Vowels: short a sound /æ/

Listen to the short a sound

How to pronounce the short a sound

The front of the tongue is pushed further forward and is held lower in the mouth when forming the short a sound than with any other vowel sound. The tip of the tongue will touch the inside of the bottom front teeth. The body of the tongue is rounded slightly upward. The jaw is lowered and the lips are held apart, allowing the entire oral cavity to remain open.

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Common short a spellings

spelling	example		other pronunciations for spelling
-a-(CVC)[1]	ask bath class		none

[1] a spelling followed by the letter r
When the consonant following the letter a is the letter r (as in the words star and car), the sound is usually pronounced as the ar sound instead of the short a sound followed by the r sound. If the ar spelling occurs on an unstressed syllable (as in the words dollar and sugar), a schwa+r pronunciation is also possible.

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The short a sound in suffixes

none

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Non-phonetic short a words
The short a sound is underlined in the following words:
have laugh

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Pronuncian Lessons

  

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long e sound /i/

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Introduction to Approximant Sounds

l sound /l/

velar l sound /ɫ/

Introduction to Stops

t sound /t/

b sound /b/

g sound /ɡ/

k sound /k/

Letter x Pronunciation: k+s or g+z

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