275 Go to /a/ Worksheet Go to /ɑː/ Worksheet TRAP /a/ “cat” vs START /ɑː/ “cart” Watch Video Lesson
- When practising sounds: - FEEL (what can you feel your muscles doing?) - HEAR (listen to the audio tracks and use the hand-phone to listen to yourself)
You may come up with different ideas to the ones in the boxes. That’s fine! TRAP /a/
START /ɑː/
Spelling Patterns
FEEL HEAR
both vowels are spelled with letter “a”: bad, sat, tap
tongue more forwards
higher-pitched when whispered Often shorter
“a”: can’t, last, bath
tongue more back
lower-pitched when whispered Often longer
Comparisons
The highlighted words are all minimal pairs. These are words that sound the same apart from one sound. The only difference between am /am/ and arm /ɑːm/ is the vowel sound.
Words (minimal pairs in the order /a/ - /ɑː/) 1 am - arm 2 ant – aren’t 3 back - bark 5 cat - cart 6 hat - heart 7 lack - lark 4 badge - barge 8 match - march Potentially Embarrassing Mix-Ups (minimal pair in the order /a/ - /ɑː/) 1 fat – ! fart
