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Sounds American

Sounds American

494,000 subscribers

👁 267,648 views

Bed or Bad? Head or Had? Men or Man? American English Pronunciation

Video Overview & Insights

Find out the difference between the /ɛ/ and /æ/ vowel sounds.

🎉Great news!🎉 Our brand new Sounds American website is up and running!🚀🎊 There's lots of content on pronunciation.🤓 Check it out: https://soundsamerican.net/

— @SoundsAmerican

Learn how to make the vowels used in words like "head" and "had," "left" and "laughed," or "leg" and "lag."

Improve your accent with efficient pronunciation exercises based on minimal word pairs with the /ɛ/ and /æ/ vowel sounds.

— @VietHaNguyenThanh-b9g

By the way, here's our website: https://soundsamerican.net/

Quick Links:

❤❤❤❤❤

— @VietHaNguyenThanh-b9g

• Intro 00:00

• Do you hear the difference between /ɛ/ and /æ/? Quiz: 00:41

I love this video! It's interesting a lot.

— @daviacassio5750

• Key distinctions between /ɛ/ and /æ/: 02:07

• Pronunciation exercise: 03:20

helpful

— @Swimming-y7o

Related videos:

#AmericanPronunciation #VowelSounds #MinimalPairs

amazing video .

— @ramzy-6566

► Interactive Vowel Sounds Chart: American English Pronunciation

https://goo.gl/IwiOIn

Muito obrigado pela ajuda para todos que deseja aprender...o mundo leva aprendizagem continua...

— @lisetebarretosilva1130

► Vowel Sound /ɛ/ as in "bed"- American English Pronunciation https://goo.gl/AKvPD0

► Vowel Sound / æ / as in "cat"- American English Pronunciation

Thanks,very helpful

— @abooswalehmosafeer173

https://goo.gl/0yeEhr

[THIS VIDEO HAS ENGLISH, SPANISH, JAPANESE, CHINESE, VIETNAMESE, KOREAN, PORTUGUESE, AND RUSSIAN SUBTITLES]

Thank u! where can I find these exercises online?

— @nahiara_

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TRANSCRIPT

Wow

— @long462

Hello there! This is the "Sounds American" channel.

In this video, we'll compare two vowel sounds: /ɛ/ and /æ/, as in the words "bed" and "bad."

I'm from Russian. I can understand the difference between these sounds, but can't pronounce them myself no matter how i try, it sounds the same

— @rina_sempai

In our previous videos, we already learned how to make them. Remember the videos for the /ɛ/ sound, as in "bed" and the /æ/ sound, as in "cat"?

This time we'll focus on the differences between these two sounds.

아아아아아아앙아아

— @닭뭉탱탕

Many non-native English speakers can't always hear the difference between /ɛ/ and /æ/.

What about you?

It's good, but it's so difficult to say like American that my students need to practice it mamy many times.

— @bestbariyantenglish3496

[QUIZ]

Let's check with a quick test.

Minute 6:38

Question. In British English there are 12 vowels, which are the monopthongs. I thought that the monopthongs in British and American English were the same. But looking at this image, without considering the diphthongs, I see that in American English there is no "Short O" or "Long Schwa" sound, which in British English are in the words "Hot" and "Bird" respectively. So in American English there are only 10 monophthongs? Or are there 12 monophthongs which would be the 10 in the image, plus the broken vowels / ɚ / and /ɛr/? Your videos are excellent, they have helped me a lot. Thank you very much!

— @keymergoitia3117

You'll see a pair of words on the screen and hear only one of them pronounced. For example, "b*d."

Can you guess what word you heard?

I still find it difficult.. I'm frustrated 😢

— @baderghannam4621

Let's try a few more word pairs.

If you didn't get all the words right, don't worry. We've prepared useful exercises to help you improve.

Hi, I enjoy watching your videos and genuinely appreciate your excellent channel! In this video, æ is said to be a tense sound (at 4:00). But in another video ("The Shocking Truth About Long And Short English Vowels"), this sound is categorized as a relaxed vowel. So I was wondering, is æ sound tense or relaxed?

— @davelind4141

The words in those pairs may sound similar but they differ by their vowel sound.

Here are the two key distinctions between the /ɛ/ and /æ/:

English pronunciation is very difficult for many non-native speakers of the language but not for me, well pronouncing it correctly is hard to some extent at least. English phonology is truly unique, wonderful and challenging for all English learners around the world. I love this language but I've come across some pronunciation and spelling difficulties and I always try my best to better speak, understand and communicate with English-speaking people whatever their accent as well as their way of speaking. The vowel sounds of the video are a little hard to pronounce and I continue to improve my pronunciation and I'm getting better at speaking more confidently and clearly. Trying to speak English like a native speaker is not necessary I think, I have good pronunciation with very few mistakes. Native speakers often make mistakes when speaking rapidly or casually, right? Thanks so much after all. ❤😊

— @ernestorevollar3632

First, look at the position of the lower jaw.

• For the /ɛ/ sound, the mouth is half open.

Thank you for the explanation, it was very good.

— @taherelsayed1865

• For the /æ/ sound, the mouth is open very wide.

Second. Look at the tongue:

3:02

— @okok-sc2cx

• For the /ɛ/ sound, the tongue is relaxed and in the middle of your mouth.

• For the /æ/ sound, the tongue is tensed, flat and very low in your mouth.

Yes, it´s been helpful! ¡Gracias!

— @ElianaAversa_07

Let's pronounce these sounds one after the other:

/ɛ/ - /æ/, /ɛ/ - /æ/, /ɛ/ - /æ/

The best video of all. That's so complicated for Brazilians!

— @englishresources1369

[Pronunciation Exercise]

Now that you know how to make these vowels, let's do some exercises.

I sense that the second sound is a bit longer, too.

— @ieBrazil

This is the most important part of your training as you can't improve your pronunciation without practice.

The best way to practice the /ɛ/ and /æ/ is to pronounce them in word pairs.

thanks for a useful video!!! example "gas" and "guess" , i can see clearly the difference between them...But "end " and "and", i can't .....

— @angminhuc5578

Let's do this exercise.

You'll see a word on the screen and hear its pronunciation. After that you'll have a few seconds to pronounce the word. Repeat each word after the speaker, the first word will have the relaxed /ɛ/ vowel sound, and the second will have the tense /æ/ vowel sound.

When it comes to MAN Men, Bank bend, it is not so different from Bad bed

— @vacuumforming-yg

Let's begin!

• bed - bad

Best channel ever

— @mauriciobori

• beg - bag

• bend - band

Short and long vowels are annoying...this is the biggest nightmare of the EN language, together with phrasal verbs.

— @smendes2004

• bet - bat

• dead - dad

No 1 pronunciations channel 💋💋💋❤️❤️❤️👍🧠

— @fanciertraderiqoptions6728

• den - Dan

• end - and

Existe este aplicativo para pronúncia? Este que aparece nos exercícios finais?

— @leonardocardosodesouza1490

• flesh - flash

• gem - jam

😭it's still hard to pronounce for me

— @peace-n3k

• guess - gas

• head - had

0:14

— @ちくわ-l3w4v

• left - laughed

• leg - lag

Thank you a lot so useful

— @ssing111

• lend - land

• letter - latter

Æ and Ε

— @yeshivawebmaster6080

You're done! Congratulations!

To check how much you've improved, you can do the word pairs test again. Click this link to go back and compare the results.

Hi Sounds American, i get confused with these words with /l/ sounds in them; walk, talk, calf, balk... should the /l/ sound be pronounced?

— @OmaGladys9

By the way, did you know that the vowel sounds /ɛ/ and /æ/ together make up about ~20% of all vowels in American English?

Thanks for watching! Hope you find it useful.

Man, this is difficult! I thing I´m gonna opt for the british pronunciation those times...

— @psicologia_e_reflexao

Stay tuned on our Sounds American channel!

Thanks!

— @camilaluz3430

More User Perspectives

@

you do sound American. maybe too American :)
'cause at 1:30 instead of bænd you say beənd

@sebastianpereira5348
@

Thank you

@abdallamohamed8179
@

Brasileiros: o ɛ é o nosso é (como em peça, ética etc etc) e o æ é aquele sotaque carioca de colocar a vogal "a" onde não tem. Pensa numa atriz global carioca falando "Neah?" em vez de "Né?" e é isso.

@user-gv1nk8cq3d
@

When native speaker spoke fastly, its sound was like same especially rapper

@gesangwibawono7570
@

Uy yaaa

@andreluckapm2661
@

amazing animation!!!!

@k0185123
@

What is the difference between ɛ and æ

@jps-stuff
@

I did it

@damiab.8681
@

Thank you for that exercise, it's very helpful and convenient.

@patrykrak8905
@

GREAT!

@raquelklemiant3049
@

I always choose "bed" over "bad"...

@1DENich1
@

I love this channel 😍 excellent, thanks a lot 🤗 and do you have a podcast?

@Sheridan-2
@

Very useful. Thank you !

@ysbh228
@

thank you so much for this high quality content you make, it helps so much!

@djgonpet
@

Thank you so much, now I get clear the complication between these two sounds.

@lazumphyuzinmai5535