Two sounds close enough to trade places: the “a” of apple and the “eh” of ten. Swap one for the other and a different word comes out — this page is how to keep them apart, in both directions.
Drop your jaw much lower and keep the tongue low and front, opening the mouth wide.
“Open! Open the mouth like the dentist is coming! This vowel needs SPACE, bello — drop that jaw!”Nunzio, when he hears it
Raise your jaw slightly and lift the tongue a bit higher in the front of the mouth.
“Too much mouth, bello! Close the jaw a little — this vowel is smaller, tighter, more polite. Ecco!”Nunzio, when he hears it
You cannot hear your own swap. That is the whole problem.
Nunzio records you reading a sentence, scores every sound in it on your phone — nothing is uploaded — and tells you which of these two actually came out. Nunzio — Accent Coach is coming to the App Store and Google Play.