American English Vowel Sounds: SMART American Accent Training

The vowel sounds of American English, explained with visual and placement cues.

[jaewoolee]

I have no idea what you are doing differently from other English teachers on youtube. But your lessons are very well organized and easy to understand. Thank you.

[MichelleDelRey]

I wished I learned this when I was in speech therapy in third grade in the 80s. The only reason why I was in speech therapy was because english was my second language.

[eddycuevas]

How much I wish to pronounce each of them so clearly.

[talkeraware]

Vowels as never been taught, or, so I think 😀

[wd]

You seem to have the cot-caught merger and pronounce "bought" and "bot" with the same vowel /ɑ/.

[rodrigoalcantara]

These are all the vowel sounds that exist in my native language, Brazilian Portuguese. I'm glad to know that some of these sounds already exist in English.
We have
Oral Vowel Sounds
/i/ /e/ /ɛ/ /a/ /ɐ/ /u/ /o/ /ɔ/

Nasal Vowel Sounds
/ ĩ /, /ẽ/, /ɐ̃/, /ũ/, /õ/

/i/=> as in livro /'li.vɾu/ (book)
/e/ => as in Mesa/'me.zɐ/ (table)
/ɛ/ => as in vela /'vɛ.lɐ/
/a/=> as in lago /'la.gu/ (lake)
/u/ => as in luva /'lu.vɐ/ (glove)
/o/=> as in fogo /'fo.gu/ (fire)
/ɔ/ =>as in bota /'bɔ.tɐ/(boot)
/ɐ/=> as in cama /'kɐ.mɐ/ (bed) . The /ɐ/ vowel sounds quite similar to /ʌ / in stressed syllables and quite similar to /ə/ in unstressed syllables.
/ ĩ /=>as in limpo /'lĩ.pu/ (clean)
/ẽ/=> as in sempre /'sẽ.pɾi/ (always)
/ɐ̃/= as in maçã /ma'sɐ̃/ (apple)
/ũ/=> as in mundo /'mũ.du/(world)
/õ/=>as in tonto /'tõ.tu/

We also have some diphthongs in Portuguese:
/aɪ/ => as in pai /paɪ/ (father)
/eɪ/ => as in peixe /'peɪ.ʃi/ (fish)
/ɛɪ/ =>as in papéis / pa'pɛɪs/ (papers)
/oɪ/=> as in biscoito /bis'koɪ.tu/ (cookie)
/ɔɪ/=>as in girassóis /ʒi.ɾa'sɔɪs/ (sunflowers)
/uɪ/=>as in gratuito /gɾa'tuɪ.tu/(free)
/aʊ/=>as in mau /maʊ/ (bad)
/eʊ/=>as in neutro /'neʊ.tɾu/(neutral)
/ɛʊ/ =>as in céu /sɛʊ/ (sky)
/iʊ/ =>as.in fugiu /fu'ʒiʊ/ (he/she/it ran away)
/oʊ/=> as in tesouro /te'zoʊ.ɾu/ (treasure)
/ɔʊ/=>as in caracol /ka.ɾa'kɔʊ/(snail)
/uʊ/ =>as in azul /a'zuʊ/ (blue)
/ɐ̃ʊ/=> as in não /nɐ̃ʊ/ (no)
/ɐ̃ɪ/=>as in mãe /mɐ̃ɪ/ (mother)
/ẽɪ/=>as in sem /sẽɪ/ (without)
/õɪ/=> as in balões /ba'lõɪs/ (balloons)
/ũɪ/=> as muito /mũɪ.tʊ/ (very)

Note: we don't have the /ɪ/ and the /ʊ/ vowels in Portuguese, however some dictionaries and online website transcriptions prefer using the /ɪ/ and
/ʊ/ symbols instead of /i/ and /u/ to represent the second sound in the diphthongs. Some dictionaries might even use the symbols /j/ and /w/ to represent the second sound in these diphthongs. So for example, the diphthong /aɪ/ as in pai (father) could also be transcribed as /ai/ or /aj/, and the diphthong /aʊ/ as in mau (Bad) could also be transcribed as /au/ or /aw/.The two most used symbols used to represent the second sound in diphthongs in Portuguese transcriptions are /ɪ, ʊ; j, w/. /ɪ/ and /j/ sound very similar to /i/ in diphthongs while /ʊ/ and /w/ sound very similar to/u/ in diphthongs.