who has something to say about their child's work in the form of an email or otherwise almost everyday? I have a student who does really well and her mom emails me the most. Today's email asked why bag was marked wrong since it does has a "short a" sound. I thought it was a mistake from the spelling workbook so I counted it wrong if a child included it from the list under short a words. Now, looking it up in the dictionary, it does say short a but when I say bag it sounds like long a. I was taught that long a says it's own name like "baaaaaag". Is it supposed to be "baag?" like a sheep?! :lol: oh dear .
That doesn't really sound trivial to me. If you marked something wrong, I think a parent has a right to question it. Everyone makes mistakes, but you do have to own up to it. I'm not sure what kind of accent or dialect you may have, but I can't think of any that pronounce bag with the long A sound. On the other hand, an e-mail every day is over-the-top. Try to only answer e-mails after school to avoid giving her instant gratification and keep the responses short and to the point.
In this case, I do think the email was appropriate. I teach word families in first grade and YES---bag is a short a word.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bag[1] Now online it says a with a line over the a, so when you play the sound, that is a long a sound to me!
SO-- you say the word bag with the same a sound as in the word "wage" ??(as in the sound clip with this definition http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wage
When I listened, it still sounded short to me. Also, the a with the line over it was listed as an alternate, not primary pronunciation. Just out of curiosity, do you speak with an accent?
I think of short a like "apple, ant, alligator, etc" Are there 2 ways to say short a or something? Again, I was taught that long a says it's own name aaa... Thank you for your replies.
Yep- short a like in apple, ant, alligator, and long a says its own name. I've never hear bag pronounced with a long a. Usually it would need an e at the end to make it the long a (and would be spelled bage).
Okay my husband just got home and I had him say bag nice and slowly, so it made me laugh but I can hear the short a when he stretched it out...
Tennis, I agree that when I pronounce bag it sounds like it has a long a sound. It definitely sounds different than the a in apple or hat. I came across this problem sometimes when teaching spelling. It confused the students too, but I just told them that the correct answer was (whatever the answer key said). They would just have to memorize it if they couldn't hear it.
Thank you for making me not feel like I had a hearing problem or something. I was feeling concerned why it seems so obvious to everyone else so far!
No problem!! It is kind of like the i sound in milk. Some people say it like the i in ick and some people say it like the e in pet. I think it just depends on what part of the country you live in and how you were raised. But when you teach it, you have to just go with what the answer key says to be safe!
TennisPlayer, if the word bag rhymes exactly with plague and vague for you, then you're pronouncing bag with a (pure) long a. I'm guessing, though, that what you say is somewhat different. There are certainly regional dialects in which the vowel in a word like bag is diphthongized - don't cringe, people: all that means is that a vowel that's pronounced as a monophthong (mono 'one', phthong 'sound') elsewhere is pronounced as a diphthong (di 'two') in those dialects. British Received Pronunciation (the most upper-class dialect in England) is well known for diphthongizing long o in words like phone and Oh!; oddly, so does Valley Girl talk in words like Totally! or Gross! If, when you pronounce the vowel in bag, you feel either your jaw or your tongue move, then you're one of the ones who diphthongize. (For the rest of you, this would make the word ban rhyme with the beginning of the word bayonet, pronounced carefully: it sounds like a very brief pure long a sound that slides into a very brief pure schwa ("uh") sound.)
I used to say bage and rag ( with long a ) wag (long a ) as a child. They almost put me in speech therapy because of it!! Until my mother would "remind" me when I was saying it incorrectly to fix it. I also used to say quarter wrong. I wouldn't prounounce the qu as kwuh I would pronounce it korter instead of kworter. DO you say battERy or battree?
:lol::lol:I had to laugh when I saw this question because my ex's GM used to sat battree and my son thought that this was the funniest thing in the world. I definitely say battERy.
In any case, I do have a parent who emails every day and it can be very annoying. This person is a former teacher too, so she should know better! I used to say bag, bage (not rhyming with wage but with a soft g)... it could be a dialect thing??? Now I say bag, but somehow that was some weird accent I had until enough people corrected me.
Where are you from, Tennis? I find this subject humorous because most people here in MN pronounce "bag" with a long a. I would just admit that technically it should be a short a but depending on the region many people pronounce it with a long a. Too bad the kids aren't older, you could do a little research on regional accents. Also mention that you'll fix the grade, even though it shouldn't make much of a difference if it's a couple points.
Well, when I first read the post, I also thought it must be some sort of regional dialect thing, but then wouldn't the parent who emailed the teacher also say bag with the long a sound? I love threads about grammar.