Man or men? /æ/ and /e/

It's a new year! Let's smash some language learning goals and flex those pronunciation muscles!   In this episode of English Sound Building, we work on distinguishing between the /æ/ and /e/ sounds. The way in which these sounds is pronounced varies a lot between different varieties of English. Depending on your language background, you may also find it difficult to distinguish between them. Although mastering the distinction is absolutely not essential to be understood, it's fun to try :-)  In the first few minutes, I give some tips on making the sounds. If you're happy with that, feel free to skip straight to around 3.40 ready for the main workout to begin. We look at some common words containing both sounds,  some minimal pairs (where the only difference is in the pronunciation of each sound), as well as some fun and challenging sentences with a lot of each sound individually and combined.  Practise as often as you can to build muscle memory, and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss the next one.The Podcast script is now available free on my Patreon, as is a free video bonus for this episode. There's more free English there, too. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter!Support the show