How to pronounce the AH vowel /ɑː/
/ɑː/ is a long vowel made with the tongue back, low. Open your mouth wide and let the jaw drop. Pull the tongue back and down so it lies flat.
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How to make it
- 1Open your mouth wide and let the jaw drop.
- 2Pull the tongue back and down so it lies flat.
- 3Keep the lips unrounded — rounding turns it into the 'thought' vowel.
- 4Turn the voice on and hold it; this is one of the longest English vowels.
- Lips
- Open and unrounded.
- Tongue
- Low and pulled back, lying flat in the mouth.
- Jaw
- Wide open — the doctor's 'say ah'.
Feel it
Put a hand flat on your throat and say the sound. It should buzz under your fingers from the very start — if the buzz only arrives with the vowel, you are making the voiceless version.Where the sound appears
Keeping it through a whole line
My father parked the car far from the market.
Calm down and start the last part again.
Minimal pairs to drill
Each of these is two words separated by exactly one sound. If a listener hears the wrong one, the problem is the contrast, not the effort.
If your first language is…
Nothing here is about ability. Every one of these is a sound system doing exactly what it was built to do, applied to a language that asks for something else.
- HindiUrdu
Hindi and Urdu have a long a very close to this vowel, so it is one of the easier English vowels for these speakers.
- Mandarin
Mandarin a is available, but Mandarin has no vowel plus r ending, so 'car' and 'far' need the ending built.
- Japanese
Japanese has one a, so 'cat', 'cut' and 'cart' all land on it; the English AH needs extra length and a lower jaw.
- Korean
Korean a is close to this vowel, which helps, though English also colours it with r in 'car' and 'start' in American speech.
- Vietnamese
Vietnamese has a long a close to this vowel, so it transfers well.
- Spanish
Spanish a is shorter and more central, so 'father' and 'other' can sound alike; the English vowel needs length and a lower, further-back tongue.
- French
French has largely merged its front and back a, so the back quality of English AH has to be aimed for.
- German
German has a long a close to this vowel, so it transfers well; the difficulty is the American r colour in 'start'.
- Italian
Italian a is central, so 'calm' and 'come' can merge unless the tongue moves back.
- Russian
Russian a is central and reduces heavily when unstressed, so English AH can be shortened in words like 'father'.
- Arabic
Arabic has a long a with front and back variants, so the back one matches English AH closely.
- Turkish
Turkish a is close to this vowel, so it transfers well; English length is the part to add.
Straight answers
Is /ɑː/ voiced or voiceless?
It is voiced. Put a hand on your throat and say it: you should feel a buzz the whole time. All English vowels are voiced, so the question only really separates the consonants.
What words start with the AH vowel?
Common ones include arm, art, ask. In the middle of a word you get father, calm, start, and at the end car, far, spa. Every one of those links to its own pronunciation page here.
How is /ɑː/ spelled in English?
It is written "a", "ar", "al", "au", "ear", "er". English spelling and English sound came apart centuries ago, so the same sound turns up under several spellings and the same spelling carries several sounds — which is why the sound, not the letter, is the thing to learn.
Why do Hindi & Urdu speakers find /ɑː/ hard?
Hindi and Urdu have a long a very close to this vowel, so it is one of the easier English vowels for these speakers.
Record the AH vowel and see if it landed
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