# Dialect poll: How do you pronounce the simple past tense of "ring", as a bell? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 20, 2012, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-poll-how-do-you-pronounce-the-simple-past-tense-of-ring-as-a-bell/628819 "2012-07-20T05:30:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-poll-how-do-you-pronounce-the-simple-past-tense-of-ring-as-a-bell/628819/81 "2014-06-27T06:34:03Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Well, they sound different due to one being a British accent and the other is North American but as far as I can tell, the vowel sound in each is the same. The British woman has a lower voice with a more muted tone, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same vowel sound. Uh, no. The first says ran-ng [ræŋ] while the other says rain-ng [reŋ]. And this is exactly what I suspected was happening, now that I see the thread again. We’re both hearing the same pronunciation, but we interpret it differently. It’s similar to how some people think the -y at the end of words sounds like the same vowel as in the word “bit,” while others think it sounds like the same vowel as in “beet.” We pronounce the words the same way, but we can’t agree on the actual sound we are making. I wish I still had a working microphone so you could hear what I think ran-ng [ræŋ] sounds like in my accent. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-poll-how-do-you-pronounce-the-simple-past-tense-of-ring-as-a-bell/628819/82 "2014-06-27T06:56:38Z")
Forgot to mention: I realize that both are nasalized, and that others have already explained the allophone idea. But I still say the sound itself is closer to [reŋ], because I can say [ræŋ] differently. While I can also say [re **I** ŋ], [e] and [e **I**] are more often considered the same vowel than [e] and [æ]. There is definite vowel tensing in rang as opposed to rat. This is also one case where it is really difficult to avoid using IPA, and I like to make sure everyone can understand me. So I’ll just tell you what each sound means. [e] is the sound made by the Spanish e. It’s like the English, ai sound, but it has not diphthong, no Y or EE sound at the end. [e **I**] is the normal English ai sound, as in raid. [æ] is what is usually called the short A, as in cat, bat, mat, fat, etc. [ŋ] is the ng sound, but without the hard G at the end. And, in this case, I’m using a convention to use [r] for the regular American R sound, rather than it’s usual meaning of a rolled-R. This is used a lot in American English transcriptions. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-poll-how-do-you-pronounce-the-simple-past-tense-of-ring-as-a-bell/628819/83 "2014-06-27T11:52:55Z")
Just pointing out this thread is two years old. But anyway, to me, “rang” uses the same vowel sound as “ran”. If I say it like “rain” it sounds like I’m trying to do an American accent of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-poll-how-do-you-pronounce-the-simple-past-tense-of-ring-as-a-bell/628819/84 "2014-06-27T17:04:53Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > “Raing” for “rang” is not a Southern pronunciation, the Northeast says it too. (raised in NYS) For me, rang starts out with the “a” sound closest to “fat”. Ran, rain and rang are all different. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialect-poll-how-do-you-pronounce-the-simple-past-tense-of-ring-as-a-bell/628819.md?page=4)