English Pronunciation | The Letter 'A' | 9 Ways to Pronounce the Letter A

In this English Pronunciation lesson, I'm going to to help you learn how to pronounce the letter A in English. In this lesson there are over NINE ways to pronounce the letter A. 7 common ways and 2 less common or exceptional ways to pronounce the letter A.

The Letter A in English is a VOWEL letter and is pronounced in the alphabet as /ei/.

The letter A can also be pronounced in English with any of the following sounds....
As /æ/ in Cat, Hat, Actually, Exactly
As /eə/ in Share, Care, Hare
As /ɑː/ in Father, Rather, Car and Bar
As /eɪ/ in Pay, Stay, Way, Able, Table
As /ɔ:/ in Hall, Tall, Fall
As /ɒ/ What, Want, Wallet, Was
As /ə/ a, an, Amazing, About, Banana
As /ɪ/ in Private, Climate
As /ɪ/ or /ə/ Legitimate
As /e/ in Many, Any

There are A LOT of rules for how A should be pronounced and also LOTS of exceptions. So my advice is to immerse yourself as much as possible into the language and instead focus on getting a 'feel' for what the A sounds like in certain words. You will be very surprised because after a short time you will start to be able to 'guess' and 'feel' which sound is correct, just like a native speaker of English can!

00:00 Introduction
00:55 A = æ
01:56 A = eə
03:20 A = ɑː
04:50 A = ɔ:
06:18 A = eɪ
07:36 A = ɪ
09:03 A = ə
11:05 Practice Sentences
12:42 Bonus Secrets and Summary
13:05 A = e
13:49 Data vs Data
14:50 Silent A
16:07 A = ɒ

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[EasyENGLISHwithJames]

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Some NOTES about this lesson.
1.) The letter A can actually be pronounced in more than 7 ways, but the 7 ways described in the video are the most common.
2.) The A sound /ɒ/ in words like - What, Want, Wallet, Was is rare (doesn't appear in many words) BUT these words are quite common (we use want and what A LOT in English)
3.) The best way to learn these sounds is to read as much as possible and repeat the sentences in the lesson until you can FEEL which sounds are correct for which words. If you have the time and put in a lot of effort I promise it is MUCH easier than trying to remember all the crazy pronunciation rules in English!

Good Luck Wonderful Students and I hope you enjoy the lesson!

[CoachJeromeTeasley]

Brother I’m 52 years old and still not a great reader bc I don’t know how to pronounce the words. This have touched my heart to find this! Thank you

[qinwenclegg]

I have been in the United states for almost 30 years. but i never Knew how to pronounce the A sound, today I can finally pronounce the A sound, for the firs time .Thank you very much, Teacher James

[trance_trousers]

As a native British English speaking person I sympathise with anyone trying to learn the language! It's so easy when you've been brought up to speak it, as with all languages really. You don't appreciate just how difficult it is until you put yourself in the place of someone else trying to learn it from scratch. I'm currently in the same boat as some of your students, though, as I'm trying to learn Russian at the moment, yikes!

[AnuSpeaks]

I wish I had an English teacher like him. What a clear explanation. Grateful to you

[arshadshafaei]

You are great.Never heard or watched such a clear and an impeccable explanation of english sounds anywhere and any time.really appreciate.

[muhamedhusain]

I'll definitely suggest this channel to my children and their friends!

[euclidesalvesdasilva]

The best English class video I've ever seen in Youtube. Congrats and greetings from Brazil.

[lindafortin]

Bonjour James, je voulais d’abord te remercier pour ta pédagogie qui est excellente. Tu sais te mettre au niveau des débutants, tu prononces très bien et de plus, parfois tu nous expliques des mots qu’on ne pourrait pas comprendre. Tu es un professeur passionné et tu nous donnes confiance par ta motivation qui est contagieuse et tu t’ajustes à nous afin que ce soit une expérience enrichissante et tu y réussis très bien. J’apprécie la façon dont tu abordes les lettres de l’alphabet en nous expliquant les différents sons par des exemples, c’est concret et tellement enrichissant. De plus, comme je suis visuelle, ta clarté, ta spontanéité et ton non verbal m’aide beaucoup à plus comprendre. Pouvez-vous me dire si le fait d’apprendre à diviser les syllables en anglais, peut nous aider pour la prononciation? Je vous remercie beaucoup et au nom de tous ceux et celles qui ne te le disent pas, tu es le professeur qu’on rêve tous d’avoir puisque ton énergie, ta façon de transmettre tes connaissances est unique et est le moteur nécessaire pour progresser malgré les difficultés rencontrés parce que ce que tu dégages nous donnes confiance. Merci beaucoup!

[lanpham]

I can’t wait to learn other letters. Thank you very much for these precious lessons! Your teaching is clear, to the point. Now I don’t need do a lengthy research to find out how many ways a letter A can be pronounced. All sounds of letter are demonstrated clearly in this clip. Having IPA simples in your lesson helps ESL learners greatly. Again, I am grateful for your works.

[alonsoal]

Thanks a lot. Your video is very useful to me. Although English grammar seems to me much simpler than Spanish, English pronunciation and spelling are very complicated. These have been a real headache for me. As native Spanish speakers, it hurts us a lot not to be able to pronounce correctly and not to hear the sounds in conversations. I honestly prefer to study other languages ​​like German for this reason alone. However, English is the most important international language around the world. Thank you very very much!

[abulhasan]

Young Man,
I enjoyed the way you explained the content of your lesson clearly and I am optimistic that by the end of this series A to Z students would be able to understand sound and letter relation in English in addition to IPA and of course British and American English.
May God bless you keep on going a bright future is ahead of you both here and there.

[kedymontas]

I am Haitian so I'm very happy to listen you great job

[trambui]

Hi teacher,
I just found your channel for a short time ago but my feeling is connected with you! I wake up at 5 a.m. and i have to get up to take notes prounciation A..quickly..Thanks so much Teacher..Rose from U.S.A.

[dhwendy]

It’s amazing videos series in learning English pronunciation!!! I’d love to watch all these videos from a-z, thanks for sharing :D

[emyk]

I really enjoyed, very clear and simple explanation, thank you so much 🌹

[DreamingEnglish]

Hello from Boston and a fellow English teacher on YouTube 😊

[roslynaustin]

I hope you have a great day everyone 😍😁

[nhai]

Thật vui khi gặp được những video của thầy. Rất muốn giao tiếp được bằng tiếng anh nhưng 30 năm nay vẫn không thể nào chinh phục được mong muốn ây. Nhưng từ giờ sẽ cố gắng học theo nhiwngx video của thầy. Hi vọng trong tương lai sẽ hiểu hết từng từ từng chữ thầy nói trong video❤. Thanks very much teacher ❤

[haryel]

For the silent A, I was waiting for the word “ Boundaries” too :) ! Thanks a lot !