Template:Pronunciation of the letter A (advanced)

This template is discontinued.


 * So-called “long a”, IPA phoneme /eɪ/, as in face, facing or famous
 * “Short” "ar" sound, IPA phoneme /ɑː/, as in start, bar or barred
 * “Long” "ar" sound, IPA phoneme /eə/, as in care, caring or parent

It also can be pronounced  as in all &mdash; plus other, less common pronunciations, sometimes in combination with other letters, and, of course, it can be used as schwa. There are some helpful rules (to be taken with the habitual pinch of salt).

It is also very much one of those cases in which teachers, whichever their preferences might be, need to point out the differences between RP (/ɑː/) and American (/æ/) pronunciations regarding, particularly with words like bath and past, while pointing out, of course, that most native British English speakers do, in fact, pronounce them /æ/.

As a single letter
See main article IPA phoneme /æ/.

Pattern vowel-consonant-vowel
These spelling patterns are VCV or VCCV, where C is the same consonant (or ck), and V is a vowel but is not magic e.

A single consonant (aCV) can mean anything (mainly /eɪ/ or /æ/), but a double consonant (aCCV) means the sound can't be /eɪ/.

Yellow means that a double consonant might be expected (just Google for or ). Red means an impossible combination (with very few exceptions such as having).

One consonant
The following words have "a" followed by one consonant sound.
 * /æ/: Japan


 * /ə/: African - American - final - human - legal - local - organ - total - woman

Several consonants
The following words have "a" followed by two or more different consonant sounds.


 * /ɔː/: almost - already - also - alter - always
 * /ɒ/: quantity - wander
 * /ə/. At beginning (including many verbs): acquire - admire - agree
 * as part of suffix -able: capable - likeable - probable;


 * /eɪ/: able - ancient - danger - {{advanced|{{{1|}}|hasten - hasty - pastry - }}stranger - table
 * Derived forms: changing - pasted - pasting - tasted - tasting - wasted - wasting

One syllable

 * /ɑː/: bra - spa

Several syllables

 * /ə/: area - camera - comma - formula - idea - opera
 * Africa - America - Argentina - Barbara - China - Colombia - Jessica - Montana - Russia

With magic e

 * So-called “long a”, /eɪ/: ache - age - bake - blame - brake - cake - date - escape - estimate (v.) - face - fake - game - gate - late - lake - male - make - name - pale - plate - sale - same - sane - shake - snake - state - take - trade - wake - whale
 * Two consonant sounds (unusual use of magic e): change - paste - strange - taste - waste

With silent e

 * /ɪ/: advantage - average - garbage - image - language - manage - village
 * /ə/: chocolate - estimate (n.) - private - purchase

"ai"

 * /eɪ/:
 * /e/: again (also /əˈɡeɪn/) - said

"ay"

 * /eɪ/: day - pay - play - May - say - stay - tray
 * /e/: says

"au"
See main article Decoding exercises: "au"
 * /ɔː/: August - author - autumn - caught - cause - daughter - taught;
 * /ɒ/: Aussie - Australia - Austria;
 * /ɑː/ : aunt - laugh

"aw"

 * /ɔː/: draw - law - raw - saw
 * /ɔɪ/: lawyer /ˈlɔːjər, ˈlɔɪər/

"ar"

 * /ɑː/: are - art - car - card - carpet - dark - far - garden - large - market - park - part - start
 * /ɔː/: quarter - war
 * Magic e, "are" as /eə/: aware - care - compare - declare - prepare - rare - share - software - square - stare

These spelling patterns are VCV or VCCV, where C is "r", and V is a vowel but is not magic e.
 * Pattern vowel-consonant-vowel

A single consonant (arV) can mean anything, but a double consonant (arrV) means the sound can't be /eə/.

Red means an impossible combination.

When adding a suffix or a verb ending, words with /ɑː/ double their ending consonant. Words ending in "e" drop the e and add the suffix or ending.

Homophones

 * aren't - aunt; brake - break; grate - great; male - mail; plane - plain; rain - reign; sail - sale; stake - steak; tale - tail; waste - waist; Wales - whales; way - weigh; wait - weight; wade - weighed.

Different pronunciations in the same word

 * Africa/African - America/American - Australia/Australian - Austria/Austrian - average - character - language

Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1
Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following sections aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.

Spanish
Many Spanish speakers will try, instinctively, to pronounce it either as /eɪ/ or as /ʌ/ (which is quite similar, but often not quite enough, to the letter a in Spanish). This is particularly problematic for words such as want, what or water or for the schwa.

Many cognates that have /eɪ/ in English have [a] in Spanish. If the word is not common, such as "matrix" (Spanish matriz) it is very likely that Spanish speakers will try to pronounce it with. Even some loan words are transcribed using spelling pronunciation in Spanish. For example the spelling cáterin was proposed as a transcription of "catering", but would be more similar to the English pronunciation.