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The Short A is the sound in CAT. The IPA symbol is æ. Open your mouth, widen your lips and let your throat get a little tight. Avoid trying to make this sound pretty. It’s not. If you lean into making it a little ugly, you’ll get it right. Of course, native speakers will not widen their mouths too much in everyday life, but we all learn it that way as children. It’s helpful for non-native speakers to practice this sound in an exaggerated way at home in order to get it right when speaking faster at work.

Practice with the video here.

adversary	ally
pact	tact
tactic	stance
impasse	sabotage
grasp	clash
hangups	talent
match up	salary
shattered	babbling
laugh	impact
practice	snap
last	action
plastic	factor in
challenge	past
massive	panic
staff	mass
adequate	classic
fascinating	ask
after	channel
value	aspect
grab a snack	magic
glance	champion
manage	candidate
fabricate	fabulous
actually	active
data*

Data can be pronounced with a Short A or a Long A like day-du. Either way is fine.

Words with stress on the 2nd syllable: react, malfunction, spectacular, procrastinate, translation, distraction, romantic, ambivalence, insanity, ambition, fantastic.

Words with stress on the 3rd syllable: diplomatic, in a vacuum, as a matter of fact, calculation.

Words with stress on the 4th syllable: collaboration, administration.

Practice New Words with more videos and lessons or see all English Practice options.

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