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Contrasting Monophthongs

The document contrasts different monophthongs (single vowel sounds) in English and provides examples of words that demonstrate each contrast. It examines the differences between vowel sounds like [i:], [i], [e], [æ], [a:], [o:], [o], [u:], [yu:], and [u]. Examples are given showing words containing each vowel sound in pairs to highlight their distinguishing features.

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100% found this document useful (1 vote)
589 views3 pages

Contrasting Monophthongs

The document contrasts different monophthongs (single vowel sounds) in English and provides examples of words that demonstrate each contrast. It examines the differences between vowel sounds like [i:], [i], [e], [æ], [a:], [o:], [o], [u:], [yu:], and [u]. Examples are given showing words containing each vowel sound in pairs to highlight their distinguishing features.

Uploaded by

KANIKA
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Contrasting monophthongs (simple vowels)

Monophthongs

[i:] – ee
[i] - ih
[e] - eh, - ten - any
[æ] - ae – tan - and
[a:] - aa
[o:] – aww
[o] aw
[u:] – oo
[yu:] – ew
[u] - u,
[ər] - errr,
[ə] - uh
bean – bin – Ben – ban – bar – born – bond – boom – beauty – book – burn – bun;

peat – pit – pet – pat – part – port – pot – pool – pew – put – purr – pus;

Contrasting monophthongs in pairs

[i:] – [i]

lead – lid, read – rid, feel – fill, deal – dill, heel – hill, team – Tim, keen – kin, seen – sin, teen – tin,
leave – live;

peak – pick, seek – sick; sheep – ship, heap – hip, leap – lip, beat – bit, feet – fit, seat – sit;

[i:] – [i]: eat fish, be sick, feel ill, see him, meet Bill, deal with, read this, beat it; [i] – [i:]: kiss me, lip
cream, till three;

[i] – [e]

bill – bell, fill – fell, till – tell, him – hem, pin – pen, tin – ten, win – when, bid – bed, did – dead, Liz –
Les, since – sense;

pit – pet, sit – set, Nick – neck, pick – peck, miss – mess, wrist – rest, lift – left;

[i] – [e]: Big Ben, six guests, live well, since ten; [e] – [i]: tell Tim, test him;
[e] – [æ]

bed – bad, said – sad, beg – bag, leg – lag, hell – Hal, hem – ham;

Ben – ban, pen – pan, den – Dan, ten – tan, men – man; bend – band, lend – land, send – sand;

bet – bat, met – mat, pet – pat, set – sat, mess – mass, wreck – rack, peck – pack, letter – latter,
better – batter;

[e] – [æ]: red bag, fell back, met Alice, pen pal; [æ] – [e]: Ann said, bad pen, add ten, marry Mary;

[æ] – [a:]

bad – bard, lad – lard, Pam – palm, cam – calm, carry – car, Barry – bar;

cat – cart, hat – heart, mat – mart, pat – part, cap – carp, back – bark, pack – park,

[æ] – [a:]: Dan's father, last part, fast cars; [a:] – [æ]: smart Alex, hard candy, Karl's cat;

[æ] – [/\]

fan – fun, ran – run, sang – sung, land – lung, Dan – done, man – month, frank – front, Sam – some,
ram – rum, damp – dump, bag – bug, rag – rug;

cat – cut, bat – but, hat – hut, fat – fuss, last – lust, task – tusk, back – buck, lack – luck, tack – tuck,
stack – stuck;

[æ] – [ə]: bad cut, bad blood, bad luck, black gun, last month, Ann's mother; [ə] – [æ]: some tan, one
man, a bag, a hat;

[a:] – [o:]

far – four, car – core, tar – tore, star – store, card – cord, bard – board, barn – born;

park – pork, stark – stork, part – port, cart – court, Marty – Morty,

[a:] – [o:]: carport, Bart bought, hard core; [o:] – [a:]: four cars, ball park, small yard;

[a:] – [ə]

barn – bun, calm – come, drama – drum, march – much, darn – done, far – sofa, father – mother;

bark – buck, dark – duck, lark – luck, tar – tuck, stark – stuck, heart – hut,

[a:] – [ər]

hard – heard, card – curd, far – fur, farm – firm, barn – burn, large – splurge, charge – church;

heart – hurt, cart – Curt, dark – dirt, lark – lurk, park – perk, carton – curtain,

[o:] – [ər]

call – curl, hall – hurl, all – earl, Paul – pearl, saw – sir, lawn – learn;

war – were, ward – word, warm – worm, reward – reword, walk – work, wart – worth;

four – fir, sore – sir, store – stir, core – occur, pour – purr;

born – burn, torn – turn, form – firm, board – bird, cord – curd,
course – curse, caught – curt, short – shirt, talk – Turk;

[o:] – [ər]: warm words, four birds, call Kurt; [ər] – [o:]: first floor, third door, learn all;

[o] – [ə]

bomb – bum, rob – rub, college – color, common – come, comma – company, body – buddy, bother
– brother;

gone – done, nonsense – none, honor – honey, monitor – money, monument – Monday, fond –
front, tongs – tongue, sponsor – sponge;

conference – confess, continent – contain, content (n.) – content (adj.) , contract (n.) – contract (v.),
contrary – control, policy – police;

lock – luck, sock – suck, cop – cup, hot – hut, not – nut, cloth – nothing, bottle – butter, bottom –
button;

[u:] – [yu:]

food – feud, fool – fume, cool – cute, who – hue, ooze – use, moose – muse, boot – beauty;

[u:] – [u]

fool – full, pool – pull, womb – woman, food – foot, Luke – look, tooth – took, shoot – should;

[u] – [o]

cook – cock, look – lock, rook – rock, took – stock, put – pot, good – god;

[u] – [ə]

book – buck, look – luck, took – tuck, put – but, push – hush, full – dull, pull – hull;

The sounds [ə] (but) and [ər] (bird)

[ə] – [ər]

bud – bird, cub – curb, bun – burn, ton – turn, fun – fern, soda – coder;

luck – lurk, shut – shirt, but – Bert, hut – hurt, such – search, bust – burst, sofa – suffer, quota –
quarter;

stressed [ə] – unstressed [ə]

son – lesson, some – awesome, muss – famous, numb – venom, thud – method,

stressed [ər] – unstressed [ər]

fur – offer, refer – suffer, sir – answer, purr – helper, burn – stubborn, turn – lantern;

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