English Pronunciation The Letter A 9 Ways to Pronounce the Letter A

hello and welcome back to easy english with james in this new series we are going to look at all of the sounds of english we're going to do it by looking at the alphabet and we're going to go all the way through until you have mastered every sound in english okay so this is the first lesson this is the letter okay if you want to know how many ways this letter can be pronounced in english stick with me for this lesson it looks like just one letter but there are seven ways to pronounce this letter in english we're going to have good listen today at all the different ways we can pronounce this sound all seven of them okay starting with number one number one is the as in cat or rack or exactly or even actually and had this is that sound say it with me okay it looks like this the ipa transcription looks like this for practice sentence with this try this actually that cat had exactly 10 apples actually that cat had exactly 10 apples lots of one more time try it with me repeat this after me actually that cat had exactly 10 apples actually that cat had exactly 10 apples ok rewind if you need to practice some more we're going straight to number two okay number two is the as in rare care share prepare rare care share and prepare this is that famous diphthong sound air air diphthongs mean two sounds two vowel sounds combined together so you'll notice we start with that air and we end with schwa air air air it can be important if you want to practice to move your head like this air air just to practice don't go around outside like air air air because you'll look crazy okay but the sound for this one is air air listen to the word care care or prepare to practice this one repeat this sentence prepare to share it's rare to care prepare to share it's rare to care repeat after me prepare to share prepare to share it's rare to care it's rare to care okay practice that one again and let's go to number three the third sound number three is the as in father or rather or car or bar this is that long vowel sound mouth wide open just like when you go to the doctors and they ask to see your mouth okay it actually sounds like the letter in the alphabet okay it's how we pronounce that letter in the alphabet in british english it's not rhotic which means we don't round it like this we just say the long vowel so practice the words father father and rather and car and bar you'll notice that before the letter if the is before it's normally always okay to practice this repeat after me father i'd rather not go to the bar in my car father i'd rather not go to the bar in my car okay your turn father i'd rather not go to the bar in my car okay rewind again if you need to practice that some more we're gonna have look at number four okay number four is the as in call or hall or tall or even walk and saw and law now you'll notice before law and saw also before two l's whole and tall this is when we the is pronounced like all all and look at the shape of my mouth it's that really really long vowel sound very long in english and the mouth has to sort of go crush together and then down like this or or or listen whole tall wall behind me there's wall wall okay to practice this sentence try this walked through the hall and saw the tall man calling the law the law sometimes is slang word for the police in parts of america and some parts of england so if you're saying i'm calling the law it can mean i'm calling the police walked through the hall and saw the tall man calling the law repeat after me walked through the hall and saw the tall man calling the law okay well done let's have look at number five okay number five is the as in pay way stay cable able table and fable okay that sound this one's easy because it is the sound that you look at that you say when you see the letter in the alphabet the letter in the alphabet when we look at it we say and in the ipa it looks like an and little okay this way this way to the table able fable okay you'll see again that when it's before able fable stable table it is always pronounced as an except in some crazy words where it's at the end like manageable okay manageable little bit different okay repeat after me i'm not able to pay the cable bill i'm not able to pay the cable bill one more time i'm not able to pay the cable bill okay well done let's go straight to number six okay number six is the as in words like private and climate and in some accidents words like legitimate as well legitimate okay this can often be changed for another sound which we will look at as number seven the schwa sound but in many accents especially in britain or the uk private will be pronounced with short so you'll see the here is private private and climate climate okay many other accents change these sounds to schwa so they'll say climate and private okay private and climate to have go with this sound practice this sentence my views on the climate are legitimate but private my views on the climate are legitimate but private my views on the climate are legitimate but private now legitimate you probably don't know what that means legitimate is when something is real or true okay if you have legitimate view it's view that other people will know is real and truthful based on real knowledge that's out there okay something that is legitimate is something that is not fake it's not fake and it's not false legitimate okay number seven is the as in the schwa sound okay number one most common sound in english the schwa sound if you want to practice it make sure that you look for my schwa video up here but this is the most common way that you'll see this letter pronounced in english whenever vowel is unstressed whenever that is not stressed especially at the beginning of words like about around amazing okay it is schwa sound okay also in an two of the most common words in english man an amazing woman okay man an amazing woman they are very commonly confused many students of english pronounce them an an which sounds horrible it sounds crazy in english to pronounce them that way make sure that you're using the schwa sound now common word with this schwa sound in with the letter pronounced as schwa is banana banana so try this an amazing banana an amazing banana an amazing banana amazing lots of schwa sounds in there let's make it little bit longer an amazing banana for around pound an amazing banana for around pound pound that looks like this it's what we use it's money in england an amazing banana for around pound it must be very amazing banana to be just one pound okay an amazing banana for around pound repeat after me an amazing banana for around pound an amazing banana for around pound lots of schwa sounds in there wonder if you can tell me how many schwa sounds are in that sentence okay now we're going to look at sentence which will help you practice all seven of these sounds in one sentence okay this is tough sentence i've got to remember it okay so try this for an amazing sentence that will help you to master the sound an average father may share all he has an average father may share all he has an average father may share all he has want you to practice this sentence 100 times as many times as you can because it contains every single sound and it'll also help your brain understand and feel where the sounds come in this sentence what letters are around the okay an average father may share all he has okay look at all the different sounds in that sentence you've got that average you've got that and in edge average okay father you've got that then may you've got the diphthong sound okay then you've got share another diphthong air share all that long vowel sound super long all and then he has that sound again at the end okay practice that sentence as many times as you need to okay this is bonus to this lesson and in the bonus part of this lesson i'm going to teach you some secrets about the letter there are some special cases for example you've learned all of the seven ways to pronounce this sound but there is some hidden ways that are very very rare not including those seven sounds we can also very rarely pronounce the as an in words like any and many and the river in london the river thames okay this is very very rare you will not find this very much in english it will take you long time to find more than these three words okay but do remember that in many and any and thames the is pronounced not as any of those seven sounds but as an any and the river thames we also have strange words in english that people always fight over how to pronounce words like data data okay you'll see this has two a's in it de tu and many people pronounce it like that with an and schwa sound at the end but there are many other people who argue that is wrong and it should be pronounced data with long sound data so you will hear this across the english speaking world about 50 percent of people will say data and about 50 of people will say data data data remember both data data it's really good to practice three of those sounds okay you've got as in data and you've got as in data both of them finish in that schwa sound data data okay now the letter can also sometimes not be pronounced at all it can be silent it can be silent in words like basically that final we can't see it it's gone basically basically also in words like separately separately you can't really hear an in there anywhere separately okay separately in words like automatically automatically whenever you see that lly and sometimes at the end if there's an we don't need it okay that is where we can see there is silent we don't pronounce it okay repeat after me typically typically automatically automatically basically basically basically okay practice those silent sounds there's not many it's usually always before an or an lly okay but remember the letter can sometimes be silent in english too okay let's move on finally in the word what what now you didn't hear this in the seven sounds again but it's very common word what is your name that's because this is very particular pronunciation it's one of the only words in english where the letter is pronounced as an as in on or top okay is it like an sound the ipa what so the last thing want you to practice today is to remember that the seven sounds perfect remember them all but the word what is an exception it is an here the sound is pronounced okay what did you think of that lesson hope you really enjoyed it and found it useful there is another lesson the letter is next we're going to go all the way through to the letter okay the letter so stick with me if you want to watch the rest of these lessons make sure that you hit like and subscribe so that you don't miss rst uvw xyz okay well done and i'll see you for another lesson bye you