MASTER English Pronunciation | The 7 Short Vowel Sounds | Sound Like a Native Speaker!

Hello and welcome back to Easy English with  James! I'm James and today we're going to   look at the most important part of English  pronunciation, the seven short vowel sounds.   Okay, if you really really want to sound more  like a native speaker and you want to take your   pronunciation to the highest level you simply  must get these seven sounds correct. okay.   Very important stick with me, and we're going  to learn the seven short vowels in english. Okay, first of all I'd like to mention that  the english accent that I use is close to   received pronunciation. That's the standard   british accent that you might know from harry  potter (hermione) "it's leviOsa, not leviosA". or the queen of england when she speaks.  "I'm speaking to you at what I know is   an increasingly challenging time". It's not  exactly the same but it's close, okay, I'm from   england and i usually speak with an accent that  is very close to received pronunciation. In this   accent there are seven short vowel sounds, okay,  and they're the ones we're going to look at today.   Another thing that I will add that is very  very important before we start this lesson   is that if you really want to master english  pronunciation it is essential that you learn the   IPA! What is the ipa? IPA stands for international  phonetic alphabet. It's a system designed from   Latin that will help you to understand how any  word in english sounds, okay, this is absolutely   essential in english because english is not a  phonetically written language what does that   mean that means that when you read an english word  you don't know exactly how that word sounds okay   unlike other languages like german or vietnamese  when you understand the sounds and you understand   which one corresponds to which letter you can  pronounce everything by reading it. In English,   that's not the case, sadly. okay, so learning  the ipa can be a really helpful tool for you to   understand how each and every word is pronounced  in English. This is one reason why many beginner   speakers will look at words like "ah" and "an"  and they will pronounce them with that "ahh"   sound, "ahh", "ann" when in english it is  almost never pronounced that way! "Uh" and "un"! okay "an apple" okay "a man" "a woman" not "a  man" "a woman" okay or "an apple" okay if you   look at the IPA transcription, that's this thing  here, you will see the true pronunciation of the   sounds okay so really good idea to get familiar  with the ipa you will learn some ipa symbols in   this very lesson so stick with me okay let's begin  okay these here are the seven english short vowels   these are the ipa symbols that we're going  to learn today that correspond to these seven   vowel sounds as you can see the first one here is  the ah sound ah ah okay you'll hear this in words   like cat hat fat sat bat okay it's a short sound  you'll watch closely for the position of my mouth now try this the cat sat on the mat next to the  bat or the fat man had a hat the fat man had a hat   the fat man had a hat okay lots of a sounds in  there okay practice that one the next sound is the again short sound very very short  watch the position of my mouth you know this from words like met or set  or most importantly the word get which is   a really common word in english and one that you  should make sure you make this sound perfect get   let met and set okay a quick short sentence  with that one let me get the set let me get   the set let me get the set okay practice  that over and over again and get that sound   almost completely natural okay  the next sound is the o sound again watch closely this time you'll  see the jaw drops just a little ah you know this from words like hot hot or on   on okay very important sound to get right and  one that a lot of speakers from asian countries   sometimes struggle with because of the movement  of the jaw watch again on on on hot hot oh oh okay   let's try that one it's hot on the bot it's  hot on the bot okay or it's hot in the box   it's hot in the box it's hot in the box okay  again practice practice practice makes perfect   let's move on to the next one okay the next  sound is really important it is the uh sound   okay you'll know this from words like would should  could and good okay very good this is the uh sound watch very closely this time because the lips  slightly push forward they protrude and the jaw   again moves good good good wood wood should could  okay let's see if we can do this one with a short   sentence i would if i could but i don't know  if i should i would if i could but i don't know   if i should okay one more time repeat it after me  i would if i could but i don't know if i should   okay well done let's move on to the  next sound okay the next sound is the you know this from words like did did hit hit hit  and bit bit bit and even short short words that   we use all the time and probably one of the most  important words in english it it okay when you say   things like it's okay you're saying it it's okay  it's okay practice this one with sentences like i   fit my fitbit onto my wrist i fit my fitbit  onto my wrist i fit my fitbit onto my wrist and again remember this is a very short  vowel sound okay really really short okay it is not the same but it is commonly confused  with the longer e sound watch the difference they are not the same sounds so please don't  confuse them this one is really really short   did hit bit kiss miss okay practice practice  practice and i promise you that sound will come   naturally very soon okay the next sound is the  uh sound you know this from words like butter but   okay really common words but and there's that  sound but we need to get this sound correct   because it sounds very similar to the next  vowel sound which we'll look at in a second   okay try this sentence but the butter is kaput but  the butter is kaput but the butter is kaput okay   practice practice practice again and i promise  that sound will also come much much easier okay   our final sound is the most important sound in all  of english it's so important that i actually made   another video about this sound on its own but here  we're going to cover it very briefly very quickly   this sound is called the schwa sound it looks like  this and it is the number one most common sound in   all of the english language okay this sound is the  one sound that you absolutely must get right if   you want to sound more like a native speaker okay  so you'll hear this uh sound in words like about or another okay it is very common look  at the word banana in the word banana   this sound appears twice in ba na na the ba it usually appears in unstressed syllables  okay that means in sounds that native speakers   basically don't give much importance  to in the sentence like a man a man   or the man okay the important part there is man  the determiner the is not really important and   native speakers will skip almost straight over  that and insert a schwa sound in there and say okay try this i want another banana or an apple  i want another banana or an apple okay lots of uh   uh sounds in there now to remember this  very very quickly this one sound the schwa   it's made by basically relaxing your  mouth your mouth must be relaxed about away ago okay and that wraps up the  seven short vowel sounds in english let's go   over the sounds again really really quickly and  practice them one more time the first sound is in words like hat fat cat the  cat sat on the mat the cat sat   on the mat okay the next sound is the e sound this  is found in words like get set let and forget okay   the next sound is the o sound  this is found in words like hot   top on okay the next sound is the uh sound  this is found in words like good should would   all very important words the next sound is  the e sound this is found in words like it hit   fit okay the next sound is the uh sound this  is found in common words like cup or butter or   even just butt okay and the final sound the most  important one that you need to remember is the   schwa sound this sound is found in words all over  the english language from another banana internet   millions of words make sure you practice that  sound most of all okay next week there'll be a   new video on the long vowel sounds and then after  that we're going to make one on the really tricky   diphthong sounds in english okay so stick with  me make sure you like and subscribe to my channel   if you want to see more interesting and helpful  english videos and content okay take care have   a good day and good luck learning this  lovely language of english okay bye bye

Channel: Easy ENGLISH with James

Views: 180,680

Keywords: pronunciation, english vowel sounds, esl, pronounce, speaking, reduce my accent, accent, sounds, english vowels, speak english clearly, english accent, speak clearly, english sounds, ipa, english short vowel sounds, easy english, learn english, how english sounds, received pronunciation, RP, queens english, English vowel sounds, international phonetic alphabet, short vowel sounds a e i o u, Practice English vowels, british english pronunciation, english pronunciation, english lesson

Id: DIWkl9HcGy4

Length: 14min 37sec (877 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020