Decoding and spelling exercises: /æ/ vs /eɪ/

Since the spelling of /æ/ and /eɪ/ is often the same, many students confuse these two sounds, even if they are able to pronounce them. For example, the word "catering" is often pronounced as instead of

Spelling
/æ/ is always followed by one or more consonants. In derived words a single consonant is usually doubled (plan, planned; dad, daddy).

"a" as /æ/

 * before single consonant: average, balance, damage, family, have, January, manage, national, natural, standard, value, travel
 * before two consonants: absolutely, action, actually, angry, aspect, capture, champagne, contract, factor, financial, handle, practice, transport
 * misleading silent e: cache, have

"a" as /eɪ/

 * before single consonant: agency, baby, basic, behavior, behaviour, education, information, label, major, nature, paper, patient, situation
 * before two consonants: able, acre, ancient, apron, arrange, cable, chamber, champagne, change, fragrance, range, strange, table

Minimal pairs

 * act - ached; add - aid; back - bake; bran - brain; cat - Kate; clam - claim; fact - faked; fat - fate; hat - hate; jams - James; lack - lake; mad - made/maid; man - main; mat - mate; pal - pale; pants - paints; plan - plane/plain; ran - rain; rat - rate; Sam - same; span - Spain; stack - stake; stand - stained; tax - takes; van - vain/vein/vane;

These words don't rhyme

 * have - cave;

Variant pronunciations

 * apricot /ˈeɪprɪkɒt, ˈæprɪkɒt/
 * data /ˈdeɪtə, ˈdɑːtə, ˈdætə/
 * expatriate /ˌeksˈpeɪtrɪət, ˌeksˈpætrɪət/

Heteronyms

 * bass
 * /bæs/: a type of fish
 * /beɪs/: several terms in music (low voice, musical instrument)


 * patent
 * /ˈpætənt/: right to make an invention
 * /ˈpeɪtənt/: obvious, evident