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Producing /æ/
How to produce /æ/
Before anything else, get the articulation right. The right mouth position makes the sound effortless.
/æ/near-open front
- Lips: spread
- Tongue: low-front
- Voicing: voiced
💡 Jaw wide open, tongue low and forward — classic American 'a'.
Key production cues:
Jaw wide open, tongue low and forward — classic American 'a'.
Practice the sound in isolation
Before trying words, practice the sound on its own. Record yourself. Does it match?
- Say /æ/ in isolation — hold it for 2 seconds.
- Say /æ/ quickly, 5 times in a row: /æ-æ-æ-æ-æ/.
- Compare your recording to a native reference.
Try a few isolated words
These words all contain /æ/ in different positions — beginning, middle, and end:
- Beginning: apple, ant, cat
- Middle: bag, hat, man
- End / in clusters: pan, math, black
/æ/near-open frontArticulator diagram · regional variants · drill ↗
Listen Across Accents
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apple
bag
pan
Your Turn — 3 exercises
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