Clues to Vowels

Although there are 6 letters that represent vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y) each of these letters can be pronounced at least three ways: as a short sound, a long sound or a schwa.

The letter "y" is sometimes considered a vowel because it can sound like the vowel letters "a," "e," or "i," depending on the letters around it or whether the "y" is at the middle or end of a word.

Every syllable of every word must have at least one vowel. A vowel can stand alone in a syllable (e.g. unit, animal) or it can be surrounded by consonants (e.g. jet, shut, fantastic.)

A vowel has a long sound (it says its own name) when:

- it is alone at the end of a word, it usually has the long vowel sound (e.g. he, go, ego, motto, happy).

- the word ends with the vowel "e," and the "e" is separated from the previous vowel by a consonant. In these words, the "e" is silent (e.g. flute, bite, ape, cake, mete, mule, role.)

- there are two vowels are together in a word. In this case, the first vowel has a long sound and the second vowel is silent (e.g. plead, eat.)

- it is one of two of the same vowels in a row. These "double vowels" are pronounced as one vowel, using its long sound. (e.g. vacuum, greed.)

(Exception: This does not apply when "o" is the double vowel in these cases, "oo" makes different sounds (e.g. book, flood, mood.).)

A vowel has a short sound when:

- it is placed between consonants (e.g. lap, bit, red, mop, sun).

- it is followed by one or two consonants at the end of a word (e.g. pep, sap, ham, man, best, stops, want, hand, wish.)

- it is followed by one consonant at the end of a syllable or when there is only one vowel in a word or syllable (e.g. on, red, sad, lift, until).

- it is the first of two vowels separated by two consonants (e.g. pepper, pastel.)

- it is followed by a double consonant (two of the same consonants in a row) (e.g. boss, moss, sass, addict, asset.)

Note: These "rules" don't apply in all cases. For example, the "i" is long in the words "mild," "child," and "wild," yet short in the words "wilderness" and "children." As a result, the words that don't follow the rules must be memorized.

A vowel has a schwa sound when:

- it is found in unstressed syllables. All five English vowels, as well as the "sometimes vowel" "y" are sometimes pronounced as a schwa sound (e.g. human, rocket, banana, account, dandruff, syringe).