Hello! I'm John Russell.

大家好！我是约翰·拉塞尔rQ^!OQtT|^PGk。

Vowel sounds are very important in American English.

元音在美式英语中非常重要QayyQ,]AcX5^2a%Tycpj。

If your goal is to improve your pronunciation, you will need to develop a strong sense of the differences between vowel sounds.

如果你的目标是改善发音，你需要培养强烈的元音发音差异意识+)oN&ajsuj,FRxcQoM#2。

A nice place to start is to develop your ability to recognize vowel sounds.

你可以从培养识别元音音素的能力开始P4!zWfM3yH|o^Ka=#。

If you can't recognize the differences between sounds, then you will be less likely to produce the different sounds in your own speaking.

如果你无法识别音素之间的差异，那么你就不太可能发出不同的音素q4B&U),reKafhZj。

So, let's do a quiz.

我们来做一个小测验f|d@,Mp-[bE27oExr=j3。

We will listen to a sentence and decide which vowel sound plays a more important part in the sentence.

我们将会听到一个句子，并决定哪个元音在句子中起着更重要的作用hu.@Ff.ly;BvajtWJoN。

What are our two vowel sounds?

我们的两个元音是什么？

The first one is written like this in International Phonetic Alphabet (or IPA): /ou/.

第一个元音在国际音标中写成这样：/ou/（正确写法见视频）#O!90fA5yD[Q*)yt5。

This vowel sound appears in words such as "boat."

这个元音出现在诸如“boat”之类的单词中ODu7(Fqii)H^Kr。

The second vowel sound is written like this in IPA: /a/.

第二个元音在国际音标中写成这样：/a/（正确写法见视频）szJH)O|tENhu2K。

This vowel sound appears in words like "stop" or "hot."

这个元音出现在诸如“stop”或“hot”之类的单词中yf+#l!oL1GBIs2。

So, we have our two vowel sounds: /ou/ and /a/.

因此，我们有两个元音：/ou/和/a/#uos_e;)ICCZ*Dpm_Ef。

You will now hear a sentence.

现在你将会听到一句话Z;1r,H@G)#vSeU28)。

Which vowel sound is more common in the sentence?

哪个元音在句子中更常见？

I don't know if he owns his home.

我不知道他是否拥有自己的房子|xByco_CK%;~FXXG5V4&。

Let's listen again. I don't know if he owns his home.

让我们再听一遍_QNL%oN]dM(L。我不知道他是否拥有自己的房子mYseg+.dUF。

The answer is this: /ou/ .

答案是：/ou/x2=05!s;x=JikcaxZ,.。

This vowel sound appears a few times in the sentence you heard.

这个元音在你听到的句子中出现了很多次lXbA-6z8Z-,d|+n2VP。

You heard it in: "don't", "know", "owns", "home".

你在以下单词中听到了该元音：don't, know, owns, home9LIr^VBjAzikV=wb[BK,。

So, if we analyze the sentence "I don't know if he owns his home.", we can say that the vowel sound /ou/ plays an important part.

所以，如果我们分析"I don't know if he owns his home."这句话，我们可以说元音/ou/起了重要的作用F|uC[SDLnCU)。

That's all for today! Keep up the good work!

今天就到这里吧！继续努力！