Long A Sound

e:(say, pain, make)

Common long A spellings
There are four common ways to spell the long A sound:
1. a / consonant / e
In root words, when you have this pattern:
vowel / consonant / e
the vowel is a long vowel sound, and the final "e" is silent.
Say these words out loud (the long A sound is bold):
1) bake
2) rate
3) late
4) ate
5) cake
6) trade
7) made
8) date
9) name
10) grade

2. ai
Say these words out loud (the long A sound is bold):
1) wait
2) pain
3) drain
4) tail
5) stain
6) pail
7) nail
8) snail

Long A Sound
e:(say, pain, make)
9) rain
10) jail

3. ay
Say these words out loud (the long A sound is bold):
1) way
2) say
3) may
4) day
5) lay
6) ray
7) Monday
8) play
9) stay
10) away

4. eigh
Say these words out loud (the long A sound is bold):
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

eight
weight
neighbor
freight
eighteen
sleigh
eighty
neighborhood

There are a few other less common spellings of the long A sound. Here are
some more long A words. (The long A sounds are in bold.)
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

rein
angel
Asia
apron
April

Long A Sound
e:(say, pain, make)
6)
7)
8)
9)

radio
patient
lazy
fatal

Now say these sentences out loud (the long A sounds are bold):
1) Stay away from the crazy neighbor!
2) I may travel to Asia in the month of April.
3) She ate eighteen grapes today.
4) Yesterday, I waited in the rain.
5) Did you say you had a date tonight?
7) Nick baked a cake for Thursday.
8) I listen to the radio on my way home from work each day.
9) I am afraid of pain.
10) Please put your name at the top of the paper.