Hello! and welcome back to Easy English with James! My name is James and today we're going
to look at the Five Long Vowel Sounds in English in another video i made previously
we looked at the seven short vowel sounds in english this time we're focusing on the
five long vowel sounds okay so if you want to learn the sounds like e e uh they're
short vowel sounds check out my other video in this video we focus on the longer sounds okay
okay the first thing i need to mention is how important it is for you to learn the ipa
if you want to master english pronunciation what is the ipa it stands for the international
phonetic alphabet it's an alphabet that tells us how words and letters sound
in english and in many other languages why is it so important to know this or to learn this when
you're learning english well it's because english pronunciation is a little tricky and the reason
for that is that the spelling of words and letters is not always the same as how we pronounce those
words and letters for example take the letter a okay a can be pronounced in many different ways
depending on where it is in a word for example the letter a can sound like a in cat
or hat but it can also sound like a in pay or way it can also sound like are in father or rather
okay that one letter the letter a has many variations of how it can be pronounced when you're
speaking english how do we know which way is the correct way to pronounce it we know by learning
the "IPA". The International Phonetic Alphabet. Okay, it's the quickest and easiest way to know how a
word is pronounced correctly in English. Once you know the IPA you can read the phonetic symbols and
you'll know how any word is pronounced. okay. okay. Our first sound is the /e:/ sound /e:/ /e:/ you'll find
this in most common pronouns personal pronouns like "he" and "she" and "we" okay, we use this sound
all the time very important to master it e watch closely e e e okay the mouth kind of opens wide e
e okay as if you're stretching the mouth open and pushing the sound out e e
okay it's a long sound okay be careful with this one because a lot of people get this one confused
with the short vowel sound it in the words did so they'll say things like deed i did that not i did
that okay this is a long sound which means you have to say ee ee okay let's try with some words
we she she he he now let's try a couple of bigger words she sheep jeep
cheap okay cheap cheap now try this sentence we liked the cheap jeep we liked the cheap jeep
we liked the cheap g okay practice that one again and again and again because it's one of the most
common sounds in english e okay our next sound is the uh sound uh this sound again very very common
found in words like her her okay very very common also the past tense the past simple of to be
were where were you were her where were her things for example were and her it's a really simple
sound to make all we do is we open the mouth relax and push a sound out uh open the mouth
okay you'll also see this in words that have a u sometimes a u and an r for example on an animal
the hair that grows on animals is called it's fur fur fur okay fur okay another quick thing about
this er sound it's also what we call a thinking sound in english what does that mean when i'm
thinking of something to say but i haven't said it yet i might make the sound uh uh
like i don't know what to say yet that's the sound that we make this
uh sound okay if somebody asks you a question and you don't know how to answer when you're thinking
a lot of english speakers might go um uh i know the answer okay uh
uh it's also a sound that children make when they see something really disgusting they'll go
that is disgusting okay it's a sound that children make when they see something
yeah not nice or disgusting okay practice with me again
were fur you'll also see this in third for example first second and third in
a race or when we talk about dates like the 3rd of april the 3rd of june third
you've got that horrible th first if you want help pronouncing the th sound
check out the link up here to another video where i help you to master that difficult
sound that you find in english a lot okay but first second and third okay when you're talking
about dates third third okay let's move on to the next sound the next sound is the ah
ah ah sound now you'll notice when i make this sound i can make it in many different ways i can
kind of go this way ah or i can go ah or i can just open ah okay the easiest way and the way
that if you go to a dentist in england and they want to look at your teeth they might ask you
to make this sound they will say say ah say ah ah okay why because they want you to open your mouth
wide and expose your teeth ah ah ah interestingly this is also the pronunciation in the alphabet
of the letter ah okay ah ah in british english we pronounce it exactly the same way
ah ah okay in american english it's a little bit different but here ah ah okay you'll find
this in words like car far and bar okay my car was outside the bar and it's very far from here
my car was outside the bar and it's very far okay my car was outside the bar and it's very far car
okay practice that one a lot because again you'll use it every single time you open your
mouth to speak in english the next sound is the or sound or or now you'll notice with this one
unlike the previous sounds where my mouth opens a lot like this with this one the mouth closes
or or okay very common in the sound or the word or me or you him or her
also in the number four one two three four okay watch closely or or or for
door okay or okay you really have to make sure that your mouth closes and pushes the sound
out through through your lips or or or four door tour okay and also in words like walk
when you're walking sometimes that a and l can also be pronounced with an or sound walk
talk okay tour war walking talking so you'll see the mouth goes or king tor king war king
or king okay remember the sound or or or okay let's move on to the next one
okay our final sound for today is the ooh sound you'll notice again my mouth gets smaller
but listen to the difference from the previous sound the previous sound was or or this is
okay make sure that you're really pursing that means bringing together your lips
when you want to eat food you'll hear this sound food food when you talk about how you
feel you mention your mood mood food mood you'll also see it in words like rude sometimes the you
can be pronounced like this rude or crude okay rude crude mood and food
okay okay let's try a sentence with this one the dude was rude when he was eating food
the dude was rude when he was eating food the dude was rude when he was eating food
okay so let's go back and have another look
the three vowel sounds long vowel sounds where we open our mouth
see if you can say that e
the two sounds where we close our mouth are or and or and okay or and ooh practice all of them five
vowel sounds now we're going to play a little game okay sheep sheep which vowel sound is that
then you're right if you said the e sound the number four what vowel sound does that contain
you'd be right if you said the or sound or what about the h in the word her
what vowel sound is that you'd be right if you said uh uh that's this sound what about the
food the word food what vowel sound does that contain it is of course
okay and finally what about the car in the word car that contains the
r sound okay remember then practice them because you will be using them sounds
all the time in english okay the five long vowel sounds are some of the most common sounds that
we make in english so it's super important to practice them until you don't have to think about
them anymore okay thank you very much for joining me today i would love if you would subscribe
to this channel to see more of my videos in the future be sure to check out my other pronunciation
videos i have a th sound pronunciation video and a video on the short vowel sounds in english
as well as an upcoming video that will be out very soon about the diphthongs diphthongs in english
they are the vowel sounds where we make two double sounds in one vowel like near and here
okay yeah we have two vowel sounds in one they're a bit more difficult but stick
with this channel and you'll see the video i make on that very soon okay thank you very much goodbye