Vowel Sounds

If you get the vowel sounds right, people will understand your English more easily.  Listen to this video and practice your vowel sounds.  Share a comment or question below.

Text of Video: 

Hi. I want to read this book, “Hop on Pop”, by Dr. Seuss, because it’s really a great one for pronunciation.  I often hear people say these words like “hop on pop.” But in an American accent, we really are wide open-mouthed on our short “o”s, and we say, “hop on pop.”

It’s by Dr. Seuss. And I’d like to read it to you, just so you get the sound.

Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss.

Up Pup. Pup is up.  Cup Pup. Pup in cup. Pup Cup. Cup on pop.

Red Red. They call me Red. Red Bed. I am in bed. Red Ned Ted and Ed in Bed.

All Ball. We all play ball. Ball Wall. Up on a wall. Or I’d say “Up on a wall.” There are lots of vowels in there, so I said it slowly.

All Fall. Fall off the wall.

He Me. He is after me. Him Jim. Jim is after him. Look, there’s Jim. Yeah.

See Bee. We see a bee. See Bee Three. Now we see three. Uh-oh. They’re running from the bees.

Three Tree. Three fish in a tree. Fish in a tree? How can that be?

Pat Pat. They call him Pat. The short “a” sound is another one that’s kind of hard for a lot of internationals. You have to smile quite a bit, and say, “Pat Pat. They call him Pat.”

Pat Sat. Pat sat on hat. Pat Cat. Pat sat on cat. Oh, no! The cat says, “Meow!”

Pat Bat. Pat sat on bat. Not perfect English sentences, but really great vowel practice. Whoops!

No Pat No. Don’t sit on that. It’s a cactus, isn’t it?

Walk Walk. We like to walk. Walk Talk. We like to talk.

Here we go. Hmm.. Excuse me.

Hop Pop. We like to hop. We like to hop on top of Pop.

Stop. You must not hop on Pop. What would your pop say if you were hopping on him?

Say. What.. Sorry. Say Say. What does this say?

Now you have to read all these with no spaces in between. I try to do it as fast as I can.

See he me we. Pat pup pop. He three tree bee. Top hop stop.

Can you do that? Let’s see what you can do. Go ahead and try.

And the little guy down here says, “Ask me tomorrow but not today.”

Okay, well, that was “Hop on Pop.” You could listen to this video several times and practice right along the way. Put a pause on and just try to make it sound the same.

Anyway, if you get vowel sounds right, then people understand much better.