Sunday 1 October 2023

VIVA LA VI DA. VOWELS /iː/ /ɪ/ /ʊ/ /uː/ /e/ /ɜː/ /ɔː/ /æ/ /ʌ/ /ɑː/ /ɒ/

This post has been designed principally for Spanish speakers, but it can also be useful for other nationalities by skipping the first activity and doing the rest.

 There are 46 sounds in the English sound system, 22 of which are vowel sounds. Compare this with Spanish, which has 5 vowel sounds, none of which are equivalent to any vowel sound in English. English vowels are difficult to identify and produce in most latin based languages.
  • First of all, note where the vowel chart is placed in the mouth cavity (Fig B) and then observe where each vowel is produced (Fig A) . Click on the chart on the right to hear and repeat the following vowel sounds /iː/ /ɪ/ /ʊ/ /uː/ /e/ /ɜː/ /ɔː/ /æ/ /ʌ/ /ɑː/ /ɒ/ as many times as you need to.

The British band Cold Play will help to introduce some of the most confusing vowels /iː/ /ɪ/ /ʊ/ /uː/ /e/ /ɜː/ /ɔː/ /æ/ /ʌ/ /ɑː/ /ɒ/ with their song Viva la vida.
  • Listen to the song and do the matching exercise by dragging the words taken from the song on the right to the corresponding vowel sound they contain, on the left. Only one answer can be correct.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Please never stop doing this! It's a great job and your helping other people with it.

Ana López Pozo said...

Thanks Mar. It's people like you that encourage me and give value to the time I spend doing it.

Anonymous said...

Hola Ana!

Por fin tuve tiempo de ver tu blog, y está genial. Se lo voy a recomendar a mis alumnos de este año.

Besos,
Maryanne

Ana López Pozo said...

Gracias catalana, muchos besos y saludos a Cataluña.

Yolanda Giménez said...

I's a great job Ana. I wish I had time to do it too!!!
Thanks for sharing your beautiful work!

Ana López Pozo said...

Thanks Yolanda. We'll keep moving on.