Vowels: A simple guide on syllables, digraphs, diphthongs, trigraphs, long, short and silent

Vowels in the English alphabet are a e i o u and sometimes y. The sounds of vowels can be represented by one, two, three and four letters.

The teams that represent a single vowel sound also have the same sound as single letters. This is like the sound made by ai in wait, ea in meat, i-e in nice, oa in boat, and ui in fruit. These teams sound exactly like the names of the vowels a, e, i, o, u.

Here is a simple way to look at vowels. They have long and short sounds that may be determined by the presence of silent ones within a syllable.

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A syllable is a part of a word that has at least one vowel sound within it e.g. ape has one syllable, apple has two, and applesauce has three. There are 6 types of syllables:

6 types of syllables

• open syllable ends in a vowel (she, motel, revise)
• closed syllable ends with a consonant (fruit, welcome, compose)
• vowel consonant e syllable (wake, compete, dislike)
• r-controlled syllable (car, resort, portable)
• vowel team syllable (laugh, goat, meaning)
• consonant -le syllable (simple, table, cycle)

Some teachers use these syllable types to explain vowels. Teaching vowel teams is another effective method to help students achieve clarity.

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Word lists for 4 types of vowel teams

Digraphs with vowels

A digraph is a single sound that is represented by two letters.

ai – rain, stain, said, bait

ay – play, day, way, stay

aw – claw, paw, saw, law

ea – head, read, great, deal

ee – feed, seek, sheep, seen

ei – vein, leisure, receipt, deceive

ie – field, believe, thief, friend

oa – boat, loan, soak, road

oo – book, hoop, stood, food

ou – youth, tour, cousin, soul

ow – sow, tow, know, show

Consonants – hard, soft, digraphs, trigraphs, blends, silent sounds

Diphthongs

A diphthong is a single vowel sound formed with the combination of two vowel sounds represented by two letters.

oi – boil, coin, avoid, noise

oy – boy, joy, toy, coy

ou – house, mouth, flour, sound

ow – cow, town, clown, now

Trigraphs with vowels

A trigraph is a single sound that is represented by three letters.

air – hair, fair, pair, stair

ear – hear, bear, pear, fear

eer – beer, deer, steer, peer

eau – beauty, bureau, plateau, beau

eir – their, weird, weirdo

eou – gorgeous, nauseous, advantageous, outrageous

iou – gracious, ambitious, cautious, precious

oar – boar, soar, coarse

oor – door, poor, floor, moor

our – four, pour, tour, your

Here are 17 trigraphs mixed with vowels and consonants.

Graphemes with 4 letters

A grapheme made up of 4 letters is termed a ‘quadgraph’ by many teachers to describe a single sound. Here are a few.

augh – caught, naught, daughter

eigh – eight, weigh, height

ough – through, although, though

ngue – tongue, cangue, gangue

heir – heir, heirdom, heirloom

A simple breakdown of vowel sounds

Here is a breakdown of long and short vowels using a simple explanation and a video.

Long and short vowels

Long vowels sound like the sound of the letter – ate, eat, ice, oat and cute.

Short vowels sound different from the sound of the letter – ant, egg, ink, owl and up.

Yy is a vowel when it sounds like long ‘i’ as in cry or short ‘i’ as in myth. It is a consonant when it sounds like ‘yuh’ as in ‘yes’.

At the same time, there are exceptions to common occurrences with vowels. These fall under the list of sight words and high frequency words in English that students learn over time.

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Long vowels – rule and exceptions

A long vowel is sounded when there is a silent vowel after it. e.g. aim, eel, lie, oat and juice.

EXCEPTIONS

Silent ‘e’ is at the end of the syllable

make, compete, bite, note, mute

‘y’ is at the end of the syllable

day, may, pay, stay, clay

Vowels are long with no silent vowels around

‘e’ – me, she, we, he, be, (pretty in some countries)

‘i’ – light, fight, high, thigh, plight

‘o’ – no, cold, bold, sold, throw

‘ei’ sounds like long ‘a’, long ‘e’, long ‘i’, short ‘e’

‘ei’ sounds like long ‘a’ – weight, neighbour, vein, freight, foreign

long ‘e’ – seize, either, neither

long ‘i’ – height, heist, feisty

short ‘e’ – weird, their, leisure

Vowels change to long ‘u’ and long ‘e’

‘e’ – chew, few, stew, threw

‘o’ – do, to, who, through

‘oo’ – proof, fool, racoon, moon, toot

‘i’ – fiesta, fiend, field, pizza

Words -am ending: Download 5 free worksheets to trace

Words -an ending: Download 6 free worksheets to trace

Words -at ending: Download 8 free worksheets to trace

Short vowels – rule and exceptions

A short vowel has no vowel after it in the same syllable. e.g. art, bet, sick, rot, gut

EXCEPTIONS

Vowels are short even with a ‘u’ is next to it

‘a’ – caught, taught, naught, haughty

‘o’ – tough, thought, bought, brought

Vowels are short even with a silent ‘e’ at the end of the syllable

‘o’ – done, gone

‘u’ – judge, fudge

Vowels change in sound

‘ie’ sounds like short ‘e’ – friend

‘e’ sounds like short ‘i’ – (pretty in some countries)  

These exceptions must be learned in order to master learning phonics in English. It will make understanding the spelling rules on blending letters and adding affixes much easier.

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See also:

Spelling rules for ch, tch, ck, k, oi, oy, ou, ow, ie, ei

Affixes – rules for adding prefixes and suffixes

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