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Learn how to pronounce the 20 vowel sounds in English with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols and examples. Find out the categories, spelling patterns, and challenges of English vowel sounds.
Nov 28, 2022 · Learn what vowels are, how they sound, and how they affect spelling and grammar in English. Find out the difference between short and long vowels, the role of y, and the exceptions and rules for vowel usage.
- Short Vowels. The most common sound for each vowel is its “short” sound: ă, pronounced /æ/ as in apple, pan, or mat, ĕ, pronounced /ɛ/ as in el ephant, pen, or met,
- Long Vowels. The alphabet sounds (when the vowel “says its name”) are called “long vowels.” We call them ‘long’ because we hold most of them slightly longer than the short sounds.
- Common Examples: Short and Long Vowels. These contrasts demonstrate the rules (in each column, first short, then long): A: short. back. snack. fad. mad. Sam. E: short.
- Other English Vowel Sounds. Besides the long and short sounds, there are other sounds English vowels can make. Many vowels in unaccented syllables have a neutral or “schwa” /ə/ sound.
- Pronunciation Mazes. A pronunciation maze is a worksheet filled with words. To complete the sheet, you have to get from a word on top to a word on the bottom, by finding words with the same vowel sounds.
- Shadow Reading. Find a short clip from a movie, TV show or even your favorite commercial. If you don’t want to waste time searching YouTube, just use a clip from FluentU!
- Tongue Twisters. Tongue twisters are a series of words that repeat the same sounds a lot, which makes them difficult to say fast. You can find a list of excellent vowel-focused tongue twisters here and here.
- Silent Film. Find a movie clip or any other short video that has actual people speaking. (Once again, you can easily find a great clip for this activity on FluentU.)
Learn the definition, classification and examples of vowels and vowel sounds in English. Find out the difference between pure vowels, diphthongs, short vowels and long vowels, and how to use them correctly.
- The term ‘vowel’ is used to refer to letters used to represent vowel sounds. In the English language, five letters among the twenty-six letters of...
- A vowel sound is a speech sound that is pronounced without the lips, tongue, teeth or throat blocking the air produced when uttering the letter. Ac...
- There are 5 vowels in the English alphabet, namely, a, e, i, o, and u.
- There are 20 vowel sounds in the English language, out of which 8 are diphthongs.
- Diphthongs are vowel sounds formed by the combination of two vowel sounds. They are also referred to as vowel combinations or double vowel sounds.
Learn the 20 British English vowel sounds with videos, examples and quizzes. This course covers the spelling and pronunciation of each vowel sound and helps you improve your English pronunciation and fluency.
People also ask
What are the most common English vowels?
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What is the definition of a vowel?
Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (length). They are usually voiced and are closely involved in prosodic variation such as tone, intonation and stress.
