[LANGUAGE NOTE: Second language English speakers form almost any language have at least some trouble separating the hard and soft vowels in each of the following pairs. Speakers from ROMANCE LANGUAGES have particular trouble with the soft forms. Speakers from RUSSIAN and other SLAVIC LANGUAGES and speakers of YIDDISH and HEBREW have more trouble with the hard forms. BUT -- these pairs represent one of the most important pronunciation skills for any second language English speakers.]
Listen closely to the instructions in lesson One of the tape. It will explain how to create the differences between the hard and soft sounds in each of four pairs of vowels. Each of the hard sounds has at least some of the characteristics of a diphthong -- (1) there is more rear-tongue movement, (2) there is a second stage or "echo" on the vowel, and (3) there is a slight downward pitch glide. The soft vowel in each pair is short, stays on one pitch, and has little or no movement in the back of the tongue.
Phonetic Symbol : [ i ]
COMMON SPELLINGS :
OCCASIONAL SPELLINGS:
- THE GREEN CAR WENT SPEEDING ON THE FREEWAY.
- SHE WAS HAPPY TO BE EATING CHEESE.
- HE HURT HIS KNEE WHILE SKIING VERY RAPIDLY.
- DON'T TEASE ME; MY MONEY IS REAL.
- I'M VERY SORRY YOU DON'T AGREE WITH ME.
Now here are additional worlds and sentences containing this hard sound which are not recorded on the tape.
each | see | teach | fleece | key | me |
deal | equal | eager | police | knee | green |
agree | feed | easy | unique | meal | tree |
cheat | either | ego | ceiling | please | supreme |
free | speak | be | needle | freeway | eaves |
machine | tea | fee | team | money | Eden |
achieve | scene | keen | squeeze | enough | pieces |
yield | beat | meat | stream | esteem | beak |
intrigue | need | neat | jubilee | fever | three |
- Please cease to creep through the Garden of Eden.
- Meat and cheese were served under the tree.
- He twisted his knee while skiing fleetly down the peak.
- Steve went to pieces because he was green with envy.
- The speed demon careened off the freeway.
- He teased the eager Marine with sneezing powder.
- Meat, peas, and beans each provide protein.
- He achieves intrigue by agreeing to speak Japanese.
- She cheated me by dealing thirteen threes.
- The reason for ceasing to speak was the parrot's beak.
- Jean and the team serenely jumped onto the beam.
Phonetic Symbol : [ I ]
COMMON SPELLINGS:
"i" as in IT, SIT, STILL, IN, SISTER, VISIT, INFANT
OCCASIONAL SPELLING:
"y" as in "symbol" and "typical"
Now, here are additional word and sentence drills for this vowel which are not recorded on the tape.
inside | mill | pick | physical | wind | city |
still | hill | cymbals | witty | ill | sister |
flip | exhibit | disappear | zipper | income | lift |
history | linen | winter | hint | different | mistake |
assist | rich | interest | pyramid | brittle | exhibit |
pitch | infant | invisible | quiver | big | live |
will | trip | lick | crib | visit | tickle |
- Winter differs incredibly in its impact on individuals.
- The inspector charged interest on Wilma's income tax.
- The clinician instantly investigated the infant's itch.
- Sit inside the pavilion instead of in the sun.
- The chicken committed itself to the interest of dinner.
- I intend to split the pit in the middle of the cherry.
- I instantly intended to imply that you were ignorant.
- The infant twitched and gripped the crib.
- Inspector Smith hinted at mistakes in the investigation.
- Jill will tickle her big sister immediately.
- Pick him up at the liquor store on Fifth Street.
In this "contrast" section, for this and the three other pairs, I will put hard brackets [ ] around the hard vowel and soft brackets { } around the soft vowel.
Now, here are additional word drills for this vowel contrast which are not recorded on the tape.
[ ] | { } | [ ] | { } |
seep | sip | peak | pick |
heel | hill | keel | kill |
meal | mill | Neal | nil |
real | rill | wheel | will |
feel | fill | eel | ill |
peel | pill | seal | sill |
leap | lip | cheap | chip |
SECTION #2: "HARD A" and "SOFT E" {Counter #.............}
Phonetic Symbol: [ ei ]
weight | player | neighbor | aviator | frame | ale |
chased | face | instigate | ailing | haze | ate |
rainfall | maybe | fail | freight | lake | ace |
display | wayward | male | April | jade | ape |
fateful | fray | inflame | Kate | labor | base |
baby | haste | blamed | trail | lace | |
take | age | dame | jailer | nasal | aim |
great | safety | failure | Macy's | nation | page |
came | fate | mistake | whale | plague | sage |
- A great April shower came our way today.
- They paid the price for delaying the instant replay.
- The ailing aviator chased the victory for its own sake.
- They blamed the dame with the famous face.
- The able often stray in this fateful age.
- Make haste; delay may instigate a fray.
- Statesmen hasten to awaken the nation these days.
- I may portray Dorian gray on the stage in a play.
- Nathan felt the weight of the fateful delay in rainfall.
- My real estate agent has a gabled house on three acres.
- Eight whales sprayed water as they came safely away.
Phonetic Symbol: [ e ]
Now, here are additional word and sentence drills for this soft vowel which are not recorded on the tape.
twenty | embrace | semester | fence | red | nest |
enter | tenth | emulate | friend | Ben | get |
effort | fresh | deadline | left | Ken | legs |
net | center | federal | mental | Ted | bed |
men | celebrate | tender | wreck | gem | stem |
when | memory | shelf | spread | jet | ebb |
render | mentor | crescent | sweat | wet | eggs |
element | western | credit | election | well | bent |
century | letter | dilemma | intellect | sell | test |
- Ed rented the penthouse at an exorbitant price.
- Ten and ten eventually get you twenty.
- I meant every word I said in the elementary section.
- Ben was a general from several sections of Tennessee.
- Don't lose your temper when I enter the room.
- The song was rendered by men who twenty cents.
- He was especially edgy after the separation.
- I can't accept this mental dilemma.
- My ex-friend wrecked the mended fences.
- Jeff's hot temper tested his self-confidence.
- September seventh was a red-letter day.
Now, here are additional word and sentence drills contrasting the two vowels in Pair #2.
{ } | [ ] | { } | [ ] | { } | [ ] | |
led | laid | tread | trade | Ken | cane | |
tell | tail | sell | sail | Mel | ||
bet | bait | den | Dane | get | gate | |
led | laid | men | main | tech | take | |
wes | waste | shed | shade | wed | wade | |
bell | bail | hell | hail | fell | fail |
SECTION #3: "HARD OO" and "SOFT oo" {Counter #______}
Phonetic symbol: [ u ]
Now practice these additional words and sentences for the "Hard OO" vowel which are not recorded on the tape.
spoon | prunes | brew | roof |
smooth | boost | flute | who |
sewer | moon | rumor | through |
blue | fruit | prove | room |
coupons | gloomy | true | shoe |
prove | threw | truth | food |
plumage | school | rude | boot |
troupe | ruby | pool | cool |
bloom | juicy | loose | move |
- I always knew that prunes grew under the blue moon.
- The gloomy June moon is moving foolishly.
- At two past noon, I heard hooves on the roof.
- It's true that Sue proves school is gloomy.
- Give the student a boost with your boot.
- Rumor has it that raccoons buy fruit with coupons.
- Newman got juiced because Stu threw brew into the soup.
- After his review, the pupil developed a loose screw.
- Judy was rude to Susan.
- The crew brewed the stew for two hours.
Phonetic Symbol: [ U ]
wooden | bullet | boulevard | could | hook |
careful | bullion | bully | nook | pull |
helpful | forsook | butcher | push | bush |
pulpit | boogie | booklet | wood | put |
Pullman | goodness | rookie | full | foot |
ambush | hooded | footwear | soot | good |
should | crook | woman | took | book |
good-bye | sugar | brook | bull | wolf |
bushel | pudding | cushion | hood | good |
couldn't | wouldn't | stood | Ludwig | look |
- We pulled the wolf from the woods to the boulevard.
- The butcher's hook took out the sooty bully.
- Dr. Goodman took the bullet from the rookie's foot.
- Woody stood up wearing cushioned footwear.
- I understood there was a good book in the library.
- Brooks was hoodwinked from the pulpit by Mr. Cook.
- Only tourists put bushels of soot in the brook.
- Captain Hook ate a bushel of cookies.
- I couldn't have understood the crook's motives.
- The Pullman conductor took a look at his ticket book.
[ ] | { } | [ ] | { } |
wooed | wood | cooed | could |
pool | pull | fool | full |
who'd | hood | shoed | should |
stewed | stood | Luke | look |
PAIR #4: "HARD O" "SOFT AW" {Counter #........}
Phonetic symbol: [ ou ]
romance | notion | phone | grow | loan |
lowly | co-host | oaken | legato | hope |
furlough | ghost | slowly | sew | solo |
apropos | grocery | ocean | window | soak |
romance | dough | staccato | bold | loan |
photo | blown | moment | loaf | row |
wrote | tomato | motion | loco | flow |
polar | bloated | don't | moan | over |
pathos | woeful | float | cone | echo |
- Long ago people slept on the cold earth.
- Slowly the ocean rolled toward the row of homes.
- The oboe and celled sat alone, echoing tone for tone.
- He was bloated after eating a roast and a tomato.
- Of all the folks I know, he is the most hopeful.
- The rowboat slowly floated in the ocean.
- I told Joan that the snow is flown in from Ohio.
- Smoke rolled out the open end of the hotel window
- Joan wrote to Joe, hoping for romance.
- I told the owner of the boat to be bold.
- I took the dough out of the bowl to make the loaf.
Phonetic symbol: [ ?]
applaud | laundry | sought | naught | draw | gnaw |
chalk | flawless | loft | Walker | flaw | lawn |
coffee | shawl | tongs | thought | mall | awe |
malted | bawdy | strong | caught | moth | walk |
author | mothball | wrong | brought | hall | jaw |
taught | hallway | glossy | bought | loft | off |
vault | cloth | vaulted | pause | long | all |
cause | nautical | cough | tall | lost | wall |
autisti | cought | wrought | laud | raw | stall |
- The tall author walked often.
- The awkward, awful, strong man walked home.
- Lost boys often become flawless at reform school.
- Horses often cost more than the monthly draw.
- The dog fought the moth he had brought home.
- He stalked the ball and then vaulted down the hall.
- The awful sauce made Paul pause and then walk away.
- The cat crawled across the lawn with its hurt paw.
- Right or wrong, we applauded the awkward author.
- The cloth in the hall smells of moth balls.
- You taught me to vault flawlessly without falling.
{ } | [ ] | { } | [ ] |
loft | loafed | walk | woke |
stall | stole | caught | coat |
pause | pose | chalk | choke |