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This one is really hard for me because I feel like it has at least two pronunciations.

Examples:

  • bad /bæd/ where it sounds more like /ee/

  • practice /præktəs/ where it sounds more like /aa/

Can someone help me with the correct pronunciation? Is there a rule for it? I couldn't find anything.

tchrist
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peyton00
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  • They both sound the same to me. It would sound like /ee/ if it were "bead" – Barmar Jan 01 '21 at 23:10
  • I meant the IPA /e/ not the American e – peyton00 Jan 01 '21 at 23:26
  • It might be regional, but I still feel like I use the same pronunciation of "a" in "bad" and "practice". – Barmar Jan 01 '21 at 23:30
  • My name is "Barry" and I use the same "a", but I have a cousin whose pronunciation always sounded more like "Beery". Maybe that's how you pronounce "bad"? – Barmar Jan 01 '21 at 23:32
  • @PeterShor EFL students haven’t learned to *unhear* phonetic allophones yet. Vowels do sound a tiny bit different when checked by an unvoiced consonant like in practice than when checked by a voiced one like in bad, or in tight versus dyed, but that doesn't change which phoneme is *meant. See also [bath](https://soundcomparisons.com/#/en/Englishes/word/bath) and [fast](https://soundcomparisons.com/#/en/Englishes/word/fast), [hand](https://soundcomparisons.com/#/en/Englishes/word/hand) and [lamb*](https://soundcomparisons.com/#/en/Englishes/word/lamb). – tchrist Jan 01 '21 at 23:50
  • @peyton00 Every native speaker pronounces their own language “correctly” in that particular idiolect’s accent; please see /æ/ raising and the duplicates I’ve marked above. All these many pronunciations are “correct”: head, ten, hand, rain, eight. – tchrist Jan 02 '21 at 00:07

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