How to pronounce words like COLOR vs. COLLAR: /ʌ/ and /ɑ/

Hey everyone, it's Hadar. Today, we are going to talk about a very confusing vowel pair - the /ʌ/ as in 'cup' and the /ɑ/ as in 'father': as in bus - boss, cup - cop, wonder - wander, color - collar.

If you struggle with making a distinction between those pairs of words that I just said, then this video is for you. We're going to understand each sound separately, how to pronounce it and what to expect when you will hear it. And then we're going to practice it so that you never confuse these words again.

If you're new to my channel, then hi, my name is Hadar. I'm a speech and pronunciation coach. I'm a non-native speaker of English, and I'm here to help you speak English with clarity, confidence, and freedom. Check out my website hadarshemesh.com for a ton of free resources and lessons. All right, so let's get started.

First, let's identify the two sounds that we're gonna practice today – the /ʌ/ as in 'cup', and the /ɑ/ as in 'father'. The first one is a central vowel sound. When I say central, that means that the tongue is right there in the middle of the mouth, but it's not rolling forward much or pulling back much. It's not 'ee', it's not 'oo', it's 'uh'.

The interesting thing about the 'cup' sound is that it's pretty much like a schwa sound. A schwa is a very neutral vowel sound. And it sounds something like this - uh, it's the most common vowel sound in American English. But the cup sound is slightly more open and it's always stressed. And because it's stressed, it's usually longer a little bit and a bit more emphasized.

You can find it in words like cup, love, fun, country, blood, flood, run, sun. Okay? The spelling patterns are usually O, U, OO (rarely), and OU, like in 'country'. This sound is the closest sound to a neutral A sound that exists in a lot of different languages, especially languages that have five vowel sounds like A-E-I-O-U. Okay? So this sound - uh, cup, love, fun, is pretty much like any neutral A sound. Maybe it's a little more sharp, the mouth is not that open, but just categorize it as an 'uh' sound.

Notice that a lot of speakers, when there is the 'cup' sound and then a nasal sound, like run, money, company, they tend to turn it into an O, whether it's because of the spelling or because there is a nasal sound after. It doesn't matter. Just notice that it's not mOney, cOmpany, rOn, but 'muhney', 'cuhm-pany', 'ruhn'.

Now there is another A sound in American English, but this one is a bit more open – /ɑ/. It's more towards the back, so the tongue pulls back a bit, ah, lips are relaxed, ah, and it's slightly longer and more lazy. We find it in words like 'father' or 'spa'.

Now the interesting fact about this sound is that in American pronunciation, it is often spelled with a letter O, just like the word 'possible', 'job', 'coffee', and 'honest'. Can you hear it? Ah, ah. It's not cOffee or jOb, but 'cahf-fee' and 'jahb'. Again, in American English.

So now you can see why this could be confusing – because the first one is like a more central 'uh' sound, and the other one is more of a back open 'ah'. uh - ah. Just play with those two. Relax your jaw, but not too much, keep the tongue in the center. The tongue arch is slightly lifted: uh, cup, love, fun. And then drop the tongue, pull it back, imagine like you're about to yawn - 'ah': office, coffee, possible, honesty, soft.

So now these two sounds are in close proximity in terms of how they sound. But also the spelling could be similar: love - o, job - o, right? So sometimes you can't even tell if it's an 'uh' sound or an 'ah' sound simply by looking at the spelling. So we need to listen to it closely. I'm going to give you another example: mother - 'cup', brother - 'cup', bother - 'father' sound. Father is the 'father' sound. So, mother, brother, father, bother.

One of the ways to get past these confusions is to just drill words within the same category of sound, like 'cup' words, and then drill words of the other category of sound – 'ah' as in 'father', and then compare the two. Which is exactly what we're going to do. So let's practice a few more words with a cup sound.

Just repeat after me. Love, run, husband, country, sun, sunny, lung, cut, stuff. Let's practice 'ah' as in 'father': opportunity, closet, sorry, hot, caught, lost, possible, philosophy, stock market, not. Good.

Now let's compare the two different vowel sounds in similar words. These are called minimal pairs. Cup - cop. Hut - hot. Lust - lost. Stuck - stock. But - bought. Cut - caught. Bus - boss. Color - collar.

Color, like the color blue. And collar - just like the collar of your shirt. Color - collar. Your collar has a great color. Collar - color. Buddy - body. Buddy - body. And the last one: wonder - wander. Wonder: I wonder how she's feeling tonight. Wander: when I go to a new city, I really like to wander around the streets. I wonder if we should wander around tonight. Wonder - wander.

Now, if you want to get better at making a distinction and not confusing these words, watch this video several times, especially the practice part, and just repeat the words of the 'uh' as in 'cup' and the 'ah' as in 'father'. Okay? Just repeat the words, and then repeat the vowel pairs, the minimal pairs again and again until you hear a distinction.

Trust yourself. Even if it's hard at the beginning, even if you feel like you can't hear it really, just say it again and again. Try to imitate or shadow the video. And then I guarantee that you'll start noticing the difference. You can also record yourself and listen back to it. And see for yourself when you're not in your head if you can hear the difference. Consistency and practice pay off, I promise. The most important thing is to trust the process and stay optimistic.

If you want to practice your pronunciation and you like this kind of work, I have a free 14 day pronunciation plan where every day you get a different lesson with drills and audio recordings to practice, just to get you on track with your pronunciation practice. Because pronunciation can really help you feel more confident, more clear, understand people better. And there's so much more that goes into learning pronunciation. It really helps you feel more empowered in the language.

I can tell you personally, I'm now learning Spanish. And the first thing I did was to learn pronunciation just to understand the structure of the language, the spoken language, and then I fit everything in there. And I want to help you do that in English. So this is why I created the 14 day pronunciation plan. It's absolutely free, it's on my app. So click the link below this video to download it. If you're listening to the podcast, click the link in the description.

All right, my friends, let me know in the chat, what other words you recognize with either the 'cup' sound or the 'ah' as in 'father'. Because critical thinking is really important for the process. And if you enjoyed this video, hit like and subscribe and share it with your friends. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day. Thank you for watching. I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye.