English Vowel Sounds A vowel letter can represent different vowel sounds: hat [ht], hate [heit], all

[o:l], art [a:rt], any ['eni].

The same vowel sound is often represented by different vowel letters in writing: [ei] they, weigh, may, cake, steak, rain.

Open and closed syllables Open syllable: Kate [keit], Pete [pi:t], note [nout], site [sait], cute [kyu:t]. Closed syllable: cat [kt], pet [pet], not [not], sit [sit], cut (the neutral sound []).

Vowels and vowel combinations The vowels A, E, I, O, U, Y alone, in combination with one another or with R, W represent different vowel sounds. The chart below lists the vowel sounds according to the American variant of pronunciation.

Sounds

Letters e, ee

Examples be, eve, see, meet, sleep, meal, read, leave, sea, team, field, believe, receive it, kiss, tip, pick, dinner, system, busy, pity, sunny let, tell, press, send, end, bread, dead, weather, leather late, make, race, able, stable, aim, wait, play, say, day,

Notes been [i]; bread, deaf [e]; great, break [ei]; friend [e] machine, ski, liter, pizza [i:] meter [i:] sea, mean [i:]

[i:]

ea ie, ei i y e ea a ai, ay

[i]

[e]

[ei]

said, says [e];

ei, ey ea [] a

eight, weight, they, hey, break, great, steak cat, apple, land, travel, mad; AmE: last, class, dance, castle, half army, car, party, garden, park, father, calm, palm, drama; BrE: last, class, dance, castle, half ice, find, smile, tie, lie, die, my, style, apply, buy, guy out, about, house, mouse, now, brown, cow, owl, powder not, rock, model, bottle, copy more, order, cord, port, long, gone, cost, coffee, law, saw, pause, because, bought, thought, caught, hall, always, water, war, want oil, voice, noise, boy, toy go, note, open, old, most, road, boat, low, own, bowl use, duty, music, cute, huge, tune, few, dew, mew, new, euphemism, feud, neutral, hue, cue, due, sue, suit rude, Lucy, June, do, move, room, tool, crew, chew, flew, jewel, blue, true, fruit, juice, group, through, route; AmE: duty, new, sue, student

height, eye [ai]

[a:]

ar a i, ie y, uy ou ow o or o

war, warm [o:]

[ai]

[au] [o]

group, soup [u:] know, own [ou]

work, word [r]

[o:]

aw, au ought al, wa-

[oi] [ou]

oi, oy o oa, ow u

do, move [u:] how, owl [au]

[yu:]

ew eu ue, ui u o, oo

[u:]

ew ue, ui ou

guide, quite [ai]; build [i]

oo [u] u ou u, o neutral sound [] ou a, e o, i er, ur, ir [r] or, ar ear

look, book, foot, good, put, push, pull, full, sugar, would, could, should gun, cut, son, money, love, tough, enough, rough, about, brutal, taken, violent, memory, reason, family serve, herb, burn, hurt, girl, sir, work, word, doctor, dollar, heard, earn, earnest, earth heart, hearth [a:]

Note 1: The letter Y The letter Y can function as a vowel or as a consonant. As a vowel, Y has the vowel sounds [i], [ai]. As a consonant, Y has the consonant sound [y] (i.e., a semivowel sound), usually at the beginning of the word and only in the syllable before a vowel. [i]: any, city, carry, funny, mystery, synonym; [ai]: my, cry, rely, signify, nylon, type; [y]: yard, year, yes, yet, yield, you.

Note 2: Diphthongs A diphthong is one indivisible vowel sound that consists of two parts. The first part is the main strong component (the nucleus); the second part is short and weak (the glide). A diphthong is always stressed on its first component: [ au], [ou]. A diphthong forms one syllable. American linguists usually list five diphthongs: [ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou].

Note 3: The sound [o] The sound [o] is short in British English. In the same words in American English, the sound [o] is a long sound colored as [a:]. This sound is often listed as [a:] in American materials for ESL students. In some words, there are two variants of pronunciation in AmE: [o:] or [o]. [o]: lot, rock, rob, bother, bottle, college, comment, document, modern, popular, respond, John, Tom; [o:] or [o]: gone, coffee, office, borrow, orange, sorry, loss, lost, want, wash, water.

Note 4: The neutral sound Transcription symbols for the neutral sound are [] (caret) in stressed syllables (fun, son) and [] (schwa) in unstressed syllables (about, lesson). In American ESL materials, the neutral sound is often shown as [] (schwa) in both stressed and unstressed syllables.

Phonics When you read, the sounds are represented by 26 letters of the alphabet. Associating sounds with letters of the alphabet is called phonics.

Letter Sounds Each of the 26 alphabet letters represents one or more sounds. A letter's name can also be one of its sounds. For example, the letter A can sound like aaa, ah, or ae.

Two Letter Types There are two types of letters in the alphabet: consonants andvowels. The basic difference is how the sound is produced through the mouth.

Consonants When sounding consonants, air flow is interrupted or limited by the position of the tongue, teeth or lips. The majority of letters in the alphabet are consonant letters. Most consonant letters have only one sound and rarely sound like their name. Click on the following consonant letters to hear examples of their sounds.

Vowels When sounding vowels, your breath flows freely through the mouth. Five of the 26 alphabet letters are vowels: A, E, I, O, and U. The letter Yis sometimes considered a sixth vowel because it can sound like other vowels. Unlike consonants, each of the vowel letters has more than one type of sound or can even be silent with no sound at all. Long and Short Vowels When a vowel sounds like its name, this is called a long sound. A vowel letter can also have shortsounds. Whether a vowel has a long sound, a short sound, or remains silent,

depends on its position in a word and the letters around it. Click on the following vowel letters to hear their long and short sounds.

Vowel Y The letter Y is sometimes considered a vowel because it can sound like the vowel letters A, E, or Idepending on the letters around it or whether the letter Y is at the middle or end of a word. Click on the following links to hear the different sounds for the letter Y.

Middle Y symbols More Vowel Rules Example

Ending Y cry

One vowel not at the end of a word net One vowel at the end of a word go Two vowels in a word ending with the vowel 'E gate Two different vowels together in a word rain One vowel followed by two same consonants pull Double same vowels peek Double 'O' vowel book`