Pronunciation Paul Gruber #11|JohnnyVo

Hi and welcome back. Again my name is Paul Gruber and this is the Pronunciation Workshop's 11th training session. Today we will work on three vowel sounds. Ah as in hat, ow as in out, and ah as in top. Okay the first vowel sound that I want to address is ah as in hat. It is the last front vowel. You may remember the front vowels that we went over. E, ih, eh, eh, and ah. Well that last sound ah as in hat, that's the sound that we are covering today. Listen carefully. It's not ah, it's ah, ah, hat. Your mouth has to be wide open. Listen very carefully and practice these words with me. Okay now try these sentences. The fat cat wore a jacket. Pack your sack and bring your magnet. He sang about an actor named Jack. Very good. Now the next vowel sound that we're going to cover is a little bit more tricky. It's the ow sound as in the word out or the word downtown. Many Asian speakers have difficulty with this sound. In order to say it correctly when you begin the sound you start it with the sound that we just went over. Ah as in hat. That ah sound is what begins the ow sound. You then move your mouth forward and you close the sound sort of on a w. Ow, ow. Do you hear that? It starts with ah but then it moves forward. Ow. Let's look at this word. Downtown. First of all it's not dong tong which you may be saying especially if you are from China. To correctly say this sound with proper pronunciation here's the trick. You have to make believe the vowel begins with the ah sound as in hat. Once you have that sound then you close it. Ow, down, ta, town. Like that. You see if you don't begin the vowel with the ah sound in hat you will never say it correctly. Okay now the whole word. With practice you'll be able to say these sounds perfectly. You just have to remember that even though down and other words like it are spelled with an o you still attack the vowel with that a sound in hat. Downtown. Like that. Let's practice these words slowly and as you are saying them keep that ah sound in the back of your mind. Now, house, round, loud, down, sound, ouch, out, found, south, ounce, rebound, mouth, bounce, flower, thousand, spout, count. Okay now try these sentences. The brown couch is downstairs. Her house is on the south side of the mountain. I was proud of the sounds that came out of my mouth. If these vowels sound strange to you just listen when American speakers talk and you'll start to notice that this is exactly how we pronounce our words. Okay new topic. How to pronounce the words are and hour. You may not have known that there is a pronunciation difference between these two words because many people pronounce are and hour exactly the same. This is not correct however. Let me show you how to pronounce these words correctly. The first word are has a strong r sound at the end. Are you going? The second word hour has that ow sound like in the word out and it sort of has a hidden w in the middle. Our. Think of the word our as having two syllables. One, two. Our like that. Our car is over there. Also while we are on the subject note the word hour that is used for telling time is pronounced exactly the same way as an hour meeting is in one hour. Okay let's practice these sentences. Are you going to our house? Sales are down but our projections for next year are very good. Our plans will be changing in the next hour. Are you sure that our meeting will be an hour late? Very good. Okay here is another example of when English pronunciation can become very confusing. Did you know that there are words in English that are spelled with an o but are pronounced as ah. So even though these words that I'm about to show you are all spelled with an o we pronounce all of these vowels with an ah. Here we go. Hot. You see it's not hot it's ah. Hot. Top. Stop. Probably. Follow. Knot. Blob. Sock. Mop. Product. Solve. Problem. Okay let's practice these sentences. Note that I put a line under all the words which have an ah sound. Bob opened the box and followed the instructions. Tom put some cotton rocks and a doorknob in his locker. My mom made a concrete model of a hockey rink. Very good. You may want to watch this session again especially the part when I talk about the ow sound in words like downtown. Okay now go practice and I'll see you at our next session. I'm Paul Gruber for the Pronunciation Workshop. Goodbye.