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How does it sound when an English learner prounounces the word "as" with the vowel sound used in the word "any"?

I see different pronunciation symbols between two when I look them up the dictionary.

When it comes to the words like "men" and "man", the sounds should be different because the meanings are also different. - I mean in the singular and plural-

But what if I pronounce the word "as" with the sound in the word "any"?

You can understand but it sounds a bit clumsy? Or is it okay?

Nona the brit · Accepted Answer

The pronounciation should be the same 'a' sound for both 'as' and 'man'.  Are you having difficulty making that sound?

Casi · Answer

Additionally, I can make out it's meaning (i.e., "as"), but it sure is difficult to pronounce that way.

Standard: as if = [aez] if . . . ([ae] as in "cat")
Dialect variation: as if = [Ez] if. . . (E represents the vowel sound in "any")

Mack&amp;Mack · Answer

I know it's long overdue but I appreciate your answers. To my surprise I forgot to check this one.

And if you don't mind, could you help me to improve my [aez] sound?

I can hardly make difference between as[aez] and any[Eni].

LanguageLover · Answer

Sure, this is the hint, though you have to try to locate and control the location of your tongue when pronouncing the sounds. For the [ae] sound, your tongue should be in a flatter (not raised or close to your palate)position (maybe we can see closer to your floor of the mouth!). For pronouncing "E" as in "any" change your tongue position to a upper(not as up as your tongue touches your palate, just in the middle between the floor and the roof of the mouth) and a more backward position (again not as backward as the vowels in "cut", "book"..., this also should be in the middle). Try to look into a mirror while pronouncing to see the tongue movements and try to control them. The followin link may help you a bit, the dots are the position of the tongue for that particular sound, and you can hear the sound pronounciation by clicking on the sign. (Don't panick, not all the sounds exist in English!). Front, Central and back features refer to a front, central and back position of the tongue.And "close" indicates the touching of the palate by the tongue. Hope that it helps.

http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/ipa/vowels.html

LanguageLover · Answer

I found something interesting for you. Go to the following page and click on Launch English Library on your right:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/about.html

Mack&amp;Mack · Answer

I really appreciate your answer. I'm looking through the site you've recommnded and found it very useful to me.

I'm a kind of old English teacher wanna-be who quit my job, a computer programmer, a couple of years ago loving children and English. I'm preparing for the teacher's exam in my country, Korea. Hope I can pass it in no time and do what I wanted to do.

Thanks a lot once more time LanguageLover~ ^^;

Eimai_Anglos · Answer

"Any" is pronounced with an "e" sound as in "penny".

Likewise "many" which sounds like "menny".

In northern England "as" is pronounced with an "a" as in "van" or "man". In southern England the sound may be modified to "ais" (if you want to sound like the Queen).

LanguageLover · Answer

Welcome, Mack. Hope you pass the exam soon and be able to follow your dream! Good luck.

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