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"Lucky Mother" and "Honest Father" are nicknames for two very important vowel sounds in English!  The "Lucky Mother" vowel is in words like "cut," "bump," and "month." The "Honest Father" vowel is in words like "pot," "shock," “palm,” and "mop."

Now is the perfect time to master the correct pronunciation these vowels in the words mother and father! In 2013, Mother's Day is celebrated May 12 and Father's Day is June 16. To our readers who are mothers or fathers, we wish you all the best on each of these holidays and throughout the year!

Click to hear the "Lucky Mother" and "Honest Father" vowels.

What are allophones?  They are all the variants of a particular sound or phoneme. Native speakers of a language use the correct ones automatically in just the right places!   

Why are allophones so important?  If you use the wrong ones when you are speaking English, listeners may not hear you correctly.

Part of any good English accent training program is learning the patterns of allophones.

Click below to see our new 3-minute video on allophones!

For better English pronunciation, master the vowel sounds!

"Great Day" is our nickname for one of the English vowels.

The "Great Day" vowel is a special kind of vowel sound. It is a diphthong. A diphthong is actually a single gliding sound consisting of two vowels. Say both words of "Great Day" with the diphthong [ei]. In each word, the vowel glides from [e] to [i]. Other words with this vowel sound are "rain," "date," and "weigh."

Master all of your diphthong pronunciations.  It is one of the keys to clear English speech! Click below to watch our 90-second video.  Hear how the "Great Day" vowel should sound!