Vowel pronunciation bootcamp
Many of my students have difficulties with pronunciation. Although it’s perfectly fine to have an accent, you probably want to make yourself as understandable as possible. This is especially important for social or business conversations and for scoring well on speaking tests such as TOEFL or IELTS. Therefore, I’ve recorded a number of exercises that you can use to help distinguish and produce different sounds in English. In this post, I’ll concentrate on some of the important vowel sounds in English, using “minimal pair” exercises. In a minimal pair exercise, only one sound is different in each pair of words. Please note that I have an American accent. Many training materials on the Internet feature British speakers and, of course, they sound wonderful (we Americans love a British accent!), but if you want to hear these sounds with an American accent, listen to me.
I have used the minimal pairs lists at Ted Power and before each recording, I’ve posted the link so that you can see the words I’m saying. Be sure to also check my pronunciation bootcamps for diphthongs and consonants.
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Bit/bet (note that the transcript should say pit/pet and I have not used it/ate … which is pronounced differently by Americans)
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Cat/cart (note that I’ve left out cam/calm and stun/stern, which I don’t think belong in this group)
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Cot/caught (note that I’ve left out shone/shawn, since shone is pronounced differently in American English)
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Cart/cot (note that I’ve left out clerk/clock, since clerk is pronounced differently in American English)
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Four/fur (note that I’ve left out or/err, since err is pronounced differently in American English)
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