In this American English pronunciation
video, we’re going to learn how to
pronounce the EH as in BED vowel.
To make this sound, the jaw drops, eh,
and the tongue remains forward with
the tip touching lightly behind the
bottom front teeth. Eh.
The mid/front part of the tongue lifts a
little bit towards the roof of the mouth
while the back of the tongue feels like it
stretches wide.
Eh. In a stressed syllable, the voice has
a little curve up, then curve down. Eh,
eh. It’s stressed in the word ‘said’.
Let’s watch up close and in slow motion.
The jaw drops. The tongue tip touches
the back of the bottom front teeth, and
the middle part arches up towards the
roof of the mouth.
Said, eh, said. In an unstressed syllable,
the vowel is lower and flatter in pitch,
as well as quieter and quicker, eh, eh.
The vowel is unstressed in the word
‘employ’, eh. Let’s take a look up close
and in slow motion.
Relaxed jaw drop. The middle part of
the tongue arches up towards the roof
of the mouth. Here we compare the
stressed EH from ‘said’, on top, with the
unstressed version from ‘employ’ on
the bottom. Notice the jaw drops more
for the stressed version of this vowel.
Because the unstressed version of the
vowel is shorter, there isn’t enough
time to make the full jaw drop.
EH stressed: said, EH
EH unstressed: employ, eh
EH, eh. EH, eh.
Example words. Repeat with me:
Red, never, embrace, enter, embody, desk.