ei and ae

[Belly T]

We all know a can pronounce in not a few ways, so when it have to be pronounced /ei/ and /ae/?

[BobK]

We all know a can pronounce in not a few ways, so when it have to be pronounced /ei/ and /ae/?

Why only two? There are four main sorts of a:

/æ/ as in mad
/eı/ as in made
/ə/ as in madeira (both times)
/a:/ as in marred

There are some rules, but there are many exceptions (see the numbers in red):

• 1 Usually an a on its own in a monosyllable (or in any stressed position) sounds /æ/, unless it's followed by an r: mad, Sam, tack ... but spar /spa:/, father
• 2 Usually an e following that sort of a makes the sound into an /eı/: made, same, take ...
• 3 Usually an a in an unstressed syllable makes the /ə/ sound

There are more, but I'll try to find a site that spells them all out. These three are enough to make the point. Here are some exceptions:

• 
  1 spa (/spa:/
• 2 bathe /beıδ/
• 3 manage /'mænıʤ/

As English is such a mixture of languages, similar-looking words often get pronounced differently: father but bather (/a:/ but /eı/); rational but rationale (in the last syllable, /ə/ and /a:/) ...

So unfortunately you just have to learn them (preferably by using them aloud).

b

[Belly T]

Why only two? There are four main sorts of a:


/ə/
/
b

What's that?

[BobK]

What's that?

It's sometimes called a "schwa" or "central e": Schwa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Incidentally, when I said there were "four main types of a" I wasn't including other sounds that a written "a" can participate in making, such as the /ɔ:/ in "saw", "law" (which rhyme with "sore" and "lore") ... etc., or the written 'diphthongs' that produce a simple vowel (such as "plait", which makes the sound /plæt/. A written "a" can signal or contribute to making many possible sounds.

And, of course, I'm talking about Received British Pronunciation.

b

[Buddhaheart]

According to some text book, the grapheme <a> may represent the following phonemes: /æ/ (1,565 words in 100,000 running word count) as in "had, /ew/ (1,446 words) as in "make", /Z/ (442) as in "was", /Y/ (322) as in "part", /c/ (4,391) as in "about", /]/ (442) as in "fall".

In another survey in running word count, it's quoted as <a> representing /æ/ in 1,536 words, /ew/ in 650 words, /Z/ 280, /Y/ 280, /c/ 797 & /]/ 219.

Here’re some of the generalizations I know of:

1. <a> before <ste> usually pronounces as a long sound as in "waste", "haste" and "taste".

2. <a> represents the /ew/ phoneme in words ending after a final consonant in ‘e’ as in "cake", "tame" and "lame" . This is the so-called silent ‘e’ syllable.

3. <a> usually represents /Y/ before ‘r’ as in "arm", "car" and "far".

4. In a V-re (Vowel followed by <re>) syllable, <a> usually represents its 1st short sound /æ/ as in "bare" and "fare".

5. Final <rr> tends to make <a> sound /æ/ as in "Harry", "carry" and "tarry".

6. <a> usually represents /]/ before ‘l’ as in "fall", "all" and "Paul".