Canadian raising words
In Canadian and some northern American English, the diphthongs in price and mouth start higher when followed by a voiceless consonant, so house differs from houses and write from ride. The result is the stereotyped aboot impression, which is really a raised onset rather than an oo sound. Compare the pairs directly.
Accent
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The words
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Magic E words
A silent final E that changes the vowel before it: hat to hate, kit to kite. Hear the difference.
Long A sound words
The /eɪ/ sound in day, rain and eight, spelled six different ways. Train your ear to all of them.
Long E sound words
The long ee sound in see, meat and field. Hear the tense vowel across all its spellings.
Short I sound words
The relaxed short i in sit, big and busy. The single hardest vowel for most learners to place.
Schwa sound words
The most common sound in English, hiding in every unstressed syllable. Learn to hear the schwa.
Long vs short vowel pairs
Ship or sheep, full or fool, pull or pool. Hear the tense and lax vowel pairs side by side.
Keep practising
Browse every practice list, hear two accents back to back on Compare, or test your ear with the listening quiz.