These are the two vowel sounds we're
going to focus on in this lecture: /a:/ as
in 'far' and /e/ as in 'hair'. So the first
thing you noticed, I'm sure, is that the
first vowel is long: /a:/ far /a:/ The shape of the mouth is not too wide
open but it's not relaxed either. It's in
the middle. /a:/ /a:/ can you see that? And
the sides of the mouth are not wide, they
are relaxed /a:/
On the other hand, the second vowel sound /e/ Can you notice the sides of the
mouth? They start wide and then they
relax.
/e/ /e/ hair. Can you see this? This is
one of the differences between these two
sounds. As I said, the first one is long /a:/ the second one is actually two vowels
squeezed together. That's why we change
the shape of our mouth when we say this
second vowel /e/ /e/ hair. Another
thing I'd like you to notice is the
spelling of the example words I gave you.
'Far' F-A-R is pronounced /a:/ 'far' in British
English. In American English the '-ar' at
the end of the word is pronounced 'far'
Can you hear that? This is the American pronunciation 'far'.
But in British English when the 'r' comes
at the end of a word we do not pronounce
it. So when the 'r' is at the end it just
turns into a long vowel sound. In these
two examples we have 'far' and
'hair'. Can you hear the 'r' sound is not
pronounced? This is a feature of
British English. Now let's move on to the
target sound practice for the first
vowel sound, the long /a:/ sound. Notice
the shape of the mouth. Again, it's not
very far open and it's not relaxed. It's
in the middle. /a:/ /a:/ And the sides of the mouth are not wide, they are neutral /a:/
Let's look at the word list. As
always notice the spelling and keep an
eye on the orange highlighted parts so
you can really focus on the target sound.
Listen and repeat after me. Car. Ask. Half.
Stars. Party. Iran. Marvellous. Chance. Farmer. And as you can see, look at the
spelling. Notice there are many many
examples of '-ar'. Car, stars and party
for example. And the 'r' sound in these
words is unpronounced. We do not
pronounce the 'r' sound. The rule is when
the 'r' sound comes before a consonant we
do not pronounce it in British English.
Or if it comes at the end of a word like
'car' it just turns into a long vowel
sound. So, again notice the spelling.
As always keep an eye on this so that
you can start to recognize some
patterns in the relationship between
spelling and sound. This is very
very important for pronunciation. Now
let's move on to the second vowel target
sound practice. Remember this vowel is
two vowels squeezed together. So the
shape of the mouth changes slightly in
the middle of the sound.
/e/ /e/ Notice it's wide and then
it's relaxed /e/ /e/ hair. Let's
look at the target sound practice list.
Notice the spelling as always. In this
one you can see many many examples of 'r' which is actually unpronounced, as
I mentioned before. So listen and repeat
after me. Air. Hair. Chair. Scary. Square.
Everywhere. Downstairs. There. Pear. Fantastic well done. Again, notice many
many examples of 'r' which is
unpronounced. The 'r' sound is
unpronounced in these positions. Sometimes we pronounce it in British English. If
the 'r' is at the beginning of a word we
pronounce it. For example 'run' of course
we pronounce the 'r' sound in this
position. If the 'r 'sound is before a
vowel in the sounds, we
pronounce it. For example 'from' F-R-O-M 'o' is
a vowel sound and 'r' comes before it,
so we pronounce the 'r' 'from'. However if
the 'r' comes before a consonant sound we do not
pronounce it or if the 'r' comes at the
end of a word we do not pronounce it. It
simply turns into a vowel sound in
British English. This is a main feature
of British English. The real difference
between American and British accents.
This is a key part. Let's look at the
minimal pairs for /a:/ and /e/ so you can
really start to distinguish between the
two sounds. On the left we have /a:/ and
on the right we have /e/ So listen to
the pairs and repeat after me. Far, fair.
Par, pair. Star, stare. Bar, bare. Tar tear.
Car, care. OK, I hope that's helped you a
lot in really distinguishing between
these two sounds. It takes some time to
start to notice when you use these
sounds, especially with the /a:/ sound. When we drop it in British English sometimes
it's difficult to know when to drop it,
when to pronounce it. But after practice
and when you start to notice the
spelling rules, you will master these
rules. You'll master when to
pronounce the 'r' and when not to
pronounce it, when to just use a long
vowel sound for example. So let's look at
the target sounds in use now. Look at these sentences. As always repeat
after me, model my voice and try to focus
on the target sounds. So sentence one
we're focusing on the long /a:/ vowel
sound. Mark's new car is so fast. It's
marvellous! Sentence two we're focusing on /e/ Where's Claire?
She promised to cut my hair. And
sentence three is a mix of the two
target sounds. There's a tear in this
chair. Ask Arthur to repair it this
afternoon. That last one was a bit
of a challenge but if you want to keep
practicing just hit the rewind button. And also, as always, the MP3 is very important to keep listening to
because you can put the MP3 on your phone or on your MP3 player and you can listen anywhere.
So make sure you download that. See you in the next lecture.