Bed or Bad? Head or Had? Men or Man? American English Pronunciation

Find out the difference between the /ɛ/ and /æ/ vowel sounds.
Learn how to make the vowels used in words like "head" and "had," "left" and "laughed," or "leg" and "lag."
Improve your accent with efficient pronunciation exercises based on minimal word pairs with the /ɛ/ and /æ/ vowel sounds.

Quick Links:
• Intro 00:00
• Do you hear the difference between /ɛ/ and /æ/? Quiz: 00:41
• Key distinctions between /ɛ/ and /æ/: 02:07
• Pronunciation exercise: 03:20

Related videos:
#AmericanPronunciation #VowelSounds #MinimalPairs
► Interactive Vowel Sounds Chart: American English Pronunciation
► Vowel Sound / æ / as in "cat"- American English Pronunciation

[THIS VIDEO HAS ENGLISH, SPANISH, JAPANESE, CHINESE, VIETNAMESE, KOREAN, PORTUGUESE, AND RUSSIAN SUBTITLES]
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TRANSCRIPT

Hello there! This is the "Sounds American" channel.
In this video, we'll compare two vowel sounds: /ɛ/ and /æ/, as in the words "bed" and "bad."

In our previous videos, we already learned how to make them. Remember the videos for the /ɛ/ sound, as in "bed" and the /æ/ sound, as in "cat"?

This time we'll focus on the differences between these two sounds.

Many non-native English speakers can't always hear the difference between /ɛ/ and /æ/.
What about you?
[QUIZ]
Let's check with a quick test.
You'll see a pair of words on the screen and hear only one of them pronounced. For example, "b*d."
Can you guess what word you heard?
Let's try a few more word pairs.

If you didn't get all the words right, don't worry. We've prepared useful exercises to help you improve.

The words in those pairs may sound similar but they differ by their vowel sound.
Here are the two key distinctions between the /ɛ/ and /æ/:
First, look at the position of the lower jaw.
• For the /ɛ/ sound, the mouth is half open.
• For the /æ/ sound, the mouth is open very wide.
Second. Look at the tongue:
• For the /ɛ/ sound, the tongue is relaxed and in the middle of your mouth.
• For the /æ/ sound, the tongue is tensed, flat and very low in your mouth.
Let's pronounce these sounds one after the other:
/ɛ/ - /æ/, /ɛ/ - /æ/, /ɛ/ - /æ/

[Pronunciation Exercise]

Now that you know how to make these vowels, let's do some exercises.
This is the most important part of your training as you can't improve your pronunciation without practice.

The best way to practice the /ɛ/ and /æ/ is to pronounce them in word pairs.
Let's do this exercise.
You'll see a word on the screen and hear its pronunciation. After that you'll have a few seconds to pronounce the word. Repeat each word after the speaker, the first word will have the relaxed /ɛ/ vowel sound, and the second will have the tense /æ/ vowel sound.
Let's begin!
• bed - bad
• beg - bag
• bend - band
• bet - bat
• dead - dad
• den - Dan
• end - and
• flesh - flash
• gem - jam
• guess - gas
• head - had
• left - laughed
• leg - lag
• lend - land
• letter - latter

You're done! Congratulations!

To check how much you've improved, you can do the word pairs test again. Click this link to go back and compare the results.

By the way, did you know that the vowel sounds /ɛ/ and /æ/ together make up about ~20% of all vowels in American English?

Thanks for watching! Hope you find it useful.
Stay tuned on our Sounds American channel!

[it_was_my_cat]

I'm British and our æ and e sounds are more differentiated. I didn't realise how similar they are in American English! It must be hard for English learners.

[jakewood]

your voice sounds comfortable and very american. exactly what im looking for. thanks for the lessons.

[diegoferreira]

I'm from Brazil. It's hard for us, but I got it. Thks

[cristhianserna]

Mate, best thing I've seen on Youtube. Thanks a lot!

[robertwave]

Damn you and your American English! I'm from Sydney and the difference between those two sounds in our accent is a lot greater.

My girlfriend is Vietnamese and pronounces these sounds in an American way.. she got most of them on the initial quiz, I got most wrong. I wanted to show her what I meant with this video and thought it was funny she did much better than me at hearing the difference in your pronunciation

I've got a rather soft big city accent - just thought it'd be fun to mention.

[englishresources]

The best video of all. That's so complicated for Brazilians!

[ernestorevollar]

English pronunciation is very difficult for many non-native speakers of the language but not for me, well pronouncing it correctly is hard to some extent at least. English phonology is truly unique, wonderful and challenging for all English learners around the world. I love this language but I've come across some pronunciation and spelling difficulties and I always try my best to better speak, understand and communicate with English-speaking people whatever their accent as well as their way of speaking. The vowel sounds of the video are a little hard to pronounce and I continue to improve my pronunciation and I'm getting better at speaking more confidently and clearly. Trying to speak English like a native speaker is not necessary I think, I have good pronunciation with very few mistakes. Native speakers often make mistakes when speaking rapidly or casually, right? Thanks so much after all. ❤😊

[triettruong]

It was a bad bed.
They're begging for a bag.
The band bends on their knees.
I bet he is batman.
The rat is dead, dad.
Dan approached a bear's den.
And in the end, the flash is still in flesh.
Jam has colour like red gems.
I smelt gas, I guess.
He had a good headphone.
They just laughed and left his comedy show.
After the leg exercise, they already lagged behind.
The latter letter is about lending my land.
**Create your own.

[taherelsayed]

Thank you for the explanation, it was very good.

[djgonpet]

thank you so much for this high quality content you make, it helps so much!

[pssilva]

(0:15) This tricky vowel /æ/ sounds to me as an /ɛə/ or /ɛa/.

[lazumphyuzinmai]

Thank you so much, now I get clear the complication between these two sounds.

[VictorHugo-siwd]

I love your videos and exercises. They really make me to improve my pronunciation. Please, correct my writing if it's possible.

[petitio_principii]

British accents are generally easier for these pairs, the "a" tending to sound more like a standard "a", as it sounds in some other languages, with higher correspondence between written and spoken language.

[fanciertraderiqoptions]

No 1 pronunciations channel 💋💋💋❤️❤️❤️👍🧠

[henryzhao]

These are the best videos for pronunciation ever

[jieminguo]

Thank you so much. Although I have watched some youtube videos on pronunciation, but the tongue position and movement demonstration is really helpful;.

[salwanalmansury]

Great Job, I am listing for you videos nearly everyday, very nice way, thank you so much

[nahiara_]

Thank u! where can I find these exercises online?

[Goedels]

Hey guys! I very much enjoy those tutorials. Thanks Sounds American! You do a great job!!!