The audio here is generated speech. A recorded human voice for this lesson is on the way.
One letter, three sounds
The letter A does not have one sound in English. It has three that matter for speaking, and the spelling tells you which one most of the time. The short A is the open sound in "cat" and "apple": mouth wide, tongue low and forward. The long A is the sound in "cake" and "name", a glide that starts open and ends near "ee"; you usually see a silent E at the end of the word, or a Y or I after the A. The third is the "ah" in "father" and "car", deeper in the mouth, common before R.
Learners who have one A sound in their language often say "cat" and "cut" the same, or make every A into "ah". The pairs below put the short A next to the sounds it gets confused with.
Hear the difference
Tap each word. Then test your ear.
Short A: jaw drops, mouth wide. Long A: start there, then close toward "ee".
Short A against short E: the E is higher and tighter. "Bad" is not "bed".
Say it out loud
Tap a sentence to hear it. Say it after the voice.
Practice · 3 min
Say each sentence after the model. In the first sentence every A is short; open your mouth wider than feels natural. In the second every A is long; feel the glide toward "ee". Record the fourth sentence and check that "had", "bad" and "at" are all the same open sound.
Say it today
Use it once in a real conversation before tomorrow. Out loud counts, even to yourself.