Template:Pronunciation of the letter A (advanced)
This template is discontinued.
In Received Pronunciation (RP) the letter A (lower case a, pronounced /eɪ/), as most vowel letters in English, has four main pronunciations:
- So-called “short a”, IPA phoneme /æ/, as in trap, bat, batting, rapid or marry.
- So-called “long a”, IPA phoneme /eɪ/, as in face, facing or famous
- “Short” "ar" sound, IPA phoneme /ɑː/, as in start, bar or barred
- “Long” "ar" sound, IPA phoneme /eə/, as in care, caring or parent
It also can be pronounced /ɑː/ as in bath and /ɔː/ as in all — plus other, less common pronunciations, sometimes in combination with other letters, and, of course, it can be used as schwa. There are some helpful rules (to be taken with the habitual pinch of salt).
It is also very much one of those cases in which teachers, whichever their preferences might be, need to point out the differences between RP (/ɑː/) and American (/æ/) pronunciations regarding, particularly with words like bath and past, while pointing out, of course, that most native British English speakers do, in fact, pronounce them /æ/.
As a single letter
See main article IPA phoneme /æ/.
At the beginning or the middle of a word
One syllable
- /æ/: am - and - at - bag - bat - can - cat - fan - ham - hand - land - man - map - sand - stand
- /ɑː/. Before /f, n, s/ and /θ/: ask - bath - can't - chance - class - dance - fast - France - grass - half - last - pass - past - path - staff - task
- Other: calm - palm
- /ɔː/: Before /l/: all - ball - call - fall - hall - salt - small - tall
- after "w": walk - wall
- other: chalk - talk
Pattern vowel-consonant-vowel
These spelling patterns are VCV or VCCV, where C is the same consonant (or ck), and V is a vowel but is not magic e.
A single consonant (aCV) can mean anything (mainly /eɪ/ or /æ/), but a double consonant (aCCV) means the sound can't be /eɪ/.
Yellow means that a double consonant might be expected (just Google for *ballance or *dammage). Red means an impossible combination (with very few exceptions such as having).
| Vowel | Single consonant | Double consonant |
|---|---|---|
| “short” a /æ/ | balance - damage - January - manage - natural - rapid - value | channel - classic - gallery - grammar - happy - jacket - passage - passenger - programme - traffic |
| “long” a /eɪ/ | basic - capable - Danish - famous - label - nature - paper - razor - tomatoAmE | |
| /ɑː/ | banana - tomatoBrE | giraffe |
| /ɔː/ | water | |
| /ɒ/ | equality - qualify - quality | wallet |
| /e/ | any - many - Thames | |
| /ə/ | about - above - again - alone - among - another | afford - appeal - appear |
When adding a suffix or a verb ending, words with /æ/ double their ending consonant. Words ending in "e" drop the e and add the suffix or ending.
| Vowel | Single consonant | Double consonant |
|---|---|---|
| “short” a /æ/ | having | fatter - fattest - mapped - mapping - programmed - programmes - programming |
| “long” a /eɪ/ | faces - later - latest - makes - making - named - naming - names - saves - saving - savings - takes - taking | |
| /ɑː/ | passing | |
| /ɔː/ | called - caller - falling - smaller - tallest | |
| /ɪ/ | averaged - averages - averaging |
Several syllables
One consonant
The following words have "a" followed by one consonant sound.
- /æ/: Japan
- /ə/: African - American - final - human - legal - local - organ - total - woman
Several consonants
The following words have "a" followed by two or more different consonant sounds.
- /æ/: anger - angry - attack - battle - capture - factor - relax
- /ɑː/: advantage - after - answer - basket - example - father - rather
- /ɔː/: almost - already - also - alter - always
- /ɒ/: quantity - wander
- /ə/. At beginning (including many verbs): acquire - admire - agree
- as part of suffix -able: capable - likeable - probable;
- /eɪ/: able - ancient - danger - stranger - table
- Derived forms: changing - pasted - pasting - tasted - tasting - wasted - wasting
At the end of a word
One syllable
- /ɑː/: bra - spa
Several syllables
- /ə/: area - camera - comma - formula - idea - opera
- Africa - America - Argentina - Barbara - China - Colombia - Jessica - Montana - Russia
Combined with another letter
With magic e
- So-called “long a”, /eɪ/: ache - age - bake - blame - brake - cake - date - escape - estimate (v.) - face - fake - game - gate - late - lake - male - make - name - pale - plate - sale - same - sane - shake - snake - state - take - trade - wake - whale
- Two consonant sounds (unusual use of magic e): change - paste - strange - taste - waste
With silent e
- /ɪ/: advantage - average - garbage - image - language - manage - village
- /ə/: chocolate - estimate (n.) - private - purchase
"ai"
- /eɪ/: Adelaide, afraid, aid, aim, available, brain, campaign, chain, claim, complain, contain, daily, detail, entertain, explain, fail, faith, gain, hail, Haiti, jail, mail, main, Maine, maintain, paid, pain, paint, rail, rain, raise, remain, retail, snail, Spain, stain, straight, train, trait, wait
- /e/: again (also /əˈɡeɪn/) - said
"ay"
- /eɪ/: day - pay - play - May - say - stay - tray
- /e/: says
"au"
See main article Decoding exercises: "au"
- /ɔː/: August - author - autumn - caught - cause - daughter - taught;
- /ɒ/: Aussie - Australia - Austria;
- /ɑː/ : aunt - laugh
"aw"
"ar"
- /ɑː/: are - art - car - card - carpet - dark - far - garden - large - market - park - part - start
- /ɔː/: quarter - war
- Magic e, "are" as /eə/: aware - care - compare - declare - prepare - rare - share - software - square - stare
- Pattern vowel-consonant-vowel
These spelling patterns are VCV or VCCV, where C is "r", and V is a vowel but is not magic e.
A single consonant (arV) can mean anything, but a double consonant (arrV) means the sound can't be /eə/.
Red means an impossible combination.
| Vowel | Single consonant | Double consonant |
|---|---|---|
| /æ/ | apparent - character - charity - comparison - paragraph - parallel | barrier - carry - embarrass - marriage - marry - narrative - narrow |
| /ɒ/ | warrant - warranty | |
| /ə/ | arise - around - career - cigarette - preparation | arrange - arrest - arrive |
| /eə/ | area - Mary - parent - various |
When adding a suffix or a verb ending, words with /ɑː/ double their ending consonant. Words ending in "e" drop the e and add the suffix or ending.
| Vowel | Single consonant | Double consonant |
|---|---|---|
| /ɑː/ | barred - barring - starred | |
| /ɔː/ | warring | |
| /eə/ | cared - cares - caring - prepared - prepares - preparing - rarer - rarest |
Homophones
- aren't - aunt; brake - break; grate - great; male - mail; plane - plain; rain - reign; sail - sale; stake - steak; tale - tail; waste - waist; Wales - whales; way - weigh; wait - weight; wade - weighed.
Different pronunciations in the same word
- Africa/African - America/American - Australia/Australian - Austria/Austrian - average - character - language
Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1
Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following sections aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.
Spanish
Many Spanish speakers will try, instinctively, to pronounce it either as /eɪ/ or as /ʌ/ (which is quite similar, but often not quite enough, to the letter a in Spanish). This is particularly problematic for words such as want, what or water or for the schwa.
Many cognates that have /eɪ/ in English have [a] in Spanish. If the word is not common, such as "matrix" (Spanish matriz) it is very likely that Spanish speakers will try to pronounce it with */æ/. Even some loan words are transcribed using spelling pronunciation in Spanish. For example the spelling cáterin[1] was proposed as a transcription of "catering", but *quéiterin would be more similar to the English pronunciation.
