Vowels in the English alphabet are a e i o u and sometimes y. Each of these letters represents two sounds, long and short, and have been the basis for learning to read for a long time despite the complexities of the written English language.
As reading methods evolve, phonics emphasised the relationship between letters and their sounds, empowering children to decode words by breaking them down into their component sounds. They learn that the sounds of vowels can be represented by one, two, three and even four letters. Examples:
- ai in wait and said
- air in hair
- ea in meat and head
- ear in bear
- ei in receive and vein
- eigh in weigh and height
- ie in pie, ancient and movie
- i-e in nice
- oa in boat
- ough in dough and through
- oo in book, food and flood
- ui in fruit and guide
- ou in mouse and soup
A simple breakdown of vowel sounds
Here is a simple way to look at vowels. They have long and short sounds.
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, odd and up.
Yy is a vowel when it sounds like long ‘i’ as in cry, long ‘e’ as in many, or short ‘i’ as in myth. It is a consonant when it sounds like ‘yuh’ as in ‘yes’.
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Long vowels may be determined by the presence of silent ones within a syllable.
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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At the same time, there are exceptions to common occurrences with vowels. Some of these fell under the list of sight words and high frequency words in English that students had to learn. Now, students learn them under vowel team groups:
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
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 can be learned in order to master learning words in English. It makes understanding the spelling rules on blending letters and adding affixes much easier.
Today, students learn word lists on vowel teams and how single sounds are represented by two or more letters.
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’ and ‘tetragraph’ 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
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