The key vowel sound of each word is one of the most important sounds that helps listeners understand you. In addition, vowels are quite complicated. Therefore, helping you learn to produce the key vowel sounds is one of the fastest and most effective ways to improve. Regardless, Color Vowel also helps with consonants. However, it prioritizes feedback on stress and vowel sounds.

Why are vowels complicated? #

The first reason is that each vowel letter can produce several different sounds. Also, each vowel sound corresponds to several different spelling patterns. These patterns highlights the separation between spoken and written English. Also, most differences in dialects are due to a slight difference in movement or placement of the vocal tract while producing vowel sounds. There is a lot of variety in how native speakers produce vowels. However, this variety does not exist with consonants. We like to say that the consonants are stars, whereas vowels are the space between the stars. That ‘space between the stars’ is central to comprehensibility.

Generally speaking, consonants are easier to produce. They are also more straightforward in regards to what sounds they make. For example, when you see the letter ‘m’ you know that it represents the sound /m/. Some consonants do make a few other sounds, as in the letter ‘c’ which can represent the /k/ or /s/ sound. However, most are “what you see if what you get.”

Also, consonants are easier to describe where your tongue, lips, and/or teeth should be touching. We produce vowel sounds without any contact between the tongue, lips, and teeth. Consonants, on the other hand, play a key role in indicating tense or number, as in the difference between “work” and “worked” or “play” and “plays.” While consonant sounds convey these details, they are not essential to the primary meaning of the word.