In this video you're going to learn exactly how to tell the difference between the '/æ/' sound
as in 'bat' and the '/e/' sound as in 'bet'. It is essential to know the difference between these
two sounds and to be able to use both of these sounds clearly in your English pronunciation.
If you don't you're going to get words confused or wrong or mispronounced words and if you get
them right your English is going to be clear and easy to understand let's dive in and get
started. With the lesson I'm going to break the video down into three parts first of all
we're going to look at both sound '/æ/ and '/e/' then I'm going to put both sounds into '/æ/' and
'/e/' words and then finally I'm going to test your recognition on words that have these very
sounds in so let's get started with the '/æ/' sound the '/æ/'sound come from the very front
of my mouth if I turn my mouth to the side '/æ/', '/æ/', '/æ/' my jaws forward it's
not back like that it's right forward '/æ/'. My tongue is at the front of my mouth and my mouth
is open it's not completely open it's not like that but it's 3/4 of the way open '/æ/', '/æ/',
'/æ/', '/æ/', '/æ/'. With the '/e/' sound it is also at the front of my mouth but my mouth
is more closed '/e/', '/e/'', '/e/'. Look here at the difference between the two sounds '/e/',
'/æ/','/e/','/æ/', '/e/', '/æ/','/e/', '/æ/'. So the first thing for you to do is to practice going like this '/e/','/æ/''/e/','/æ/', '/e/','/æ/', '/e/','/æ/'.
Okay also something to be aware of is that both sounds are short vowel sounds okay. Short English
vowel sounds are like this they're short '/e/', '/æ/' , '/e/', '/æ/'. They're not like long English vowel sounds which
are long like this '/u:/' /u:/ okay that's the opposite. So the '/e/' and the '/æ/' sound are both very short '/e/'
'/æ/'. Now let's look at some words that have either the '/e/' sound or the '/æ/' sound where every other sound in the word is the same. Okay so the first word is 'ex', 'ex', 'ex' that's with the '/e/' sound. Now with
the '/æ/' sound it looks like this 'axe', 'axe', 'axe' can you hear the difference 'ex', 'axe', 'ex', 'ax', 'ex', 'axe', 'ex', 'axe'. Word two 'met'
'met', 'met', I 'met' you. 'Mat', 'mat' 'mat'. Please clean your, shoes on the 'Mat'. Now the difference 'met', 'mat', 'met'
'mat', 'met', 'mat', 'met', 'mat'. Word three 'pen', 'pen', 'pen'. 'pan', 'pan', 'pan'. Now the difference between the two
'pen', 'pan', 'pen', 'pan', 'pen', 'pan', 'pen', 'pan' 'pen', 'pan'. How are you finding this so far? Let me know. Comment below
letting me know if you can tell the difference what sounds you're finding most difficult here.
And now let's look at word for 'bed', 'bed', 'bed', 'bed', 'bed', 'bed'. 'Bad', 'bad', 'bad', 'bad', 'bad', 'bad'. And now the difference
between the two 'bed', 'bad', 'bed', 'bad', 'bed' 'bad', 'bed', 'bad'. Okay just before we move on to the third
part of the video, where I'm going to test your recognition I'm just going to give you a couple
of example sentences that you can use to actually see how you're doing okay and see if you can test
the difference. So if I say 'I'm going to sleep on the bed'. 'I'm going to sleep on the bed' okay
or I can say 'you've done something bad'. 'You've done something bad'. 'You've done something bad'. Okay I can
put the two together and say 'You've done something very bad so you're not going to sleep on the bed'.
'You've done something very bad so you're not going to sleep on the bed'. Can you hear the difference I
think if you can see behind me there is a tropical storm coming in I'm on the beach in Recife here in
north of Brazil in northeastern Brazil which is where I lived to learn Portuguese so in a second
you might have to move. So let's quickly finish the rest of the video with some testing of the
two words. So what I'm going to do is read you a word and I want you to write down or guess whether
it's the '/e/' sound or the '/æ/' sound. Okay I'm going to go through five words and then you can tell me
the difference I'm going to cover my lips so you can't see what my lips are doing. Okay and this is
going to test your hearing. Word one: 'Bend' 'Bend', 'Bend' do you hear '/e/' or '/æ/'. Write your answers in
the comments below okay, then I can have a look and see what you've got right or wrong. Word two
'said', 'said', 'said', 'said'. Do you hear '/e/' or '/æ/'. Word three: 'pen', 'pen', 'pen', okay do you hear '/e/' or '/æ/'.
We might have to be quicker can you see just how quickly this storms actually coming across is amazing.
Word four: 'mat', 'mat', 'mat', 'mat' did you hear '/e/'or '/æ/'. And word five is going to be 'ex', 'ex', 'ex', 'ex', did you
hear '/e/' or '/æ/'. Write your comments in the section below if you really want to get the most out of
this lesson. Then I've uploaded the lesson notes for these two sounds in the link below. So if you click the link below this video, it will take you to a page where you can put your email address
in and you can actually download extensive lesson notes for this lesson. You learn how to, exactly how
to make these two sounds in more detail and also how to actually put the sounds into sentences.
So if you want to take your pronunciation to the next level just download the lesson notes and
you're going to find them really really useful okay. Give the video a thumbs up if you've liked
it. I really hope you have done. Subscribe for more English pronunciation videos that come
out like this on a weekly basis and what I want to do after going through the lesson notes for
this lesson and practicing these two sounds is, to go to this video here where I'm going to test
your pronunciation recognition of the '/æ/' sound against the '/​ɑː/' sound. In English again they are two
other vowel sounds that are very very similar and easy to get confused but you really want
to get them right. Okay so after you've done the lesson and gone through lesson notes go to this
video here and you're going to find it really really useful I'll see you in the next video