pronouncekit

SOUND LESSON

How to pronounce /æ/: the vowel in cat

Drop your jaw and keep your tongue forward for /æ/ in cat and map. Separate it from cut and bed, with cues for Chinese and Spanish speakers.

/æ/
American English
/æ/ · monophthong · near-open · front · unrounded
British English
/æ/ · monophthong · short · near-open · front · unrounded
Pronunciation model

Try it in a word

The black cat sat on a map.

Mouth & tongue

Enable JavaScript to view the 3D panda. Pronunciation steps remain available below.

Vocal folds: vibrating

TongueTeethUvula

Simplified human pronunciation. The small uvula hangs from the palate; it is not the vocal folds. The wave indicates voicing.

Voice settings

The mouth starts slightly open. Movement is slowed for observation; the synthetic sound plays once at its original speed. Pause holds the current mouth shape; reset returns to the relaxed position. The panda is a symbolic teaching aid for human pronunciation, not animal anatomy.

What your mouth is doing

The jaw drops low while the tongue stays forward, with the tip behind the lower teeth. The lips spread slightly. It is a low-front vowel, and it can be fairly long before voiced consonants, as in bad.

Comparing with Mandarin and Spanish

In many American accents, the vowel changes before nasal consonants, as in man. That is a normal regional feature. A British speaker may also use a slightly more open vowel than an American one.

Neither Mandarin nor Spanish has /æ/, and learners often replace it with an a. Start from an e-like vowel, then lower your jaw while keeping your tongue forward.

Build the sound, step by step

  1. Start from the vowel in bed, with your tongue forward.
  2. Lower your jaw noticeably while keeping the tongue tip behind your lower teeth.
  3. Say cat, map and hand, without letting the vowel slide back toward /ɑ/.

What to watch for

  • A central tongue turns cat into cut. Keep the tongue forward.
  • Too little jaw movement turns bad into bed. Check with a finger on your chin.

Hear the difference in your own voice

Alternate cat and cut, then bad and bed. For cat, keep the tongue forward with an open jaw. For cut, center the tongue. For bed, close the jaw somewhat.

Compare these sounds

Keep practicing

References & editorial notes

PronounceKit wrote this lesson as practical guidance. The references below describe the sounds; the comparisons with other languages are editorial teaching suggestions. It describes common American and British patterns, not every accent, and it has not been independently reviewed by a pronunciation specialist. The mouth model is a simplified teaching aid, not a validated simulation.

Published 3 November 2026