It's responsible for so many students having bad pronunciation.

Get it right, and you can improve your pronunciation overnight.

And the good news is, there's an easy way to remember it.

So you don't have to learn individual words, want to know more, come with me.

Okay.

Still with me.

So you want to know the secret?

Well, listen carefully.

The short vowel sound æ, can actually be as long as the vowel sound iː What?

Oh, yeah.

That's what I said, but never fear, because it's so easy once you know, how.

Now, first of all, the traditional sound of æ, is short like this.

æ, æ, as in the cat sat on the mat, but this sound is often

given special length, but why?

When?

Don't panic, you all know what a voiced consonant is

don't, you?

No?, Okay.

So here's a few of them, /b,d,dʒ,g,v,ð,z,ʒ/.

Yes?

Ok.

Well, the æ sound often has special length before a voiced consonant.

Listen to this.

When æ is before an unvoiced consonant, like in the word map.

It's a short sound, right?

But now listen to this, when it's before a voiced consonant, like in the

word, man, man, there's a difference.

Can you hear it?

Listen to this map, man, map, man, I have a bad back.

Did you hear it again?

Bad longer æ before voiced consonant /d/ and back, short æ

before unvoiced consonant /k/.

Why?

Well, you need less air to produce voiced consonants than unvoiced consonants.

I'll say that again, you need less air to produce voiced consonants

than unvoiced consonants.

So more breath is needed for an unvoiced consonant, like /k/ compared with voiced

consonant, /d/, this means after producing the æ sound before an unvoiced consonant,

the mouth and tongue quickly get ready to block and produce a burst of air

to pronounce the unvoiced consonant.

In doing this, the æ sound is short.

You try it, bad back, bad back.

Now, let's compare the length of æ, with a traditional long vowel

/iː/ before a voiced consonant.

Now, I want you to see if you can hear if there's any difference.

man, mean, mad, mead, bad, bead, can, keen, have, heave.

Not much difference in length is there, but stay with me because now we're going

to practice long and short æ sounds before voiced and unvoiced consonants.

Watch, listen and repeat.

sad, sat,

fan, fat, ham, hat, spam, spat, crab, crack, man, map.

How was that?

Pretty amazing.

Isn't it.

Now tell me in the comments below, if you already knew about this.

But the point is that, æ, can often be as long as a long vowel sound such as / iː/

especially before a voiced consonant.

It's probably a good idea to say a few sentences of your own, just to

notice if you're getting it right.

You may find that your æ sounds are a bit too short in some words, but

remember, don't get too hung up on this, as long as you can be understood.

It's absolutely fine.

Try this little rhyme to notice the difference in the

short and long vowel sounds.

Sam sat on his ham and jam sandwich, feeling sad.

He went back to his flat for a snack and to see his pet rat, Stan,

only to find his pet rat Stan, in the jaws of his black cat, Dan.

Sam shouted at his bad black cat Dan, to drop his pet rat Stan, but his

black cat, Dan just couldn't understand and swallowed Sam's pet rat, Stan.

Sam's black cat, Dan licked his lips and ran.

Hope you enjoyed that .For more practice with other vowel sounds ,go here.

Until next time, love and peace.