Pronouncing English vowels sometimes give big problems to ESL learners.
In this video, Jennifer presents to you some common vowel sounds. Watch , listen, and practice your English pronunciation with an American teacher.
Posted by EnglishGoes Team as Pronunciation
To learn more about diphthongs, check out the sources I listed as well as others you may know of. There are different ways of explaining these sounds, and not all will agree with my explanations. There can be arguments over which sounds we are combining. I note, for example, that some say we should end with /ɪ/ or /ʊ/ with these three diphthongs. I liked Rebecca Dauer’s explanation that says we move towards /i/ or /u/. I like the concept of approaching a sound. It supports the idea of a glide. Also, many say we start with /æ/ or /ɔ/, but again, I preffered a different explanation. I think of /ɑ/ as a general starting point. The tongue for /ɑ/ may be more forward than usual, though. A very strong “Ow!” indeed starts with /æ/, but other words with /aʊ/ seem to start with the tongue less forward. /aɪ/ to my ears seems to start with /a/ not /æ/.