Daily English - Day 28

Here are the sounds. You do not need to memorize them. First, the front vowel. Listen carefully. Don't repeat, just listen. These sounds move from what I call high to low. Here we go. Notice with each of these vowels, my jaw is opening a little bit more and more. Let's do it again. Listen carefully. Which is a difficult one for many people. Now this time I'd like you to repeat. Now, I put them in word forms to make it a little bit easier. Repeat after me. E as in eat. I as in hit. A as in hey. E as in hat. Nonsense word. And A as in hat. E as in eat. A as in hey. A as in hat. E as in eat. A as in hey. A as in hat. Okay, now let's do back vowels. Again, vowel sounds move from high to low. Here we go. Again, and notice how my jaw is opening. Again, and notice how my jaw is opening on each one. And also notice how my lips are coming forward all the way on the OO sound. See that OO? OO Now repeat it with me. OO Now let's put these sounds into word form. OO as in boat. OO OO as in book. OO as in boat. AH AH as in thought. And AH as in box. This is a nonsense word. Boot, book, boat, thought, box. Very good. Now let's go back a little bit to front vowels. I'd like to address the E sound in the word eat and the E sound as in the word hit. Most of the foreign speakers that I work with make many errors with these two sounds. And many times they are switched. When the word should have an E, it's pronounced as an E. When it should have an E, it's pronounced as an E. Think of the sound E as in heat as being high up. And E as in hit is being a little bit lower. One hint I can give you is when you're practicing, raise your eyebrows with E words like this. And then lower your eyebrows and don't smile so much with E words like hit. I've put together some paired words with these two sounds. Listen, compare the vowel sounds and then repeat them back. Here we go. pain, hen feel, deal eat, hit feel, deal eat, thick seen, thin reap, rip teal, tell been, thin eat, thin been, thin teen, mean mean, mean been, thin hit, thin I've been buying beans. We'll be going over more of this in a moment. But first, let's look at some words with the E sound. Remember, smile and think high. see, me teach, each even, even green, green tree, tree merry, merry happy, happy softly, softly merry, merry dizzy, dizzy finally, finally country, country eating, eating country, country eating, eating freeway, freeway happily, happily eating, eating cheese, cheese he, and she eating, eating rapidly, rapidly she sees a monkey eating honey we see a pony stealing money who can he see? he, he it must be me it, it hit, hit build, build lift, lift kitchen, kitchen build, build bigger, bigger chimp, chimp fist, fist listen, listen business, business fist, fist display, display filming, filming live, live fish, fish discuss, discuss big, big fifty, fifty bin, bin ear, ear e, e the beans have been cooking since six o'clock sit in that seat here we go the beans have been cooking since six o'clock sit in that seat by the window sit in that seat by the window we ate at we ate our meal meal by the mill our meal by the mill the seal will live in the will live in the ocean in the ocean team, team grin after seeing green after seeing the green heel, heel hip and peep and peep ship, ship the sheep, sheep sheeply, sheep, sheeply those bins are for Bill Peen does Jim do Jim are for Bill Peen do Jim The girls put concrete on Jill's sneakers. Pick cherries at their peak. Or you will eat niggers. Pick cherries at their peak. Or you will eat the pigs. Eat and hit. And how the sounds are often switched. So if you say eat the baseball and felt the hit. He hit the baseball and felt the heat. I want you to realize that that's not right. What's correct is, he hit the baseball and felt the heat. Okay, so keep on practicing. Believe me, you will eventually get very good at this.