Very varied - contrasting /e/ and /eə/ in English

Welcome to season 5 of English Sound Building! Today, we’re contrasting two sounds we’ve looked at before, but not in relation to each other: /e/ and /eə/.

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 available free on my Patreon.

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Interested in classes? Learn with me on italki! Contact me if there is no availability showing – I always try to make room for podcast listeners 😊

Transcript

So, today we’re reviewing two sounds we’ve looked at already, but contrasting them with each other: the short vowel /e/, and the diphthong /eə/.  While this isn’t a short/ long vowel contrast, I often find that it can effectively be that in the way my learners make the sounds, both in a tendency to hold short /e/ for too long, and to make the diphthong /eə/ too short. 

Today’s workout is going to be reasonably short, and is preparing us for the next step next week, when we contrast /eə/ and the long vowel /ɜ:/.

Let’s start by reviewing some of the common words and sentences with both sounds from previous episodes.

First, those common words with /e/, which we last reviewed last season in episode 41 “The Left Lift”.

First we’ll recap some of the common words with /e/ from episode 3.

1.   any

2.   bed

3.   better

4.   every

5.   fresh

6.   letter

7.   never

8.   sent

9.   slept

10.test

11.well

12.went

And a couple of sentences with those words:

• He’d never slept better in any bed!
• The letter she sent said the test went well.

And then some words with /eə/, which we met last season in episode 42 “Beer or bear?”.

1.   affair

2.   anywhere

3.   care

4.   downstairs

5.   hairy

6.   hilarious

7.   librarian

8.   millionaire

9.   parent

10.square

11.swear

12.various

…And three sentences with some of those words:

•        The hilarious hairy librarian is downstairs.

•        The affair involved various millionaires.

•        Don’t swear anywhere in the square!

And now for some minimal pairs with /e/ and /eə/. There are not many of these, because we most commonly find /eə/ at the end of a word, a position where we don’t find /e/. 

We’ll read the first three together.

1. bed – bared
2. belly – barely
3. bled – blared

For the next four, I’ll read the /e/ word: can you say both? We’ll do the first one together as an example.

1. dead – dared 
2. Derry – dairy
3. fed – fared
4. ferry – fairy

Now listen, repeat again, and check how you did.

And for the last four, I’ll read the /eə/ word: can you say both? Again, we’ll do the first one together as an example. 

1. fled – flared
2. merry – Mary
3. sped – spared
4. very – vary

Now listen, repeat again, and check how you did.

Finally, let’s practise a few sentences with some of those pairs.

• Derry’s dairys are very varied.
• He barely bared his belly in bed.
• Mary the fairy sped merrily on the ferry.