Pronunciation of face and surface

[Jorge Junior]

Please, what does grammar say about the different pronunciaton of the "A" in face and surface?
I think it has something to do with phoneme, right... but I don't understand it.

[Beeesneees]

Yes, you are right.
Although the English alphabet has 26 letters, there are more than 60 phoneme sounds. Some letters and letter combinations make more than one phoneme sound, so a letter 'a' can represent the phoneme sounds
short vowel sound a as in 'ant'
long vowel sound a as in 'baby'
When the 'a' is combined with other letters, it can make even more sounds.
There's not always an easy way to work out which sound is intended though.
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Cheers m' dears!

[Alan]

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Hi Jorge,

Phonemes aside for the moment, the difference in sound between the 'a' in 'surface' and 'face' has to do with probably the most common sound in the language and that is called a 'schwa'. That is the sound you hear in the word 'surface', in the second syllable because it is unstressed. If 'sur' and 'face' had equal value you would say: sur face. You can read all about 'schwa' here: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/schwa

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Beeesneees]

'Phonemes aside'? The 'shwa' is a phoneme.
_________________
Cheers m' dears!

[Alan]

Yes, of course it is.

Alan
_________________
English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Progressive Forms