Listen to the following words and sentences.
Practice pronouncing the vowel sounds as you learned in this lesson.

Please repeat after me…

uh Words- Slow Pace

uh Words- Normal Pace

uh Sentences- Slow Pace

uh Sentences- Normal Pace

Their son hunts for fun.

All of the sudden we have double the trouble.

My husband visited his cousin in the country.

Don’t trust the government when it comes to money.

We put the colored rugs out in the sun after the flood.

None of the couples can run.

Compare /a/ with /^/

Listen and Repeat

Which Word Do You Hear?

(Answers below) 1 /a/    2 /^/

He gave me a 1) hog  2) hug. I received a 1) cot  2) cut. What a great 1) boss  2) bus. Watch out for the 1) bomb  2) bum. They 1) shot  2) shut the store. That's a pretty 1) dock  2) duck on the water. The thief 1) robbed  2) rubbed the vault. She is my 1) mom  2) mum.   Answers to the listening exercise: 1 stomp 1 bomb 2 bus 1 hot 2 duck 1 bought 2 stuck 2 jug 2 suck 1 done 2 mom 1 knot 2 rubber 1 golf 1 rot 2 fund 2 dull 1 lock 1 smog 2 bucks 2 He gave me a hug. 1 I received a cot. 1 What a great boss. 2 Watch out for the bum. 2 They shut the store. 1 That's a pretty dock on the water. 1 The thief robbed the vault. 2 She is my mum.

Hopefully by now you are a little more comfortable using the /^/ sound.  After completing Exercise 1, try out these stories.

An /^/ Story

Rusty Hudson was a good husband who loved his wife Sunny very much. One Sunday morning Rusty decided to make brunch for Sunny and their-one year-old son, Russell. In under an hour Rusty made buns with honey and fruit with nuts. He took the brunch tray up the stairs and presented it to Sunny and Russell. Sunny was stunned to find out what he had done. “How come you made brunch,” she asked? “Because I love you,” said Rusty. "And because Russell is too little to make a Mother's Day brunch." "Oh, you remembered Mother's Day. This looks lovely," smiled Sunny. Rusty gave a funny little laugh and Russell gave a cute little grunt. "There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Sunny,” he said, "or for our son Russell." At first Sunny was somewhat reluctant to take a bite of the brunch because Rusty did not usually cook and the buns looked a little tough. But after the first bite, she said, “Honey, I love what you have done. I am so lucky to have a husband like you, Rusty," she said. And she gave him one of the biggest hugs ever and told him how much she loved him.

An /^/ vs /a/ Story

Doug was a very small kid for his age and he was not very good at a lot of stuff. He couldn’t run very fast and he had virtually no muscles on his skinny body. As a result of this, Doug became the main target of Tom the bully. Tom thought that it was funny to pull all kinds of pranks on Doug. Sometimes, he would even steal Doug’s lunch money just for fun. One time, Doug was singing a song by the pond when suddenly, Tom pushed him from behind and caused him to fall into the water and start floundering around like a duck since his head got stuck in the mud. It was quite an awful experience for Doug, but he didn’t seem flustered by Tom’s abusive behavior. Of course, Doug never once thought of even fighting back against Tom since the bully was quite tall for his age and Doug was sure that getting hit with Tom’s knuckles would feel like getting run over by a truck. He would probably need to see a doctor afterwards as he walked out of the hospital in crutches. One day during the summer, Doug came home with all kinds of cuts and bruises and his arms tied up in a knot. His mom and pop knew that something was wrong with their son. They had a long talk and Doug’s pop was so angry that he would have put Tom in the hospital at that very moment if mom hadn't been around to make him stop. Doug’s mom told him, “Doug, you need to watch your back at all times around this Tom. He might think he’s awesome because he’s tall and he has big muscles, but you don’t have stand for his abuse. The next time he tries to hurt you, I want you to make a lot of noise and ask him to stop. If that doesn’t work…” “Son, I’ll teach you how to box,” Doug’s pop added. And so, Doug learned how to fight from his pop while keeping mom’s advice at the back of his head. To be honest, Doug really didn’t feel like fighting back, but he knew he had to stand up for himself if he wanted the bullying to stop. One day while Doug was hanging out at the dock. Tom suddenly wandered into view but he didn’t seem to notice Doug. Doug hid himself and he began to watch. A blonde woman had called Tom from the yacht. As Tom reluctantly went up to her, she grabbed him by the shirt and slapped him on the cheek. Then, she started shouting at him at the top of her voice. “You dumb kid! Why don’t you answer when I call you to come up?” She slapped Tom several more times even though he was begging her to stop, but she continued doing it until he became numb. When it was over, Tom ran away from the yacht in tears. At that moment, Doug saw himself in Tom. He went up to Tom and said, “Hi there, do you want to talk about it?” Tom smiled and was a little bit flustered. He gave Doug a playful punch. Doug cringed expecting the worst, but it was just a friendly nudge from Tom. It was then that Doug learned that everyone’s circumstances are different and when all had been said and done, Tom really needed understanding more than anyone else.

Would you like PERSONAL HELP as you go through the American Accent Course?

Let us direct you through the entire program with personalized assignments and private feedback.

Click Here for More Information