Vowel sounds in English are long and short a, e, i, o, u. Knowing a few rules governing the vowel sounds in words helps in word attack strategies based on first sounding out the new words, phonics and in spelling of English.

The rules and examples below make an excellent point of departure for practicing the sounds in English and learning to distinguish long and short vowel sounds. Having students find new examples for the different patterns and practicing these patterns orally and from short-term memory is a good way of developing sound pattern recognition skills in English.

Below is a table paradigm of the English vowel sounds with examples of the front, mid and final positions.

Vowel Sound Paradigm

Vowel Pairs

Vowel Diphthongs

Vowel Digraphs

R-controlled vowels

L-controlled vowels

Special "y" and "w" vowel sounds

Complex Vowel Clusters

Vowel pairs occur as diphthongs, two vowels that create a single new vowel sound that is a glide between the two vowels, and as digraphs, vowels that are written twice, but of which only one vowel sound is heard that is not a new sound. The distinction between a diphthong or a digraph is not always obvious, and many vowel pairs can function either way depending on the morphophonemic context in which it occurs. Irregularities of English spelling are numerous, the rules do not always apply unexceptionally. Words that sound the same may be spelled differently.

Vowel diphthongs include "ou" and "oi":

house boil

mouse coil

They also include "oy" and "ow" pairs

boy, ploy

cow, fowl

Other vowel dipthongs include "au" as in

auto, daub, Strauss

and "aw" as in

saw, straw, draw

Other vowel diphtongs include "ea" as in

beat, feat, treat

"Ea" diphthongs are either a "e" sound as in "bean" or "clean" or a short "e" sound as in "bread" or "stead"

"Ue" diphthongs are similar to the "ew" sounds as in "blue (blew)" and "cue" or "sue".

Vowel digraphs include "ai," and "ay,"

bail, hay,

Usually, the "ai" and "ay" sounds are a long "a"

Vowel digraphs also include "ei," "ie,"

Usually, the "ei" sound is a short "a" sound and the "ie" sound is a either a long "i" or a long "e" sound:

lie, fie, die, tie

shield, field, yield

Remember the golden spelling rule for "ei" and "ie" words:

"I" before "e" except after "c" and except when like "a" as in "neighbor" and "weigh"

And also, vowel digraphs include "oa,"

The "oa" sound is usually a long "o":

Float, boat, groat

The double or reduplicated vowels digraph, "oo," the second vowel is silent, and the first vowel is a short "o."

book

cook

hook

The double or reduplicated vowels digraph, "ee," the second vowel is silent, and the first vowel is a long "e":

feel

steel

 Final vowel pairs include "ie", "oe", "ue" and "ye" as in the following

fie, oboe, blue, bye

Vowels followed by an "r" usually have a mid-range sound between long and short. These are referred to as the r-controlled or r-conditioned vowel sounds. Say and listen to the following words:

Jar horn burn bard

Bar corn urn chard

barber charter barter

bird stern air short

Vowels followed by an "l" also are "l" controlled:

holt, halt, malt, felt, stilt, bullet

The letter "y" sometimes functions as a long vowel sound "i" and is an irregularity of English spelling. For instance:

rhyme (sometimes spelled rime) butterfly try my

 Sometimes, the letter "y" occurs with a long "e" sound, as in the following words:

pony, sticky, city, carry, many

A rule governs whether "y" sounds like an "i" or an "e,"--this rule is as follows:

If "y" occurs at an end of a word with no other vowel, it sounds like a long "i,"

Else if "y" occurs at an end of a word containing another vowel, it takes a long "e" sound.

Remember that sometimes "y" occurs in the middle of a word as a vowel, and sometimes has the short "i" sound, as in:

rhythm, idyll, myth, glyph, tryst

The letters "y" and "w" sometimes function as vowel glides when pared with other vowels in diphthong pairs.

"Oy" sounds like "oi" as in "boy," or "toy"

"Ey" sounds like "ay" as in "grey"

"Ay" sounds like a mid "a" as in "bay," "stay," "day," or "lay"

"Uy" sounds like a long "i" as in "buy"

"Ow" sounds like "ou" as in "cow," or "chow"

The "ow" sound is usually also a long "ow", when it occurs as a single syllable word

Stow, mow, bow, flow, grow

Or as the ultimate syllable in multi-syllable words as in "window" or "widow"

But "ow" is a short "o" when it occurs as a first syllable in a multi-syllable environment:

flower, bower, shower, tower

Note the exception to the "ow" sound when it is followed by an "l" or an "n"

The "ow" when followed by an "l" or an "n" is a dipthong that is either like "owl" and "crown" or a digraph with a long "o" as in "bowl" or "flown" or "own" or "grown"

Another pair is "ew" as in

stew, flew, crew, chew, few, new

"ew" may sometimes sound like a long "o" as in sew.

Occasionally complex combinations of vowels occur with unusual sounds. These function as diphthongs that contain three vowels. Consider the following words:

buoy beautiful bureaucrat quay queue neighbor sleigh