Questions tagged [vowels]
This tag is for questions about the pronunciation and orthographic representation of vowels.
102 questions
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Why does Vocabulary.com list /ɛ/ instead of /æ/ for words like "carry", "marry", and "parry"?
I'm confused about the pronunciation of words like "carry", "marry", and "parry". When checking Vocabulary.com, I see these pronunciations:
parry: US /ˈpɛri/ UK /ˈpɛri/
...
- 568
3
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2
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does schwa sound differ in different words?
Schwa is said to be a reduced vowel or an unstressed syllable and to me that looks like a concrete definition for a vowel. However, To my ears, it's an inconsistent sound. I hear schwa differently in ...
- 31
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1
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Do people in the USA say "dog" not only as [da:g], but also as [do:ɡ]?
the transcription of "dog" from cambridge.org:
UK: /dɒɡ/
US: /dɑːɡ/
the transcription of "dog" from oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com:
UK: /dɒɡ/
US: /dɔːɡ/
I don't know why but I ...
- 6,424
0
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3
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148
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Do vowels have names?
Do vowels have names used by regular people or academics? For example, the second vowel in student is called schwa. How about the vowel in cat, the vowel in cup, ...?
- 4,775
0
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133
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Are /x/, the glottal stop /ʔ/, the nasal vowels /æ̃/ and /ɒ̃/, the rhotic vowels /ɚ/ and /ɝ/, and /ɜː/ (marginal) phonemes?
Are /x/, the glottal stop /ʔ/, the nasal vowels /æ̃/ and /ɒ̃/, the rhotic vowels /ɚ/ and /ɝ/, and /ɜː/ (marginal) phonemes? Some of then are obviously not standard phonemes in their own right, but I ...
2
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1
answer
155
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Which syllable does a consonant belong to?
I understand each syllable contains one vowel sound, but don't understand whether a consonant is with its preceding vowel or its following vowel.
For example, monosyllabic has 5 syllables according to ...
- 297
1
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1
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546
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Why does this British speaker pronounce the word "gerund" as "/gerUND/" instead of /dʒɛrənd/?
This is from a British speaker who teaches speaking skills to millions of students. In one of his videos, he mentions the word "gerund" but he pronounces it "/gerUND/". Speaking ...
- 9,206
3
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1
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744
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Is it okay always to pronunce unstressed vowels as schwa?
Recently I am reading Mastering the American Accent by Lisa Mojsin. Here are some quotes from this book:
The vowel within the unstressed syllable is reduced and becomes a neutral, short vowel called ...
- 141
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1
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Our Daughters name
My daughters name is Iyzrayella (eyes-ray-ella) now my husband and I are wondering if we are grammatically correct in the way we spelled her name.
2
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2
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400
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How can I help a first grader identify which sound each vowel makes in order to read it?
I am a non-native English speaker. I live in the USA and have a first grader child who is learning how to read in English. While he definitely has a lot of words he can identify and read (mainly the ...
- 21
2
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1
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682
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Can we pronounce “can” as /kən/ at the beginning of a sentence?
I know that “can” can be reduced to /kən/ unless it has to be stressed. For example in a sentence like “I believe I can fly” we can say /kən/ instead of /kæn/. My question is, can we do the same thing ...
- 1,408
0
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2
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591
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Can the "ee" sound be pronounced as "ay" in songs
I always though that sometimes in songs, words like "me" were sometimes pronounced like "may", as in the month, but I was never a 100% sure and thought it could just be my ears not ...
0
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2
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447
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Does English not have the vowel /ε/? If it exists, what's the difference between /ε/ and /e/? [closed]
I've attempted to search and google related topics and found these two: here and here, although, I'm afraid I don't get their points and I don't know if those would help. I just want to ask and ...
- 5,133
19
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2
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Why is editted wrong?
The general rule is that when we have vowel + consonant + vowel we should double the consonant, in order to properly pronounce the whole word.
The examples include: submitted , shipping, etc.
So why ...
- 673
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2
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Is it wrong to pronounce "to" as /tə/ before words starting with vowels?
In Oxford Dictionary, it says it is correct to pronounce "to" as /tə/ only before words starting with a consonant. It seems fair to me too because /tə/ sounds off and unsmooth before vowels; ...
- 1,408