How to pronounce ‘al’

Listen to the following words. How many pronunciations can you hear for ‘al’?

calm calf talk tall pale

Answer

There are three pronunciations: /ɑː/ in ‘calm’ and ‘calf’, /ɔː/ in ‘talk’ and ‘tall’, /eɪl/ in ‘pale’

How does the pronunciation of ‘al’ change?

There are many different ways of pronouncing ‘al’, but the more common patterns are:

‘alm’ and ‘alf’ both usually have a silent ‘l’ and vowel sound /ɑː/
‘alk’ usually has a silent ‘l’ and vowel sound /ɔː/
‘all’ is usually pronounced /ɔːl/
‘ale’ is usually pronounced /eɪl/

DRILL

Repeat the following:

‘alm’ /ɑːm/: balm, calm, palm

‘alf’ /ɑːf/: calf, half

‘alk’ /ɔːk/: chalk, stalk, walk

‘all’ /ɔːl/: ball, call, fall, tall, wall

‘ale’ /eɪl/: gale, kale, male, sale, tale

EXERCISE

Decide how to pronounce each word containing ‘al’:

A. Don’t walk on top of that wall in the gale!

B. This tall part of the plant is called the stalk.

C. First calm down, then we’ll talk about all your problems.

D. Keep the calf in the stall, with a bale of hay.

E. I bought a toy whale in the sale at the mall.

F. We need to call that palm-reader in Wales.

Answers

A. walk /wɔːk/, wall /wɔːl/, gale /geɪl/
B. tall /tɔːl/, called /kɔːld/, stalk /stɔːk/
C. calm /kɑːm/, talk /tɔːk/, all /ɔːl/
D. calf /kɑːf/, stall /stɔːl/, bale /beɪl/
E. whale /weɪl/, sale /seɪl/, mall /mɔːl/
F. call /kɔːl/, palm /pɑːm/, Wales /weɪlz/