Pronunciation of Vowels

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The Connecting Sounds

Vowels help us in distinguishing one word from another. Needless to say, when you are not fluent with the vowel sounds, your speech sounds confusing and vague.

There are no straightforward answers to the question of which language has more vowels, since that entirely depends on how they are counted. However, in the following activity, we have tried to list the most common variations on vowels in English. You are requested to read the words aloud to understand the difference in pronunciation vowels bring in words with almost identical spellings.

Practicing Vowel Sounds-I

[I:] As In TREE:

• Equal – Even – Evening – Evil – Recent – Region
• Sea – Tea – Team – Cream – Clean – Lead – Read

[I] As In NEAR

• Fear – Hear – Ear – Near – Clear – Rear

[I] As In BIT

• Hit – Him – His – Is – It – Fit – Did
• Cabin – Habit – Unit – Justice – Public

[E] As In BED

• Red – Bed – Bet – Let – Met – Set – Sell
• Embrace – Employ – Engage – Enjoy – Enlarge

[E] As In FARE

• Care – Dare – Bare – Rare – Share – Spare – Scare
• Fair – Hair – Air – Affair – Pair – Repair – Despair

Practicing Vowel Sounds-II

[Æ] As In BAT

• Land – Hand – Sand – Stand – Command – Demand
• Dance – Chance – Glance – Fancy – Answer – Dancer

[A:] As In TAR

• Car – Card – Hard – Are – Far – Bar – Garden
• Mirage – Garage – Massage – Facade – Ensemble

[O:] As In SHORE

• Core – More – Bore – Before – Shore – Sore – Store
• Boring – Story – Sorry – Borrow – Sorrow – Tomorrow

[O] As In HOT

• Hot – Lot – Not – Got – Forgot – Forgotten – Bottle
• College – Dollar – Tom – Bomb – Comment – Compliment

[U:] As In RULER

• Rude – Rule – Rumor – Brutal – Lucy – June – Junior
• Food – Cool – School – Fool – Foolish – Pool – Tool

[U:] Or [U]

• Room – Broom – Roof – Root – Soot – Hoof – Coop – Boulevard

[Yu:] As In USER

• Use – Useful – Union – Unit – Unite – Unique – University
• Fuse – Refuse – Future – Cute – Cube – Huge – Humor – Human

[U:] Or [Yu:] As In TUMOR

• Tune – Tulip – Tumor – Student – Studio – Stupid
• New – Newspaper – Nude – Nuclear – Numeral – Nutrition

[U] As In BOOK

• Book – Cook – Hook – Look – Shook – Took – Good – Hood
• Put – Push – Pull – Full – Bull – Bullet – Bush – Butcher

[Ər] As In SIR

• Her – Herb – Verb – Serve – Perfect – Person – Certain
• Mister – Cover – Buyer – Better – Teacher – Finger

[Ə] As In BUT

• But – Nut – Fun – Sun – Dull – Lucky – Ugly – Suddenly
• Correct – Collect – Contain – Memory – History – Freedom