214
801320
8000
13:29
I think it's partly, because he grew up on the East Coast or he didn't, but his parents did.  
215
809320
7120
13:36
David: What might he say where that would show up?
216
816440
2820
13:39
Rachel: Like “law”, “caught”, AW,  
217
819260
1220
13:42
and when you look at him when he does it,  
218
822000
2040
13:44
he has that shape where the cheeks are coming in a little bit and the lips are flaring some.
219
824040
5460
13:49
David: Okay.
220
829500
1300
13:50
Rachel: But it's a stronger  
221
830800
1880
13:52
sound on the East Coast, for sure, than it is elsewhere in the country. But the sound in “law”  
222
832680
6360
14:00
also has five different spelling. It can be just an AW like in “fall”. I've noticed that when it is  
223
840560
8200
14:08
followed by the “L” consonant, when the letter “A” is followed by “L”. Then, it's this vowel
224
848760
8144
14:16
David: “Law”.
225
856904
16
14:16
Rachel: Right. “Ball” rather  
226
856920
3440
14:20
than “ball”, which we did with AH as in father. Although, it's not that strange if I said, “Hey,  
227
860360
6400
14:26
where is Stoney's soccer ball?” You probably wouldn't think, “Wait she's saying that weird.”
228
866760
5220
14:31
David: I think, yeah, it sounds like when we're going   
229
871980
2608
14:34
quickly or speaking quickly, you know,  
230
874588
2572
14:37
the AW takes an extra beat sort  of to get the whole sound out.
231
877160
4400
14:41
Rachel: You're saying the AW as in “law” takes you longer?
232
881560
2700
14:44
David: Yeah.  
233
884260
700
14:45
So, “You go grab your ball or go to the park.”
234
885720
2060
14:47
Rachel: Well, that was just very fast altogether.
235
887780
5620
14:53
David: Altogether unhelpful. Altogether.  
236
893400
4280
14:57
Rachel: Altogether. Yeah, I mean, I  
237
897680
2040
14:59
don't know what to say about this is far as speed, I don't think it's related to speed, personally.
238
899720
5300
15:05
David: Okay.
239
905020
1180
15:06
Rachel: I think some people, you know, it's a  
240
906200
3160
15:09
bit of a regional accent. You either have a strong  AW, and your lips really rounds and your cheeks  
241
909360
8880
15:18
come in a little bit, AW, or everything's more  relaxed, “ah”, “ah”, and it's a little more open  
242
918240
7000
15:25
feeling. But we're talking about AW like in “law”,  and I said it had five spellings. The letter “A”  
243
925240
7080
15:34
like in “fall”, “a-u”, you like in “cause”,  “cause and effect”. A, u, g, h, “daughter”.
244
934960
8260
15:43
David: Caught.
245
943220
1400
15:44
Rachel: “Daugh-”, “caught”, “saw” “aw”, “o,  
246
944620
6860
15:51
u, g, h”, “thought”, and that's it. Those are the  five spellings. But if you're listening out there,  
247
951480
10640
16:02
and you're thinking, “I'm having a hard time  telling the difference between these two vowels”,  
248
962120
4280
16:06
don't worry about it at all. David, I want to talk  about the symbol, the I.P.A. symbol, just because,  
249
966400
8120
16:14
you know, a lot of my users use the International  Phonetic Alphabet. So, I want to make sure that  
250
974520
6280
16:20
that we're all on the same page. So the “a” as in  “father” is a little lowercase “a” and the “aw” as  
251
980800
8240
16:29
in “law” is like the letter “o” with the left side  erased. It's like a backward C. So, as I said,  
252
989040
10040
16:39
five spellings, a few other words with a sound  “awful”, “belong”, “dog”, “wrong”. I said that  
253
999080
11240
16:50
I noticed when the letter “A” was followed by  “L”, that it was usually this sound. I also  
254
1010320
5120
16:55
noticed when the letter “O” is followed by  “n, g”, it's this sound, “belong”, “wrong”.
255
1015440
7200
17:02
David: Gong.
256
1022640
1440
17:04
Rachel: Were you half yawning when you said that?
257
1024080
3783
17:07
David: [laughter] I was half  
258
1027863
697
17:08
laughing. Remember the Gong Show?
259
1028560
3142
17:11
Rachel: [laughter] I never saw it, but I have  
260
1031702
1898
17:13
heard the cultural reference many times. David: 
261
1033600
2760
17:16
There was a show where there were  performers, and any time that someone  
262
1036360
3840
17:20
had gone on too long and was no longer being  well received, they bang on this big gong.
263
1040200
4460
17:24
Rachel: Do you feel like being on the gong right now?
264
1044660
2800
17:27
David: I was gonging the AW vowel sound.
265
1047460
2940
17:30
Rachel: Okay,  
266
1050400
720
17:31
David’s ready to move on, folks. Okay, you did  come up with this sound the sound AA sound.
267
1051120
7554
17:38
David: Yes, “cat”.
268
1058674
1666
17:40
Rachel: “Cat”, yes. I'm just going to tell you how many  
269
1060340
2900
17:43
spellings there are, because you're never going  to be able to guess this, it’s just too hard.
270
1063240
3480
17:46
David: Okay.
271
1066720
460
17:47
Rachel: So, there are four spellings for this,  
272
1067180
2420
17:49
we have the, just the letter “a”, like in the word  “exact”. There it is, the letter “A” and it is  
273
1069600
7160
17:56
the as in “bat” vowel. Then, we have “ai” in the  word plaid, spelled “ai”. Like, who knows that?  
274
1076760
8880
18:05
I totally would misspell that word all the time?  The word “aunt”, now, okay, this is tricky, so I'm  
275
1085640
6720
18:12
talking about “a-u-n-t”, like “Aunt” and “Uncle”.  And when the “a” vowel here in “bat” is followed  
276
1092360
9160
18:21
by “n”, it kind of changes, it's not a pure vowel.  But it is still the “a” vowel, it's just shifted.  
277
1101520
7240
18:32
“Aunt” so here “au” making the AA vowel. Earlier,  we saw that “au” also makes the “law” vowel like  
278
1112240
8440
18:40
in the word “cause”, so you see “au”, don't  think you know how to pronounce it, there are  
279
1120680
5600
18:46
multiple ways. Okay, and finally, it’s a very rare  spelling, and actually, I can only think of one  
280
1126280
7440
18:53
word, where the letter “i” makes the “a” vowel and  it's in the word “timbre”. Do you know that word?
281
1133720
10480
19:04
David: I know that  
282
1144200
800
19:05
word. I can sort of place  it in musical, technical.
283
1145000
4160
19:09
Rachel: Yeah.  
284
1149160
840
19:10
David: Isn’t it the quality of voice?
285
1150000
2220
19:12
Rachel: Yeah, the quality of the sound.
286
1152220
1600
19:13
David: Quality of the sound?
287
1153820
960
19:14
Rachel: Yeah, right,  
288
1154780
780
19:15
it's like if a flute played a certain note  and a violin played the same note and the  
289
1155560
5800
19:21
singer sang the same note, it's what makes  all of them sound different. It's the quality. 
290
1161360
5680
19:27
That’s spelled T- I - M - B - R -  E and it's pronounced “tam-ber”.
291
1167960
4700
19:32
David: And there is  
292
1172660
1300
19:33
no earthly way that that should  not be pronounced “tim-ber”?
293
1173960
3480
19:37
Rachel: Right.
294
1177440
810
19:38
David: That's crazy.
295
1178250
770
19:39
Rachel: It's  
296
1179020
700
19:39
crazy. Some other words with the  sound: “act”, “apple”, “crash”.
297
1179720
6920
19:46
David: “Pass”, “task”, “matter”.
298
1186640
4180
19:50
Rachel: Yeah,  
299
1190820
1380
19:52
the I.P.A. symbol for this is  an A and E squished together.
300
1192200
4760
19:56
David: I have seen that.
301
1196960
880
19:57
Rachel: 
302
1197840
920
19:58
That's one of my favorite symbols.  Okay, moving on, the next vowel,  
303
1198760
4120
20:02
the EE vowel like in “she”. Now, this is  a vowel that you were able to identify.
304
1202880
5720
20:08
David: And it doesn't seem fair,  
305
1208600
1720
20:10
because the other sounds that are the  name of the letter you diphthonged me on.  
306
1210320
5822
20:16
Rachel: [laughter] Wait what?
307
1216142
938
20:17
David: Like, I was like, “I” is a vowel…
308
1217080
5300
20:22
Rachel: Yeah.
309
1222380
1130
20:23
David: … sound
310
1223510
890
20:24
Rachel: Right, and a letter.
311
1224400
2090
20:26
David: Right,  
312
1226490
630
20:27
so the names of the letters I feel like  should all get to count as vowel sounds.
313
1227120
4428
20:31
Rachel: Yeah right.
314
1231548
332
20:31
David: Seems unfair to them.
315
1231880
1360
20:33
Rachel: Like the letter “A”,  
316
1233240
1600
20:34
but it's not a vowel, it’s an “a” diphthong.
317
1234840
1340
20:36
David: Right,  
318
1236180
620
20:36
they’re a whole letter that we  should get to count as sound.
319
1236800
2200
20:39
Rachel: Yeah, no,  
320
1239000
1120
20:40
you have to mentally break the  connection between letters and  
321
1240120
2920
20:43
sounds. That is of primary importance  when you are studying American English.
322
1243040
4500
20:47
David: It really is,  
323
1247540
940
20:48
and I would have never thought about that before.
324
1248480
3709
20:52
Rachel: No, except when you failed your spelling test.  
325
1252189
2791
20:54
David: I won spelling bee at my school.
326
1254980
2820
20:57
Rachel: I do not believe that.
327
1257800
1840
20:59
David: What? I'm a great speller.
328
1259640
1740
21:01
Rachel: You are?
329
1261380
920
21:02
David: I'm a good speller. Why do you think I’m a bad speller?
330
1262300
3980
21:06
Rachel: No, I don't think you're  
331
1266280
1000
21:07
a bad speller, I just think spelling is somewhat difficult, therefore you must not be good at it.
332
1267280
4800
21:12
David: Are you saying that it's hard for you,  
333
1272080
2749
21:14
so you assume that I'm bad at it?
334
1274829
1511
21:16
Rachel: I'm actually a good speller. So,  
335
1276340
3260
21:19
I don't know why I'm giving you such a hard time. I apologize. Okay, actually the reason  
336
1279600
4680
21:24
why I didn't believe you, is because I have  never met anyone before who won a spelling bee.
337
1284280
4240
21:28
David: Oh, I definitely dominated the sixth grade spelling bee, I dominated, I won.
338
1288520
5380
21:33
Rachel: So what did you -- then go on …
339
1293900
2127
21:36
David: I went to the regional spelling bee.
340
1296027
1477
21:37
Rachel: You did? How’d that go?
341
1297504
596
21:38
David: Not that well. 
342
1298100
1009
21:39
Rachel: Yeah, it's funny how the spelling  bee is kind of a big deal in the U.S.
343
1299109
4451
21:43
David: Yeah, there's a national spelling bee.
344
1303560
1720
21:45
Rachel: I mean, there was a musical based…
345
1305280
2421
21:47
David: There’s an awesome documentary about it?
346
1307701
1519
21:49
Rachel: Oh, yeah.  
347
1309220
700
21:49
I don't think I've seen  that, but I've heard about it
348
1309920
1560
21:51
David: Oh, really?
349
1311480
880
21:52
Rachel: Yeah.
350
1312360
450
21:52
David: We should watch it.
351
1312810
950
21:53
Rachel: Netflix it tonight.
352
1313760
1360
21:55
David: Alright.
353
1315120
960
21:56
Rachel: But yeah, there's  
354
1316080
640
21:56
also a musical called the Great  Putnam County Spelling Bee.
355
1316720
3100
21:59
David: I didn't know that.
356
1319820
980
22:00
Rachel: That was really popular for a while. I mean, you know now that I'm 
357
1320800
3177
22:03
thinking about it, I wonder how many other countries have  
358
1323977
2863
22:06
spelling bees because a lot of other languages are phonetic. There is a direct relationship  
359
1326840
4720
22:11
between letter and sound, therefore, you would never, it would never be a challenge to spell.  
360
1331560
4720
22:16
David: Interesting, yeah.
361
1336280
1800
22:18
Rachel: It's a huge challenge in American English, for sure.  
362
1338080
3360
22:21
David: And the people who end up  
363
1341440
1200
22:22
winning the National Spelling Bee are people who memorize the spelling of words that we never use.
364
1342640
5880
22:28
Rachel: Crazy words.
365
1348520
1040
22:29
David: Right.
366
1349560
800
22:30
Rachel: Yeah, I mean that is what they spend a lot of their time doing.  
367
1350360
3639
22:33
They train for the spelling bee,  
368
1353999
1281
22:35
they study the spelling of crazy words,  yeah. I'd rather be outside, personally.
369
1355280
7120
22:42
David: Absolutely.
370
1362400
1040
22:43
Rachel: Though I'm not knocking anybody who 
371
1363440
2916
22:46
invests their time in their passion, whatever it is. Okay,  
372
1366356
4364
22:50
so as we are saying, the EE as in “she” vowel, did I ask you how many spellings you think there are?
373
1370720
6660
22:57
David: No, well can't that just be, well, it can be “ee”?
374
1377380
7000
23:04
Rachel: Yeah.
375
1384380
1020
23:05
David: As in “sheet”. It can just be “I”.
376
1385400
4660
23:10
Rachel: Like in what word?  
377
1390060
2660
23:12
David: Mmh.
378
1392720
1620
23:14
Rachel: Don't look  
379
1394340
900
23:15
at my notes, don't look at my notes. [laughter]
380
1395240
3320
23:18
David: I’m not. I'm  
381
1398560
800
23:19
sure I can think of that. It  can be “ei” as in “believe”?
382
1399360
3560
23:22
Rachel: Mmh.
383
1402920
1191
23:24
David: It could be “ie”  
384
1404111
849
23:24
as in “relieve”. No, that’s still “ei”.
385
1404960
3640
23:28
Rachel: I before E except after C is the  rule for spelling with I and E…
386
1408600
5470
23:34
David: And after V, before V and after C.
387
1414070
3010
23:37
Rachel: It's just after C is the rule, V isn't part of the rule. 
388
1417080
3100
23:40
David: Before V, no?
389
1420180
2560
23:42
Rachel: I’ve never heard that.
390
1422740
4443
23:47
David: [laughter] All right.
391
1427183
537
23:47
Rachel: So, spelling in English is so hard, we  
392
1427720
2560
23:50
have to come up with chants to help us remember. Okay, so there are 10 spellings of this vowel.
393
1430280
6160
23:56
David: Alright, hit me.  
394
1436440
720
23:57
Rachel: Ten, ten,  
395
1437160
2080
23:59
guys. Well, you got some of them, there's just the plain old letter “e”, like in the word “be”,  
396
1439240
6600
24:05
“to be or not to be”. “B- E”, the letter “e”  makes the “e” as in she vowel. Then there's  
397
1445840
5920
24:11
E - A like in the word “heat”. This is different from, if we add an “R” there, “heart”, then it  
398
1451760
7160
24:18
changes the vowel. But when it's E- A, “heat”,  “heat”, “E- A” can make the EEsound. Double E,  
399
1458920
8760
24:27
you came up with this, you gave the example of the word “sheet”. I'm giving the example  
400
1467680
5200
24:32
of the word “weep”. Then, we have both E-I  and I-E. So, E-I, like in the word “receive”,  
401
1472880
9000
24:41
and I -E like in the word “brief”. We  have E- O, the word “people”. Yeah.
402
1481880
7800
24:49
David: Good one.
403
1489680
800
24:50
Rachel: I mean it's such a common word,  
404
1490480
1680
24:52
but it's the only E-O spelling that I know of  that makes this sound. But I mean, you can see  
405
1492160
5160
24:57
how a kid is going to take the word “people” and write, P- I- P- L, but it's P-E-O-P-L-E. Okay,  
406
1497320
10040
25:07
what other spellings, the E-Y spelling, like in the word “key”, and then you said just the letter  
407
1507360
8240
25:15
“I”, you were sure would be a way to spell  it but you couldn't come up with the word.
408
1515600
3820
25:19
David: Right.
409
1519420
780
25:20
Rachel: “Police”.
410
1520200
1260
25:21
David: Oh, yeah, there we go.
411
1521460
1440
25:22
Rachel: There,  
412
1522900
980
25:23
it's the single letter “i” making the “e”  vowel. And obvious, when you forgot the ending  
413
1523880
5520
25:29
letter “y” in so many words “pretty”, “busy”,  “quickly”, unstressed either at the end. Okay,  
414
1529400
7240
25:36
now this is an interesting word not very common, the word “quay”, spelled “Q-U-A- Y”, “Q-U-A-Y”,  
415
1536640
12400
25:49
the primary pronunciation is “key”,  but you may have heard “Kay” or “Kway”.
416
1549040
5440
25:54
David: What is that?
417
1554480
1220
25:55
Rachel: It's a body of water,  
418
1555700
1180
25:56
it’s like an inlet. You’ve  never heard this word before?
419
1556880
3600
26:00
David: Well, I think of the  
420
1560480
760
26:01
Florida Keys, which are a string  of islands, spelled “K- E-Y”.  
421
1561240
4633
26:05
Rachel: Right, “K- E- Y”, but  
422
1565873
1327
26:07
then the word can also be spelled “Q-U-A-Y”, and it’s a different word with a different meaning.
423
1567200
5400
26:13
David: That's a new word for me.
424
1573320
1240
26:14
Rachel: So, you've never heard the word “Quay” or  
425
1574560
2480
26:18
“Quay”? Because those are also pronunciations of the word, they're just not as used, not as used.  
426
1578480
8320
26:26
Okay, another vowel, the IH vowel. I put EE and IH together because EE is really common in a lot  
427
1586800
8600
26:35
of languages and IH is not very common at all. And so, a lot of people, when they're learning  
428
1595400
6760
26:42
English, they don't try IH, they just make EE all the time, because it's familiar to them. It's very  
429
1602160
6160
26:48
common to substitute in a familiar sound rather than learning a new one. And then, the other  
430
1608320
6800
26:55
big problem that people have is they can't hear the difference. Does that surprise you? IH, EE.
431
1615120
7740
27:02
David: Those to my ear are extremely different.
432
1622860
3900
27:06
Rachel: Yeah, I remember when  
433
1626760
1320
27:08
I first started teaching and I was starting to learn what people couldn't understand, what people  
434
1628080
6880
27:14
thought sounded the same and I was also really surprised at some of the things. A lot of people  
435
1634960
5560
27:20
think AH and UH sound the same. Yeah, I know, very surprising to me, but you know, of course  
436
1640520
9080
27:29
you're a native speaker you grow up understanding the differentiation completely. But EE and IH are  
437
1649600
6680
27:36
two sounds that a lot of people have problems with. The IH vowel in particular, making that  
438
1656280
6120
27:42
different. So, for the IH vowel like in “sit”,  there are nine different ways to spell this vowel.
439
1662400
8160
27:50
David: Wow.
440
1670560
1200
27:51
Rachel: The letter “a” like in the word “private”.   
441
1671760
2797
27:54
Yeah, who would it who would think that the letter  
442
1674557
3763
27:58
“a” would represent the IH vowel? The  letter “e” like in the word “pretty”,  
443
1678320
7480
28:05
“pretty”. The double “e” like in the Word  “been”, “Hey, David, how have you been?”
444
1685800
5760
28:11
David: Yep. That's the same sound.  
445
1691560
2140
28:13
Rachel: The letter “i”,  
446
1693700
1500
28:15
like in the word “him”, it can be spelled “u-i”, like in the word “build”. It can be spelled with  
447
1695200
8680
28:23
a letter “o”, you would have never guessed that IH sound could be spelled letter “o”. Would have you?
448
1703880
7384
28:31
David: No.
449
1711264
9
28:31
Rachel: In the word “women”, plural of woman, 
450
1711273
5160
28:36
“wih”, “women”. It can be spelled  with the letter “u” like in the word “busy”.
451
1716433
6267
28:42
David: That is unbelievable.
452
1722700
1620
28:44
Rachel: All these different spellings?
453
1724320
1660
28:45
David: For one sound.
454
1725980
960
28:46
Rachel: I know. By the way,  
455
1726940
1980
28:48
this is nine, it's not even-- ,  it doesn't win for most spellings.
456
1728920
3160
28:52
David: Wow.
457
1732080
1080
28:53
Rachel: Yeah, okay where are we?  
458
1733160
2960
28:56
At the letter “y”, like in the word “symbol”. And then, sometimes, when you're looking at letters,  
459
1736120
8640
29:04
it's hard to say, “Okay, which ones should be assigned to which sound?” But the word “foreign”,  
460
1744760
7200
29:11
“for-ehn” is spelled “E- I –G”. So, that's also  totally crazy. How did that “g” get in there?  
461
1751960
10360
29:22
That's a consonant. Okay, so those are nine spellings. “Private”, “pretty”, “been”, “him”,  
462
1762320
8040
29:30
“build”, “women”, “busy”, “symbol”, “foreign”, and here's one more word for you, “big”.
463
1770360
9120
29:39
David: “Big”?
464
1779480
1060
29:40
Rachel: Yeah, I just wanted to make 10 words,  so I had to add one more. 
465
1780540
3760
29:44
David: I didn’t understand.
466
1784300
1580
29:45
Rachel: Wow, okay,  
467
1785880
1560
29:47
so we've completed five vowels. There are six more plus some other things to say, David,  
468
1787440
6680
29:54
I don't know about you, but I'm afraid someone's going to want to be hitting the gong and ending  
469
1794120
6240
30:00
this podcast. I'm afraid that this is starting to become too much information for one podcast. What  
470
1800360
6640
30:07
do you say we wrap this, take a break, come back, and make a second episode of vowel sounds, sounds?
471
1807000
9960
30:16
David: Wow that was new on the sound effects.
472
1816960
4817
30:21
Rachel: Thank you.
473
1821777
17
30:21
David: But I think that you're  
474
1821794
646
30:22
right. This is a good amount.
475
1822440
1420
30:23
Rachel: Okay,  
476
1823860
820
30:24
guys, so just sit with that. Sit with  those five vowels, and then next week,  
477
1824680
5040
30:29
we're going to hit you with episode two. So, be sure to tune into that. It's going to be   
478
1829720
6720
30:36
a great episode. If you need a transcript for this episode, please visit rachelsenglish.com/podcast  
479
1836440
9000
30:45
and look for this episode. Don't forget to tune in next week for episode two in the series. If  
480
1845440
7440
30:52
you're not subscribed to the podcast, please do. You can do this on iTunes or Stitcher,  
481
1852880
5560
30:58
and I hope you'll listen to every  podcast. Also, if you have a moment,  
482
1858440
4400
31:02
please go ahead and do review this podcast. I read  all of the reviews and I would love to hear what  
483
1862840
6000
31:08
people think about the Rachel's English podcast. That's it, guys. Thanks so much, until next week.
484
1868840
6200
31:15
David: See you later, guys.
485
1875040
4653
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7