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Mastering the American Accent » Reduced Vowels for Review
Reduced Vowels for Review
As a final review of this important chapter on stress and reduction, you will have an opportunity to break the habit of pronouncing each vowel fully, as you would in your native language. You must remind yourself that one of the most important factors to a great American accent is the concept of stress and reduction.
Read the word lists below, one row at a time, making sure that the vowel of the unstressed syllable is reduced and pronounced as /ə/, the schwa. The vowel spelling changes, but the vowel sound is the same in all of these groups of words.
| A. Practice these words ending in ... /əl/ | |||||
| le | al | el | ul | ol | |
| 1. | little | social | level | awful | symbol |
| 2. | gamble | mental | marvel | beautiful | idol |
| 3. | able | final | travel | careful | capitol |
| 4. | double | practical | angel | faithful | |
| 5. | cycle | local | bagel | harmful | |
| 6. | handle | animal | novel | thankful | |
| B. Practice these words ending in ... /ən/ | ||||
| an | en | on | ion | |
| 1. | ocean | fasten | common | fiction |
| 2. | American | children | person | nation |
| 3. | urban | chicken | lesson | million |
| 4. | German | dozen | iron | direction |
| 5. | woman | given | melon | attention |
| 6. | veteran | driven | Jefferson | action |
| C. Practice these words ending in ... /ər/ | ||||
| ar | er | or | ure | |
| 1. | grammar | teacher | visitor | culture |
| 2. | popular | driver | liquor | measure |
| 3. | sugar | singer | actor | injure |
| 4. | familiar | answer | color | future |
| 5. | nuclear | sister | junior | failure |
| 6. | regular | border | major | pressure |
| D. Practice these words ending in ... /əs/ | ||||
| ace | ous | ose | uce | |
| 1. | terrace | cautious | purpose | lettuce |
| 2. | necklace | fabulous | ||
| 3. | palace | dangerous | ||
| 4. | grimace | curious | ||
| 5. | surface | delicious | ||
| 6. | preface | religious | ||
| E. Practice these words ending in ... /ənt/ | ||
| ant | ent | |
| 1. | distant | present |
| 2. | elegant | accent |
| 3. | infant | talent |
| 4. | instant | frequent |
| 5. | constant | document |
| 6. | important | payment |
Note: In this grouping of words the first syllables, rather than the last, are reduced.
| F. Words beginning with... /ə/ | ||||
| a | e | o | u | |
| 1. | attain | enough | obtain | undo |
| 2. | achieve | elect | object | unfit |
| 3. | admit | effect | observe | untie |
| 4. | adore | equip | obsess | unhappy |
| 5. | awake | exam | offend | uncover |
| 6. | announce | example | occur | unlock |
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Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Vowel Sounds
- /i/ AS IN MEET
- /I/ AS IN SIT
- Quick Review: Word Contrasts for /i/ Versus /I/
- /eɪ/ AS IN TAKE
- /ɛ/ AS IN GET
- Quick Review: Word Contrasts for /ɛ/ Versus /eɪ/
- /æ/ AS IN FAT
- Quick Review: Word Contrasts for /ɛ/ Versus /æ/
- /ɑ/ AS IN FATHER
- Quick Review: Word Contrasts for /æ/ Versus /ɑ/
- /ɘ/ AS IN FUN *
- Quick Review: Word Contrasts for /ɑ/ Versus /ɘ/
- /ɔ/ AS IN SAW
- Quick Review: Word Contrasts for /ɘ/ Versus /ɔ/
- /oʊ/ AS IN BOAT
- Quick Review: Word Contrasts for /ɑ, ɔ/ Versus /oʊ/
- /ʊ/ AS IN GOOD
- /u/ AS IN TOO
- Quick Review: Vowel Contrasts for /ʊ/ Versus /u/
- /ɘr/ AS IN BIRD
- /aɪ/ AS IN TIME
- /aʊ/ AS IN HOUSE
- /ɔɪ/ AS IN BOY
- Vowels In Detail
- Review of /I/ and /i/ Sounds
- Review of /ɛ/ and /æ/ Sounds
- Review of /ɘ/, /ɑ/, /ɔ/, and /ou/ Sounds
- The Problematic O
- The American /ɔ/ Sound
- Review of /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɑ/, /ɔ/, /ɘ/, and /oʊ/
- Review of /ʊ/ and /u/ Sounds
- Comparing /u/ and /yu/
- Review of the /ɘr/ Sound
- Vowels Followed by the /r/ Sound
- Consonants
- Voiceless and Voiced Consonants
- Vowel Length and Voiced and Voiceless Consonants
- Stops and Continuants
- Final Stops Followed by Consonants
- Problematic Consonants
- Held t + Consonant
- Held t Before /n/ Sound
- Silent t After n
- When t is Between Two Vowels
- When t is Between Two Words
- The “Fast d” Sound
- The /tʃr/ Sound: tr
- The /dʒr/ Sound: dr
- The /dʒ/ Sound: du and d + y
- The /ʧ/ Sound: tu and t + y
- Words Ending in ed
- Linking ed Ending and a Vowel
- The th Sound
- Comparing th with s and z
- The American /r/
- R Before a Consonant
- The American /l/
- l Before a Consonant
- Long Vowels + /l/
- Understanding /l/ Versus /r/
- Consonants + r and l
- Review of /r/ and /l/
- The /v/ Sound
- Understanding /b/ Versus /v/
- The /w/ Sound
- Understanding /v/ Versus /w/
- The /s/ and /z/ Sounds
- Verbs and Nouns and the Letter s
- The /ŋ/ Sound: Pronouncing ng
- Confusing n and ng Endings
- Consonant Clusters
- Different Sounds for x
- Words Ending with ts
- Pronouncing the ds Cluster
- Syllable Stress
- Stressed and Reduced Vowels
- Dangers of Stressing the Wrong Syllable
- General Rules for Stress Placement
- Noun and Verb Pairs
- Words Ending in -tion and -ate
- -ate Endings of Verbs and Nouns
- More Stressed Suffixes
- Rules for Prefixes
- Syllable Stress Changes
- Reduced Vowels for Review
- Word Stress
- Compound Nouns
- Proper Stress with Adjectives
- Compound Nouns Containing Adjectives
- Phrasal Verbs
- Noun Forms of Phrasal Verbs
- Abbreviations and Numbers
- Names of Places and People
- Word Stress Within a Sentence
- Which Words Should I Stress?
- Content Words in Detail: Verbs
- Stress Nouns but Not Pronouns
- Content Words in Detail: Adjectives
- Reducing Vowels in Unstressed Words
- Weak Forms
- Strong Forms
- Thought Groups and Focus Words
- Contrastive Stress
- Intonation
- Falling Intonation
- Rising Intonation
- Non-final Intonation
- Introductory Words
- Series of Words
- Expressing Choices
- Wavering Intonation
- Sound Like A True Native Speaker
- Rules for Linking
- Linking Consonant to Same Consonant
- Final Stop Between Consonants
- Linking Vowel to Vowel
- Linking Vowels Within a Word
- Reducing Pronouns
- Contractions
- Conditional Tense and Contractions
- Conditional Questions
- Casual Versus Formal Speech
- Commonly Confused Words
- Memorizing The Exceptions
- Same Spelling, Different Pronunciation
- Two Correct Pronunciations
- Especially Difficult Words
- Words with Dropped Syllables
- Words with Silent Letters
- Homophones
- Chinese
- Farsi
- Filipino Languages
- French
- German
- Indian Languages
- Indonesian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
- Vietnamese