First Aid
Senior 4 · English
First Aid
Lesson 4 of 5
20 min
On an emergency call, the line may be bad and the caller may be shouting. If a first aider says "Pull" and the listener hears "Pool", or "Check his breath" sounds like "Check his breathe", precious seconds are lost. English has pairs of vowels that differ mainly in length and in the shape of the mouth, and many learners merge them. This lesson trains your ear and your mouth on the five most important pairs, using the vocabulary of first aid.
A note on "long": in this lesson, a long vowel is one written with the length mark ː in the International Phonetic Alphabet, such as /iː/ in knee. It is not the same as the "long a" of school phonics, which is really a sound that glides between two vowels, as in day.
| Pair | Long vowel | Short vowel |
|---|---|---|
| /iː/ – /ɪ/ | Lips spread as in a smile, tongue high and tense: heal /hiːl/ | Lips relaxed, tongue a little lower: hill /hɪl/ |
| /uː/ – /ʊ/ | Lips rounded and pushed forward, tongue high at the back: pool /puːl/ | Lips loosely rounded, tongue lower and relaxed: pull /pʊl/ |
| /ɑː/ – /æ/ | Mouth wide open, tongue low at the back: heart /hɑːt/ | Mouth open, tongue low at the front, lips a little spread: hat /hæt/ |
| /ɔː/ – /ɒ/ | Lips rounded, tongue at the back, held: sport /spɔːt/ | Lips slightly rounded, jaw lower, quick: spot /spɒt/ |
| /ɜː/ – /e/ | Tongue in the middle, lips neutral, held: burn /bɜːn/ | Tongue forward and a little higher, short: Ben /ben/ |
| Pair | Minimal pairs |
|---|---|
| /iː/ – /ɪ/ | heel / hill · heat / hit · sheep / ship · feet / fit · cheek / chick |
| /uː/ – /ʊ/ | pool / pull · fool / full · Luke / look · suit / soot |
| /ɑː/ – /æ/ | heart / hat · cart / cat · bark / back · park / pack |
| /ɔː/ – /ɒ/ | caught / cot · port / pot · sport / spot · short / shot |
| /ɜː/ – /e/ | bird / bed · turn / ten · burn / Ben · word / wed |
| Long vowel | Common spellings | Short vowel | Common spellings |
|---|---|---|---|
| /iː/ | ee (bleed, knee), ea (heal, breathe), ie (piece), ei after c (receive) | /ɪ/ | i (skin, wrist), y (system) |
| /uː/ | oo (cool, tooth), ou (wound, soup), ue (blue), u–e (rule) | /ʊ/ | u (pull, push), oo before k, t, d (book, foot, good) |
| /ɑː/ | ar (arm), al (palm, calm), ear (heart), a in last, glass, bath | /æ/ | a (hand, back) |
| /ɔː/ | or (short, sport), al (fall, call), aw (saw), au (cause), our (four), ar after w (warm) | /ɒ/ | o (stop, shock, body), a after w (want, wash) |
| /ɜː/ | ur, ir, er, ear, w+or (burn, first, term, learn, work) | /e/ | e (chest, help), ea (head, breath) |
A finer point: a long vowel is a little shorter before the voiceless sounds /p, t, k, f, s/. The /iː/ in seed lasts longer than the /iː/ in seat. Listen for it, but keep the quality of the vowel the same.
Worked example
Finding long and short vowels in an instruction
Say: Keep cool water on the burn for a full twenty minutes.
Result: /kiːp kuːl ˈwɔːtər ɒn ðə bɜːn fər ə fʊl ˈtwenti ˈmɪnɪts/.
Warning
Tip
Smile, push, drop. For /iː/ smile; for /uː/ push your lips forward; for /ɑː/ drop your jaw. Their short partners are the same shapes, relaxed and quicker. A mirror shows you at once whether your mouth is moving.
6 Rules for Long & Short Vowel Sounds: British English RP Accent, English with Liz (about 6½ minutes, 2022). Copy her six rules into your notebook and add one first aid word as an example for each.
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Quick check
Which word has a LONG vowel sound?
