the letter <a> pronounced in 5 different ways

[hnotman]

5 words which show the letter <a> pronounced in 5 different ways.

so far i have
ace
apple

(sorry if i have put this in the wrong topic)

thank you

[Ethel]

art

Does 'a' have to be initial letter?

[hnotman]

no a doesn't have to be the initial letter, just any different sound of <a> in any part of a word.

[Ethel]

naive

hay

[mrs_overall]

the a in bath can be pronounced in 2 ways - the short a we use here in the north, or the long a (barth) used in the south

[daniela31]

Ball

[Ethel]

almond might be a good example - pronounced ulmohnd

[mrs_overall]

It can also be pronounced as "or" as in bawl, awl, always

[Ethel]

ambience - pronounced ohmbience

[Ethel]

And august.

[hnotman]

thank you :) i think i have enough now but if you do think of any more keep posting

[Ethel]

And definite 'ya' sound in beatific - beee ya tiff ic

[Quizmonster]

Here are six ways of saying the sound a...as in age, bad, bath, about, many, ball. There are others such as in beat, aisle, coat, beauty, cauliflower etc when combined with other vowels.

[Quizmonster]

Good grief! The last six of these weren't even there when I started typing!

[Avatar]

I think the a in 'bad' and 'about' sounds the same.

[jno]

the one in 'about' is a 'shwa' - a grunt often used for the vowel sound in an unstressed syllable. The way I say it is very different from the way I say bad. And bad is slightly different from bat.

But it's hard to make any of this plain in writing as prononciations vary so much. Bath can be a short sound as in bat, or baath or bawth, depending who you are but it's always spelt the same

[Clanad]

Pedantically, as well as locationally, the letter 'a' is often pronounced as "ehh" by our Canadian friends just to the North... I suspect ii has a lot to do with the heavily Scottish and/or Irish influence in the prairie Provinces...

[Bathsheba]

Ethel- I was always told that the "L" was silent in "almond"- eg- "ahmund" x

[Parsfan]

What about a mute sound, as in Caesar.

[Avatar]

What about in 'i' sound as in bit, in Salad, pronounced Salid

[Patc49]

I think almond should be pronounced ah-mond; the l is silent