AEE 1985: No Pain No Gain When it Comes to American English Vowels

This is an All Ears English Podcast episode 1985. No pain, no gain when it comes to American English vowels. Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the aisles whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app for iOS and Android. Start your seven-day free trial at allearzenglish.com, board slash app. Why is vowel pronunciation important? We dive into this today as we answer a listener question about vowels. You'll learn eight vowel sounds and how to use them to spice up your English. Hi, Lindsay, how are you? Hey there, Aubrey. I'm excited to be here. How are you? How's everything going? I'm great. I want to ask you, I've noticed recently in a lot of podcasts that are American hosts that they say the word room different from me, and I haven't really noticed this. I'm wondering, how do you say the word room? I don't think I say it the same way you do, Aubrey. Hey, interesting. And I get about this. It's the same way I say roof, which is not roof. I say roof or room. Okay. Yes, that's what I've heard a lot of. You're not alone, Lindsay. A lot of Americans pronounce it like room, which it's so subtle. You guys out there listening might not really hear the difference. I say room. It's like a hard oo, like broom. Yes. And Lindsay says room, rum. So it's almost like more getting more towards like a schwa sound. Uh, rum. Not quite that far, right? Right. So here's why this is interesting. We had a listener send in a very interesting question, but it's so tricky. Let's go ahead and read the question. Then we'll share why this is really tricky in English. Okay. This is great. This is from Zara Mosa Fair. And he says, here she says, hello, Lindsay. I always listen to your podcast. You are awesome. Well, thank you, Zara. That's awesome. We are we love hearing good feedback from our listeners. This is my question. How are vowels pronounced? Please answer me. Thank you so much. Very direct question. It is. And I love how direct it is. And of course vowels are so important, right? If you change the vowel sound often, it's a totally different word. Yeah. Right. But the tricky thing is it depends so much on the accent. Like for us just to say, here's how you pronounce all these vowels. It would be very different depending on what dialect you're talking about. Yeah. And before we get into the technicalities, I want to talk about connection here, Aubrey. Yeah. So the reason I get kind of excited about the room thing is I was recently listening to a podcast, of course, about podcasting where the host is a guy I now know well. And I heard him say room. And then I heard him say, I get teased for saying that because I'm from Boston. And so I say it that way. I'm from New England. And now he, I actually, he's our consultant, our podcast, uh, consultant. And I see him at conferences all the time. He's a buddy of mine now. And I felt that connection with him. I was like, this guy is from where I'm from. He speaks the way I do. And it's not why I hired him as a consultant, but I felt a real affinity towards him. When I heard him talk about that on his show. Absolutely. The kinship of having something in common, especially where you have both been teased or maybe it's a little bit that really creates a bond. So that's what this is about today, guys. It's about understanding differences and what brings us together with people and just getting these vowel sounds. So let's get into it now, Aubrey. Let's get into it. Let's get into the technical piece. So what's interesting is the number of vowel sounds or vowel phonemes is different in every dialect, right? So in standard Southern British English, there are 19 distinct vowel phonemes. But how are how many are there in general American English ones? It looks like 21 based on our research. Yes. And there would be a different number in Southern American English or Northwestern possibly because we do change the vowels a lot depending on our dialect. Interesting. So general American English, again, hard to define, but it's kind of, I guess we can't point that to a region, right? When we say general American English, we talked about this before. Exactly, right? It's more like the English you hear on TV where someone knows they have something that makes their accent stronger and they're trying to have this sort of general American sound dialect. They're going to adjust the vowels, adjust the letters to sound, to have this more general American accent. Love it. Okay. So what do we need to know then about where do we start today? Yes. Exactly. There are so many vowel sounds like 21, right? We're going to today share just the short and long vowels. There are also diphthongs where there's two vowel sounds, sort of the vowel changes to a second sound within the same vowel. And our controlled vowels or weak vowels will cover those in other episodes today. Yes. We're going to break off this chunk and share short and long vowels in general American English. I love it. And then when we learn these guys, we're going to teach you a really cool application. Of these vowel sounds where you can take this out into the business world, the marketing world, the literature world. If you're a writer, a poet and you can make use of this in English. Exactly. So cool. So there's a lot more to know than just what are the vowel sounds. Then there's all this interesting stuff you can do with it. Yeah. Yeah. We're not we're not here just to study English for English. Right. We're here to study English for connection for writing for marketing for persuading for leading. That's the point. Yes. Exactly. So our first short vowel is like in kit, myth and pretty. So that's our first short vowel. Okay. Love it. So kit, myth, pretty, it's the E we're bringing back our lips, sound and you guys should really check out this episode on YouTube. Don't you think Aubrey? Yes. You can see how we make the sounds of our mouths. We don't we are not able in this episode to dive into every way we change our mouth to make these different vowels, but that's a good idea just to watch on YouTube so you can see the way the mouth moves to pronounce each phoneme. Yeah. And our course is now we're going into some really cool, really using technology to help you guys actually practice your pronunciation. I love that feature in our new course platform Aubrey where our listeners can hear a native clip and mimic that and listen back, record their voices, listen back, see how closely it matches that native clip. So yes, absolutely. Right. That is the kind of thing that you really need a course. You need an English class to dive into the intricacies of pronunciation. We can tell you how they sound. You can watch us on YouTube, but there's a lot more that goes into it. Oh, for sure. So come over and check out our courses, guys. But what is the next vowel sound? Okay. So next is E like dress, bread, many friend, right? So that E and these each are they have their own, you know, the way they're written in their phoneme, right? The way we write them. Yes. So that's a little tricky because when you write all of these words, you're using different letters. So you write them with a phonetic alphabet. It is tricky because when I see the spelling of bread, B-R-E-A-D, I think of the same spelling with a very different sound like need, need the bread, which I think is K-A-D, right? Just drop the B you have a read or past tense, read. Oh, gosh. So we can always rely on the spelling, right? Exactly. Yeah. Okay. And the next one is trap. I'll just throw it out there. Yes. You'll find it. So we're really opening our mouths quite large here. Cat, fast, pass, right? Exactly. And next is strut, like sun, courage, the sound in the second syllable there or blood. Oh, gosh. And just in these examples, I'm seeing four different ways to spell the uh sound. I'm saying uh U U S T R U T. I'm seeing sun S O N courage, right? I guess, where's the uh Oh, it's on okay. It's the second syllable, the uh U S T R U T. Courage and then blood O O. So wow. This is really what makes it English so difficult when you're reading. You cannot count on the letters to sound the same, unfortunately. That's one thing that's been so much easier about Spanish. I can look at a vowel letter and know what it's going to sound like. And there's an accent if it changes. Exactly. English doesn't do us that justice. Love it. And then do we have one more for us? Yes, for the short vowels. So the last one is a foot like took good or put again. It might be spelled differently, but it's that phoneme. Uh, yes, I love that. Uh, okay, the spellings are all different, but we have to learn the sounds. What exactly? All right. Let's go into some long vowels. Yes. So first we have E right like fleece, see and people. Mm hmm. All right. So that's E that so that's probably two E's, but again, don't worry about the spelling. It's just that sound. E we're pulling our lips back the sound. And then what's the next one? Next is ah, like a lot thought palm watch caught. Uh, and it's quite open as well. And I'm having to really pull down my chin to make that a little bit further back. Right. You have to pull your chin down right up. Ah, lot thought palm. And then goose ooh, the ooh sound like as in new do or tuna, that first syllable of tuna. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. So we've just gone through a lot of vowel sounds or listeners might be wanting to rewind and listen again. But what's the point? Why are we doing this? Why don't we care? First of all, keep in mind this is not an extensive list, right? There are so many vowels that are also diphthongs. Like there's just, it gets pretty complicated, but this does give you the short and long vowels. And pronunciation of vowels is not just about speaking clearly. It's also about understanding and using interesting language features. So we're going to share one of those today. Like Lindsey said, this can help you if you work in marketing. It can help you recognize devices that are used in marketing to make you purchase products. And you can also see that it's used as a literary device. Yeah. I mean, for example, we used to have a product called power hour speaking power hour. Yes. And that's an example of this, right? We don't have that product anymore, but it was just live classes. But the idea is you can use the word power to energy, excitement, enthusiasm, we're coming together for about an hour, maybe even half an hour. It doesn't really matter power hour. That's more interesting than live group classes, right? Right. So this language feature is called assonance. It's the repetition of vowel sounds. So just like that example that Lindsey gave power hour, you see the vowel repeated there. It's a poetic device that writers use to make words stand out or marketers use to make their logo, right? Their catch phrases, more catchy, more memorable. Yeah, I love that. Very interesting. Let's give our listeners more examples of these assonance of using assonance and where we see it, how it's used. Yeah. Yes. So one good example is no pain, no gain. You have all those repeated vowels, no pain, no gain, right? We hear this and we're talking about the importance of working out, right? You definitely might hear this in sports drink commercials. It's anything that's really catchy and helping you remember something. Yeah. This is real is a common, I guess, refrain in our culture, right? We say this to each other. If we know we're committing to something and it's painful, it's hard, not just working out. I would say also, I guess committing yourself to anything that's inconveniencing you, making you work a little harder than you might like maybe you're starting a new business and you're working 12 hours a day, but no pain, no gain, right? Exactly. It's just a great expression for saying like, I know this is going to be difficult, but it's going to provide value. It's going to be beneficial. No pain, no gain. I love that. So good. So good. What's another one? I love this one. Yes. Surf and turf. So this means it's like a dish usually that has both seafood and like, you know, meat from the land. So maybe like a steak and lobster would be surf and turf. Stay a lot of stuff. There's a reason they don't call it seafood and beef, right? That's the only thing to say is surf and turf. Surf and turf. And you see this all over the place in the US, right? A lot of times restaurants will have it obviously maybe as a header in a menu section or a name of a dish, as you said, or it could also be like, I don't know, on their signage outside the morning. What do you offer? Seafood, surf and turf, steak. Yes. It's important to know that's because if you're allergic to seafood, you wouldn't want to go to a restaurant and be like, I'll try the surf and turf. I don't know what that is, but oh my gosh. And I do have someone in my life who's super allergic to seafood. Like she can't even be near someone eating seafood. So yeah, avoid the surf and turf for sure. So that's a good one. And then what's the next one that's really fun? So the next one is slowpoke. This is one word in English. And we use it to describe a person who's slow. I'll often call one of my son a slowpoke because he just meanders. He's never in any hurry. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. You're a slowpoke, stopping a slowpoke, right? Again, really fun. And then chips and dip coming back to the type of food. You might use this if you're inviting over friends. Hey, let's, you know, come on over for happy hour. I'll have chips and dip. You can bring guacamole, right? Exactly, right? Yeah. It's just so interesting when we're creating these fun little phrases. They sort of just develop out of language because they sound fun, right? It's interesting. And sometimes it is like you were saying, Lindsay, it has been the brainchild of a marketing team somewhere in order to make something seem more, um, what's the word? More desirable. Kind of like sexier or sleeker. Yeah, more desirable. I mean, that's what marketing is, right? So if you guys can come up with, I, this would be so fun to do in our community. We'll have our community open soon to listeners of all our English, but I would love for us to be able to come together and find examples, especially in marketing and business. Absolutely. Where brands have used this? Well, maybe we'll come back to that, Upper Eho. Definitely. Let's do it. Well, let's do a role play. Yeah. In this one, you and I are headed to the gym together. Right. So I'll start us out. Yes. I really didn't feel like working out today, but no pain, no gain. Yeah. Oh, same. It's hard to stay motivated. I had surf and turf last night though. So I got to work that off. Oh, yeah. Same. My ordered dessert. I might be a slowpoke during the class today. I'm just feeling low energy. So we use some of these fun phrases with assonants. I first said no pain, no gain. We do hear this a lot for exercise, but you're right. You can use this for anything, anything that might be a little bit difficult. Really what you're saying is there's no value in something. If it's not difficult, it's kind of true, isn't it? As a life philosophy. I mean, if something isn't hard, then what's that expression? Like if it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. Right. Exactly. Then it wouldn't be something important or special or higher level. Right. So good to keep in mind, we want to be doing the hard things in life, right? The hard things that motivate us excite us. Yes, absolutely. Right. And then you said I had surf and turf last night. So this is always something you eat there. We don't use it to mean anything else. It's just a dish that has both seafood and maybe beef or pork. Yeah. And again, turf is another word, as you said, from the land, right? Turf is another word for grass or. Yes. The land. The earth. Exactly. So it's like you're saying sea and land. You see and love it. I was so native and natural, Aubrey. This is so good for our listeners. And then you said, oh, yes, same. I ordered dessert. I might be a slowpoke during class today. And when you say that you're kind of making fun of yourself a little, you're sort of, yeah, giving yourself a name saying, oh, I've kind of got some low energy. I might be a slowpoke. So imagine you're going into some class where you usually have to be really high energy. You're anticipating. I might, I might go slow more slowly than everybody else. Yeah, it's kind of a way to poke fun about yourself or someone else. Yeah. And as a bonus extension there, you could say, stopping so pokey, right? Like, yeah, I was a kid. Our cat's name was pokey. Oh, cute. There's a really famous children's book called the pokey little puppy. Right? It's kind of slow, just like not in a hurry to get anywhere. Right, right. Or if your partner is always kind of saying like, oh, you're so slow to get out of the house, right? You're so pokey when we're trying to leave the house, stopping so pokey. Very common good bonus for our listeners today. Yeah. Nice. So as just a little takeaway here, guys, it's really important to use those correctly so that your message is clear. Of course. We talked recently in an episode about how the best way to practice this is through shadowing mimicking. We've got some recommendations and it also adds color and variety to our speech and our marketing. Yeah, I love it guys. I mean, think about what you're doing here at Allers English. What we're doing together is we're looking for ways to connect. So yes, we have to learn the technical pieces of the vowels, but that's not our ultimate goal or ultimate goal is to come up with one of these phrases, insert it into our expressions and connect. Have a fun moment together with a friend. Okay. So that's the key to keep in mind. Yes. Awesome. So it's such a great episode today and go out there or give these a try, right? Use some assonance. Look for it when you're reading. Listen for it when you're watching TVs or TV shows or podcasts. You're going to start hearing that repetition of vowels that's intentionally used to make something more memorable. Very cool. Very interesting piece of the vowel use. I love it. All right, Aubrey, let's get off the mic for today. I'll see you soon. Back on again. All right. Take care. See ya. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time. ♪♪♪♪♪