hello and welcome back to easy english
with james i'm james and today we're
going to look at the most important part
of english pronunciation the seven
short vowel sounds okay if you really
really want to sound more like a native
speaker
and you want to take your pronunciation
to the highest level you simply
must
get these seven sounds correct okay very
important stick with me and we're going
to learn the seven short vowels in
english
[Music]
okay first of all i'd like to mention
that the english accent that i use is
close to
received pronunciation that's the
standard british accent that you might
know from harry potter hermione it's
leviosa
or the queen of england when she speaks
i'm speaking to you at what i know is an
increasingly challenging time it's not
exactly the same but it's close okay i'm
from england and i usually speak with an
accent that is very close to received
pronunciation in this accent there are
seven short vowel sounds okay and
they're the ones we're going to look at
today
another thing that i will add that is
very very important before we start this
lesson is that if you really want to
master english pronunciation it is
essential that you learn the ipa
what is the ipa ipa stands for
international phonetic alphabet it's a
system designed from latin that will
help you to understand how any word in
english sounds okay this is
absolutely essential in english because
english is not a phonetically written
language what does that mean that means
that when you read an english word you
don't know exactly how that word sounds
okay unlike other languages like german
or vietnamese when you understand the
sounds and you understand which one
corresponds to which letter you can
pronounce everything by reading it in
english that's not the case sadly okay
so learning the ipa can be a really
helpful tool for you to understand how
each and every word is pronounced in
english
this is one reason why many beginner
speakers will look at words like
ah
and an
and they will pronounce them with that
sound
when in english it is almost never
pronounced that way
okay an apple
okay a man
a woman not a man
a woman okay or an apple
okay if you look at the ipa
transcription that's this thing here you
will see the true pronunciation of the
sounds okay so
really good idea to get familiar with
the ipa you will learn some ipa symbols
in this very lesson so stick with me
okay let's begin
okay these here are the seven english
short vowels
these are the ipa symbols that we're
going to learn today that correspond to
these seven vowel sounds as you can see
the first one here is the
ah
sound
ah
okay you'll hear this in words like
cat
hat
fat
sat
bat
okay it's a short
sound you'll watch closely for the
position of my mouth
now try this
the cat sat on the mat next to the bat
or
the fat man
had
a hat
the fat man
had a hat
the fat man
had a hat
okay lots of a
sounds in there
okay practice that one
the next sound is the
again short sound very very short
watch the position of my mouth
you know this from words like
met
or
set
or most importantly the word
get which is a really common word in
english and one that you should make
sure you make this sound perfect
get
let
met
and set
okay a quick short sentence with that
one
let me get the set
let me get the set let me get the set
okay practice that over and over again
and get that sound
almost completely natural okay the next
sound is the o sound
again watch closely this time you'll see
the jaw drops just a little
ah
you know this from words like
hot
hot or
on
okay very important sound to get right
and one that a lot of speakers from
asian countries sometimes struggle with
because of the movement of the jaw watch
again
on
hot
oh oh okay
let's try that one
it's hot on the bot
okay or it's hot in the box
it's hot
in the box it's hot in the box
okay again practice practice practice
makes perfect let's move on to the next
one
okay the next sound is really important
it is the uh sound
okay you'll know this from words like
would
should
could
and
good
okay very good
this is the
uh sound
watch very closely this time because the
lips slightly push forward they protrude
and the jaw again moves good
good
wood
should
could
okay
let's see if we can do this one with a
short sentence
i would if i could
but i don't know if i should
i would if i could
but i don't know
if i should
okay one more time repeat it after me
i would
if i could but i don't know if i should
okay well done let's move on to the next
sound okay the next sound is the
you know this from words like
did
hit
hit and
bit
bit and even short short words that we
use all the time and probably one of the
most important words in english
it
okay when you say things like it's okay
you're saying it it's okay it's okay
practice this one with sentences like i
fit my fitbit onto my wrist
i fit my fitbit onto my wrist i fit my
fitbit onto my wrist
and again remember this is a very short
vowel sound okay really really short
okay
it is not the same but it is commonly
confused with the longer e sound watch
the difference
[Music]
they are not the same sounds so please
don't confuse them this one
is really really short did
hit
bit
kiss
miss
okay
practice practice practice and i promise
you that sound will come naturally very
soon
okay the next sound is the
uh
sound
you know this from words like
butter
but
okay really common words but
and there's that sound but
we need to get this sound correct
because it sounds very similar to the
next vowel sound which we'll look at in
a second okay try this sentence
but the butter
is kaput
but the butter is kaput
okay
practice practice practice again and i
promise that sound will also come much
much easier
okay our final sound is the most
important sound in all of english it's
so important that i actually made
another video about this sound on its
own but here we're going to cover it
very briefly very quickly
this sound is called the schwa sound it
looks like this and it is the number one
most common sound in all of the english
language okay
this sound is the one sound that you
absolutely must get right if you want to
sound
more like a native speaker okay
so you'll hear this uh
sound in words like
about
or
another okay it is very common look at
the word
banana in the word banana this sound
appears twice in ba
na
na the ba
it usually appears in unstressed
syllables okay that means in sounds that
native speakers basically don't give
much importance to in the sentence like
a man
a man or the man okay the important part
there is man
the determiner the is not really
important and native speakers will skip
almost straight over that and insert a
schwa sound in there and say
okay
try this i want another banana or an
apple i want another banana or an apple
okay lots of uh uh
sounds in there now to remember this
very very quickly this one sound the
schwa
it's made by basically relaxing your
mouth your mouth must be relaxed
about
away
ago
okay and that wraps up the seven short
vowel sounds in english let's go over
the sounds again really really quickly
and practice them one more time
the first sound is
in words like
hat
fat
cat
the cat
sat on the mat
the cat sat on the mat
okay
the next sound is the e sound this is
found in words like
get
set
let and forget
okay
the next sound is the
o sound this is found in words like hot
top on
okay
the next sound is the uh sound
this is found in words like
good
should
would
all very important words the next sound
is the
e sound
this is found in words like
it
hit
fit
okay
the next sound is the uh sound this is
found in common words like
cup or butter or even just butt
okay
and the final sound the most important
one that you need to remember is the
schwa sound this sound is found in words
all over the english language from
another banana internet
millions of words make sure you practice
that sound most of all okay next week
there'll be a new video on the long
vowel sounds and then after that we're
going to make one on the really tricky
diphthong sounds in english okay so
stick with me make sure you like and
subscribe to my channel
if you want to see more interesting and
helpful english videos and content okay
take care have a good day and good luck
learning this lovely language of english
okay bye bye
[Music]