Miss Elise
Pronunciation Coach
Master Pronunciation in Minutes: Free 5-Minute Tutorials
Engaging and accessible lesson plans to complement each tutorial.
Start your ESL classes with quick, effective pronunciation lessons—perfect as a warmup or standalone activity. Or, dive deeper to discover essential habits and techniques for mastering American English pronunciation with confidence.
The Sound of A, as in Cat
How to produce A: To produce the vowel sound A (as in cat), place the end of your tongue behind your lower front teeth and then raise the back part of your tongue towards the back of the roof of your mouth, expel your breath while making a slight murmuring sound.
Practice the A (as in cat) sound by repeating the following, making only the sound:
A, A, A
A, A, A
A, A, A
A, A, A
Repeat the following two times, exaggerating the A sound:
Act, ask, bat, bag, cat
Cab, fan, gap, jam, man
Nap, pan, rat, sat, van
Past, flap, grasp, apple, adopt
American, after, adore, happy, pizza
Panda, zebra, astronaut, alligator, banana
Repeat the following sentences two times:
1) Alex adored the last act.
2) She gasped at the bar tab and then proceeded to haggle with Anne about it.
3) Mack was a fan of wearing masks.
4) Sally thought the satire deserved a hats-off applause.
5) The American graduate had apples in his sack which he gave to the lad.
6) The little brat refused to sing the anthem because he was mad at his dad.
7) It was a slam dunk, blabbed Sam.
8) The lab was built, at last, thanks to Pam’s unflappable will.
9) They found the map on the rack behind all the summer hats.
10)Last April, the dam burst and the water blasted onto the road, hitting a van.
* Please note, different letters can make the same sound, such as hard C and K, and the same letter can make different sounds depending on context, like cat/cake.