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

Rachel: Welcome to the Rachel's English podcast. I'm   so glad to have you listening. This is coming to you from Philadelphia P.

A. from our son's closet,   because we think it's the best place in the  room to record. I'm here with my husband, David.

David: Hi, everybody. Rachel: And today we're going   to be discussing vowels. If you can't understand everything we are saying or you just want a copy   of the transcript, you can get one absolutely free.

Please visit rachelsenglish. com/podcast. Okay, guys, I've been looking forward  to taping this podcast for a while,   because I think it's always fun to discuss  something that's technically related to English pronunciation, that you know, your average  native speaker would know nothing about,   with my husband David, because he is  your average native speaker.

He has   not studied English or teaching English  or English pronunciation or any of that. David: Truth. Rachel: So, this should be interesting.

David: [laughter] Rachel: Okay, to start off,   David. How would you define vowels?  What would you say a vowel is?

David: I would say that   a vowel, they're the most important  letters. That's what I would say. Rachel: Okay.

David: They – I don’t know what I  would say, they are the vowels. Rachel: Okay,   so your definition of a vowel is, the  most important letter, the vowel. [Laughs]  David: Exactly.

Rachel: Yeah, that's good. A rule of thumb is, you do not define   a word by having that same word in the definition. David: All right, all right.

Vowels, they make   the important sounds, the most important sounds in the word that link the consonants together. Rachel: Okay, I want to go back quickly and just   point out an idiom I use which was rule of thumb, which is the way something is generally done. David: Right.

Rachel: A rule of   thumb is you don't use a word  in a definition for that word. David: Right. Rachel: Okay,   so you modified it a bit, you talked about  sounds, you talked about consonants.

Well,   let's get down to it, so there are a couple  interesting things about vowels. Well,   one of them is there are vowel letters in  American English. What are they, David?

David: A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y. Rachel: That's exactly   right. And then there are vowel sounds.

What are they, David. Yeah, it's harder, right? David: You want me to sound, say the sound?

Rachel: Well, but I guess the point I'm making is every   native speaker could tell you the vowel letters, mostly because we've all watched Wheel of Fortune. David: Right. Rachel: But when you   ask a native speaker about the vowel  sounds, you know, they can name some,   but they usually can't tell you how many there are off the top of their head for example.

David: How many are there? Rachel: Eleven. Off the top of your head,   another idiom I just used which means without needing to really think about it.

Okay, so before   I tell you what the vowels are, I would love  to see if you can tell me what the vowels are. David: So, I'm trying to find 11 different sounds? Rachel: Don't worry   about the number.

You're not  going to get there, anyway. David: Oh,   challenge. Alright here goes, for the letter  “a”, there would be, AY, a long “a” sound.

Rachel: Give me a word example, please. David: “Lane”. Rachel: That's a diphthong.  

So, that's not a vowel. That  does not count in this category. David: What?

Rachel: Exactly, we'll get to that later, keep going. David: A short “a” where I learned to call short “a” as AA like “bath”. Is that a letter?

Rachel: That, that is a letter… [laughter] David: I mean, is that a sound? I mean, is it a vowel? Rachel: … and it is a   sound and it is a vowel.

You have a score  of one, for the AA sound in “bath”. David: and AH as in “ball” or AH as in “ball”. Rachel: “Father”, I call that the  AH as in father vowel, yep.

David: Okay, then for “e”,   you would have the EE sound like “beef”. Rachel: Mmh. David: Is that a vowel sound?

Rachel: That is a vowel. That is a vowel sound. David: Why is that not   a diphthong?

Well, you said you’ll get to that. Rachel: I’ll get to that. David: Also for “e”, you would have EH like “tech”.

Rachel: I call that the EH as in “bed”,  yep that's another vowel. David: Okay. For “i”, you would have IH as in “is”.

Rachel: I call that… David: … or the AI sound like “pile”. Rachel: Yeah that's a diphthong,   so we won't count that. So, a diphthong is a change in mouth position.

It's two different   vowel sounds that glide together  in one unit. So, like you said   “pile”, AI. There's a beginning position where you have jaw drop and an ending position where   your tongue is arching a little bit up to  the roof of mouth, AI, which is different   from AH like in “father” where you don't move your mouth.

There's just the one position. David: So, it’s 11 vowel sounds, how many diphthongs? Rachel: Diphthongs.

David: Diphthongs. Rachel: Well, that's up for debate.   It depends on who you ask, five or six,  some people would say a few more than that.

David: Okay, then there's “o”. Rachel: Okay,   wait, I lost count. I think you were at five.

David: Okay “o” has AH like “on”. Rachel: Mmh. David: It also has OH, “alone”.

Rachel: Okay, that’s a diphthong. David: OH, I didn't move my mouth. Rachel: You are also pronouncing it funny.  

David: Alone. Rachel: Alone, rounding of lips. David: And then “u” would be UH as in the word “up”.

Rachel: Yep, great, seventh vowel. David: “Unity”, is that a diphthong? Rachel: Yeah.

David: Then,   I don't know how “Y” becomes  a vowel. “Y” is like “pile”. Rachel: Yeah, it's like “my” it's like the AI   diphthong.

Okay, so you came up with seven vowels.  So I just, you know, as someone who thinks about   vowels constantly, and you know, the non-native speakers out there have to think about them, too,   not constantly, but as they're learning them. How crazy is it that you, a native speaker of forty   plus years, could only come up with like half, about, half of the vowels that you're using on   a regular basis?

Native speakers just do not pay attention to their language. They don't need to;   they don't have to. It's no big deal that  they don't, I just find it really interesting   that you're using something so masterfully and having really no idea how it breaks down.

Okay. David: So, what did I miss? Rachel: Hold on.

Before we get there,   I wanted to ask you if you can think of  any vowels or particular words that you   know non-native speakers mispronounce, words that you think you've heard mispronounced. David: So, the only one that I, I’m thinking of a specific time, where someone was trying to   say the word “successful” and it came out  more like “successful” like it was mis… Rachel: The syllable stress is wrong. David: Mis-stressed.

Rachel: Okay so the   word is “successful”, and how are they saying it? David: They were… Rachel: SUC-cessful. David: Right.

Rachel: They were stressing the first syllable. David: Right, and   it just it took me a while to figure  out literally what they were saying… Rachel: Yeah. David: … and then once I knew,   I was like, “oh right, that totally makes sense that you just barely mispronounced it.

” But it's   just barely in one sense, on the other hand, I had no, I did not know what they were saying. Rachel: Yeah it's interesting. Sometimes, the wrong stress is  harder to understand than the wrong sounds.

David: Oh, weird.  Rachel: Yeah. Okay, I mean, I'm thinking there are  lots of sounds obviously that I've noticed students mess up.

One of the main ones is  the IH vowel like in “sit”. People don't have it they make a tighter sound like “seat”, and that's pretty common. I mean, actually,   most people are coming from languages that don't have 11 vowels, plus diphthongs.

So,   they're coming from languages that have fewer of those kinds of sounds and so, generally there are   several American sounds that are missing from any one student's accent that they didn’t have   to learn and work on and figure out and train, train, train. It's all about the muscle memory. David: So, is that because we are, as English speakers,   the language is an amalgamation of a bunch   of different things?

Why do we have more sounds  than, as you know, the language that I know best,   other than English, is Spanish. And  I talk about this all the time that   one letter equals one sound and it's great, but why is -- how did English get all these sounds? Rachel: You know, I'm not a historian and I'm   not an expert in the development of the English language, but I do think that you're right,   that it is related to so many words coming  from different backgrounds into English.

David: Okay. Rachel: And actually,   that I also think is responsible in part for  the insanity, that is the spelling of English. David: Yeah.

Rachel: And that's actually one thing that we're  going to get into some here. David,   your mind is going to be blown out of  the water and I cannot wait to see it. David: [Laughter] okay.

Rachel: So, let's go to David's question.   What are the vowel sounds in American English, anyway?   Okay, I'm going to start with one that you did come up with.

It's the AH sound like in “father”.   Okay. Now, I said that spelling is pretty  challenging and I always tell people, you know letters and sounds don't match up  perfectly.

So, we have the sound AH.   Can you can you guess how many different ways we spell that in American English? David: So, “Father” that one?

Rachel: Yeah, like that's the letter “A”. David: Bother. Rachel: Okay so that’s an “o”.

David: “O”. “Father”,   “bother”, I don't think of any other  ways, I’m not thinking of others. Rachel: Yeah, so there are actually five ways that we spell this in English. 

We spell the AH vowel with the letter “o”, like you said in “body”,   with the letter “a”, like we said in “father”,  also with the letters “ea” like in “heart”. David: That's just, that one's unfair. Rachel: H—e—a—rt.

David: That's so impossible to know if you're  someone who is coming to English from reading primarily. Rachel: Oh, forget it. David: How would you not say h-ea-rt?

Rachel: Because E-A is pronounced lots of different ways   not just AH. Okay, I said it was pronounced  five ways, there are two left, the two are   not very common at all, but it does exist, the double “A”, like in the word “bazaar”, “Harper's   Bazaar”. The double “A” there, not at all a common occurrence, but is pronounced as AH.

And then also   the word “sergeant”. Se-a-a- rgeant we have the A,H vowel, but it's spelled with the single letter   “E”, that’s a hard word to spell. Here I spelled it look at it S - E - R - G - E - A - N - T.

David: Interesting. Rachel: Yeah, I would like to know where that word comes from.  David: I actually   thought that “sergeant” was S - A - E. 

I knew there was an A – E combo in there somewhere.   But I wonder if my brain put it at the beginning, because that sound is so weird. Rachel: It looks like it should be pronounced srr-gent David: Yeah.

Rachel:  Okay, I'm just going to say a couple more words with the sound “block”, “job”, “product”, “wash”,   “sock”. The “a” vowel. Okay, now here's one that you did not come up with, and you're not to blame,   you might not have come up with it, because you don't actually use it.

There's another vowel   that's very similar to the AH as in Father vowel, but it's actually the AW as in “law” vowel. Now if   you think of the word father, and you think of the word “law”, do you think same sound or different? David: Now that I'm listening to you do it, I hear it.

Rachel: Yeah. Most people out   there probably don't, and that's okay. A lot of students can't hear the difference.

I actually,   I don't think I really use the “a” as in  “law” vowel. So, there are places in America,   I've heard particularly in the West,  where this vowel has just been dropped,   and it's always just replaced with the “A” as in father. So, rather than “law” it would be “law”. 

And that sounds pretty normal. And I think I kind of do that. Now, Tom Kelly, who, you know, has   worked with Rachel's English for a long time, he has a really strong AW, very well defined AW and   I think it's partly, because he grew up on the East Coast or he didn't, but his parents did.  

David: What might he say where that would show up? Rachel: Like “law”, “caught”, AW,   and when you look at him when he does it,   he has that shape where the cheeks are coming in a little bit and the lips are flaring some. David: Okay.

Rachel: But it's a stronger   sound on the East Coast, for sure, than it is elsewhere in the country. But the sound in “law”   also has five different spelling. It can be just an AW like in “fall”.

I've noticed that when it is   followed by the “L” consonant, when the letter “A” is followed by “L”. Then, it's this vowel David: “Law”. Rachel: Right.

“Ball” rather   than “ball”, which we did with AH as in father.  Although, it's not that strange if I said, “Hey,   where is Stoney's soccer ball? ” You probably wouldn't think, “Wait she's saying that weird.

” David: I think, yeah, it sounds like when we're going    quickly or speaking quickly, you know,   the AW takes an extra beat sort  of to get the whole sound out. Rachel: You're saying the AW as in “law” takes you longer? David: Yeah.  

So, “You go grab your ball or go to the park. ” Rachel: Well, that was just very fast altogether. David: Altogether unhelpful.

Altogether.   Rachel: Altogether. Yeah, I mean, I   don't know what to say about this is far as speed, I don't think it's related to speed, personally.

David: Okay. Rachel: I think some people, you know, it's a   bit of a regional accent. You either have a strong  AW, and your lips really rounds and your cheeks   come in a little bit, AW, or everything's more  relaxed, “ah”, “ah”, and it's a little more open   feeling.

But we're talking about AW like in “law”,  and I said it had five spellings. The letter “A”   like in “fall”, “a-u”, you like in “cause”,  “cause and effect”. A, u, g, h, “daughter”.

David: Caught. Rachel: “Daugh-”, “caught”, “saw” “aw”, “o,   u, g, h”, “thought”, and that's it. Those are the  five spellings.

But if you're listening out there,   and you're thinking, “I'm having a hard time  telling the difference between these two vowels”,   don't worry about it at all. David, I want to talk  about the symbol, the I. P.

A. symbol, just because,   you know, a lot of my users use the International  Phonetic Alphabet. So, I want to make sure that   that we're all on the same page.

So the “a” as in  “father” is a little lowercase “a” and the “aw” as   in “law” is like the letter “o” with the left side  erased. It's like a backward C. So, as I said,   five spellings, a few other words with a sound  “awful”, “belong”, “dog”, “wrong”.

I said that   I noticed when the letter “A” was followed by  “L”, that it was usually this sound. I also   noticed when the letter “O” is followed by  “n, g”, it's this sound, “belong”, “wrong”. David: Gong.

Rachel: Were you half yawning when you said that? David: [laughter] I was half   laughing. Remember the Gong Show?

Rachel: [laughter] I never saw it, but I have   heard the cultural reference many times. David:  There was a show where there were  performers, and any time that someone   had gone on too long and was no longer being  well received, they bang on this big gong. Rachel: Do you feel like being on the gong right now?

David: I was gonging the AW vowel sound. Rachel: Okay,   David’s ready to move on, folks. Okay, you did  come up with this sound the sound AA sound.

David: Yes, “cat”. Rachel: “Cat”, yes. I'm just going to tell you how many   spellings there are, because you're never going  to be able to guess this, it’s just too hard.

David: Okay. Rachel: So, there are four spellings for this,   we have the, just the letter “a”, like in the word  “exact”. There it is, the letter “A” and it is   the as in “bat” vowel.

Then, we have “ai” in the  word plaid, spelled “ai”. Like, who knows that?   I totally would misspell that word all the time? 

The word “aunt”, now, okay, this is tricky, so I'm   talking about “a-u-n-t”, like “Aunt” and “Uncle”.  And when the “a” vowel here in “bat” is followed   by “n”, it kind of changes, it's not a pure vowel.  But it is still the “a” vowel, it's just shifted.  

“Aunt” so here “au” making the AA vowel. Earlier,  we saw that “au” also makes the “law” vowel like   in the word “cause”, so you see “au”, don't  think you know how to pronounce it, there are   multiple ways. Okay, and finally, it’s a very rare  spelling, and actually, I can only think of one   word, where the letter “i” makes the “a” vowel and  it's in the word “timbre”.

Do you know that word? David: I know that   word. I can sort of place  it in musical, technical.

Rachel: Yeah.   David: Isn’t it the quality of voice? Rachel: Yeah, the quality of the sound.

David: Quality of the sound? Rachel: Yeah, right,   it's like if a flute played a certain note  and a violin played the same note and the   singer sang the same note, it's what makes  all of them sound different. It's the quality. 

That’s spelled T- I - M - B - R -  E and it's pronounced “tam-ber”. David: And there is   no earthly way that that should  not be pronounced “tim-ber”? Rachel: Right.

David: That's crazy. Rachel: It's   crazy. Some other words with the  sound: “act”, “apple”, “crash”.

David: “Pass”, “task”, “matter”. Rachel: Yeah,   the I. P.

A. symbol for this is  an A and E squished together. David: I have seen that.

Rachel:  That's one of my favorite symbols.  Okay, moving on, the next vowel,   the EE vowel like in “she”. Now, this is  a vowel that you were able to identify.

David: And it doesn't seem fair,   because the other sounds that are the  name of the letter you diphthonged me on.   Rachel: [laughter] Wait what? David: Like, I was like, “I” is a vowel… Rachel: Yeah.

David: … sound Rachel: Right, and a letter. David: Right,   so the names of the letters I feel like  should all get to count as vowel sounds. Rachel: Yeah right.

David: Seems unfair to them. Rachel: Like the letter “A”,   but it's not a vowel, it’s an “a” diphthong. David: Right,   they’re a whole letter that we  should get to count as sound.

Rachel: Yeah, no,   you have to mentally break the  connection between letters and   sounds. That is of primary importance  when you are studying American English. David: It really is,   and I would have never thought about that before.

Rachel: No, except when you failed your spelling test.   David: I won spelling bee at my school. Rachel: I do not believe that.

David: What? I'm a great speller. Rachel: You are?

David: I'm a good speller. Why do you think I’m a bad speller? Rachel: No, I don't think you're   a bad speller, I just think spelling is somewhat difficult, therefore you must not be good at it.

David: Are you saying that it's hard for you,   so you assume that I'm bad at it? Rachel: I'm actually a good speller. So,   I don't know why I'm giving you such a hard time.

I apologize. Okay, actually the reason   why I didn't believe you, is because I have  never met anyone before who won a spelling bee. David: Oh, I definitely dominated the sixth grade spelling bee, I dominated, I won.

Rachel: So what did you -- then go on … David: I went to the regional spelling bee. Rachel: You did? How’d that go?

David: Not that well.  Rachel: Yeah, it's funny how the spelling  bee is kind of a big deal in the U. S.

David: Yeah, there's a national spelling bee. Rachel: I mean, there was a musical based… David: There’s an awesome documentary about it? Rachel: Oh, yeah.  

I don't think I've seen  that, but I've heard about it David: Oh, really? Rachel: Yeah. David: We should watch it.

Rachel: Netflix it tonight. David: Alright. Rachel: But yeah, there's   also a musical called the Great  Putnam County Spelling Bee.

David: I didn't know that. Rachel: That was really popular for a while. I mean, you know now that I'm  thinking about it, I wonder how many other countries have   spelling bees because a lot of other languages are phonetic.

There is a direct relationship   between letter and sound, therefore, you would never, it would never be a challenge to spell.   David: Interesting, yeah. Rachel: It's a huge challenge in American English, for sure.  

David: And the people who end up   winning the National Spelling Bee are people who memorize the spelling of words that we never use. Rachel: Crazy words. David: Right.

Rachel: Yeah, I mean that is what they spend a lot of their time doing.   They train for the spelling bee,   they study the spelling of crazy words,  yeah. I'd rather be outside, personally.

David: Absolutely. Rachel: Though I'm not knocking anybody who  invests their time in their passion, whatever it is. Okay,   so as we are saying, the EE as in “she” vowel, did I ask you how many spellings you think there are?

David: No, well can't that just be, well, it can be “ee”? Rachel: Yeah. David: As in “sheet”.

It can just be “I”. Rachel: Like in what word?   David: Mmh.

Rachel: Don't look   at my notes, don't look at my notes. [laughter] David: I’m not. I'm   sure I can think of that.

It  can be “ei” as in “believe”? Rachel: Mmh. David: It could be “ie”   as in “relieve”.

No, that’s still “ei”. Rachel: I before E except after C is the  rule for spelling with I and E… David: And after V, before V and after C. Rachel: It's just after C is the rule, V isn't part of the rule. 

David: Before V, no? Rachel: I’ve never heard that. David: [laughter] All right.

Rachel: So, spelling in English is so hard, we   have to come up with chants to help us remember.  Okay, so there are 10 spellings of this vowel. David: Alright, hit me.  

Rachel: Ten, ten,   guys. Well, you got some of them, there's just the plain old letter “e”, like in the word “be”,   “to be or not to be”. “B- E”, the letter “e”  makes the “e” as in she vowel.

Then there's   E - A like in the word “heat”. This is different from, if we add an “R” there, “heart”, then it   changes the vowel. But when it's E- A, “heat”,  “heat”, “E- A” can make the EEsound.

Double E,   you came up with this, you gave the example of the word “sheet”. I'm giving the example   of the word “weep”. Then, we have both E-I  and I-E.

So, E-I, like in the word “receive”,   and I -E like in the word “brief”. We  have E- O, the word “people”. Yeah.

David: Good one. Rachel: I mean it's such a common word,   but it's the only E-O spelling that I know of  that makes this sound. But I mean, you can see   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,   what other spellings, the E-Y spelling, like in the word “key”, and then you said just the letter   “I”, you were sure would be a way to spell  it but you couldn't come up with the word. David: Right. Rachel: “Police”.

David: Oh, yeah, there we go. Rachel: There,   it's the single letter “i” making the “e”  vowel. And obvious, when you forgot the ending   letter “y” in so many words “pretty”, “busy”,  “quickly”, unstressed either at the end.

Okay,   now this is an interesting word not very common, the word “quay”, spelled “Q-U-A- Y”, “Q-U-A-Y”,   the primary pronunciation is “key”,  but you may have heard “Kay” or “Kway”. David: What is that? Rachel: It's a body of water,   it’s like an inlet.

You’ve  never heard this word before? David: Well, I think of the   Florida Keys, which are a string  of islands, spelled “K- E-Y”.   Rachel: Right, “K- E- Y”, but   then the word can also be spelled “Q-U-A-Y”, and it’s a different word with a different meaning.

David: That's a new word for me. Rachel: So, you've never heard the word “Quay” or   “Quay”? Because those are also pronunciations of the word, they're just not as used, not as used.  

Okay, another vowel, the IH vowel. I put EE and IH together because EE is really common in a lot   of languages and IH is not very common at all.  And so, a lot of people, when they're learning   English, they don't try IH, they just make EE all the time, because it's familiar to them.

It's very   common to substitute in a familiar sound rather than learning a new one. And then, the other   big problem that people have is they can't hear the difference. Does that surprise you?

IH, EE. David: Those to my ear are extremely different. Rachel: Yeah, I remember when   I first started teaching and I was starting to learn what people couldn't understand, what people   thought sounded the same and I was also really surprised at some of the things.

A lot of people   think AH and UH sound the same. Yeah, I know, very surprising to me, but you know, of course   you're a native speaker you grow up understanding the differentiation completely. But EE and IH are   two sounds that a lot of people have problems with.

The IH vowel in particular, making that   different. So, for the IH vowel like in “sit”,  there are nine different ways to spell this vowel. David: Wow.

Rachel: The letter “a” like in the word “private”.    Yeah, who would it who would think that the letter   “a” would represent the IH vowel? The  letter “e” like in the word “pretty”,   “pretty”.

The double “e” like in the Word  “been”, “Hey, David, how have you been? ” David: Yep. That's the same sound.  

Rachel: The letter “i”,   like in the word “him”, it can be spelled “u-i”, like in the word “build”. It can be spelled with   a letter “o”, you would have never guessed that IH sound could be spelled letter “o”. Would have you?

David: No. Rachel: In the word “women”, plural of woman,  “wih”, “women”. It can be spelled  with the letter “u” like in the word “busy”.

David: That is unbelievable. Rachel: All these different spellings? David: For one sound.

Rachel: I know. By the way,   this is nine, it's not even-- ,  it doesn't win for most spellings. David: Wow.

Rachel: Yeah, okay where are we?   At the letter “y”, like in the word “symbol”. And then, sometimes, when you're looking at letters,   it's hard to say, “Okay, which ones should be assigned to which sound?

” But the word “foreign”,   “for-ehn” is spelled “E- I –G”. So, that's also  totally crazy. How did that “g” get in there?  

That's a consonant. Okay, so those are nine spellings. “Private”, “pretty”, “been”, “him”,   “build”, “women”, “busy”, “symbol”, “foreign”, and here's one more word for you, “big”.

David: “Big”? Rachel: Yeah, I just wanted to make 10 words,  so I had to add one more.  David: I didn’t understand.

Rachel: Wow, okay,   so we've completed five vowels. There are six more plus some other things to say, David,   I don't know about you, but I'm afraid someone's going to want to be hitting the gong and ending   this podcast. I'm afraid that this is starting to become too much information for one podcast.

What   do you say we wrap this, take a break, come back, and make a second episode of vowel sounds, sounds? David: Wow that was new on the sound effects. Rachel: Thank you.

David: But I think that you're   right. This is a good amount. Rachel: Okay,   guys, so just sit with that.

Sit with  those five vowels, and then next week,   we're going to hit you with episode two. So, be sure to tune into that. It's going to be    a great episode.

If you need a transcript for this episode, please visit rachelsenglish. com/podcast   and look for this episode. Don't forget to tune in next week for episode two in the series.

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I read  all of the reviews and I would love to hear what   people think about the Rachel's English podcast.  That's it, guys. Thanks so much, until next week.

David: See you later, guys.