Practice Materials for Vowel Contrast (AmE)

This material can be used as additional phonetic exercises for practicing contrasting vowels in short words and phrases. (You can listen to similar words in Listening for Vowel Contrast (AmE) in the section Phonetics.)

Этот материал можно использовать как дополнительные фонетические упражнения на контрастные гласные звуки в коротких словах и фразах. (Вы можете прослушать похожие слова в материале для прослушивания Listening for Vowel Contrast (AmE) в разделе Phonetics.)

Contrasting monophthongs (simple vowels)

Monophthongs

[i:], [i], [e], [æ], [a:], [o:], [o], [u:], [yu:], [u], [ər], [ə]

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] – [ə]

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;

Contrasting monophthongs and diphthongs in pairs

[e] – [ei]

pen – pain, den – Dane, many – main, fell – fail, sell – sail, bed – bade, fed – fade, red – raid;

let – late, met – mate, debt – date, bet – bait, wet – wait, sec – sake, wreck – rake, neck – snake;

[e] – [ei]: next day, let's stay, Ben met Kate, felt great, tell tales; [ei] – [e]: make friends, raise hell, say when;

[a:] – [ai]

par – pie, are – eye, bar – by, charm – chime, hard – hide,

park – pike, spark – spike, harp – hype, cart – kite, Bart – bite;

[a:] – [ai]: far cry, hard to find, barfly; [ai] – [a:]: die hard, my card, like art;

[a:] – [au]

hard – hound, darn – down, lard – loud,

art – out, part – pout; start – stout; shark – shout;

[a:] – [au]: start now, calm down, dark house, farther south; [au] – [a:]: how hard, downhearted;

[æ] – [ai]

pal – pile, pan – pine, man – mine, band – bind, candy – kind, hand – hind;

lack – like, tap – type, rap – ripe, mass – mice, rat – right, fat – fight;

[æ] – [au]

Al – owl, lad – loud, sand – sound, tan – town, Dan – down, Fran – frown,

mass – mouse, lass – louse;

[o:] – [au]

nor – now, hall – howl, fall – foul, dawn – down, drawn – drown, crawl – crown, cord – crowd, pause – spouse;

short – shout; port – pout, sport – spout;

[o:] – [ou]

saw – so, law – low, raw – row, lawn – lone, drawn – drone, clause – close, pause – pose, cause – cozy, caught – coat, ought – oat;

hall – whole, mall – mole, bald – bold, called – cold, call – comb, walk – woke, falcon – folk;

more – mow, bore – bow, door – doe, sore – sew, tore – tow, lord – load, born – bone, torn – tone, mourn – mown;

[o:] – [ou]: more roads, call Flo, lawn mower; [ou] – [o:]: cold sore, old Ford, no laws, so tall, don't fall, close call;

[o] – [ou]

nod – node, odd – owed, model – modal, modern – motel, mob – mobile, monument – moment, column – colon, doll – roll;

option – open, pot – potent, hot – hotel, lost – ghost, monster – most, positive – post, hostel – host;

[o] – [ou]: hot rolls, pot roast, hostile host; [ou] – [o]: role model, don't bother, most hospitals;

[ə] – [ou]

mud – mode, nut – note, but – boat, must – most, bust – boast, bus – both, Russ – gross;

done – donor, done – don't, won – won't, one – only, mother – motor, does – dose, cover – clover;

[ə] – [ou]: a boat, a donor, the host, some notes; [ou] – [ə]: only one, both mothers, won't trust, most buses, no money;

Contrasting diphthongs in pairs

[ai] – [au]

high – how, nine – noun, bright – brow, find – found, hind – hound, signed – sound;

[ai] – [au]: nice town, try now, light-brown, night owl, five rounds; [au] – [ai]: how nice;

[ai] – [oi]

rye – Roy, tie – toy, buy – boy, file – foil, bile – boil, pint – point, lied – Lloyd;

[au] – [ou]

now – no, how – owe, pow – mow, allow – low, cow – crow, thou – though;

owl – own, brown – bowl, cowl – coal, drown – drone, town – tone, noun – known, loud – load,

couch – coach, pouch – poach;

[ai] – [ou]

die – doe, tie – toe, lie – low, my – Moe, sigh – so, guy – go;

ride – road, lied – load, tile – toll, pile – poll, cries – crows, flies – flows, night – note;

[ai] – [ei]

buy – bay, pie – pay, die – day, lie – lay, sty – stay, high – hey, rye – ray;

file – fail, mile – mail, pile – pale, tile – tail, time – tame, line – lane, pine – pain, sign – sane, rise – raise;

rice – race, fight – fate, light – late, right – rate, height – hate;

[ai] – [ei]: my day, white paint, why wait, crime rate; [ei] – [ai]: take time, eight miles, late night, say hi;

Diphthongs

[ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou]

bay – buy – bough – boy – bone;

bait – bite – bout – boil – boat;

Dane – dine – down – Doyle – dough;

tame – time – town – toy – tone;

ale – I'll – owl – oil – old;

great – grind – ground – groin – grow;

paint – pint – pound – point – poll;

maize – mice – mouse – moist – most.