Even though the word LOOSE looks longer than LOSE, its pronunciation is actually shorter.
In this video lesson we explore why most English long vowels are shortened some of the time, and how English learners can spot when it will happen.
Phonemic transcriptions in dictionaries don’t help with this, as they only show phonemic length marks. This means that learners need to know the consonant sounds that cause vowels to shorten in a process called ‘pre-fortis clipping’.
In this lesson we compare FORTIS with LENIS sounds using the example of a snake hissing and a bee buzzing.
#pronunciation #vowelsound #phonetics #britishenglish
