The following words have at least one ‘a’ that sounds like the vowel in the word [but]–a sound called ‘schwa’.
a, award, was, what, around, again, away, along, area, usually, across, against, numeral, ago, material, general, appear, amount, alone, signal, equal, decimal, wasn’t, capital, ahead, plural, afraid, agreed, arrive, about, America, animal, away, because, around, mountain, above, idea, important, along, Indian, area, usually, across, certain, several, surface, ocean, machine, language, thousands, special, among, finally, island,
The following words have an ‘a’ that sounds like /ah/ in [father] or /o/ in [hot]
saw, watt, all, call, ball, tall, fall, small, wall, also, father, always, walk, watch, far, car, mark, farm, are, star, start, hard, part, talk, draw, along, already, law, drawing, caught, wash, water, want, also, because, almost, halt
The following words have an ‘a’ that sounds like the vowel in [bet]
many, again, any, head, measure, heavy
The following words have an ‘a’ that sounds like the vowel in [coat] or [hope]
war, warm
The following words have an ‘a’ that sounds like the vowel in [sat]
apple, actually, adjective, triangle, chance, factories, capital, cattle, plants, hat, flat, value, sand, captain, bank,, practice, valley, bad, gas, exactly, natural, act, angle, factors, sat, happy, glass, graph, dance, can/can’t, matter, perhaps, language, thousand, am, ran, understand, fact, class, travel, at, that, and, as, an, than, back, after, man, ask, plan, animal, answer, map, add, last, began, wagon, pass, path, sand, fancy, master, bank, capital, as, have, had, has, back, after, answer, animal. hand, ask, land, add, plant, last, began, family, example, stand, black, happened, fast, passed, pattern, map, travel, fact, class, ran, understand, language, cannot, am
The following words have an ‘a’ that sounds like the vowel in [say]
make, may, made, take, place, name, say, same, came, away, play, page, paper, always, state, carry, later, waves, today, space, able, equation, shape, explain, game, plane, contain, carefully, stay, base, became, gave Peggy Tharpe teaches, coaches, and publishes about English pronunciation and intonation. She believes that if you understand why something is happening, you're better able to address it and change it. She teaches the "why" of pronunciation as well as the "what" and "how".
[bctt tweet=”Pronouncing ‘A’ in 500 common English words.”]