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In this English pronunciation tutorial, you're going to learn the difference between the two sounds /​ʌ​/,, /​ʌ​/, /​ʌ​/, as in 'but,' and /​ɑː/, /​ɑː/, /​ɑː/, as in 'Bart'.
/​ʌ​/, /​ɑː/, 'but,' 'Bart.'
These two vowel sounds are incredibly difficult to hear the difference between and also to pronounce correctly.
This video itself was a request from one of our subscribers here on the channel so, thank you very much
for making this request. It was a really really good video to request.
So let's get down to it and go through the tutorial.
What I'm gonna do is: I'm first of all going to explain how we make the two sounds in English, /​ʌ​/ and /​ɑː/;
I'm then going to compare the two; I'm then going to put both sounds into words
so you can hear how words sound correctly in context with these sounds in them, and then finally;
I'm going to give you three sentences that contain a mixture of these two sounds for you to be able
to practice your hearing and your recognition of these two sounds in English speech, and also
for you to be able to practice making them in connected English speech.
So, it's going to be a really really useful tutorial to help you improve your English and to speak more clearly.
Let's get to it!
We're going to start with the /​ʌ​/ sound
/​ʌ​/
as in 'run.'
So look here at my lips:
/​ʌ​/
My mouth is 3/4 of the way open. So if my mouth was closed it would be:
/ɪ/ or /ʊ/, okay?
If my mouth was fully open it would be
like that okay and we're going to get to that when we look at the next sound
For /​ʌ​/ my mouth is 3/4 of the way open;
/​ʌ​/
As you can hear it's a short vowel sound
/​ʌ​/
It's not /​ɑː/ it's /​ʌ​/
and it comes from the back of my mouth /​ʌ​/ okay?
/​ʌ​/
If we compare that to /​ɑː/, what do you notice first of all?
/​ɑː/
It's a long English vowel sound /​ɑː/ compared to /​ʌ​/ short.
My mouth is fully open /​ɑː/
compared to /​ʌ​/
/​ɑː/, /​ʌ​/
My lips are still unrounded, they're not
like that or
like that. My lips are relaxed and unrounded
/​ɑː/
and again the vowel sound comes from the back of my mouth.
Both these vowel sounds come from the back of the mouth:
/​ʌ​/, /​ɑː/.
And as you can see the two differences between the two vowel sounds:
for /​ʌ​/ my mouth is 3/4 open; for /​ɑː/ it's fully open.
And /​ʌ​/ it's a short vowel sound /​ɑː/ is a long vowel sound.
Those are the only two differences between these two vowel sounds, okay.
So, first of all, it's really really important to be able to get the mouth in the correct position
that is the biggest thing that's going to help you to get these vowel sounds correct, okay.
Mouth has to be in the right position.
/​ʌ​/, /​ɑː/
/​ɑː/ long vowel sound /​ʌ​/ short vowel sound.
I'm now going to go ahead and put both sounds into five sets of words.
Five words that are exactly the same, apart from these two vowel sounds which make the words different, okay.
And this is where it really really gets very important if you to be able to hear the
difference and for you to be able to pronounce the difference.
If you can't pronounce a difference between these two vowel sounds you're going to put yourself in situations
where you're hard to understand and people are hearing incorrect things when you're trying to say things, okay?
So, pair of words number one:
'Cut'
'Cart'
'Cut'
'Cart'
'Cub'
'Carb'
'Cub'
'Carb'
Number three:
'Bun'
'Barn'
'Bun'
'Barn'
Number four:
'Chum'
If you're my friend you're my chum.
'Chum'
'Charm'
I hope you think my English pronunciation videos are charming pronunciation videos.
'Charm'
Are you telling the difference already? If so thumbs up!
Let me know in the comments below how you're finding this, what difficulties you're having.
Can you hear it great?
Can you hear the difference? No?
Comment below, so I know how you're getting on!
The fifth and final pair of words we're going to look at is:
'Gunner'
and 'garner'
'Garner'
Okay
'Gunner' and 'garner.'
Alright. So, there you go you've got five pairs of words there.
Now, let's put these words into some sentences and really stress test your hearing and your pronunciation
of both these English vowels sounds.
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because I've got videos that come out like this on a weekly basis. So, make sure to never miss any and get the best out of your English.
Let's go and put these words into sentences!
So, sentence one:
'But Bart's chums harmed the barn'
Can you hear it? I hope you can hear the difference!
If you can't don't worry, you need to go back through and listen to me explaining the vowel sounds correctly again
and then practice putting it into the words. It's when you put it into sentences like this that everything comes together, okay?
So if you can't hear it yet don't worry, if you can great thumbs up!
Sentence two:
'Mark's gun was in the barns bunker.'
Again, mixture of /​ɑː/, /​ʌ​/, /​ɑː/, /​ʌ​/ in there okay, so I really really hope that you can hear the difference.
And finally, sentence three
'The hugging chums are partners.'
Okay!
/​ʌ​/, /​ɑː/
It really is as simple as that.
Put the mouth in the correct position, get the vowel sounds correct in words, and then get the words correct in sentences.
Here's a really useful tip: you may find that in some words you're getting the /​ʌ​/sound or the /​ɑː/ sound correct and in other words, you're not.
If that's the case don't worry, all you need to do is focus on getting the sound correctly before and after certain consonants.
So for example, you may find the /​ɑː/ sound very easy before the M sound: 'arm'
but you might very difficult before the T sound 'art,' 'art'.
Okay. Or any other combinations of these vowel sounds and English continents.
Okay, so your homework for this week is to really focus on these two sounds.
Can you hear the difference? Great! Can you pronounce the difference? Even better!
And can you pronounce these words correctly in speech-- connected speech? Absolutely brilliant! Okay? Simple as that.
Thumbs up if you've liked the video, thumbs down if you haven't. Boo!
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