English grammar can be really tough at times. But that does not mean you cannot learn it. With proper practice and efforts, you can master the language within no time. Learning to pronounce correctly is one of the very important aspects of the English language.
In this session, you would be learning about various additional phonetic pure vowel sounds. These sounds are produced by monophthongs. You would get to know about the example words and observe how they are pronounced.
What are Pure Vowels or Monophthongs?
A pure vowel is a sound that is articulated at the beginning and end of the word. It is relatively fixed and will glide in the up and down direction.
Pure vowels are also know as monophthongs as they provide a single sound while pronouncing the words. As stated earlier, you won’t be able to notice any glide or shift from one sound to another. If you observe the position of the tongue, the mouth will remain the same when these words are pronounced.
There are 12 pure vowels or monophthongs in English – /i:/, /?/, /?/, /u:/, /e/, /?/, /?:/, /?:/, /æ/, /?/, /?:/ and /?/.
The monophthongs can be really contrasted along with diphthongs in which the vowel quality changes. It will have the same syllables and hiatus with two vowels.
If you observe carefully, the monophthong a word that is derived from old Greek. Here ‘mono’ means one of single and ‘-pthong’ means sound or tone. This means that when the vowel is spoken it will have exactly only one sound or tone. In addition to that, it will have only one mouth position.
Examples of 12 Monophthongs
Following is a list of 12 pure vowel sounds with 10 examples each:
| Vowel Sound | Example Words |
| /i:/ | Me, these, need, be, keep, deep, sheep, Jeep, beep, eat, feel, see, meet, deal, read, beat, peak, seek, heap, leap, feet, seat, heel, keen, seen, teen, leave |
| /?/ | With, this, if, think, link, wink, rink, sink, big, six, live, since, miss, wrist, lift, pit, sit, pick, bill, fill, till, him, pin, tin, win, bid, did |
| /?/ | Put, Would, Look, Woman, Hook, Nook, Food, Fool, Cool, Hue, Ooze, Moose, Boot, Cook, Rook, Took, Good |
| /u:/ | To, You, New, Who |
| /e/ | Get, When, Well, Very, Bed, Said, Leg, Hell, Hem, Ben, Pen, Den, Ten, Men, Bend, Lend, Send, Bet, Met, Pet, Set, Mess, Wreck, Peck, Letter, Better |
| /?/ | The, About, Could, Us |
| /?:/ | Her, Work, Learn, Word, Burn, Turn, Firm, Bird, Curd, Curse, Curt, Shirt, Turk, Curl, Hurl, Earl, Pearl, Sir, Worm, worth, Fir, Stir, Sir, Occur, Purr |
| /?:/ | Or, Also, More, Call, All, Mall, Hall, Shall, Fall, Tall, Wall, Paul, War, Ward, Warm, Reward, Walk, Wart |
| /æ/ | Have, That, As, Can, Sad, bad, Bag, Lag, Hal, Ham, Ban, Pan, Dan, Tan, Man, Band, Land, Sand, Bat, Mat, Pat, Sat, Mass, Rack, Pack, Latter, Batter |
| /?/ | But, Up, One, Much |
| /?:/ | Start, Ask, Large, After |
| /?/ | Of, On, From, Not |
Pronouncing words is a physical activity. You can go through these sounds whenever you need to think about these. In all the different ways of pronunciation, the position of your tongue would change.
It is really fascinating to listen to various accents of the people speaking English across the globe. There are a lot of differences between the American and British English. Even in America itself, there would be a lot of variation in accent depending on the regions. Always pay attention to linguistic variations.
Conclusion:
All these are single pure vowels which are called the monophthongs. There are more and more examples of these, but we have some you help you understand the pure vowels. One most essential thing that you need to remember here is the pronunciation of the words and how the monophthong functions. If you have some doubt you can get back to us through the comment section. We, at Englishbix, would be happy to help you out.
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