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A vowel letter can represent different vowel sounds: hat [ht], hate [heit], all [o:l], art [a:rt], any
['eni].
The same vowel sound is often represented by different vowel letters in writing: [ei] they, weigh,
may, cake, steak, rain.
( : [ei]
they, weigh, may, cake, steak, rain.)
Open syllable: Kate [keit], Pete [pi:t], note [nout], site [sait], cute [kyu:t].
Closed syllable: cat [kt], pet [pet], not [not], sit [sit], cut (the neutral sound []).
( A, E, I, O, U, Y , R, W
.
.)
Sounds Letters Examples Notes
been [i];
e, ee be, eve, see, meet, sleep,
bread, deaf [e];
[i:] ea meal, read, leave, sea, team,
great, break [ei];
ie, ei field, believe, receive
friend [e]
[ai]
i, ie ice, find, smile, tie, lie, die,
y, uy my, style, apply, buy, guy
[u:]
u rude, Lucy, June,
The letter Y can function as a vowel or as a consonant. As a vowel, Y has the vowel sounds [i],
[ai]. As a consonant, Y has the consonant sound [y] (i.e., a semivowel sound), usually at the
beginning of the word and only in the syllable before a vowel.
1: Y
Y . , Y
[i], [ai]. , Y [y] (.. ),
.
Note 2: Diphthongs
A diphthong is one indivisible vowel sound that consists of two parts. The first part is the main
strong component (the nucleus); the second part is short and weak (the glide). A diphthong is
always stressed on its first component: [au], [ou]. A diphthong forms one syllable. American
linguists usually list five diphthongs: [ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou].
2:
, .
(); ().
: [au], [ou]. .
: [ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou].
The sound [o] is short in British English. In the same words in American English, the sound [o]
is a long sound colored as [a:]. This sound is often listed as [a:] in American materials for ESL
students. In some words, there are two variants of pronunciation in AmE: [o:] or [o].
[o]: lot, rock, rob, bother, bottle, college, comment, document, modern, popular, respond, John,
Tom;
[o:] or [o]: gone, coffee, office, borrow, orange, sorry, loss, lost, want, wash, water.
3: [o]
[o] . ,
[o] , [a:]. [a:]
ESL. AmE:
[o:] [o].
[o]: lot, rock, rob, bother, bottle, college, comment, document, modern, popular, respond, John,
Tom;
[o:] [o]: gone, coffee, office, borrow, orange, sorry, loss, lost, want, wash, water.
Transcription symbols for the neutral sound are [] (caret) in stressed syllables (fun, son) and []
(schwa) in unstressed syllables (about, lesson). In American ESL materials, the neutral sound is
often shown as [] (schwa) in both stressed and unstressed syllables.
4:
Read more about vowel letters and sounds in Spelling Patterns for Vowels in the section Writing.