In words which have the phonetic sound / ae/ , I hear the real differences between American and British Accent.
If in British they spell that phonetic sound similar to /a/, American would do with a sound like /e/, isn't it?
Some words such as slang, man etc. I wonder why they use the /ae/ sound for this? Do they mean, you can use whatever /a/ or /e/ when spelling the words?
Today I took one of the exam implemented in American English, I spoke the word: slang with an /a/ to the examiner, he didn't understand at all. When I said: "synonym is: vernacular language", he asked me:" Isn't it slang /e/ ?" . So confused!
If in British they spell that phonetic sound similar to /a/, American would do with a sound like /e/, isn't it?
Some words such as slang, man etc. I wonder why they use the /ae/ sound for this? Do they mean, you can use whatever /a/ or /e/ when spelling the words?
Today I took one of the exam implemented in American English, I spoke the word: slang with an /a/ to the examiner, he didn't understand at all. When I said: "synonym is: vernacular language", he asked me:" Isn't it slang /e/ ?" . So confused!
Hi,
the symbol that looks like ae is actually one symbol, not two letters together, a + e. It's the IPA symbol used to represent a sound that is common in English.
Bet is pronounced with /e/.
Bat is pronounced with /ae/. It's not /a/, and not /e/ either. It's between those two sounds in the IPA chart. To try to do this sound, you can try to say /e/ while your mouth is as open as for an /a/ sound. You move your mouth as if you were going to say /a/, but you try to say /e/ instead.
the symbol that looks like ae is actually one symbol, not two letters together, a + e. It's the IPA symbol used to represent a sound that is common in English.
Bet is pronounced with /e/.
Bat is pronounced with /ae/. It's not /a/, and not /e/ either. It's between those two sounds in the IPA chart. To try to do this sound, you can try to say /e/ while your mouth is as open as for an /a/ sound. You move your mouth as if you were going to say /a/, but you try to say /e/ instead.
Comments
if Britishes and Americans you the same symbol /ae/, so how come they pronounce it so differently?
That said, the transcriptions you find in dictionaries are not perfect, not 100% accurate. For example, even if every dictionary says "can" is pronounced /kæn/, most Americans say either /kɛən/, or /keən/, or /kɪən/. It often happens before nasal consonants like N and M, for example.