Every language has vowel sounds. Some languages have as few as three vowel sounds and some languages have more than 20 vowel sounds.

The English alphabet has five vowels, a, e, i, o, and u, but these vowels make 14 (or more) spoken sounds in American English. The variety of sounds is very complex and this can make it difficult to pronounce English vowels correctly.

Here are the four characteristics of vowel articulation

• tongue height-is the tongue high or low in the mouth
• frontness/backness of tongue-what part of the tongue is involved in articulation
• tenseness/laxness-whether the jaw muscles are tense or relaxed
• lip shape

Here is a nice American English Vowels Chart from Eva Easton that you can use to help you pronounce English vowel sounds.

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