1. Phonetics
Sunday, January 08, 2012
Vowels
Frontal Vowels

2. Parts of the Mouth
• This Powerpoint will talk about the front vowels in
monothongs.
• Before we begin, let’s take a look at the parts of the
mouth.
• English has more than one sound to go with each letter
in the alphabet and sometimes the combination of
different letters changes the sound that the letter
represents.
• Because of this, we are going to learn the phonetic
symbols for each sound in English this year.
• Each sound, for example the “a” in “hat” is represented
by a symbol, in this case /æ/

3. Front Vowels
• The front vowels we are going to learn in this
Powerpoint are…
– /æ/
• As in hat
– /eɪ/
• As in cake
– /iː /
• As in eat
– /ɪ/
• As in pin
– /e/
• As in bet

4. Animation
/æ/
Short a
• bad The fat cat sat on the black mat.
ðə ː ː ː ː ðə ː
fæt kæt sæt ɔn blæk
– /bæd/ ː mæt.
• stamp
– /stæmp/ Bad man run as fast as you can.
ːbæd ː mæn ː əz ː
rən fæst əz ːjuː
• trap kən.
– /træp/
The sad tadpole swam very fast.
ðə ːsæd ː tædːpo ː
ʊl swæm ː veriː
ː fæst.
The bad lunch made her gag.
ðə ːbæd ː ləntʃ ːmeɪd (h)ər ːgæg.

5. Animation
/eɪ/
Long a
• eight Eight great freight trains came rolling
down the tracks.
– /eɪt/ ː ː
eɪt greɪt ː freɪt ː treɪnz ːkeɪm
• straight ː roʊlɪŋ ː dæʊn ðə ː træks.
– /streɪt/
They made a cake for little Blake.
• made ː ː
ðeɪ meɪd ə ː keɪk fər ː lɪtəl
– /meɪd/ ːbleɪk.
Jake had a date with his best mate.
ː dʒeɪk ː hæd ə ː deɪt ː wɪð (h)ɪz
ːbest ː meɪt.
I want to make a cupcake.
ː ː
aɪ wɔnt tə ː meɪk ə ː kəpːkeɪk.

6. Animation
/e/
Short e
• bet She kept the pet.
ːʃiː ːkpt ðə ːp
e et.
– bet
• bed He broke her china set, she was very
– bed upset.
ːhiː ː broʊk (h)ər ː tʃaɪnə ːs et,
• kept ː ʃiː ː ː
wəz veriːəpːs et.
– kept
They put the wet blanket on the desk.
ː ː ðə ːw ː
ðeɪ pʊt et blæŋkət ː ðəɔn
ːdesk.

7. Animation
/iː/
Long e
• eat The purple seat on fleet street is really
neat.
– /iːt/ ðə ː pərpəl ː t ː ː t ː
siː ɔn fliː striːt
• dream ː ː liːː t.
ɪz riː niː
– /driːm/
I eat pigs feet twice a week.
• sleep ː ː tː
aɪ iː pɪgz fiː ː t twaɪs ə
– /sliːp/ ː wiː k.
I dreamed a dream that meat was lean.
ː ː
aɪ driː ə ː
md driː ː ː
m ðæt miː t
ː wəz ː n.
liː

8. Animation
/ɪ/
Short i
• pig The little kid wore a wig.
ðə ː lɪtəl ː kɪd ː wɔr ə ː wɪg.
– /pɪg/
• itch I have an itch to fix.
– /ɪtʃ/ ː ː
aɪ hæv ən ː tə ːɪtʃ fɪks.
• pin
Above her chin she wore a grin.
– /pɪn/ əːbəv(h)ər ː tʃɪn ː ʃiː ː əwɔr
ː grɪn.

9. Try it on your own!
• Think of some rhyming • http://project-
words to make a modelino.com/english-
sentence. phonetic-transcription-
• Put your sentence into converter.php?site_lang
the phonetic translator. uage=english
• Check to see if the
sounds match!