I'm not a native English speaker myself, but this is what's usually taught as "standard" American English: bag /bæɡ/ vague /veɪɡ/ http://en.wiktionary

I'm not a native English speaker myself, but this is what's usually taught as "standard" American English: bag /bæɡ/ vague /veɪɡ/ http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bag#Pronunciation http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bag#Pronunciation http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vague#Pronunciation http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vague#Pronunciation Another example, which is also a minimal pair, is "bat" vs. "bait". If you look at the posted article you can probably find the exact dialects that pronounce these words like that. But I'm pretty sure "bag" doesn't rhyme with "vague" in most English dialects (including British and Australian dialects), even if they don't use /æ/ and /eɪ/.