درسنامه اصلی

Hi. This is AJ. Welcome to Unit 18. You are almost finished. Now, here’s some good news. This lesson, this unit is easy for most people, certainly easier than a lot of the vowel sounds you have been practicing in previous units. So, we’re going to learn long vowels, and they’re very simple.

A long vowel is a vowel that says its name. So, what are the vowels? A, E, I, O, U. How do you pronounce those? You pronounce them A, E, I, O, U. Simple. They say their own name. Very easy. Now, the key thing to know about long vowels is that long vowels are actually a combination of two sounds. They’re not just one sound each. Each one of them has two sounds.

Let’s learn them.

A. A. A. The key thing here is that there’s a hidden y sound at the end. It’s soft, but it’s there. It’s not a, a, a. That’s too short. That’s only one sound - A, A. You have to add a little y sound at the end to make it correct. AY, AY, yuh, yuh, yuh. You add that little y at the end. Then you have the correct pronunciation. AY.

Now, when you practice it as always, exaggerate. Make it very strong and big. In normal speech it’ll be softer, but I want you to exaggerate that y sound. The hidden y for each of these vowels that I’m going to teach you.

AY, AY, strong Y. AY, AY.

Long E. It’s the same thing. It’s got a hidden y at the end. EY. It’s not ee, ee, ee, ee, ee, ee. Right?

That’s too sh- — That’s too short. You have to add the y at the end. That strong y. Stretch it out.

EY, Y, Y, Y. Hear the y at the end? Just a little bit. EY, EY. See, it almost sounds like two parts - E-Yee. EYee. Right? EYee, EYee.

Same with the long I. IY, Y, Y. Get the y sound at the end. IY. Again, it’s not i, i, i. That’s too short. You’re missing the Y sound. You gotta get the long, stretched-out y sound at the end of it.

IYeee, IYeee, IYeee, IY-Yee-Yee-Yee. Right? Really exaggerate the y sound for the practice.

And the final one that has a y sound is U, but it has a y sound at the beginning. A little bit different. So it’s Ya, Ya, Yu. Not oo, oo, oo, oo, oo. It’s YU, YU, YU. Get the y sound at the beginning. YU, YU. Pretty simple, right? Just say the name of the letter and add that little hidden y sound.

Now O is a little different. It also has a hidden sound, but it’s not a y. It’s w. The O is easy to make. You just make, make an O with your mouth - O, O, O, O, but here’s the difference. Your tongue is kind of back. You pull your tongue backwards, straight back - O, O, O, when you make that O sound - O, O, O.

Lips, everything makes that little, round O shape, but the big thing is that there’s a little w at the end of this sound. Wa, Wa, Wa, so we go OW, OW. You hear the W at the end? Do you see it?

I’m opening and closing at the end of the sound. Wa, Wa, Wa. Remember the w unit? If you need to review the W unit. Review the Y unit. So it’s OWa. You gotta get the hidden w at the end.

That’s the key. OWa, OWa, OWa. Again, in normal conversation the w is kind of soft, but when you practice it, I want you to make it very strong so you teach yourself to do it correctly - OWa, OWa, OWa, OWa.

All right. Now, in this unit’s training audio, we’re going to do a lot of review. These sounds are usually quite easy for most people, so we’re going to review a lot of our past sounds also, so you’re going to be practicing a lot of things in the training audio this time. Remember rhythm, right? Never forget rhythm. It’s so important so practice that rhythm in the training audio.

You’ll be practicing some long vowel sounds, but you’ll practice a lot of the other sounds we’ve practiced, too, so it’s going to be a big review. Do your best. Just continue to improve little by little by little. All right.

See you in the training audio. Bye.