Happy Easter AA vowel followed by nasal consonants American English pronunciation
In this American English pronunciation video,
we’ll look at English in action and take a
look at the ‘aa’ vowel followed by nasal consonants.
Hey Jovon, happy Easter.
Oh, hey, happy Easter.
Hi Ben.
Hello Rachel.
Happy Easter.
Happy Easter.
Ben brought a ham for us to eat.
I brought a ham.
Ben brings a ham every year because he’s
a dear. And I don’t mean deer the animal,
I mean dear, D-E-A-R, a kind and thoughtful
person. ‘Dear’ and ‘deer’ are homophones.
What is this, Ben?
This is a ham. And it is made with pineapple
and brown sugar.
Oh, delicious. Ham. This is a teachable moment.
Here comes the ham. Now the word ham –
(it’s really hot)
– is an interesting word because it’s
the AA as in BAT vowel followed by a nasal
consonant, in this case, M. So even though
it’s written in IPA just with the H consonant,
AA vowel, and M consonant, it’s not actually
pronounced that way. That would be “haam”,
“haam”. But we say, ha-uh-m. And there’s that
UH sound that’s not accounted for in IPA:
aa-uh, aa-uh. Ham. So, if you add this UH
sound to your AA vowel, you’ll sound much
more American. Other examples, camera. AA-UH-M.
Cam-, Camera. This is also true if the sound
after the AA is the N sound. For example,
‘ant’. AA-UHnt. Ant. Now, one last thing.
If the AA vowel is followed by the NG consonant,
then it changes also, but, in a different
way. In that case it becomes a sound more
like the ‘ay’ diphthong, ay. For example,
in the word ‘thanks’: thanks. Or, bank, bank.
So pronounce your AA vowel this way when it’s
followed by N, M, or NG.
Michelle, what are you working on here?
I’m making Eggs Benedict.
Ooo.
So I’m poaching eggs –
Uh-huh.
And then making them with salmon and spinach.
Oh, that looks delicious.
Jovon’s always taking pictures. It’s a
good thing I’m used to the camera, right?
So this is what I made for our meal. Some
green—it probably doesn’t look as good under
plastic, eh? Some asparagus. I roasted it
yesterday, gonna serve it chilled with a dijon
vinaigrette. Yum.
What did you make, Kate?
I made Easter egg chocolate / peanut butter
candy.
Oo, that looks good. Now these are special,
right?
They’re special: they’re vegan.
They’re vegan.
No dairy.
Wow. Let me zoom up on that. Jovon’s been
trying to sneak one of those ever since you
made them yesterday.
I found the little ladle. That’s a hard
little phrase. Say that five times quickly!
Little ladle [x5].
Ben, this ham is delicious.
Thanks.
You guys are so clear, such good actors
for my Rachel’s English audience. Totally
natural.
They’re hamming it up.
They are hamming it up. Thank you, Matthew,
for brining up another use of the word ‘ham’.
Matthew cleverly pointed out a second definition
for the word ‘ham’. An actor or performer
who overacts. As a verb: to act with exaggerated
expression of emotion, to overact. So the
idiom, to ham it up, simply means, to overact.
Example sentence: He really hammed it up for
the camera.
Happy Easter, guys.
Happy Easter, Rachel.
Hope you’re learning lots of fun vocabulary.
They are.
We learned all about the word ‘ham’.
Ham.
Oo, ham.
That’s a good one.
It is a good one and –
It’s a nasal one.
– it’s sort of an odd word because it’s
got this AA-UH sound.
haa, haaa. Like that.
Yeah. If you had to explain how you pronounce
‘ham’, what would you say?
Um, haa, aa. There’s an H in there.
Yes?
There’s an A, with an aa, kind of an aa?
Very nasal aa sound.
M, and then an M, mm, mm.
So if you had to say it in slow motion,
say it in slow motion.
Haaauhm.
There you go! I heard that good UH sound.
HaQuyen?
Ham.
Let’s watch this in slow motion. As you know,
AA followed by M has an ‘uh’ sound. AA-uh,
AA-uh. You can see HaQuyen’s tongue pull back
to make that UH sound before her lips close
for the M.
Ham.
Yeah, nice
Got that in the profile.
Yep, she gave the profile so we can see
the movement of the tongue and everything.
Thanks guys!
You’re welcome Rachel.
You’re most welcome.
That’s it, and thanks so much
for using Rachel’s English.
Don’t stop there. Have fun with my real-life
English videos. Or get more comfortable with
the IPA in this play list. Learn about the
online courses I offer, or check out my latest
video.