{"id":174207,"date":"2024-02-13T13:28:04","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T13:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rachelsenglish.com\/?p=174207"},"modified":"2024-02-20T16:15:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T16:15:27","slug":"the-aa-vowel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rachelsenglish.com\/the-aa-vowel\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Students the AA [\u00e6] Vowel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"TextRun SCXW57549815 BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW57549815 BCX0\">Let\u2019s look into my mouth to study the tongue position of this tricky vowel. Also, learn how the pronunciation of this vowel is different in words like \u2018hand\u2019 and \u2018ham\u2019.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW57549815 BCX0\" data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:720}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span class=\"entry-tags\">Tagged With: <a href=\"https:\/\/rachelsenglish.com\/tag\/american-english-pronunciation\/\" rel=\"tag\">American English Pronunciation<\/a><\/span> \u00a0 <strong>YouTube blocked? <\/strong><a href=\"#video\">Click here to see the video.<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"container-lazyload preview-lazyload container-youtube js-lazyload--not-loaded\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1u4EbIHUPiI\" class=\"lazy-load-youtube preview-lazyload preview-youtube\" data-video-title=\"ENGLISH VOWEL [\u00e6] | BAT, CASH, MAD\" title=\"Play video &quot;ENGLISH VOWEL [\u00e6] | BAT, CASH, MAD&quot;\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1u4EbIHUPiI<\/a><noscript>Video can&#8217;t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1u4EbIHUPiI\" title=\"ENGLISH VOWEL [\u00e6] | BAT, CASH, MAD\">ENGLISH VOWEL [\u00e6] | BAT, CASH, MAD (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1u4EbIHUPiI)<\/a><\/noscript><\/div>\n<h2>Video Transcript:<\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Today I\u2019m going to show you all the way into my throat, so you can understand American vowels.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">The other day I was working with students in a live class and someone asked a question about <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span> <span data-contrast=\"none\">like in cat, bat, match. Do you have problems with this sound? And another student asked about <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span> <span data-contrast=\"none\">in the word hand. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">, hand. The <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span> <span data-contrast=\"none\">sound isn\u2019t actually there.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">I\u2019m Rachel and I\u2019ve been teaching the American accent and English listening skills to non-native speakers for over 15 years. Check out Rachelsenglish.com to learn more about improving your spoken English and to sign up for my free course \u2018Top 3 Ways to Master the American Accent\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">First, let\u2019s look at the question about <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">. I want you to really see what changes in the mouth to make that sound.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Veronica struggles with the tongue position in <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> of the vowel <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> like cat. Can you explain the position in details? I find it difficult to lift the back of the tongue.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Okay, so I can definitely give it to you in detail. You can also watch the video where you get to see I&#8217;ve drawn it in.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I can actually show you these images right now.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The mouth at rest is on the left the <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> vowel is on the right. Of course, we see the jaw drop. Look at the corners of the lips. You&#8217;re going to see how that really moves in a second.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The back of the tongue. It reaches up at the back.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Let&#8217;s look at some words up close and in slow motion to study this position.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">attic\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Notice the jaw drop quite a bit. The corners of the lips are pulling back just a little bit and the tongue tip is down, touching the backs of the bottom front teeth. Now you see quite a bit of the tongue because it&#8217;s lifted in the back.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">attic\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">batter\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Again, quite a bit of jaw drop. Corners of the lips pull back just a little bit and the tongue tip is down behind the bottom front teeth lifted in the back.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Batter<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Which is the hardest vowel sound for you in American English? Let me know in the comments.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">But let&#8217;s get back to that live class and see the <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> as in bat vowel compared with a like in father.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Okay, but how do you make it? Tongue tip is down, it touches here, A, A. Now if I just I&#8217;m going to tilt my chin a bit so you can see a little bit better. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, a. A is in father. You can see whoa, you can see way back into my mouth. The tongue lowers. I&#8217;m going to go from a as in father to <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> You can see that lift.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">a\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">And I noticed, just when we were talking about <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> versus ab plus n, the corners of the lips pulled back a little bit and the tongue looked like it got wider too did, didn&#8217;t it? I&#8217;m going to go again from a as in father to <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> as in bat.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Ooh, there&#8217;s some saliva in there sorry.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">a<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">ae<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Now we&#8217;re going to move in slow motion so you can really see what happens. Starting with <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, you see the corners of the lips are pulled back a little bit the tongue is higher in the back and now as we move slowly into a as in father, you&#8217;ll see the tongue lowers in the back and you see the corners of the lips relax in. Here they are again side by side. You see more into the mouth more of the inside cheek of the mouth in the a as in father sound. That&#8217;s because the tongue is lower in the back. For the <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> vowel the tongue is higher in the back so you see more of the tongue. Also notice the little crease in the corner of my mouth for the ae vowel whereas for the a vowel the corner of the mouth is relaxed. So for the a it&#8217;s pulling back just a little bit.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">a<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Ae<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">a<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">ae<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Wow, it definitely feels weird looking down my throat that much. But I hope that helps.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">I made Rachel\u2019s English Academy for students just like this. I saw how listening training helped my students find really native sounds much better than me describing the sound or showing them a photo. Rachel\u2019s English Academy is the best place to improve your accent and your listening comprehension of spoken American English. And I do have a free course, the Top 3 Things to Master the American Accent. You can get it at RachelsEnglish.com\/free.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">After we watch more about the <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> vowel, I\u2019ll talk a bit more about the listening training you can do to really transform your voice.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Now, here\u2019s what\u2019s really confusing about <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">ae<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">. It\u2019s not always <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">ae<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">. It changes before nasal consonants. A student asked about this in the same live class.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Okay, Sophia is asking about, what the heck is up with the <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6 <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">as in bat vowel when it&#8217;s followed by m or n? Is the position the same? if so, why do they sound different? Great question. No, the position is not quite the same. So, let&#8217;s just take <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> like cat followed by a t, vowel is pure. Now let&#8217;s take <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> like in ham. It&#8217;s not <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> anymore, is it? So, I&#8217;m going to go back and forth between cat and ham and then I&#8217;m going to go back and forth between just the vowels with none of the consonants. And I will say for me it&#8217;s kind of hard to isolate the <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> that&#8217;s in ham because we never make that sound when it&#8217;s not followed by m or n. Okay, so here we go, cat, ham, cat, ham, I&#8217;m going to point my face towards the microphone. Cat, ham.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">So for <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6,<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> I would say there&#8217;s more jaw drop, there&#8217;s a little bit more room that&#8217;s created and some sometimes we do that a little bit we don&#8217;t always have to. Ca, cat. For the a followed by m or n like in hand or ham, there&#8217;s a little less jaw drop initially so <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6, <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">that&#8217;s pure.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">ae\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">So my lips relaxed a little bit, the jaw was less dropped a, <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">These came forward didn&#8217;t they? They pulled back a little bit for the pure ae.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">ae<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">So, this part of the mouth is more relaxed, the jaw is less dropped the back of the tongue is still lifted but it kind of immediately starts put coming back down which is how we kind of slide into the uh ending part of that so,<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00e6<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">ham\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">hand\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I hope that clarifies.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Now I said I would talk a little about the training practice. I call this method the play it, say it method, and my Academy is full of 40 or 50 thousand small training segments so my students can start hearing English differently so they can start producing English differently.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">So the thing that I love about the play it say it method is there&#8217;s almost no way to do it wrong. It&#8217;s not like this is your fault because it&#8217;s not working. There&#8217;s nothing you need to do other than relaxing and saying what you hear and you won&#8217;t be perfect at the beginning and that doesn&#8217;t matter. That doesn&#8217;t matter. It doesn&#8217;t mean that you&#8217;re not going to get to sounding 100% the way you want to sound it&#8217;s just the first step of it.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">So if you&#8217;re listening to a soundboard and you&#8217;re playing it and you&#8217;re hearing it and you&#8217;re repeating it back and you&#8217;re feeling like I know I&#8217;m not repeating that back exactly the way I&#8217;m hearing it, it doesn&#8217;t matter. All you need to do is do it more. And you may want to move to the slow motion if you&#8217;re finding like there are too many syllables here and these transitions are too hard for me right now. Do the slow motion. Do it like 10-20 times a day each piece, do that for a week, I guarantee your mouth is going to figure it out.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">And the important thing is it figures it out without your brain telling it, do this, now do that, now do this. It figures it out just through the method of playing it and saying it. Your body and your mind is built to do this. This is how you already learned a language. You already learned earned it by the immersion and hearing when you were a baby, when you were learning your own language, you are built to be able to learn how to produce these sounds, learn how to produce this music of English, it&#8217;s just a matter of the time.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The exposure and the time and the repetition. The thing that&#8217;s so important about the play it say it method is, you don&#8217;t, there is no stopping, evaluating, judging, criticizing. That is not part of it. You&#8217;re not asking yourself; did I do that right in the moment? You&#8217;re just playing it, saying it. It&#8217;s a different state of mind that&#8217;s always pointed forward. Now, if you want to record yourself doing that and then go back and listen to it, and say did that sound right? That didn&#8217;t sound quite right. Why? Fine, that&#8217;s great. But don&#8217;t do it in the moment that is not part of the method. The method is just playing it and saying it over and over, maybe your eyes are closed and you&#8217;re just letting your body adjust into the next one. You&#8217;re not judging what you just did. This is how it works.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:257}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">If you\u2019re curious about the Academy, join me as a student there at RachelsEnglishAcademy.com, or try that free course at RachelsEnglish.com\/free. Keep your learning going now with this video, and don\u2019t forget to subscribe with notifications on, I love being your English teacher. That\u2019s it and thanks so much for using Rachel\u2019s English.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><strong>Video:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a name=\"video\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-174207-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/07f1c47b71c75472a3cc-b7eea9689205a6672fd1aa00be922d89.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com\/860.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/07f1c47b71c75472a3cc-b7eea9689205a6672fd1aa00be922d89.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com\/860.mp4\">https:\/\/07f1c47b71c75472a3cc-b7eea9689205a6672fd1aa00be922d89.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com\/860.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s look into my mouth to study the tongue position of this tricky vowel. Also, learn how the pronunciation of this vowel is different in words like \u2018hand\u2019 and \u2018ham\u2019.\u00a0 \u00a0 YouTube blocked? Click here to see the video. Video Transcript: Today I\u2019m going to show you all the way into my throat, so you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":174208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[214],"tags":[196],"class_list":{"0":"post-174207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-practice-american-sounds","8":"tag-american-english-pronunciation","9":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Speaking English | The [ae] Sound: A-as-in-CAT<\/title>\n<meta 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