Main Vowel Sounds of American English Cheat Sheet

A Education › Languages cheat sheet in English by Anasutashia

Cheat Sheet to remember how to accurately pronounce all of the main American English vowel sounds.

Languages Sounds Vowels Englishlearning Americanenglish

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PRs

/i/ AS IN MEET

1.- ee	meet, feel, see, free, sheet
2.- ea	team, reach, mean, sea
3.- ie and ei	belief, piece, neither, receive
4.- final e	me, we, she, he
5.- e + consonant + e	these, Chinese, Peter
6.- final y	city, duty, country, ability
7.- endings with ique	unique, boutique, critique

/ɛ/ AS IN GET

1.- e	get, end, next, general
2.- ea	heavy, head, read, measure

exceptions: said, says again, against, any, many,

/ɘ/ AS IN FUN

1.- u	but, fun, summer, drunk
2.- o	love, done, come, son
2.- ou	cousin, country, enough

*The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbol for the stressed vowel is /ʌ/ and for the
unstressed vowel it is /ɘ/. They are basically the same sound. Throughout this book the /ɘ/
will be used for both. For further study of this reduced, neutral sound, refer to Chapter Five,
which deals with syllable stress and reduced vowels

/ʊ/ AS IN GOOD

1.- o	good, look, childhood, understood
2.- u	push, full, pull, sugar
3.- ould	would, could, should

exception: woman sounds like “wumun”

/aɪ/ AS IN TIME

1.- y	fly, sky, apply, style
2.- i	nice, kind, fine, sign
3.- igh	light, fight, sight, night
4.- ie	lie, tie, tried

/I/ AS IN SIT

1.- i	sit, give, this, dinner
2.- ui	build, quit, quick, guilty
3.- y between consonants	system, gym, symbol, hymn

exceptions ": women , sounds like wimin (the o is an /I/ sound)

/æ/ AS IN FAT

1.- a

hat, apple, man, answer

/ɔ/ AS IN SAW

1.- aw	saw, law, awful, awesome
2.- au	author, August, applaud, audition
3.- al	small, walk, tall, always
4.- ought	bought, thought, fought
5.- aught	daughter, caught
6.- 0	gone, off, long

/u/ AS IN TOO

1.- oo	too, food, school, tool
2.- ue	true, blue, avenue
3.- o	do, who, lose, prove
4.- ew	new, blew, drew
5.- u	super, rule, duty, student

/aʊ/ AS IN HOUSE

1.- ou	found, loud, around, thousand
2.- ow	now, down, crowd, vowel

/eɪ/ AS IN TAKE

1.- a + consonant + e	late, came, take, save
2.- ai	rain, wait, pain, aim
3.- ay	say, away, play, Monday
4.- ey	they, survey, obey
5.- eigh	weigh, eight, neighbor, freight
6.- a

less common : April, alien, angel

/ɑ/ AS IN FATHER

1.- o	hot, stop, modern, job
2.- a	father, watch, dark, want

/oʊ/ AS IN BOAT

1.- o	no, don’t, home, only
2.- oa	road, coat, boat
3.- ow	own, slow, window
4.- ough	though, although

/ɘr/ AS IN BIRD

1.- er	her, mercy, mother, winner
2.- ear	heard, learn, earth
3.- ir	first, girl, firm
4,- or	doctor, word, worry
5.- ur	occur, curtain, jury
6.- ure	insecure, culture
7.- ar	grammar, collar

/ɔɪ/ AS IN BOY

1.- oi	avoid, oil, moist, join
2.- oy	enjoy, toy, employ, royal

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