IPA reference · vowel
ɑ — open back unrounded vowel
A fully open vowel made at the back of the mouth, unrounded.
How to make the open back unrounded vowel
Jaw fully open, tongue retracted, lips neutral. The vowel of "father" in most accents.
English reference points: father, palm. If you speak English natively you already produce this sound — the work is recognising it and placing it where the target language wants it.
Languages that use it
Sounds it gets confused with
Most pronunciation errors are not random — they are a substitution of the nearest sound the speaker already owns. These are the usual substitutions for ɑ, and each one is a minimal-pair drill waiting to happen.
The front/back distinction, which Finnish uses for vowel harmony.
What this means for learners
Finnish a is back and ä is front, and that single contrast controls which suffix vowels a word can take.
Teaching this sound
Describing a sound in words gets a student roughly half the way there. The other half is hearing it produced correctly, immediately after producing it incorrectly, with both versions available to replay. That is the argument for recording during the lesson rather than after it: the student leaves with your model of ɑ attached to the actual words they got wrong, not to an abstract chart.
Frequently asked questions
What sound does the IPA symbol ɑ make?
ɑ is the open back unrounded vowel. A fully open vowel made at the back of the mouth, unrounded. In English you can hear it in: father, palm.
How do you pronounce ɑ?
Jaw fully open, tongue retracted, lips neutral. The vowel of "father" in most accents.
Which languages have the open back unrounded vowel?
Among the languages covered here: French (pâte, “paste”); Finnish (kala, “fish”).
What is the difference between ɑ and a?
The front/back distinction, which Finnish uses for vowel harmony.