In this podcast, you’ll learn how to improve your English pronunciation by understanding English vowel sounds — especially the difference between monophthongs (single vowel sounds) and diphthongs (moving, blending or sliding vowel sounds).
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Vowel sounds
Many pronunciation problems in English are actually vowel problems — not consonants. Although we have spoken about consonants before. Consonant clusters: https://inglespodcast.com/585
What is a vowel sound?
A vowel sound is produced with no blockage of airflow in the mouth.
Unlike consonants:
Air flows freely
The tongue position and lip shape change the sound
Small changes create completely different words
Examples:
ship vs sheep
full vs fool
hat vs heart
English has around 20 vowel sounds (12 single vowel sounds and 8 moving vowel sounds) , but only 5 vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u). (Danish has around 32 vowel sounds!)
So, as English words don’t use any added written accents, spelling is unreliable — pronunciation depends on sound, not letters.
One of the single vowel sounds, or monophthongs, is the schwa and we dedicated an entire episode on this sound which is the most common sound in English:
The most common sound in English; the schwa: https://inglespodcast.com/473
Monophthongs – Single vowel sounds
A monophthong = one stable sound (mouth stays in one position)
Short vowels
/ɪ/ → sit, ship, live
/e/ → bed, said, head
/æ/ → cat, hat, man
/ʌ/ → cup, love, money
/ɒ/ → hot, not, gone (British)
/ʊ/ → put, good, book
/ə/ (schwa) → about, problem, teacher, banana, suspicious
Long vowels
/iː/ → sheep, see, machine, meat
/ɑː/ → car, heart, start
/ɔː/ → door, more, floor
/uː/ → food, blue, move
/ɜː/ → bird, work, learn
Diphthongs – Moving vowel sounds
A diphthong = the mouth moves from one vowel position to another. You glide between two sounds in one syllable.
/eɪ/ → say, make, day
/aɪ/ → my, time, night
/ɔɪ/ → boy, choice, noise
/aʊ/ → now, house, out
/əʊ/ → go, home, open
/ɪə/ → here, idea
/eə/ → hair, care, where
/ʊə/ → tour, sure (often becoming /ɔː/ in modern speech)
Common learner problems (especially Spanish speakers)
Spanish has only 5 pure vowels → English has many contrasts.
Typical issues:
ship → sheep
live → leave
full → fool
cat → cut
hat → heart →hut
not → nut
late → let
Learners often:
Replace diphthongs with pure vowels
Face (/feɪs/) → pronounced as “Fess” or a flat /fe:s/
Price (/praɪs/) → pronounced as “Prass” or /pra:s/
Mouth (/maʊθ/) → pronounced as “Ma-th” (missing the “oo” sound)
Ignore vowel reduction
Banana (/bəˈnɑːnə/) → pronounced as “BA-NA-NA” (all vowels strong)
Support (/səˈpɔːt/) → pronounced as “SUP-port” (strong ‘u’ sound)
President (/ˈprezɪdənt/) → pronounced as “Pre-si-DENT”
Pronounce spelling instead of sound
Receipt (/rɪˈsiːt/) → pronouncing the “P” (Re-sept)
Salmon (/ˈsæmən/) → pronouncing the “L” (Sal-mon)
Island (/ˈaɪlənd/) → pronouncing the “S” (Is-land)
How to practise
Listen and repeat using shadowing
Use phonemic transcription instead of spelling
Example: enough → /ɪˈnʌf/
Exaggerate mouth movement first, then relax
Record yourself and listen back. Compare how you pronounce the vowel sounds with a native speaker.
Practise minimal pairs daily (2 minutes is enough)
Change the position of your tongue and lips until you get the right sound.
Tongue height — high / mid / low
Tongue position — front / central / back
Lip shape — spread / neutral / rounded
Good pronunciation is not about sounding native — it’s about being understood immediately.
…and now it’s your turn to practise your English. Which aspects of English pronunciation do you find difficult? Let us know and we may create a podcast about it.
Send us a voice message. https://www.speakpipe.com/inglespodcast
Send us an email with a comment or question to [email protected] or [email protected]
If you’re a Spanish speaker and you want to improve your English with free and paid resources, visit the mansioningles website at mansioningles.com and for paid products you can browse the online store at https://store.mansioningles.net/
If you would like a full transcription of this podcast you might consider joining our Patreon program. As a Patreon member, you’ll also get an invitation once a month to join Craig for an informal chat on Zoom to practise your speaking and you’ll have the warm, fuzzy feeling of supporting the podcast. https://www.patreon.com/inglespodcast
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In next week’s episode: Meditation – What it is and how to practise it
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The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called ‘See You Later’