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It is very difficult for someone who has grown up not making a distinction between the "ah" and "aw" sounds of Don and Dawn to even hear that when other people are trying hard to demonstrate it. The brain simply loses a lot of the ability to hear the difference between two close sounds when the difference is not meaningful in your own language or dialect.

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How I try to explain it is:

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AH is like the sound (Ahhhh!) one makes when one is very contented, such as settling into a warm bath.

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AW is like the sound one makes when one feels sorry for someone else, or even better, when one is PRETENDING to feel sorry for someone else (AWWWW!!!)

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Does that help you hear the difference??

It is not dissimilar from the sound of the word "or". Trying saying "or"k-wud. Gosh, I'm pretty bad at explaining this. I'll try another method. How about the sound you use for the beginning of awful? Just say that and add the k-wud ending. AWK-wud.