Today we are going to look again at one of the comments you left on the videos this time about minimal pairs ae and e.
Mr Sharma says:
[quote]I didn’t get the difference between the /e/ sound and the /æ/ sound. Help, please.[/quote]
Well thats a good question. These two sounds are very similar which means that they are what we call a minimal pair. In other words two sounds with not a lot of difference between them.
Remember that the key to pronunciation is physical watch the video above as I say the sounds and pay attention to the position of my mouth.
As you can see with /æ/, my mouth is a lot more open than with /e/.
Minimal pairs ae and e example words
Here are some examples of words where that is the only difference.
- bed bad
- men man
- end and
- beg bag
- head had
- hem ham
- pen pan
- said sad
- set sat
- bend band
- dead dad
- lend land.
And there are loads more. Which you can find here.
Are there any other minimal pairs that you have difficulty with? Why not share with us in the comments below.