Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy and this is our 178 episode.

Vowal sounds are especially difficult to pronounce really well.

With consonant sounds we can often feel what the vocal tract is doing to create a sound.

You can feel your lips come together during an M sound, or the tip of your tongue touch the

tooth ridge during the D sound or T sound, or the back of your tongue touch the soft palate during the G or

K sounds.

But the part of the tongue that's responsible for creating a sound doesn't touch anything during

a vowel sound, so it's harder to feel what's going on inside your mouth.

That is, it's harder to feel, but not impossible.

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How do we learn to feel as well as hear vowel sounds?

We're going to practice today with a triangle of sounds, the long E, short A, and short O sounds.

We're going to feel those sounds in two ways. First, where the sides of the tongue touch the teeth, and then which part of the tongue vibrates during the sound.

The long E, short A, and short O are a sort of triangle of sounds occurring in the top front, bottom

front, and bottom back of the mouth.

If you can learn to feel them, you can learn to feel the more subtle differences between

other sounds.

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