How to Pronounce the /ɑ/ Sound

Discover the /ɑ/ sound in English phonology. Learn its articulation, variations, and how it fits into the broader sound system of the language.

In this lesson, we are going to learn how the sound /ɑ/ is produced by looking at the articulatory organs.

What Type of Sound Is /ɑ/?

/ɑ/ is a long vowel. You can make this sound like when you go to the doctor and they ask you to open your mouth and say 'aah.'

How to Produce /ɑ/?

Mouth Configuration for /ɑ/

To produce it, open your mouth completely, lower your jaw completely, and keep your lips ungrounded. When producing this sound, your mouth is slightly more open than when producing the /æ/ sound. However, the mouth is slightly less rounded than saying the /ɔ/ sound as you can see in the picture.

Which Letters are Pronounced as /ɑ/?

The sound /ɑ/ is represented by the following letters:

Pie Chart of the Letters that Make the /ɑ/ Sound

start /stɑːrt/

arm /ɑːrm/

father /ˈfɑː.ðər/

solid /ˈsɑ.lɪd/

novel /ˈnɑvəl/

block /blɑk/

Tip!

As you have seen before in the examples, When two dots come after the sound as in /ɑː/, It indicates that it is pronounced as a long vowel sound, not as a short or weak sound.

/ɑ/ Around the World

As you see in the table below, /ɑ/ does not exist in most of the common languages around the world. If this sound does not exist in your language you may need a little practice to produce it.

	Existence	Example
Mandarin	✔	阳 (yáng)
Spanish	x	-
Hindi	x	-
Bengali	x	-
Portuguese	x	-
Russian	x	-
Japanese	x	-
Vietnamese	x	-
Turkish	x	-
French¹	✔	pâte
German	x	-
Italian	x	-
Persian	x	-
Standard Arabic	✔	قارئ
Korean	x	-
Indonesian²	✔	qari
Filipino	x	-
Hungarian	x	-
Dutch	✔	bad
Polish	x	-
Romanian	x	-
Swedish	✔	mat
Czech	x	-
Greek	x	-
Ukrainian	✔	гай
Urdu	x	-

¹ The sound exists in some parts of France.
² The sound exists in the form of an allophone of /a/ in Arabic loanwords.

Listening

Let's listen to the pronunciation of the /ɑ/ sound which has been mentioned below:

Down below, there are two other sounds similar to the /ɑ/ sound. At first, listen to the /æ/ sound and then listen to the /ɔ/ sound:

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What Type of Sound Is /ɑ/?
How to Produce /ɑ/?
Which Letters are Pronounced as /ɑ/?
/ɑ/ Around the World
Listening

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