What are distinctive vowel sounds?

Distinctive vowel sounds are different ways that your mouth can shape the "oooh" and "aaaah" parts of words.

Imagine you're playing with a toy car. When it goes vroom, that's like saying the word “car.” Now, if you say “car” very fast, carr, the vowel sound changes just a little bit. That’s because your mouth is shaping the vowel differently, even though it's still the same letter.

Think of vowels like soft playdough in your hands. Each vowel has its own special shape:

• The "a" in “cat” is like a flat pancake, caaatt.
• The "e" in “bed” is more stretched out, beeeed.
• The "i" in “sit” is really narrow, siit.
• The "o" in “dog” feels round and full, dooogg.
• The "u" in “cup” is like a little puffed-up bubble, cuup.

When you say different vowel sounds, your tongue and mouth move into new shapes, just like changing the way you squish playdough. That’s why some words sound similar but aren’t exactly the same, they have distinctive vowel sounds!