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Decoding and spelling exercises: /æ/ vs /eɪ/
From Teflpedia
IPA phoneme /eɪ/ Near-open front unrounded vowel
Since the spelling of /æ/ and /eɪ/ is often the same, many students confuse these two sounds, even if they are able to pronounce them. For example, the word “catering" is often pronounced as */ˈkætərɪŋ/ instead of /ˈkeɪtərɪŋ/.
Spelling[edit | edit source]
/æ/ is always followed by one or more consonants. In derived words a single consonant is usually doubled (plan, planned; dad, daddy).
“a" followed by a single consonant | “a" followed by a double consonant | “a" followed by two or more different consonants | |
---|---|---|---|
/æ/ | family, travel, value | daddy, happen, planned | ankle, match, stamp, stand |
/eɪ/ | information, make, paper | bass (in music) | ancient, strange, table |
Common words[edit | edit source]
'a' as /æ/[edit | edit source]
- before single consonant: average, balance, damage, family, have, January, manage, national, natural, standard, value, travel
- before two consonants: absolutely, action, actually, angry, aspect, capture, champagne, contract, factor, financial, handle, practice, transport
- misleading silent e: cache, have
'a' as /eɪ/[edit | edit source]
- before single consonant: agency, baby, basic, behaviorAmE, behaviourBrE, education, information, label, major, nature, paper, patient, situation, cane
- before two consonants: able, acre, ancient, apron, arrange, cable, chamber, champagne, change, fragrance, range, strange, table
Minimal pairs[edit | edit source]
- act - ached; add - aid; back - bake; bran - brain; cat - Kate; clam - claim; fact - faked; fat - fate; hat - hate; jams - James; lack - lake; mad - made/maid; man - main; mat - mate; pal - pale; pants - paints; plan - plane/plain; ran - rain; rat - rate; Sam - same; span - Spain; stack - stake; stand - stained; tax - takes; van - vain/vein/vane;
Similar words with different pronunciations[edit | edit source]
- /eɪ/ then /æ/: nation - nationalism; nature - natural; ratio - rational;
These words don’t rhyme[edit | edit source]
- have - cave;
Variant pronunciations[edit | edit source]
Heteronyms[edit | edit source]
- bass
- /bæs/: a type of fish
- /beɪs/: several terms in music (low voice, musical instrument)
- patent
- /ˈpætənt/: right to make an invention
- /ˈpeɪtənt/: obvious, evident
References[edit | edit source]