Description of the Sounds

• /ae/
  • To make the /ae/ sound, the front of your tongue is lowered from its resting position
  • Therefore, the /ae/ sound is described as a front low vowel sound
  • When you say /ae/, your lips are neutrally open and your jaw is down
• /a:/
  • To make the /a:/ sounds, the part of your tongue between the center and back is lowered from its resting position
  • As a result, the /a:/ sound is described as a back low vowel sound
  • When you say /a:/, your lips are neutrally open and your jaw is down as for /ae/
• /e/
  • To make the /e/ sound, the front of your tongue is raised to a position between resting position and the roof of the mouth.
  • The /e/ sound is therefore described as a front mid-vowel sound
  • Your lips are loosely spread and your jaw a little down when you say /e/

Spelling of the Sounds

• The sound /ae/ is usually spelt ‘a’, as in: marry, sat, pat, bag, cat, lack, mass, land, chat, ban, tan, bat, pack, tat, lad, had, bad, ham, etc.
• The sound /a:/ is usually spelt as:
  • ar, as in: cart, bar, car, arch, dart, farm, harm, bard, lard, tart, hard, bart, barn, etc.
  • al, as in: palm, calm, half, balm, alms, etc.
  • au, as in: aunt, laugh, draught, etc.
• The /e/ sound is usually spelt as:
  • e, as in: bed, set, red, bred, test, chest, dress, Ben, pet, peck, bet, tech, led, head, hen, etc.
  • ea, as in: bread, head, breath, lead, dead, health, wealth, etc.
  • a, as in: many, Thames, says, ate, any, etc.
  • eo, as in: leopard, Leonard, jeopardy, Geoffrey, etc.