Questions tagged [vowels]
This tag is for questions about the pronunciation and orthographic representation of vowels.
33
questions
0
votes
0answers
14 views
Difference between Ablaut and I-umlaut
How can we differentiate among these:
For example, if sing and sang are the examples of Ablaut
then why foot vs feet is an example of i-umlaut and not ablaut?
0
votes
0answers
57 views
Minimal pairs for i vs ɪ and is there an important difference?
According to a vowel question in Linguistic SE, English can be considered to have vowels [i ɪ e ɛ æ ɑ ɔ o ʊ u ʌ] which can be reduced to [i e æ ɑ o u ʌ] (plus an orthogonal length or ...
0
votes
1answer
33 views
Confusion in placing Articles a and an before nouns
When I was a kid I was taught that Article An should be placed before nouns starting with a Vowel letter, but now i got to know that it's actually the sound of vowel we should focus not the letter.
...
3
votes
1answer
148 views
How to differentiate the pronunciation of it, eat, eight and ate?
I'm trying to refine my spoken English from scratch, and one of the biggest issue for me are the pairs of vowels: tense /i/ and lax /I/. I really can't tell the difference between them. I know that /i/...
1
vote
1answer
82 views
Pronunciation in British v. American English
Why are words like privacy pronounced like ˈprɪv.ə.si in British and ˈpraɪ.və.si in American (short vowel in the first case, long in the latter one)?
I read that determining whether a vowel is short ...
2
votes
2answers
784 views
Example Sentence for learning 'short' vowel sounds
As a teaching tool, I'm looking for a sentence that contains the 5 short vowel sounds (cat, get, sit, got, mud).
The sentence should be as short as possible, contain words that are as phonetically ...
0
votes
1answer
1k views
Letter “i” and its sounds [closed]
I am not a native English speaker and I have a question.
Why is the sound of the letter i different in the words dinner and diamond? What is the criteria for the change?
0
votes
2answers
125 views
Is letter Y in “Guyana” a vowel or a consonant?
Despite not being perfect, I do have some basic knowledge about consonants and vowels. From textbooks and internet, I know that, for example, C, Q and X are always consonants; A, E, I, O, U are always ...
2
votes
1answer
536 views
'an' or 'a' before the word 'user'? [duplicate]
We learn in English grammar class to use 'a' before words starting with consonants and 'an' before words starting with vowels.
Since for the word 'user' which starts with a vowel, are we supposed to ...
2
votes
1answer
203 views
Does the lip shape change when pronouncing schwa for some syllables?
For instance in the word literature /ˈlɪtərəʧər/, does the lip shape change for each syllable with schwa, so they become more as if we were pronouncing /e/, /æ/ and /u/ respectively, or some other ...
2
votes
4answers
1k views
Counting syllables in English words
How many syllables are there in the words "castle" and "seven"? I realize that my question looks silly, but I can't understand why the words with the mute E, like "castle", have 2 syllables as this ...
2
votes
0answers
181 views
Where to find X-ray videos of the vocal track for all the English vowels? [closed]
I've found this web page that makes a convincing case for teaching/studying the cardinal vowel quadrilateral in language learning. Apparently it is taught to improve the accent to actors, and in some ...
1
vote
1answer
133 views
How to make clear in the speech that a short English vowel is stressed?
I'll try now to explain.
Let us take the word Berlin (name of the capital of Germany). It is pronounced [bɜːˈlɪn] or [bɝːˈlɪn] (I followed this link). In any of two cases, the first vowel is long but ...
1
vote
2answers
284 views
Is there at least a single English word which starts with the [ʊ] sound?
[ʊ] is a short vowel sound, as in good or wolf or bush.
Is there at least one word which starts with it in English?
17
votes
3answers
6k views
Why do we pronounce “the university” as “thuh university” rather than “thee university”?
English Club says that usually, we pronounce "the" as "thuh", but when it happens to be in front of a vowel sound, then we pronounce it as "thee".
Why is "the university" pronounced as "thuh" ...
0
votes
1answer
7k views
Using “an eight” wrong or right? [closed]
Vowels must start with 'a' so how we can say with eight 'an eight'? Even eight is plural. For example, set of eight elements or objects?
1
vote
2answers
230 views
Pronouncing double “o” in Foot vs. Cooperation
Why are the two words "foot" and "cooperation" so different in pronunciation?
3
votes
2answers
388 views
Does “shore” require the “r” sound in the pronunciation (UK pronunciation)?
In the Cambridge Dictionary I see the pronunciation of the word shore is represented by /ʃɔːr/. In the WordReference dictionary it is instead pronounced as /ʃɔː/. The "r" sound is silent in the last ...
1
vote
1answer
48k views
Use of “an” for a word not starting with a vowel [duplicate]
I've encountered this quite a few times now. I'm aware that usually words, starting with a vowel require an "an", words not starting with a vowel are preceded by an "a".
Sometimes words start with a ...
0
votes
1answer
64 views
Pronunciation for the words which contain the letter “i”
I am very interested to find out a rule which can help me to pronounce correctly the words which contain the letter "i".
For example: nine vs. injury vs. provide... These are some examples which put ...
1
vote
1answer
161 views
How can I learn the English sounds that don't exist in my mother tongue?
How can I learn the English sounds that don't exist in my mother tongue? I have troubles with distingushing between the long and short sounds, but also it's very hard for me to get the difference ...
4
votes
1answer
183 views
A problem with short i
I can't repeat short i when I'm hearing it (I currently use long e instead of short i). How do I learn that or may that be impossible for me?
8
votes
5answers
11k views
Why do we say 'The earth' and not 'An earth'?
As I understand, noun which is singular and start with vowels, we put an article "an" in front of it. ( e.g an eye, an ear )
But why it is not "an earth" and why "the earth"?
2
votes
1answer
1k views
a / an - adjective - noun
The article a becomes to an when the following noun starts with a vowel.
Not a adventure but an adventure.
But how is it, when there's an adjective before the noun?
Not a thrilling adventure or ...
2
votes
4answers
304 views
How to identify the sound of an “A” without altering the spelling of the word?
I have the word "Carr" (short for the name Carrie).
Is there a way to write the 'a' so that a person reading the word 'Carr' would pronounce it like care ('kær), opposed to pronouncing it like car (...
0
votes
2answers
1k views
How to pronounce “people”
I asked my English teacher about pronunciation of words like table, available, apple or people. He told me they end with a short A. But when I listen to native English speakers, I hear "pee-pole", ...
17
votes
4answers
15k views
How to pronounce the 'schwa' sound
I have seen lately many questions related to the pronunciation of the schwa (ə) sound. Today, I again found this question, What exactly is the "schwa" sound?, at EL&U, so I wanted to ask how the '...
-4
votes
1answer
2k views
Pronunciation of “snake” and “snack” [closed]
It's sometimes hard to distinguish between these two words while speaking.
What is the correct pronunciation of these two words?
3
votes
1answer
3k views
How many consonant and vowel combination types are there in English? [closed]
I'm an ESL learner and I'm not so good at English yet.
I want to find official documents, links, guides, etc. which contain rules about consonants and vowels blending together.
Which rules decide ...
6
votes
1answer
244 views
/kɑlm/ vs /kɑːm/
. . . calm . . .calm . . . [audio source]
• (UK) IPA: /kɑːm/, X-SAMPA: /kA:m/
• (US) IPA: /kɑm/, /kɑlm/, X-SAMPA: /kAhm/, /kAlm/ [wiktionary.org]
The first calm seems to be [kɑlm], and the ...
2
votes
3answers
2k views
When to pronounce 'e'?
Many words have the silent 'e' on the end. How can I tell whether I should pronounce the 'e' or not? Is there a rule for this?
9
votes
1answer
4k views
How to correctly pronounce “pan” and “pen” differently?
As a Portuguese speaker, I would pronounce both pan and pen the same.
In what can I base my pronunciation so I don't mistakenly pronounce these words the same again?
32
votes
3answers
6k views
Pronunciation of “beaches” and “bitches”
For me it is often hard to distinguish between these two words while speaking. The t in the bitch is almost neglectable in speech.
What is the correct pronunciation of these two words?
