When speaking the words in
isolation, people often pronounce a as  ,
an as  ,
and the as  . |
| |
But in the midst of speech,
articles are usually unstressed. a is often
pronounced as  ;
an as  ,
 ,  or
 , possibly
preceded by a glottal stop; and the as or
 when preceding
a vowel sound and  or
 otherwise.
These pronunciations can differ with context, accent or dialect,
and emphasis. Confusing!! |
| |
| For simplicity, try teaching
a as ,
an as ,
and the as .
Students can learn the other variations later, if desired. It's
more important that they learn to recognize the article than be able to
speak all variations. |
| |
| When emphasizing an article, it's common to
stress it using one the first pronunciations (a
as ,
an as ,
and the as ).
You may, consciously or not, tend to emphasize the article as
you teach, so it is useful to remain mindful of these differences
in pronunciation so that you don't confuse your students. |
| |
|
