Vowel reading rules in English
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Today let’s talk about rules for reading vowels in Englishyou need to know in order to successfully master both the oral and written aspects.
First, let’s review the English alphabet and do it using a nursery rhyme. I think rap style fans will especially like it! It is great if you add some of the typical movements that are typical of this style of music during your performance.
Alphabet song
AA, B, C, D, E
stand up and look at me.
F, G, H, I, J
I play football every day.
K, L, M, N, O
I Cake of All.
P, Q, R, S, T
Hey people, listen to me.
U, V, W, X, Y, Z
The alphabet is in my head!
recording: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or higher) is required to play this audio recording. Download the latest version here. In addition, JavaScript must be enabled in your browser.
As you may have noticed, in the English alphabet 26 letters: 6 vowels и 20 consonants.
They form 44 sound: 20 vowels and 24 consonants.
Vowel sounds are divided into:
- short [i], [e], [ɔ], [u], [ʌ], [æ], [ǝ]
- long [i:], [ɜ:], [ɔ:], [u:], [a:]
- diphthongs [ei], [ai], [ɔi], [iǝ], [ǝu], [au], [ɛǝ], [aiǝ], [auǝ]
The difficulty is that vowels are read differently, depending on which syllable the vowel occurs in.
It is generally accepted that in English there is 4 types of syllables.
Let’s analyze each of them, noting the characteristic features.
French Alphabet
I type of syllable (vowel + consonant + vowel):
open, vowel reads like this, how is shecalled in the alphabet… We consider only the striking position.
In words like bake, smile, Rope, tube— final «e» not pronounced, it is called dumb (mute buttonletter).
Monosyllabic words like we, go, hi, my are also of the first type.
Samples
a[ei] — name, face, cake, make, bake, take, mistake, lake, snake, lazy, crazy, nature, cage, potato
e [i:] — Egypt, Greece, tree, free, three, street, green, sleep, meter, fever, emu, lemur, he, she, we
i [ai] — five, nine,, ride a bike, drive, smile, time, nice, kite, diving, pine, spider, tiger, white
o [ǝu] — nose, rose, home, hope, rope, stone, sofa, notebook, October, composer, phone, model
u [ju:] — Pupil, Student, Tulip, Computer, Cucumber, Excuse, Music, Cuba, Future, Huge, Tube, Blue
y [ai] — why, sky, cry, spy, dry, fly, butterfly, my, shy, type, style, to rely on, July, xylophone by
IIsyllable type (vowel + consonant + consonant):
closed, vowel readable briefly. We consider only the striking position. The lexical meaning of the word depends on the length and brevity of the pronunciation of the sound in English. For example, take words like sheep (I type of syllable [ʃi: p]) and ship (II type of syllable [ʃip]).
Correct
There is a sheep On the meadow.
There is a ship in the sea
Incorrect
There is a ship On the meadow.
There is a sheep in the sea
(The poor lamb got it!)
Samples
a [æ] — black, happy, cabbage, carrot, rabbit, daddy, granny, gallery, Africa, hand, cap, cat, map
e [e] — red, December, letter, kettle, pen, pencil, desk, address, left, cherry, chess, egg, hen, ten
i [i] — Pink, Six, Fifty, Little, Big, Pig, Spring, Winter, King, Finger, Kitchen, Milk, Fish, Children
o [ɔ] — golden, fox, dolphin, dog, hospital, doctor, bottle, box, clock, hobby, coffee, concert
u[ʌ] — summer, butter, hundred, number, brush, duck, club, jump, lunch, plum, mushroom, cup
y [i] — gym, gymnastics, lynx, myth, mystery, symbol, symphony, symptom, syllable, system
IIIsyllable type (vowel + r + consonant):
vowel is read long… Long sounds are indicated by two dots «:» to the right of the sound sign. We consider only the striking position.
Letter «r« in this type of syllable is not pronounced.
Monosyllabic words like jar, bar, here , sir, fur are also of the third type.
Samples
ar [a:] — farmer, garden, party, car, scar, bar, barber, marmalade, shark, garlic, parsley, starling
er [ɜ:] — Advertisement, Person, Perfect, University, To Prefer, Dessert, Germany, Term, Interpreter
ir [ɜ:] — bird, girl, the first, the third, thirteen, thirty, birthday, shirt, T-shirt, circus, skirt, sir, fir
or [ɔ:] — pork, orchard, orchestra, order, orchid, (un) fortunately, divorce, enormous, immortal
ur [ɜ:] — curl (y), curds, curtain, to disturb, purple, Thursday, turnip, windsurfing, surface, hurt
yr [ɜ:] — martyr (martyr), myrrh (myrrh), Kyrgyz, Kyrgyzstan
IVsyllable type (vowel + r + vowel):
reading like diphthongs. Diphthongs are combinations of two vowel sounds, the first of which is pronounced more energetically than the second. We consider only the striking position. In some words, the letter «r» is not pronounced, while in others it makes the sound [r].
Samples
are [ɛǝ] — parents, care, rarely, various, to compare, scarecrow, canary, malaria, square, share
ere [iǝ] — Here, Imperial, Serious, Mysterious, Nigeria, Serial, Sincere, Zero, Hero, Cereal, Interfere
ire [aiǝ] — tired, retired, to admire, desire, Ireland, iron, environment, requirement, biro, virus
or [ɔ:] — Ore, Store, Snore, Score, Bore, BORING, Shore, To IGNORE, To Explore, Story, Storey, Glory
ure [juǝ] — pure, cure, curable, incurable, during, Europe, euro, curious, mural (fresco), security
yre [aiǝ] — lyre (lyre), tire (US — tire tire), tyrant (tyrant), papyrus (papyrus)
Important! Research shows that total 30% words English can be read using the rules above; rest 70% words — historically developed vocabulary. Therefore, I strongly recommend actively using dictionaries in the process of learning English.
I think the article is about rules for reading vowels in English will be useful for those who plan to take the exam in English. In the oral part of the exam there is a task in which you need to read the proposed passage of text (1.5 minutes), observing all the rules for reading vowels and consonants.
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Source: http://smashtrash.ru/pravila-chteniya/pravila-chteniya-glasnykh-v-angliyskom-ya.html
Rules for reading vowels in English in tables with examples
It is believed that reading in English is a rather difficult skill for the simple reason that there is no rigid system of reading rules in English and letters, in particular vowels, can be read differently depending on their position in a word or in a syllable. In this post, I will cover the rules for reading vowels in English with examples.
English vowels and reading features
There are 6 vowels in the English alphabet. But the sounds they transmit are many times more — there are 20 of them in total (including long vowels).
Vowels:
- A — hey
- E — and
- I — ay
- O — oh
- U — u
- Y — wye
The English language is characterized by the presence of diphthongs.
Diphthongs — these are sounds, when pronounced, one vowel sound passes into another, that is, in fact, they are pronounced as two sounds.
For example, the word in the word home, the vowel o is read as «oh», that is, in fact, it forms two sounds [əʊ]. The same with the word house, where the combination of letters «ou» reads «ay» and gives a double sound [aʊ].
Do not confuse diphthongs with two letter combinations. For example, in the word head there are two vowels in a row, but the combination of letters «ea» is read as «e», that is, we get a single sound [e].
Thus, vowels in English can be read as in the alphabet, and convey a number of other sounds.
Rules for reading English vowels and vowel combinations
For convenience, I will give tables for each letter with examples, descriptions and reading in Russian. In Russian, of course, it is impossible to convey the exact reading of this or that sound, but I will write approximately.
For correct reading, it is important to know such concepts as closed and open syllables.
Closed syllable in English, this is the syllable that ends in a consonant a letter… For example maponn, fatherg, bead and so on.
Open syllable — a syllable that ends in a vowel a letter… For example, take, py, bike and so on.
Please note that the syllable must end with a vowel or consonant, not a sound. That is, if in English at the end of a word there is e mute, then the syllable is considered open.
Letter A
Sound in transcription and its reading in Russian | Examples |
In a closed syllable — [æ] — э | Map, cap, pack, black, flag |
In an open syllable — [ei] — heyreading as in the alphabet | Name, game, flame, table, lake, pay |
In a closed syllable followed by r — sound [a:] like russian а, long | Car, bar, jar, start, farmer |
In an open syllable followed by r — diphthong [eǝ] — ea | Care, rare, prepare |
Letter E
Sound in transcription and its reading in Russian | Examples |
In a closed syllable — [e] — e | Red, vet, set, tell |
In an open syllable — [i:] — and long | Meter, complete |
At the end of words e is not readable in English, but affects the reading of the word | Table, plate, take For example, the words cap and cape — in the first case we read «cap», since the syllable is closed, in the second case, «cap», since the syllable is open |
In short, monosyllabic words, these are mainly service parts of speech, e at the end of a word is read if it is the only vowel in the word and gives [i:] i.e и long | He, she, we, me, be |
In an open syllable followed by r — diphthong [iǝ] — ia | Here, sphere, severe |
Letter I
Sound in transcription and its reading in Russian | Examples |
In a closed syllable — [i] — and | Sick, tip, limp, kit, trick |
In an open syllable — [ai] — aylike in the alphabet | Life, mine, line, pipe, time, kite |
In a closed syllable followed by the letter r — [ə:] — similar to Russian ё, long sound | Girl, bird, third, dirty, sir, first |
In an open syllable followed by a letter r — [aiǝ] — aye | Fire, tires |
Letter O
Sound in transcription and its reading in Russian | Examples |
In a closed syllable — [ɔ] — oh | Fog, nod, lock, log, got |
In an open syllable — [əu] — oh | Rope, nose, toe, vote |
In a closed and open syllable followed by a letter r — [ɔ:]—о long | Nor, born, corn, torn, more, core |
In an unstressed syllable — [ə] — uh, the sound is drop-out, therefore it sounds indistinct and short, fluently, for example, lemon is not a lemon or a lamen, but a lamn with a slightly audible «e» between «m» and «n» | lemon, melon |
In some cases, the letter «O» can be read like «A» [ʌ], for example, «love». And also like «U» [u], for example, in the word «move». These reading options do not lend themselves to specific rules and logic, so such words need to be memorized.
Letter U
Sound in transcription and its reading in Russian | Examples |
In a closed syllable — [ʌ] — a | Cut — «kat», rubber, but, mug, but put reads like «put» |
In a closed syllable followed by a letter r — [ə:] — similar to Russian ё, long sound | turn, burnt |
In an open syllable after two consonants — [u:] — у long, as well as in an open syllable after j and r | Blue, trueJuly, rule |
In an open syllable followed by a letter r —[juə] — yue | Cure, secure, mature |
In an open syllable after one consonant (except for j and r) — [ju:] — yu | Tube, mute, cute |
Letter Y
Sound in transcription and its reading in Russian | Examples |
In a closed syllable — [i] — and | System, sympathy, mystery |
In an open stressed syllable — [ai] — ay | Shy, cry, try, my, bye |
In an open syllable followed by a letter r —[aiə] — aye | Tire, byre |
In an unstressed syllable — [i] — and | Rainy, snowy, crispy |
At the beginning of a word before a vowel — [j] — th | Year, yellow, yet, yes |
These are the basic rules for reading vowels in English. But do not forget that there are many exceptions to each of these rules.
In subsequent publications, I will cover the rules for reading consonants and letter combinations of vowels and consonants.
Source: https://my-opinion.ru/inostrannye-yazyki/anglijskij/pravila-chteniya-glasnyh-v-tablitsah/
Lesson 8. Pronunciation of consonants [f] and [v]. Closed syllable in English
Hello! In this lesson, we again return to consonant sounds and now we learn to pronounce sounds [f] и [v] and accordingly read the English letters Ff [ef] and Vv [vi]. And let’s also remember what a closed syllable is in English, since this is one of the basic concepts in teaching reading.
So, from lesson number 8 you will learn:
- how to pronounce english consonants [f] и [v] correctly;
- what is a closed syllable in English;
- and repeat how the vowel is read y at the end of the word.
If you have just joined us, then here is a link to the section «Author’s English lessons for teaching reading and pronunciation at the same time»
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Rules for reading letters f and v in English
So, let’s begin! English consonants f и v transmit sounds [f] и [v]. The sounds [f] and [v] are labiodental, that is, to pronounce them, you need bite the lower lip with the upper teeth.
At first glance, the English sounds [f] and [v] are similar to the Russian “f” and “v”. But there is also a significant difference: the English sounds [f] and [v] are long.
To pronounce the English sound [v] correctly, it is necessary to pronounce it for a long time, as, for example, the doubled «v» in the words «up», «introduction».
To pronounce the English sound [f] correctly, bite the lower lip and exhale vigorously. The English sound [f] is very long and strong. In the transcription [f] should be designated [fff].
Listen to how the sounds [f] and [v] are pronounced — HERE
As for the concept of «voiced» — «deaf», the British do not understand at all what it is. They have the concept of «weak» (we call this sound «voiced» in Russian) and the concept of «strong» (we call this sound «dull»).
Now we need to practice a little. Let’s get down to the exercises. After that we will repeat again, how words are divided into syllables, which syllable is in the word MAIN and what is a closed syllable in English.
Now we start working out English sounds [fff] and [vvv]
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Phonetic exercises with audio recording (closed content no.19)
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Title: Teaching to read in English. Subscription code 19
Description: Access to a course of lessons on teaching reading in English and pronunciation at the same time. 50% discount until 01.01.2020/XNUMX/XNUMX. Author T.V. Nabeeva
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What is a closed syllable in English?
If you learn English from scratch on our website, then from lesson number 6 you learned what the third type of syllable is in English. Now we’ll talk about how words are divided into syllables. (1)which syllable in the word is the most important (2) и what is a closed syllable in English(3) (it was already mentioned in lesson 1)
(1) So, words are divided into syllables by the number of vowels… That is, how many vowels there are in a word, there are so many syllables in it. Take a word for example, happy Doubled consonant p divides a word into two syllables.
`hap — py
- hap — this syllable ends with a consonant sound, and is called closed;
- py — this syllable, ends in a vowel sound, and is called open.
(2) The main thing is the STRICT syllable. It is in it that the vowel sound is read according to the rules that you have already learned. By the way, I remind you that the unstressed letter y at the end of a word reads like [i], for example, party [`pa: ti]
(3) A closed syllable is a syllable that ends in a consonant.
Now let’s remember the passed rules for reading vowels in a closed syllable in English:
a is readAs [æ]. Examples. hat, happy
e readAs [e]. Examples. men, mental
i, y are readAs [i]. Examples. kit, kitty
u readAs [ʌ]. Examples. bud, buddy
0 is often read as [ʌ]. Examples. love, glove, lovely.
NOTE. How to read the vowel Oo in a closed syllable, you will learn further — Lesson number 9. Reading the English letter Oo in a closed syllable.
NOTE. Sonorous consonants m, n, l — also form a syllable, because they can be pulled. Try saying [mmmm], [nnnn], [llll]. Therefore, in the word apple there are two syllables: ap-ple (the second syllable is a sonor consonant — l).
Also, remember, in English vowel e at the end of a word NEVER readable.
Once there is closed syllable, then, accordingly, there is open syllable, but you will learn about it in the following lessons. For now, let’s figure out how unstressed vowels are read in English.
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The rule of reading an unstressed vowel in English
So, as a rule, there is usually one stressed syllable in a word, in which the vowel is read according to the rules, then a logical question arises: how is an unstressed vowel read?
In English there is a universal sound similar to the Russian «e» — [ə]… This is the most common sound, as it is read in all unstressed syllables. This sound is called «Seam». Sometimes it is replaced by the sound [i], as, for example, in the words above.
Exercise 5. Read two-syllable words with learned sounds:
apple, badly, balcony, happy, garden, party, hardly, carpet, dummy, funny, muddy, puppy, lovely, kitty, ditty, mitten, kitten, affect, Betty, heaven [`hevən]
Exercise 6. Finally, memorize a few English phrases:
- Have fun! — Have fun!
- Have tea. — Have some tea.
- Keep fit. — Keep in shape.
- Be happy! — Be happy!
Let’s sum up the results of the eighth lesson from the cycle «Teaching reading in English and pronunciation at the same time», from which you learned and hopefully remembered that:
- words are divided into syllables by the number of vowels;
- closed is a syllable that ends in a consonant;
- in a closed stressed syllable, the vowel is read according to the rules that must be memorized;
- in unstressed syllables, the vowel reads like [ə] or [i]. So, for example, the unstressed letter y at the end of a word it reads like [i].
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And of course you now know how to pronounce sounds [f] и [v] in english is correct.
Lesson 9. Pronunciation of the English vowel [ɒ]. Reading the English letter O in a closed syllable. You will learn how to pronounce the very English sound [ɒ] and how to read the vowel Oo in a closed syllable.
Source: http://englishstory.ru/urok-8-proiznoshenie-soglasnyih-zvukov-f-i-v-ponyatie-o-zakryitom-sloge.html
What are the syllables in English
The English alphabet has six vowels, but individually and in combination with each other, they form more than two dozen sounds, including diphthongs. The reading of a vowel depends on the letters adjacent to it and on the type of syllable in which it is located.
Open syllable
A syllable is considered open if it ends in a vowel (to-tal, ri-val, bi-ble, mo-tor). The vowel in this case gives a long sound — that is, it is read as in the alphabet. Words with a dumb «e» also belong to this type. For example:
- take [teɪk]
- Pete[pi:t]
- kite [kaɪt]
- nose [nəʊz]
- cute [kju: t]
Some monosyllabic words also represent open syllables. For example, me, she, he and no, so, go.
Closed syllable
The closed syllable is the most common spelling unit of the English language; it makes up about 50% of the syllables in the text. A closed syllable ends in one or more consonants, and the vowel is read briefly in this case.
In English, there are many closed-type monosyllabic words (cat, pin, hen). If a suffix starting with a vowel is added to them, the consonant in front of it is doubled. This is done in order to avoid changing the sound. For example:
- hat [hæt] — hatter
- pin [pɪn] — pinned
- hot [hɒt] — hottest
- red [red] — reddish
- cut [kʌt] — cutting
The syllable «vowel + r»
The third type of syllable is one in which the vowel is followed by the letter «r». The vowel makes a long sound, and the «r» itself is unreadable (in British English).
- car [kɑː]
- herb [hɜːb]
- girl [ɡɜːl]
- form [fɔːm]
- turn [tɜːn]
The doubled «r» does not affect the sound of the vowel. In this case, the syllable is read as closed. Compare:
- smirk [sməːk] — mirror [ˈmɪrə]
- curl [kəːl] — current [ˈkʌr (ə) nt]
- port [pɔːt] — torrent [ˈtɒr (ə) nt]
The syllable «vowel + re»
In a syllable of this type, the letter «r» is also not read, and the vowel forms a diphthong.
- dare [deə]
- mere [mɪə]
- hire [ˈhaɪə]
- core [kɔː]
- pure [pjʊə]
The syllable «consonant + le»
Sometimes this syllable stands out separately — it occurs only at the end of a word. If -le is preceded by one consonant, the syllable is read as open. If there are two consonants in front of -le, it is read as closed. Compare:
- table [ˈteɪbl] — dabble [dæbl], title [ˈtaɪtl] — little [ˈlɪtl]
- bugle [bju: gl] — struggle [ˈstrʌɡl], rifle [ˈraɪfl] — sniffle [ˈsnɪfl]
Not every consonant is found in combination with -Le… Here are the ones that are typical for the English language:
- -ble (bubble) -fle (rifle) -stle (whistle) -cle (cycle)
- -gle (bugle) -tle (brittle) -ckle (pickle) -kle (tinkle)
- -zle (dazzle) -dle (bridle) -ple (staple)
Vowel combinations (digraphs)
A digraph is a combination of two letters that are pronounced as one sound. In the case of vowels, it can be a long, short sound or a diphthong. Most often, digraphs are found in old Anglo-Saxon words, the pronunciation of which has undergone changes over hundreds of years: thief, boil, hay, boat, straw. They are read according to special rules, but there are many exceptions to them, so these words need to be learned gradually and systematically.
Basic vowel digraphs
Spelling | Pronunciation | Examples |
ai / ay | [eɪ] | bait, hay |
au / aw | [ɔː] | taunt, draw |
ea | [i:] | meat, deal |
[e] | bread, steady | |
ee | [i:] | feed, reel |
ei | [eɪ] | feint, vein |
[i:] (after c) | ceiling, receive | |
eu / ew | [ju:] | Feud, Strewn |
ie | [i:] | thief, priest |
oa | [əʊ] | coat, goal |
oi / oy | [ɔɪ] | coin, toy |
oo | [u:] | root, food |
[ʊ] (before k) | book, look | |
ou | [aʊ] | loud, noun |
[u:] | soup, ghoul | |
ow | [aʊ] | cow, howl |
[oʊ] | know, low |
Source: https://skyeng.ru/articles/kakie-byvayut-slogi-v-anglijskom-yazyke
Vowels in English: Reading and Sounds — English in 5 Steps
Before teaching you to read vowels in English, I should note that due to its history, English has a sufficient number of exception words from almost every reading rule.
It just doesn’t make sense to list them all, but I offer you, dear readers, the following interactive: remembered the word exception for a particular item — wrote it down in the comments with translation (the most advanced can write with transcription).
Let’s help each other know the language better!
And, of course, I cannot help but warn you: in this rule there will be many transcription icons. Realizing that you are just learning, I duplicate it in Russian letters, but I do not recommend doing this all the time, and in one of the following articles I will explain why. If transcription is still too much for you, here you can make sure it’s not that hard to remember.
Vowels in English: reading open and closed syllables
Syllables are open and closed. An open syllable ends in a vowel. Closed — to a consonant. In this case, consonants work as locks (close a syllable), and vowels as keys (open a syllable). Thus, if there is a vowel after the last consonant in a syllable, the syllable is still considered open.
cat — closed syllable — at the end the consonant letter Tt;
name is an open syllable, because after the consonant «Mm» (lock) there is a vowel «Ee» (key), which, as it were, opens the syllable to us.
Reading vowels
In an open syllable, the stressed vowel is read as in the alphabet, and in a closed syllable it is read short. Each vowel has its own sound for the stressed closed syllable.
If there are two vowels in a stressed syllable, read the first as in an open syllable.
hear — [hiə] — [hia] to hear: the letter Ee is read as in an open syllable, the sound ə gives the buva Rr.
Lean — [li: n] — [liin] — lean against:: the letter Ee is read as in an open syllable
boat — [bout] — [boat] boat: the letter Oo is read as in the alphabet.
The Rr letter and vowels in English
The letter K affects the reading of vowels. So, in a closed syllable before Rr:
EUI vowels are read as [ɜ:] — a sound similar to [ё], only without the [th] overtones at the beginning.
girl — [gɜ: l] — [gol] — girl; burn [bɜ: n] — [ben] -burn; nerd [nɜ: d] — [nёd] -sound.
The vowels O and A stretch: read as [Ͻ:] and [a:]
car — [kа:] — [kаa] car; lord — [lϽ:d] — [lood] lord
All you need is love!
The vowel Aa before the letter Ll at the beginning of a word is often read as [Ͻ:]
always [Ͻ: lweiz] — [olways] -always, also [Ͻ: lsə] — [olso] — also, ball [bϽ: l] — [bol] — ball
Author of the material Kondratenko Anna
Source: https://eng5steps.ru/chtenie-na-angliyskom-glasniye/
Vowels and Sounds — Lesson 2 — English from scratch
Continuing the theme of the previous lesson about the alphabet about letters and sounds, it is worth deepening your knowledge of reading the vowels of the English alphabet. After all, they make up almost half of the total number of all sounds.
General concept of vowel sounds
As mentioned earlier, there are 20 vowel sounds, while there are only 6 vowel letters themselves. This is not easy to put into the understanding of a Russian-speaking person, because there is no such thing in Russian. Wider variety of vowels in the English alphabet — this is his distinguishing feature.
Namely, diphthongs, which are completely alien to Slavic languages, constitute difficulties in learning. But transcription comes to the aid of students — this is a recording of the reading of a word using phonetic symbols denoting a certain sound. That is, every English word in the dictionary is written with a transcription that will tell you exactly how it is read.
It remains only to learn to distinguish and read all sounds.
Reading vowels in open and closed syllables
The reading of vowels depends on their place in the word:
- in the first type of syllable (vowel at the end), the letter is read according to its name in the alphabet,
- in the second (consonant at the end) — as a short sound.
Consider reading all vowels of English letters with transcription:
LetterOpen syllableClosed syllable
Aa [ei] | [ei]
|
[ᴂ]
|
ee[i:] | [i:]
|
[e] |
Source: https://www.lovelylanguage.ru/start/english-from-scratch/2-glasnyye
Reading vowels in English. Reduction. Reduction types
The stress in English falls on the root syllable. English stressed vowels are read depending on what type of syllable they are used in.
In English, there are four types of vowel reading in stressed syllables.
1 type of vowel reading
In this type of reading, the vowels are in open position, that is, the stressed syllable ends with this vowel. Vowels in this case are read in the same way as in the alphabet:
a [ei], o [əu], u [ju:] or [u:] if u is preceded by r or consonant combination + r.
e [i:], i [ai], y [ai]
Cases are possible:
1) The syllable ends with a stressed vowel. it completely open syllable… Examples: go [gəu], me [min ː].
2) After the stressed vowel, there is a consonant (not r), and then comes the «mute» e. It conditionally open syllable… Examples: home[həum], type [taɪp].
3) A stressed vowel is followed by a vowel including «mute» e… Examples: lie[lai], due [djuː].
2 type of vowel reading
In type 2 reading, the vowels are in closed position, that is, the syllable ends in a consonant. In this case, the vowels are read briefly, abruptly:
a [æ], o [ɔ], u [ʌ], e [e], i [i], y [i]
Cases are possible:
1) The vowel is between two consonants. it completely closed syllable… Example: man[mæn],hot[hɔt].
2) Cases completely closed syllablewhen there are two or more consonants after a vowel. Examples: lamp[læmp], rhy
Source: http://enjoy-eng.ru/chtenie-glasnykh-bukv-v-angliiskom-iazyke-reduktciia-tipy-reduktcii
Rules for reading English for beginners, table. Intonation and stress in English
At the initial stage of learning English, you inevitably have to deal with the differences between your native language and a foreign one. Reading in English for beginners, children and adults is usually one of the first steps in learning.
And the first such differences between Russian and English are revealed as soon as you start learning to read in English. You are faced with the transcription and reading rules of the English language.
These two concepts are related, since with the help of transcription we can record and read the sounds that vowels and consonants convey in various combinations. But the reading rules explain exactly how the letters are pronounced in different environments.
There are a lot of reading rules in English, and they relate to both vowels and consonants. In addition, a huge number of words are not read according to the rules, that is, they are exceptions. Therefore, it begins to seem that it is extremely difficult to learn all this.
In fact, the rules of reading need to be learned, but there is no need to memorize them. After doing a few exercises on reading rules, you will already know how exactly the same type of words are read.
In the learning process, when you read and listen to a variety of study materials, the spelling, pronunciation and meaning of new words will be memorized as a whole.
Features of English pronunciation
At first, reading in English for beginners presents some difficulties due to the peculiarities of pronunciation — words are very often pronounced differently than they are spelled. Linguists even have a saying — «We write — Manchester, we pronounce — Liverpool.»
This situation is due to the fact that historically in the English language there existed, and there are still many dialects in which the same letters and letter combinations were read in different ways, which eventually became entrenched in official English. An example is the combination of letters ough.
The words though, through, thought differ by only one letter, and the combination of letters ough is read differently in all words.
The role of transcription in teaching English reading
So, as we have already said, in addition to the numerous rules for reading in English, difficulties arise when mastering the transcription of the English language. Transcription is the recording of speech sounds using special characters.
You should not avoid it, as it is the best assistant in learning a language, which, firstly, will save you time when memorizing new words, and secondly, it will help to avoid mistakes in pronunciation. After all, when you write out or memorize new words, you definitely need to know how they are read correctly.
There are two options for how to do this. The first is to listen to it in some online resource, and the second is to watch the transcription.
Now in some tutorials, as well as on training sites, you can find «English transcription in Russian». It is believed that writing an English word in Russian letters is much easier than learning some incomprehensible phonetic symbols. In fact, this is a delusion.
English phonetics differs from Russian so much that Russian letters can only approximately convey the pronunciation of English words, and mostly the simplest ones, the reading of which even without this kind of «transcription» is not difficult.
Some English sounds in Russian simply do not exist, and the correct pronunciation of English and Russian sounds similar at first glance may have certain differences.
Therefore, we recommend that you take the time to study transcription icons and read sounds. This is one of the basic knowledge in mastering the rules of reading English for beginners. Knowledge of transcription will serve you faithfully at all stages of your learning.
We analyze the rules for reading English
There are different classifications of the rules for reading consonants and vowels in English. For vowels, as a rule, there are 4 types of syllables. These are the 4 types of environment a vowel can find itself in and which affects its pronunciation.
Some textbooks consider only the first two types of syllables — open and closed, but take into account whether the letter r is involved in these types of syllables — since it affects the reading of vowels. Consonants in different combinations can also be read differently.
I must say that the number of exceptions and variants of reading the same letter combinations in different words give reason to consider the reading rules rather general recommendations that should be studied before starting to read.
To familiarize yourself with the rules of reading in English, we suggest that you take as a basis the tables with options for reading letters, which are given in his textbook for children “English. 1-4 grades in diagrams and tables «N.Vakulenko.
These English reading rules for children cover almost every possible reading of vowels and consonants in English.
But before we go directly to the tables, we will deal with two more concepts that you will surely come across when you get acquainted with the reading rules. it open и closed syllable.
The syllable is called openWhen
- ends in a vowel and is the last in a word
- the vowel is followed by a consonant and then a vowel again
- the vowel is followed by another vowel
Examples of words with an open type of syllable (you can listen with sound):
age, blue, bye, fly, go
The syllable is called closedWhen
- ends in a consonant and is the last in a word
- the vowel is followed by several consonants
Examples of words with a closed type of syllable:
bed, big, box, hungry, stand
So, let’s formulate the rules for reading English for beginners: tables for reading vowels and consonants.
Vowel reading tables
A | |
A [ei] — in an open syllable | lake, make |
A [æ] — in a closed syllable | rat, map |
A [a:] — in a closed syllable on r | car, bar |
A [εə] — at the end of a word vowel + re | care, fare |
A [ɔ:] — combinations all, au | all, tall |
O | |
O [əu] — in an open syllable | no, home |
O [ɒ] — in a closed stressed syllable | lot, boss |
O [ɜ:] — in some words with «wor» | word, work |
O [ɔ:] — in a closed syllable with r | horse, door |
O [u:] — in combination «oo» | too, food |
O [u] — in combination «oo» | good look |
O [aʊ] — in combination «ow» in the stressed syllable | Now, CLOWN |
O [ɔɪ] — in combination «oy» | boy, joy |
U | |
U [yu:], [yu] — in an open syllable | blue, duty |
U [ʌ] — in a closed syllable | butter, cup |
U [u] — in a closed syllable | put, bull |
U [ɜ:] — in combination «ur» | Purse, hurt |
E | |
E [i:] — in an open syllable, a combination of «ee», «ea» | he, meet, leaf |
E [e] — in a closed syllable, combination «ead» | head, bread |
E [ɜ:] — in combinations «er», «ear» | her, pearl |
E [ɪə] — in ear combinations | near, dear |
I | |
i [aɪ] — in an open syllable | nice, fine |
i [aɪ] — in combination «igh» | high, night |
i [ɪ] — in a closed syllable | big, in |
i [ɜ:] — in combination «ir» | bird girl |
i [aɪə] — in combination «ire» | hire, tired |
Y | |
Y [aɪ] — at the end of a word under stress | my cry |
Y [ɪ] — at the end of a word without stress | happy family |
Y [j] — at the beginning of a word | yes, yellow |
Consonant reading tables
С | |
C [s] — before i, e, y | Place, Cinema |
C [tʃ] — in combinations ch, tch | children, catch |
C [k] — in other cases | cat, picnic |
Source: https://lim-english.com/posts/pravila-chteniya-angliiskogo-yazika-dlya-nachinaushih/
Open and closed syllables in English — vowel reading tables
Consider an open and closed syllable in English. As you already understood, the reading of vowels in English is closely related to this concept.
The main trick here is that vowels can be pronounced differently depending on which syllable they are in. In English, there are two syllables in total: open and closed.
Open syllable in English
What is open syllable? This is the syllable that ends in a vowel (more often this е, but it itself is not pronounced). In such a syllable, vowels are read only as they are named in the alphabet (see table 1).
Table # 1. Open syllable in English Vowel (listen) Transcription
A a | [eɪ] | Hey |
E e | [iː] | long and |
I and | [aɪ] | ouch |
The o | [əʊ] | OU |
U u | [ju:] | long y |
Y y y | [wai] | wye |
examples:
me [MAnd:] «to me»;
nice [HAIC] «pleasant»;
sky [SKAI] «sky»;
soda [COУDE] «carbonated drink».
Closed syllable in English
Finally, consider the vowels in a closed syllable… Here their pronunciation may seem more familiar to you, perhaps, with the exception of the letter uwhich is pronounced like a sound like [A]. A letter a — [E] (see table # 2).
Table 2. Closed syllable in English (listen in the examples below the table) Vowel letter Transcription Russian pronunciation
A a | [æ] | э |
E e | [e] | э |
I and | [ɪ] | и |
The o | [ɔ] | о |
U u | [ʌ] | а |
examples:
lip [LИP] «lip»;
but [BАT] «but»;
pet [PЭT] «pet»;
hot [XОT] «hot».
Note: Consonants at the end of words in a closed syllable are not stunned, as in Russian. So, we write «horn» and we say [ROCK]. There is no such thing in English, otherwise there would be confusion:
mad [MEД] «Crazy» — mat [MEТ] «rug».
Combinations of letters with the letter require special attention. r (see table # 3):
Table 3. Closed syllable. Letter combinations with rCombination vowel + r (listen) Transcription
ar | [ɑː] | long a |
er | [ɜː] | long yo |
urr | [ɜː] | long yo |
or | [ɔ:] | long about |
ur | [ɜː] | long yo |
yr | [ɜː] | long yo |
Examples of words with syllables from the table:
bar [BA:] «bar»;
her [Hyo:] «her»
fir [ФЁ:] «fir-tree»;
for [FO:] «for»;
fur [FOO:] «wool»;
Byrne [BYO: N] «Byrne» (proper name).
The letter itself r not pronounced, and the vowel in front of it is pronounced for a long time.
Source: https://englishforeducation.ru/otkrytyj-i-zakrytyj-slog-v-anglijskom-yazyke.html
English Sounds: The Complete Guide to Reading and Pronunciation
This article will help you understand the features of the pronunciation of English sounds, and what combinations of letters they can be expressed in writing.
For a more detailed study of the rules for reading words in English, use our «Reading Rules Guide».
English pronunciation
English often sounds more dynamic compared to smoother Russian. It is a little faster (about 10% — 15%, according to various studies), and sometimes it seems to us that not all words are pronounced in fast speech.
Despite the fact that the languages come from the same Indo-European family — which means that they are based on the same pronunciation system — there are a number of significant differences in the pronunciation of Russian and English sounds, words and phrases.
English has more vowel sounds than Russian. They are usually pronounced with less lip strain.
We have 6 of them: [a], [y], [o], [e], [and], [s], in English there are 12 of them: / ɪ /, / ɪː /, / ʌ /, / ɑː / , / æ /, / ɛ /, / ɜː /, / ɒ /, / ɔː /, / ʊ /, / ʊː /, / ə /.
English sounds generally come in two flavors:
short and long: / ɪ / and / ɪː /, / ɒ / and / ɔː /, / ʊ / and / ʊː / light and deeper: / ʌ / and / ɑː /
open and closed: / æ / and / ɛ /
Unique English vowel sounds:
/ æ/ Is a cross between A and E
/ ɜː / (soft O) — a cross between O and Yo
/ Ə / — weak schwa (extremely weak sound, a cross between A, O, E — pronounced in most unstressed syllables).
In English, our compound vowel sounds e [ye], yo [yo], yu [yu], i [ya] are absent, but there are diphthongs
English diphthongs are double sounds / aɪ / (time), / eɪ / (space), / ɔɪ / (boil) / ɛə / (care), / əʊ / (know) / aʊ / (now) / ɪə / (fear), and / ʊə / (priest).
The first diphthong sound is pronounced more clearly than the second. That is why we often have a hard time hearing or confuse words with diphthongs when listening.
English consonants often differ in their pronunciation, even sounds similar to Russian
In Russian there are as many as 36 consonant sounds (with 21 letters), but in English there are only 24. It is important to remember that even such sounds (for example, / p / or / d / pronounced differently than in Russian — see the table below for details).
Unique English consonant sounds:
/ w / — semi-vowel sound, a cross between U and B
/ ð / и / θ / — interdental sound (voiceless and voiced variations), a cross between B and Z (F and C in a voiceless variation)
/ ŋ / — nasal H
The main difference between the pronunciation of Russian and English consonants is that in Russian we often deafen the final consonants (for example, year and goth may sound the same), but English doesn’t. It is important to remember this, as we can confuse pairs of words (for example, bed — bet) and it is difficult to hear final consonants.
Also, the so-called «Clusters» — combinations of several consonants inside or at the joints of words. Words like three, sixth and others can cause pronunciation problems.
I recommend using the interactive sound table or the Cambridge mobile app to practice pronunciation and accent.
The same letter can represent several sounds, depending on the position in the word
The biggest challenge in learning English is mastering its reading rules.
Despite the fact that there are only 26 letters in the English alphabet (in contrast to the Russian 33), learning to read words and phrases in English is not so easy.
1 / Vowel sounds in the alphabet have a so-called «open» pronunciation, which is different from other European languages.
How to read the sounds of the English alphabet
2 / Vowel sounds in stressed words are read differently, depending on the type of syllable in which they stand.
3 / Unstressed vowel sounds are pronounced with a very weak sound schwa / ə /.
This sound is so weak that we often simply cannot hear it. In our English pronunciation, we often pronounce it too intensely.
For example, a word vegetable pronounced not VEDGETABL with the same intensity of all sounds, but / vedʒt (ə) b (ə) l /, that is, after a clear stressed syllable VE, there are reduced syllables, all the sounds of which are read with schwa, and they are almost inaudible (and often not at all).
I will tell you more about this feature of English stress in the article «How to learn to understand English by ear».
4 / Many vowels and consonants in writing are indicated by letter combinations that need to be remembered.
Errors in pronunciation lead to problems with listening to fast English speech. I recommend purchasing our «The Complete Guide to Reading Rules»… It will help fill in the gaps in your knowledge of pronunciation rules and help you avoid common mistakes.
Pronunciation and reading of vowels
Sound | Pronunciation feature | Typical combinations | Exception words |
/ Ə / | A weak unstressed sound is a cross between a very weak A and E | Any vowel without stress, mostly a, o, u, e | |
/ ɪ / | «And short» Lips are slightly stretched in a semi-smile, tongue in front of the mouth. We pronounce light I. | i in a closed syllableif, film,hise in endingsdancees, started | owomeneEnglish, decideawantsage, chocolateate |
/ ɪː / | «And long» Lips are slightly stretched, tongue in front of the mouth. We pronounce a long I. We do not strain our lips. | eesee,sleepmost words with easea, RESPONSIVEead, eat,pleasee in open syllabletree, be,these | i under stress in borrowed wordsdoine, policeiefie |
Source: https://stordar.ru/angliiskie-zvuki/
How to quickly learn to read English from scratch on your own. Tips for English learners
When you study a foreign language, you learn not only a set of vocabulary and grammar, you in any case come across the culture and peculiarities of the mentality of the people who speak this language. The best way to learn language and culture is reading in original … And in order to read in a foreign language, you must first learn to read in that language.
You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. You can just get people to stop reading them.
~ Ray Bradbury
Does it exist an easy way to learn to read English ? If you studied English at school, you should have gotten an idea of how English letters are read, you know what transcription is and how basic letter combinations are read. If your level is not beginner, but for example intermediate, then you will be interested in the article «Books in English for intermediate level»
But, if at school or university you studied German or French, or your school base turned out to be smaller than you would like, and now you have decided to learn English, then let’s start with the very primary and basic and learn a few methods of where to start in order to master reading rules.
English alphabet
I think you know that English is different from Russian and German, in which we basically read and write. In English, the system is a little more complicated. The very first thing we need to do is learn the alphabet.
The English alphabet has 26 letters, including 21 consonants and 5 vowels. Knowledge of letters and the ability to pronounce them correctly is the key to successful and competent reading in English.
English alphabet with transcription of the names of letters.
A very easy way to memorize letters visually and by ear is with the help of a song. Watch the video and sing the song until you memorize the letters of the alphabet.
You can use the same method to teach the alphabet to your children and sing along with your little ones.
After studying the alphabet, let’s start learning the combination of letters and reading short words. There are a number of rules in English that you need to learn, practice and remember if you want to read English words correctly.
The same letter can be read in different ways, depending on the letters that surround it, as well as whether it is closed or open syllable.
Rules for reading English consonants
Many consonants read similarly to Russian consonants, such as letters m, n, l, b, f, z … You can see it in words like mom, lemon, finger, boy, zebra.
Letters such as t и d sound similar, but pronounced with aspirated… For example, the words table, teacher, dad, dirty.
Letter c has two reading options. Before letters i, e, y it reads like [s]— city, face, cyber. And before the rest of the vowels it reads like [k]— cat, cake, factory.
The vowel rule i, e, y works with the letter g… In front of them, it reads like [dʒ]— gym, George, giant. Before other consonants, the letter is read as [g].
Letter q always occurs in a combination of letters qu and reads like [kW]— quick, queen, square.
Letter j always reads like [dʒ]— jacket, jam, joy.
Table of the ratio of consonants and sounds in English.
How vowels are read in English
In English, a word can end in an open or closed syllable, which affects pronunciation. For example, the words cat, pot, sit end in a closed syllable and have vowels a, o, i give sounds [a, o, i].
Words such as name, home, five end with an open syllable, since there is a letter at the end of the word ewhich is not readable. But, thanks to her, the vowels in the middle of the word are read in the same way as they are pronounced in the alphabet, that is, the word name is read [neɪm].
Types of English vowel reading in stressed syllables.
Reading vowel combinations in English
There are certain combinations of letters that have well-established rules for reading, although English is the language of exceptions, and when reading more complex words, you should refer to the dictionary. The table below shows English vowel combinations with examples how they are read and how they sound.
Table of combinations of vowels in English.
And of course, there are exceptions to all the rules. However, do not worry and think that you will never be able to learn it. Everything can be understood, you just have to try a little and practice.
English diphthongs with transcription
When you learn the basic rules of reading, you will see that there are diphthong sounds that are quite difficult to reproduce in English, especially if you start learning the language not from childhood, but in adulthood.
Table of English diphthongs with transcription.
Transcription of sounds in English
Practice shows that when children learn a language, they must necessarily learn transcription, while adults do not want to learn it and it can be difficult for them.
If you still want to learn how to write and read the transcription, then great! And if not, then you can use online dictionaries where the word will be pronounced for you. One of the best dictionaries today is Multitran and the Lingvo online dictionary.
Remember to use dictionaries, not translators!
Here’s an example of reading short words with transcription:
English vowel table and transcription.
There are some advantages to being in the internet age. Sitting at home, you can learn a variety of knowledge online. For your attention video tutorial, which explains the basic principles of reading. Nevertheless, even having received knowledge through an online lesson, they need to be consolidated in order to form a skill.
In this section, we want to share with you the experience that was gained in practice, teaching students of different levels. These tips have proven their effectiveness and usefulness in language learning. They can be used for beginner to advanced levels. Use)
Learn English tongue twisters
Here tongue twisters, which are often aimed at practicing one sound, can help you. Here are some examples you can use.
English translation
Source: https://ienglish.ru/blog/interesno-ob-angliiskom/kak-viuchit-angliiskiy-bistro-samomu/kak-bistro-nauchitsia-chitat-po-angliiski
Vowel english letters
The phonetic system of many European languages is generally of the same type, has a certain structure.
Of course, intonation plays a big role in the pronunciation of vowels in English words. There are certain rules for running it up and down, as well as for individual turns, for example, there is and there are.
However, in the phonology of the English language, the presentation of the English letters and their corresponding phonemes is in order.
Let’s try to process and structure the existing extensive material for compact and easy assimilation, applying the principle of comparative studies — comparison with the phonetics of the Russian language where possible.
There are 6 vowels in English:
If you look closely at the uppercase and lowercase versions of the same letter, you will notice that vowels such as O and U have identical spellings.
Vowel transcription in English
Absolutely everyone who has come across the study of English phonetics has difficulty in correctly understanding the transcription of vowel sounds.
The fact is that in the transcriptional embodiment, the pronunciation of English vowels is not similar to the pronunciation of, for example, identical Russian vowels. This circumstance is primarily due to the different history of origin.
So, the system of English vowel phonemes goes back to diphthongic combinations of sounds.
For reference: diphthongic combinations (diphthongs) are a combination of two or more sounds. In this case, they can have different overtones and are designated by one letter.
Graphically transcribed sound is indicated by enclosing it either in square brackets ([]) or in oblique brackets (/ /)
Consider the transcription of English letters:
Letter | Designated sound |
— A a | [ei] |
— E e | [i:] * |
— I i | [ai] |
— O o | [Where] |
— U u | [ju:] |
— Y y | [wai] |
The sign «:», standing after the vowel sound, denotes the so-called longitude. This means that the sound needs to be pronounced continued, somewhat lingeringly.
Rules for reading vowels in English
However, the table above does not yet indicate that all sounds denoted by five English letters are transcribed in the same way.
As you know, there are only six vowels, but the sounds that can graphically represent these letters are much more — about 24.
To learn the rules for reading such sounds, scientists came to the conclusion that the reading of vowels depends on the type of syllable.
There are two types of syllables:
Speaking about the openness / closedness of a syllable, it should be understood that this is an organized phonetic system of phonemes in one word in a peculiar way.
A word can have from one to several syllables, and both open and closed can be present. According to statistics, almost all English words end with a closed syllable.
The theory of dividing a word into syllables in almost all languages is based precisely on vowels. When studying our native language, we always say to ourselves or out loud when we have to divide a word into syllables: «How many vowels there are in a word, so many syllables.» This really fits well with the division into syllables of English words.
So, to determine the number of syllables in a syllable:
- find vowels in the word,
- mentally or graphically draw vertical bars after each vowel. How many cut-off sectors will turn out — there are so many syllables in the word.
For example, let’s take the word independent:
- count the vowels: 4 (i, e, e, e)
- draw perpendicular lines: in-de-pen-dent
- there were also 4 segments, hence 4 syllables containing 4 vowels.
Vowel letters in open syllable type
An open syllable is a syllable that either consists of one vowel or ends in a vowel.
For example: in the word bar there is only one syllable, in the word ru-ler there are two syllables, the first of them is an open syllable, since it ends in the vowel u.
English vowels should be read in an open type of syllable as in the alphabet:
Letter | Designated sound |
— A a | [ei] |
— E e | [i:] |
— I i | [ai] |
— O o | [Where] |
— U u | [ju:] |
— Y y | [wai] |
Closed vowels
A closed syllable is a syllable ending in a consonant.
For example: in the word book — one syllable, ends with a consonant k, in the word dif-fi-cult — three syllables, the first and third of them are closed (in f and t), the second is open.
Features of the pronunciation of vowels in English
The vowels are read differently depending on the type of syllable. The letter R r stands apart in the reading rules. It greatly influences reading in both syllables.
For example, in the open type of syllable, the sound [r] seems to merge with the diphthong and sounds neutral — [ǝ]. And in the closed type, the so-called short vowels are combined with a semi-consonant sound [r].
It turns out this combination:
- [A] — [a:],
- [ɔ] — [ɔ:],
- [e], [I], [at] — [ǝ:].
That is, the short ones turn into long ones.
As for the rules for reading stressed vowels in a syllable, the letters u, a, o acquire the ability to reduce (that is, become super-short) and even drop out completely. The sound is neutral [ǝ].
For example: in words like sofa [‘soufǝ] or today [tǝ’dei]. Letters i, e, y, when reduced, pronounced as a sound [i]. For example: enemy [‘enimi].
If the vowel is unstressed, then the corresponding vowel sound can manifest itself in the fact that its length is shortened. Therefore, one can often observe (especially in colloquial speech) how pronouns she, he, we, me often not pronounced with a long [i:]and with a short [I].
Also, the absolute dropout of sounds (when it is not heard at all) can be observed in examples such as: lesson [‘lesn], open [‘ oupn], pencil [‘pensl].
Short vowels in English, examples
Before characterizing short and long vowels, it should be noted that they differ from each other not only in the time of pronunciation, but in articulation — by the means of the oral cavity that are involved in their formation.
Under stress, vowel sounds are read in a truncated form, that is, they are closely adjacent to the consonant sound following them.
Brief sounds (otherwise — reduced sounds) may differ in quality and quantity. Basically, they manifest themselves in prepositions and other official parts of speech.
There they are usually unstressed, so theoretically they cannot assume longitude. But depending on the pronunciation situation, they can be pronounced lingeringly or when emphasized in a rhythmic manner (phrasal stress).
Qualitative reduction is a weakening of a vowel, accompanied by a change in its quality and transformation into a sound of a neutral type.
Quantitative reduction is accompanied by a reduction in the duration of the vowel sound.
There is also a reduction of zero (full) when the vowel drops out completely.
Thus, all reduced forms can be called weak.
For example:
weak forms — you [ju ·, ju], at [әt].
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Long vowels in English, examples
There are much more long vowel sounds in the language. For the most part, they are pronounced in monophthongs — the articulation does not change during the entire duration of the sound.
As already mentioned, in transcription such vowels are denoted by the «:» sign.
For example:
- Good [gu: d]
- Arduous [a: djues]
- Green [gri: n]
Diphthongs in English, examples
Diphthongs (or two-vowel sounds) are not peculiar to the Russian language, therefore it is not so easy to assimilate them.
They are such complex (composite) sounds that consist of two vowel sounds that must be pronounced as closely as possible. It turns out that the two sounds simply merge into one.
The percussive and syllabic sound is the first of the sounds to be merged. This is the core of the diphthong. The second vowel in the diphthong is called a glide. It complements the core, makes the combination more harmonious and easier to pronounce.
Due to the fact that the core is a long sound, and the glide is short, the pronunciation of the diphthong in terms of the degree of expenditure of pronunciation efforts and duration is approximately equal to the classical English monophthong. Although, in general, we can say that diphthongs are pronounced not long, but drawn out.
Affects the pronunciation of the diphthong and the position in the word in relation to the consonants. So, before voiced consonants, it is pronounced shortly, and if the consonant is voiceless, then very briefly
For example: sofa (influenced by a voiceless consonant f).
English diphthong table
So, there are 8 diphthongs: [ai] [ei] [iə] [eə] [ͻi] [ʊə] [əʊ] [aʊ].
They are read more than clearly — as in the above transcription. However, there are words, such as dear (dear) and deer (deer), in which the vowel combinations ea and ee are pronounced the same — [iə].
Such cases must be memorized. Thus, we see that phonemic difficulties in English lie in wait for the learner at every step.
There can be only one advice: compiling for yourself a «cheat sheet» with tables of English vowels, as well as tireless practice in the pronunciation of sounds. This can be achieved by reading texts aloud.
It is best to ask an experienced tutor about the correct pronunciation of certain vowels or diphthongs, who will carefully and painstakingly show how certain sounds are pronounced in various types of syllables.
Source: https://eng911.ru/rules/alphabet/glasnye-bukvy-v-anglijskom.html
Typical Spelling Patterns for Vowel Sounds
Spelling and pronunciation are closely connected and should be studied together. This is especially true of English vowel sounds and their representation in writing.
This material provides examples of typical spelling patterns for English vowel sounds, proceeding from the sound to spelling. If it is more convenient for you to proceed from the letters and letter combinations to the sounds that they represent, you can reorganize this material according to your wish. (An example how to do it is given in Method 2 in the section Phonetics.)
Note that spelling and pronunciation in this material are given according to the American variant of the English language. (See British and American Spelling in the section Writing; English Vowel Sounds and Vowels Glossary of Terms in the section Phonetics.)
Letters and sounds
There are six vowel letters in English: A, E, I, O, U, Y. The letter Y represents the vowel sounds [i], [ai] (mystery, type) and the consonant (semivowel) sound [y] (yes). Together, vowel letters represent from 15 to 22 vowel sounds. This difference comes mostly from counting the diphthongs differently in British English and in American English. Generally, American linguists list five diphthongs: [ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou].
The number of English vowel sounds represented by vowel letters and by certain vowel combinations is larger than the number of vowel letters and their combinations, which means that one and the same vowel letter or letter combination is used to represent more than one sound. English also has several spelling variants for each vowel sound, which means that the same vowel sound is represented by different letters and letter combinations in writing.
For example, the letter A typically represents five sounds: [ei], [æ], [o:], [a:], [ə] (Kate, cat, call, card, alone). Its common open-syllable sound [ei] is represented in writing not only by the letter A as in «Kate» but also by five different vowel combinations as in «may, rain, weigh, they, break». The combinations EI, EY, which are usually pronounced [ei] in English words, represent the sound [ai] in some words of foreign origin (Einstein, geyser).
There is also a connection between a sound, its spelling, and the surrounding letters. For example, the combination AR, which is normally pronounced [a:r] as in «car, park, hard», is pronounced [o:r] after the consonant W (war, ward, warm, warn).
The most practical approach is to learn typical spelling patterns for vowel sounds. The other spelling variants may be present only in a couple of words or in words that are not used very often.
1. SOUND [i:]
Spelling examples: me, Pete, Japanese, equal, rewrite, seem, read, piece, seize, police.
Letter E
The sound [i:] is represented by the letter E in the open syllable of the root: me, be, he, she, we; Pete, eve, these, theme, scene, complete, intervene, precede.
The sound [i:] is represented by the letter E in the root in the initial syllable that is not easily recognizable as an open syllable, usually under stress: equal, evening, evil, recent, region, meter, secret, media, demon, female, legal, genius, senior, convenient, frequent, veto, premium, previous.
The sound [i:] is represented by the (first) letter E in the suffix «ese»: Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Maltese, Portuguese, Lebanese, Burmese, manganese.
The sound [i:] is represented by the letter E in the prefixes «pre, re» in some words: prehistoric, prewar, prefix, preoccupy, prepay, preview, react, rewrite, remake.
Note: In many words, the letter E in the prefixes «pre, re» represents the short sound [i] (remove, repair, repeat, reply, return, prepare, prevent, presume).
Letter combinations EE, EA
The sound [i:] is represented by the combination EE: see, free, agree, knee, feel, feed, proceed, succeed, keen, seek, seem, screen, deep, greet, sleeve.
The sound [i:] is represented by the combination EA: sea, tea, peace, teach, lead, read, peak, deal, reveal, scream, team, clean, leap, please, release, beat, beneath, breathe, creature, leave.
Letter combinations IE, EI
The sound [i:] is represented by the combination IE in the root: piece, field, achieve, believe, relief, brief, chief, fiend, siege, shriek, priest.
The sound [i:] is represented by the combination EI in the root: seize, receive, receipt, deceive, conceive, perceive, ceiling, Leigh.
Letter I
In some English words of foreign origin, the sound [i:] is represented in writing by the letter I: police, caprice, gasoline, machine, magazine, marine, routine, vaccine, prestige, regime, elite, naive, pizza, ski, liter, fatigue, intrigue, antique, physique, technique, unique.
Rare spelling for the sound [i:]: key, people, Aesop, Oedipus.
2. SOUND [i]
Spelling examples: sit, ignore, public, working, enough, reply, hardness, boxes, symbol, lady, Annie, honey.
Letter I
The short sound [i] is represented by the letter I in the closed syllable of the root: it, sit, miss, tip, pick, pin, bring, list, fill, film, trim, dinner, finger, river, consist.
The short sound [i] is represented by the letter I in some prefixes: inform, illogical, immune, impudent, irregular, dislike, disturb, mistake, misunderstand. Note spelling: ignore, ignorant, ignite.
The short sound [i] is represented by the letter I in some suffixes: public, dramatic, habit, justice, native, foolish, working.
Letter E
The short sound [i] is represented by the letter E in the initial syllable of the root: English, pretty, ecology, enough, eleven, electric.
The short sound [i] is represented by the letter E in some prefixes: effect, emotion, become, before, despair, depart, remove, repair, repeat, reply, return, preliminary, prepare, prevent, secure.
The short sound [i] is represented by the letter E in some suffixes and endings: hardness, madness, actress, countless, childless, rocket, pocket, boxes, catches, added, counted.
It is very difficult to decide where to say the long sound [i:] and where to say the short sound [i] when they are represented by the letter E in the root or prefix. For easier memorization, it is advisable to make a comparison list of such words arranged in two columns.
Note: The final single letter E, which is usually mute in English words, is pronounced as [i], or as a shorter variant of [i:], in the words «apostrophe, catastrophe, psyche».
Letter Y
The sound [i] is represented by the letter Y in the root: symbol, lyrics, myriad, hymn, hypnosis, pyramid, sympathy, synchronize, crystal, system, typical, tyranny, mystery, myth, rhythm, antonym, synonym, pseudonym, acronym.
The sound [i] is represented by the letter Y in the suffix: lady, family, Daddy, duty, whisky, carry, hurry, funny, happy, busy, dirty, many, very, lovely, nicely, hardly, Larry, Billy, Mary.
Letter combinations IE, EY
The sound [i] is represented by the combination IE in the suffix: Annie, Carrie, Katie, auntie.
The sound [i] is represented by the combination EY in the suffix: honey, hockey, journey, money, monkey, whiskey, Sydney, Casey, Rodney.
Note: According to many dictionaries, the letter Y in the suffix (lady, busy) and the combinations IE, EY in the suffix (Annie, honey) are pronounced as a shorter variant of the long sound [i:].
3. SOUND [e]
Spelling examples: end, well, bread, heavy, many.
Letter E
The sound [e] is represented by the letter E in the closed syllable in the root: bet, set, well, guest, seldom, empty, every, berry, regular, accept, connect, inspector, impress, address, architect, project, enter, entrance, entire.
The sound [e] is represented by the letter E in the prefixes «em, en»: embalm, embark, embody, embrace, employ, enable, enlarge, engage, enjoy, environment.
Note: The prefixes «em, en» may also be pronounced [im], [in], especially in BrE; in some cases, two words exist, e.g., «ensure, insure; enquire, inquire».
Letter combination EA
There are many words (but still a limited number) in which the sound [e] is represented by the letter combination EA.
Learn them by heart: bread, dead, head, header, lead, read, spread, thread, dread, tread, instead; already, ready, steady, meadow; sweat, sweater, threat, threaten; breath, death, health, stealth, wealth; weather, leather, feather; measure, pleasure, treasure, treasury, pleasant, peasant, pheasant; dealt, meant, cleanse, jealous, realm; heaven, heavy, endeavor, deaf; breakfast, breast, treachery, weapon.
Rare spelling for the sound [e]: any, many, friend, said, says, bury.
4. SOUND [ei]
Spelling examples: age, lake, nation, wait, play, they, eight.
Letter A
The sound [ei] is represented by the letter A in the open syllable in the root: Kate, ate, late, take, race, name, save, ache, table, cradle, change, strange, paste, taste, waste.
The sound [ei] is represented by the letter A in the root in the initial syllable that is not easily recognizable as an open syllable, and sometimes in the closed syllable, usually under stress: bacon, baby, lazy, angel, danger, stranger, chamber, April, paper, basin, basis, Asia, pastry, nation, patriot, fatal, naval, facial, racial, vacant, ancient, patient, radio.
The sound [ei] is represented by the letter A in the verbal suffix «ate»: decorate, educate, create, celebrate, concentrate, separate, dictate, investigate, originate.
Letter combinations AI, EI
The sound [ei] is represented by the combination AI, usually before a consonant letter in the root: aim, aid, sail, tail, main, vain, rain, raise, faint, paint, saint, strait, straight, remain, complain, disdain, explain, restrain.
The sound [ei] is represented by the combination EI, usually before a consonant letter in the root: rein, veil, vein, feign, reign, deign, sleigh, weigh, weight, eight, freight, neighbor.
Note: The combination EI is pronounced [ai] in the words «height, sleight, either». (See 7. SOUND [ai].)
Letter combinations AY, EY
The sound [ei] is represented by the combination AY, usually in the final position in the root: day, gray, may, say, way, hay, gay, play, pray, stay, stray, essay, relay, delay; betrayal, player, essayist, saying. But: daily, gaily (also, gayly).
The sound [ei] is represented by the combination EY, usually in the final position in the root: they, grey, prey, hey, whey, survey, obey, convey, conveyance, surveyor.
Note: In some words of foreign origin the combinations EI, EY are pronounced as [ai]: Einstein, Fahrenheit, geyser, Meyer.
Note: Note the spelling of these words: mayor, major.
Letter combination EA
In the following words, the sound [ei] is represented by the combination EA: break, great, steak.
Words of French origin
In some English words of French origin, the final sound [ei] is represented in writing by the letters E, EE, ET: cafe, attache, pate, resume, fiance, fiancee, divorcee, matinee, entree; ballet, beret, buffet, bouquet, fillet, gourmet.
Note: There is usually a French stress mark on the final letter E (cafe) and on the first letter E in EE (matinee) in the above-mentioned words, but some of such words may be written without the stress mark (e.g., divorcee, matinee, entree) in AmE.
There are some English words with the ending EE that is pronounced [i:]: employee, trainee, refugee. A large number of English words have the ending ET (pronounced [it]): bullet, wallet, skillet, packet, picket, pocket, rocket.
5. SOUND [æ] as in CAT
Spelling examples: bad, sat, bank, stand, family, accident, apple.
Letter A in the closed syllable
In American English, the letter A under stress in the closed syllable of the root is usually pronounced [æ]: ask, task, fast, last, contrast, master, disaster, castle, answer, act, pack, actor, factory, add, mad, staff, after, half, class, glass, grass, jazz, chance, dance, can’t, land, handle, command, talent, example, happy, happen, travel, fashion, bath, matter, Manhattan.
In British English, the letter A in many of these words is pronounced [a:], for example, in the words «class, dance, answer, master, castle, fast, disaster, after, half, bath».
The sound [ei] represented in writing by the letter A changes to [æ] in some derivatives: Nature [ei] – natural [æ]; nation [ei] – national [æ]; sane [ei] – sanity [æ]; vain – vanity.
Rare spelling for [æ] (AmE): aunt, laugh.
6. SOUND [a:]
Spelling examples: army, regard, father, calm, bravo, mirage.
Letter combination AR
The sound [a:] is represented by the combination AR in the root, usually under stress: arm, art, car, card, yard, part, charge, large, margin, argue, guard, regard, garden, pardon, market.
Letter A
The letter A represents the sound [a:] in several English words in American English: father, Pa, Papa, Ma, Mama; calm, palm, balm, alms, psalm. (The letter L in these words is silent.)
The letter A represents the sound [a:] in some words of foreign origin: drama, Panama, saga, cantata, sonata, spa, bravo, aria, lama; mirage, garage, espionage, sabotage, massage, facade.
Note: In some words of French origin the sound [a:] is represented by the initial combination «en»: entree, ensemble.
Rare spelling for [a:]: sergeant, heart; (BrE) aunt, laugh, draught.
Sounds [æ] and [a:] in AmE and BrE
In British English, the letter A is usually pronounced [æ] as in CAT under stress in the closed syllable of the root, but the letter A is usually pronounced [a:] before the consonants f, ff, ph, sk, sp, ss, st, th, nce, nd, and some others.
In American English, the letter A under stress in the closed syllable of the root is usually pronounced [æ] as in CAT in all cases.
Examples of words with AmE [æ] or BrE [a:]: staff, after, draft, half, ask, task, grasp, grass, glass, class, fast, last, castle, master, disaster, bath, path, example, chance, dance, answer, can’t, demand, command.
7. SOUND [ai]
Spelling examples: nice, surprise, minus, private, type, reply, dynamic, find, light, tie.
Letter I
The sound [ai] is represented by the letter I in the open syllable of the root: ice, nice, ride, life, file, smile, line, pipe, quite, wise, hi, polite, surprise, prize, combine, arrive.
The sound [ai] is represented by the letter I, stressed or unstressed, in the root in the syllable that is not easily recognizable as an open syllable: idea, identical, idol, isolation, item, science, society, client, crisis, climate, minus, private, library, finance, horizon, dial, vital, vitamin.
The sound [ai] is represented by the letter I and by the letter Y in the verbal suffixes «ize» (ise), «yze» (yse) and «fy»: organize, modernize, analyze, analyse, satisfy, modify, signify.
The sound [ai] is represented by the letter I in some prefixes: diagram, dialect, digest, digress, bicycle, biannual, biography.
Letter Y
The sound [ai] is represented by the letter Y in some English words, usually in the final position in the root: by, my, cry, dry, fly, fry, ply, pry, sky, sly, try.
The sound [ai] is represented by the letter Y in many words of Greek and Latin origin: style, type, hype, rhyme; deny, rely, apply, reply; cycle, cyclone, dynamic, dynamite, hybrid, hyphen, nylon, hyperactive, hypodermic, psychopath, psychiatrist.
Note: Final Y in words like «cry, fly, try, satisfy» in certain cases changes to I before suffixes or endings: cries, flier, flyer, tried, trial, trying, satisfied, satisfying. (See the materials on adding suffixes and endings in the section Writing.)
Other spelling variants for the sound [ai]
The sound [ai] is represented by some other spelling variants in a limited number of words.
The letter I before LD, ND and before some other consonant combinations: child, mild, wild, climb, find, kind, mind, blind; rifle, trifle, title, idle, Bible.
The letter I before GH, GHT, GN: high, sigh, thigh; fight, light, night, right, slight; sign, align, benign, malign.
Letter combinations IE, YE, EI, EY, UY: die, tie, lie, pie, vie; dye, lye, rye, bye; height, sleight, either, neither; eye, geyser; buy, guy.
Latin plural ending I: alumni, fungi, stimuli, alkali, alibi. (Nouns with Latin plural endings are listed in the material Irregular Plural Nouns in the section Writing.)
Note: The sound [ai] represented by the letter I may change to [i] in some derivatives: signature, malignant, biblical.
Note: The combination EI in the words «either, neither» is pronounced [i:] or [ai] in AmE.
8. SOUND [au]
Spelling examples: how, brown, out, noun.
Letter combinations OW, OU
The sound [au] is represented by the combination OW in any position in the word: now, how, cow, row, bow, brow, allow, plow, crowd, owl, fowl, howl, prowl, down, gown, town, clown, brown, drown, crown, browse, browser, powder, power, flower, tower, allowing, allowance.
The sound [au] is represented by the combination OU, usually before a consonant letter in the root: out, about, doubt, couch, cloud, loud, proud, foul, noun, announce, bounce, ounce, pound, found, ground, hound, around, sound, surround, count, account, amount, mountain, house, mouse, louse, blouse, mouth, south, scout, shout, bough, plough, drought.
It is difficult to decide where to say [ou] and where [au] when they are represented by the combination OW. For example: own – owl; bowl – brown; mow – pow. Besides, there are a few homonyms that are spelled in the same way but are pronounced differently: row [rou] and [rau]; bow [bou] and [bau]; sow [sou] and [sau]. It is advisable to make a comparison list of such words.
It may also be difficult to decide where to write OW and where to write OU. For example: fowl – foul; browse – blouse; crowd – cloud; powder – pound. It would be useful to have a comparison list of such words.
9. SOUND [o:]
Spelling examples: more, order, law, call, cause, caught, bought, course, war, water.
Spelling patterns for the sound [o:]
Letter combinations OR, ORE: cord, Ford, form, born, corn, torn, short, sport, torch, porch, orange, order, orient, normal, mortal, storm, story, glory, forum, forty, morning; bore, more, before, shore, sore, store, tore, explore, ignore.
Letter combination AW: law, draw, drawer, saw, thaw, crawl, shawl, hawk, dawn, lawn, awful, awkward.
Letter combinations ALL, AL: all, ball, call, fall, hall, wall, appall, alter, always, already, walk, talk, chalk, false, salt, halt.
Letter combination AU: cause, pause, applause, sauce, audio, audience, fraud, August, auto, author, Paul, fault, haunt, launch, laundry.
Letter combination AUGHT: caught, taught, daughter, slaughter, haughty, naughty.
Letter combination OUGHT: bought, brought, fought, ought, sought, thought; cough.
Letter combinations OUR, OAR, OOR: course, court, four, mourn, pour, source, your; board, hoarse, hoard, roar, soar, broad; door, floor.
Letter combinations WAR, WA: war, warm, ward, warden, warn, warning, award, reward; water, want, wand, wash, wasp, watch, swamp, swan.
Letter combination QUAR: quart, quarter, headquarters, quartz, quarrel, quarantine.
Letter O as [o:] in AmE: long, wrong, song, boss, lost, cost, dog, gone, coffee.
Note: In AmE, the letter O in words like «long, cost, dog» may be pronounced as [o:] or as [o]. In BrE, the letter O in such words usually has the sound [o].
There are several spelling variants for the sound [o:] that are also used for some other sounds. For example: door [o:] – poor [u]; pour [o:] – tour [u]; cost [o:] – post [ou]. Nevertheless, spelling patterns for the sound [o:] are quite recognizable and should be easy to memorize.
10. SOUND [o]
Spelling examples: not, stop, rob, body, sorry, model, conference, want, watch, wash.
Spelling patterns for the sound [o]
Letter O: got, hot, not, stop, rob, odd, off, clock, coffee, gone, bomb, bond, soft, often, body, hobby, dollar, doctor, document, occupy, college, compliment, conference, model, monitor, option, promise, prompt, follow, borrow, sorrow, tomorrow, sorry, orange.
Letter combination WA: want, watch, wash, what, swamp, swallow, swan.
Letter combination QUA: quality, qualify, quantity, quarrel, quarantine.
Rare spelling for [o]: cough, knowledge, yacht.
Sound [o] in BrE and AmE
It is interesting to note that in American English there is no sound like the British short sound [o]. Instead of it, the sound that sounds like a hybrid of the long sounds [o:] and [a:] is pronounced in American English where British English has the short sound [o].
This hybrid American sound is usually indicated in American dictionaries as [o], but may be indicated as [a:]. For example, there may be the following variants of transcription for the word «want» in American dictionaries: [wont] or [wo:nt]; [wo:nt] or [wa:nt].
The same hybrid sound [o], or [o:] colored as [a:], may be pronounced in American English in words like «water, ought, daughter» in which long [o:] is considered standard. But long [o:] always remains [o:] in the stressed syllable before [r]: more [mo:r], lord [lo:rd], normal, port.
Examples of words with BrE [o] or AmE hybrid [o]: got, not, hot, stop, rob, odd, off, dog, log, clock, coffee, cough, gone, long, song, cost, loss, boss, bomb, bond, soft, often, body, hobby, dollar, doctor, document, occupy, college, compliment, conference, model, monitor, option, promise, prompt, follow, borrow, sorrow, tomorrow, sorry, orange, quality, quantity, want, wash, watch, what, swamp, swallow, swan.
This peculiar hybrid sound [o], the sound [r] that is pronounced in all positions, and the sound [æ] in words like «class, ask, castle, fast, demand, dance» give American English its characteristic accent.
11. SOUND [oi]
Spelling examples: boil, noise, toy, loyal.
Letter combinations OI, OY
The sound [oi] is represented in writing by the combination OI, usually before a consonant letter in the root: oil, ointment, boil, foil, spoil, toil, coin, join, voice, void, avoid, point, appoint, noise, poison, hoist, moist, exploit, loiter, embroidery.
The sound [oi] is represented in writing by the combination OY in any position in the word: boy, joy, ploy, soy, toy, annoy, destroy, employ, corduroy, oyster, loyal, royal, voyage, boyish, joyful.
12. SOUND [ou]
Spelling examples: home, post, bonus, hero, know, road.
Letter O
The sound [ou] is represented by the letter O in the open syllable of the root: home, role, cone, stone, hope, note, close, remote, suppose, homeless, lonely, hopeful.
The sound [ou] is represented by the letter O in the root in the syllable that is not easily recognizable as an open syllable: open, obey, omit, omen, opal, ocean, potent, polar, solar, motor, rotor, modal, total, moment, rodent, soldier, bonus, focus, notice, social, donate, donut, vogue, rogue. Note: In the words «obey, omit», the letters «ob, o» are Latin prefixes.
The sound [ou] is represented by the letter O in the closed syllable of the root, usually before LD, LT, LL and before some other consonant combinations: old, bold, cold, hold, sold, bolt, colt, roll, poll, toll, control, folk, yolk, most, post, host, ghost, gross, both, comb, don’t, won’t.
The sound [ou] is represented by the letter O in the prefix «co» and in some cases in the prefix «pro»: coeducation, coworker, coexist, coordinate, pronoun, program, prohibit, prohibition.
Note: In many words, the letter O in the prefix «pro» represents the sound [ə] (propose, pronounce, protect, provide, production, profession).
Letter O in the final position
The sound [ou] is represented by the letter O in the final position in the word: go, no, so, also, cargo, echo, hero, zero, piano, potato, tomato, mosquito, radio, studio, Mexico, Idaho, motto, logo, veto.
Note:: The final letter O may represent the sound [u:] as in «do, two, who, to, into» and the sounds [u:] or [ə] in the unstressed position as in «to, into».
Letter combinations OW, OA
The sound [ou] is represented by the combination OW in any position in the word: know, low, show, row, tow, owe, grow, throw, blow, flow; bowl, own, blown, flown, grown, shown, thrown, growth; follow, hollow, borrow, narrow, window, yellow; owing, growing, follower, lower, yellowish.
The sound [ou] is represented by the combination OA, usually before a consonant letter in the root: oat, oak, coal, goal, load, road, boat, coat, soak, toast, roast, coast, boast, coach, approach, cockroach.
Letter combinations OE, OUGH, OU
The sound [ou] is represented by the combinations OE, OUGH, OU in a limited number of words: toe, roe, doe, foe, woe; though, although, dough; soul, shoulder, poultry, boulder, mold / mould.
Because the letter O can represent different vowel sounds, for example, [ou], [o:], [o], [ə], and can also form a number of combinations with the other vowels, it would be most useful to study its pronunciation by arranging groups of words in columns on one page according to the sound that the letter O represents.
13. SOUNDS [u:] and [yu:]
Spelling examples: use, rude, food, do, few, blue, group.
Spelling patterns for the sound [u:]
The letter U and the combinations EW, EU, UE, UI represent the sound [u:] after the consonants R, L, J, CH. The vowel O and the combinations OO, OU represent the sound [u:].
Letter U as [u:]: rude, crude, rule, rumor, brutal, prune; Lucy, Luke, lumen, flute; judicial, June, junior, Julia, judo; chute, parachute.
Letter O as [u:]: do, two, who, whom, whose, lose, move, prove, improve, tomb, womb.
Letter combination OO as [u:]: food, mood, room, broom, moon, cartoon, cool, pool, school, scoop, tooth, boots, poodle, ooze, choose, soothe, shoot, too, zoo, bamboo, taboo, kangaroo, shampoo, tattoo.
Letter combination OU as [u:]: group, soup, loupe, cougar, coupon, mousse, route, routine, wound, souvenir, through, rouge.
Letter combination OE as [u:]: shoe, canoe.
Letter combination EW as [u:]: jewel, Jew, flew, blew, chew, crew, screw.
Letter combination UE as [u:]: true, blue, clue, glue.
Letter combination UI as [u:]: juice, fruit, bruise, cruise, recruit, sluice.
Spelling patterns for the sound [yu:]
The letter U and the combinations EW, EU, UE, UI represent the sound [yu:] after the other consonants (except R, L, J, CH). The letter U is pronounced [yu:] when it starts the word.
Letter U as [yu:]: use, usual, union, unit, unite, unique, universe, universal, university, urine, utility, utensil, ubiquitous.
Letter U as [yu:]: fume, funeral, fuse, refuse, fuel; cube, cute, vacuum; music, museum, amuse, community, immune, mute; pupil, human, humor, huge, Hugh.
Letter U as [yu:]: duty, due, produce, tulip, tune, student; nude, nuclear, numeral, menu; super, Susan, consumer.
Letter combination EW as [yu:]: few, nephew, view, dew, new, mew, pew, stew.
Letter combination EU as [yu:]: eucalyptus, euphemism, feud, neurotic, neutral.
Letter combinations UE, UI as [yu:]: hue, cue, due, sue, pursue, suit.
After Y always [yu:]: yule, yuletide, Yukon; youth, yew.
Rare spelling for [yu:]: beauty.
Note: In American English, the sound [u:], not [yu:], is usually pronounced after the consonants D, T, N, S, though both variants are considered standard. Examples: duty [‘du:ti], dew [du:], due [du:], dual; tune [tu:n], tulip [‘tu:lip], stew [stu:], student; new [nu:], nude [nu:d], nuclear; suit [su:t], sue [su:], pursue, super.
14. SOUND [u]
Spelling examples: book, good, pull, sugar, could.
Spelling patterns for the short sound [u]
Letter combination OO: book, cook, look, hook, shook, took, good, stood, wood, hood, childhood, foot, wool, broom, rookie.
Letter U: put, push, pull, bush, bull, bullet, full, pudding, sugar, cushion, butcher.
Letter O: wolf, woman.
Letter combination OU: could, should, would.
It is quite difficult to decide where to say the long sound [u:] and where to say the short sound [u] when they are represented by the combination OO (and, to a lesser extent, by the letter U). It is advisable to keep a comparison list of such words. In some cases, there are two variants of pronunciation: room – [ru:m], [rum]; roof – [ru:f], [ruf]; hoop – [hu:p], [hup]; soot – [sut], [su:t].
15. SOUND [ər] as in SIR
Spelling examples: verb, turn, first, learn, work, journey, dollar.
In American English, the sound [ər] is represented by the combinations of vowels with the letter R in the root, prefix, or suffix, under stress or unstressed. The sound [r] is pronounced in all positions in the word in AmE. All of the vowels can form such combinations. The combination AR represents the sound [ər] only in an unstressed position, usually in the suffix.
Spelling patterns for the sound [ər]
Letter combination ER: her, herb, serve, verb, verse, were, certain, person, concern, emergency, energy, perceive, percent, prefer, teacher, mister, buyer, finger, better, powder.
Letter combination UR: urge, fur, burn, turn, curse, purse, purr, hurry, current, occur, curtain, furnish, turkey, purpose, pursue, disturb, pleasure, lecture, pressure.
Letter combination IR: sir, fir, girl, bird, stir, shirt, skirt, third, whirl, circle, circus, dirty, thirsty.
Letter combination EAR: learn, heard, search, early, earn, earth, pearl, yearn, rehearse.
Letter combination OR: word, work, worm, world, worry, worse, worth; attorney, forgive, forget, doctor, visitor, favor, effort, comfort.
Letter combination OUR: courage, courtesy, journey, journal, glamour.
Letter combination AR: dollar, collar, grammar, sugar, solar, vulgar, anarchy, monarchy, beggar, coward, hazard.
Letter combination YR: martyr, satyr, zephyr.
Letter combination EUR: amateur, connoisseur, chauffeur.
It would be easier to memorize spelling patterns of words with the sound [ər] if you arrange such words in columns according to their spelling.
Note: In the words above (and in other similar words), the sound [ər] in American English generally corresponds to the sound [ə:] in stressed syllables and to the sound [ə] in unstressed syllables in British English.
Note: In British English, the first vowel sound in the words «hurry, current, courage, worry» is [ʌ], not [ə:].
16. NEUTRAL SOUND as in BUT
Spelling examples: about, son, much, rough, golden, possible.
The neutral sound [ə] (the schwa) is the most common vowel sound of English. It occurs in initial, medial, or final position in the root, prefix, and suffix, under stress or unstressed. Usually, transcription symbols for the neutral sound are [ʌ] (caret) in stressed syllables and [ə] (schwa) in unstressed syllables. In American ESL materials, the neutral sound is often shown as [ə] (schwa) both in stressed syllables and in unstressed syllables. The neutral sound is represented by several spelling patterns.
Spelling patterns for the neutral sound
Letter A: about, around, asleep, Italy, ornament, likable, central, resistance, assistant, cinema, opera, soda.
Letter O: son, mother, money, other, front, done, some, love, observe, oppress, protect, provide, decorate, memory, history, freedom, lesson.
Letter U: but, sun, much, lucky, ugly, sudden, number, punish, publish, consult, submit, success, suggest, unhappy, understand, industry, difficult, minus, helpful, skillful.
Letter E: tolerate, operate, academy, gallery, system, golden, kitten, different, movement.
Letter I: terrible, possible, family.
Letter combination OU: rough, tough, country, cousin, couple, double, trouble, touch, flourish, nourish, young, famous, dangerous.
Letter combination OO: blood, flood.
The neutral sound is one of the most difficult vowel sounds in terms of pronunciation and spelling. In everyday speech, the unstressed short vowels are often pronounced as the neutral sound, and in some cases the neutral sound is dropped. In some other cases, the neutral sound may appear in the syllable between two consonants where there is no vowel in spelling, for example, in «table, apple, idle, riddle, prism». This stresses the necessity to study the pronunciation of English words together with their spelling.
Типичные варианты написания для гласных звуков
Написание слов и их произношение тесно связаны и должны изучаться вместе. Это особенно верно в отношении английских гласных звуков и их передачи на письме.
Данный материал даёт примеры типичных вариантов написания для английских гласных звуков, идя от звука к написанию. Если вам более удобно идти от букв и буквосочетаний к звукам, которые они передают, вы можете преобразовать данный материал согласно своему желанию. (Пример, как это сделать, дан в материале «Method 2» в разделе Phonetics.)
Обратите внимание, что написание и произношение в данном материале даются согласно американскому варианту английского языка. (См. «British and American Spelling» в разделе Writing; «English Vowel Sounds» и «Vowels Glossary of Terms» в разделе Phonetics.)
Буквы и звуки
В английском языке шесть гласных букв: A, E, I, O, U, Y. Буква Y передаёт гласные звуки [i], [ai] (mystery, type) и согласный (полугласный) звук [y] (yes). Вместе, гласные буквы передают от 15 до 22 гласных звуков. Эта разница происходит в основном из разного подсчета числа дифтонгов в британском английском и в американском английском. Обычно, американские лингвисты приводят пять дифтонгов: [ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou].
Количество английских гласных звуков, передаваемых гласными буквами и определёнными сочетаниями гласных, больше, чем число гласных букв и их сочетаний, а это значит, что одна и та же гласная буква или буквосочетание используется для передачи более чем одного звука. В английском языке также есть несколько вариантов написания для каждого гласного звука, что значит, что один и тот же гласный звук представлен на письме разными буквами и буквосочетаниями.
Например, буква A типично передаёт пять звуков: [ei], [æ], [o:], [a:], [ə] (Kate, cat, call, card, alone). Её распространённый звук открытого слога [ei] представлен на письме не только буквой A как в «Kate», но и пятью различными сочетаниями гласных букв как в «may, rain, weigh, they, break». Буквосочетания EY, EI, которые обычно произносятся [ei] в английских словах, передают звук [ai] в некоторых словах иностранного происхождения (Einstein, geyser).
Также есть связь между звуком, его написанием и окружающими буквами. Например, буквосочетание AR, которое обычно произносится [a:r] как в «car, park, hard», произносится [o:r] после согласной W (war, ward, warm, warn).
Наиболее практичный подход – выучить типичные модели написания для гласных звуков. Другие варианты написания могут присутствовать только в нескольких словах или в словах, которые не часто употребляются.
1. ЗВУК [i:]
Примеры написания: me, Pete, Japanese, equal, rewrite, seem, read, piece, seize, police.
Буква E
Звук [i:] передаётся буквой E в открытом слоге корня: me, be, he, she, we; Pete, eve, these, theme, scene, complete, intervene, precede.
Звук [i:] передаётся буквой E в корне в начальном слоге, который нелегко распознать как открытый слог, обычно под ударением: equal, evening, evil, recent, region, meter, secret, media, demon, female, legal, genius, senior, convenient, frequent, veto, premium, previous.
Звук [i:] передаётся (первой) буквой E в суффиксе «ese»: Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Maltese, Portuguese, Lebanese, Burmese, manganese.
Звук [i:] передаётся буквой E в префиксах (приставках) «pre, re» в некоторых словах: prehistoric, prewar, prefix, preoccupy, prepay, preview, react, rewrite, remake.
Примечание: Во многих словах, буква E в префиксах «pre, re» передаёт краткий звук [i] (remove, repair, repeat, reply, return, prepare, prevent, presume).
Буквосочетания EE, EA
Звук [i:] передаётся буквосочетанием EE: see, free, agree, knee, feel, feed, proceed, succeed, keen, seek, seem, screen, deep, greet, sleeve.
Звук [i:] передаётся буквосочетанием EA: sea, tea, peace, teach, lead (вести), read (читать), peak, deal, reveal, scream, team, clean, leap, please, release, beat, beneath, breathe, creature, leave.
Буквосочетания IE, EI
Звук [i:] передаётся буквосочетанием IE в корне: piece, field, achieve, believe, relief, brief, chief, fiend, siege, shriek, priest.
Звук [i:] передаётся буквосочетанием EI в корне: seize, receive, receipt, deceive, conceive, perceive, ceiling, Leigh.
Буква I
В некоторых английских словах иностранного происхождения звук [i:] представлен на письме буквой I: police, caprice, gasoline, machine, magazine, marine, routine, vaccine, prestige, regime, elite, naive, pizza, ski, liter, fatigue, intrigue, antique, physique, technique, unique.
Редкое написание для звука [i:]: key, people, Aesop, Oedipus.
2. ЗВУК [i]
Примеры написания: sit, ignore, public, working, enough, reply, hardness, boxes, symbol, lady, Annie, honey.
Буква I
Краткий звук [i] передаётся буквой I в закрытом слоге корня: it, sit, miss, tip, pick, pin, bring, list, fill, film, trim, dinner, finger, river, consist.
Краткий звук [i] передаётся буквой I в некоторых префиксах: inform, illogical, immune, impudent, irregular, dislike, disturb, mistake, misunderstand. Обратите внимание на написание: ignore, ignorant, ignite.
Краткий звук [i] передаётся буквой I в некоторых суффиксах: public, dramatic, habit, justice, native, foolish, working.
Буква E
Краткий звук [i] передаётся буквой E в начальном слоге корня: English, pretty, ecology, enough, eleven, electric.
Краткий звук [i] передаётся буквой E в некоторых префиксах: effect, emotion, become, before, despair, depart, remove, repair, repeat, reply, return, preliminary, prepare, prevent, secure.
Краткий звук [i] передаётся буквой E в некоторых суффиксах и окончаниях: hardness, madness, actress, countless, childless, rocket, pocket, boxes, catches, added, counted.
Очень трудно решить, где произнести долгий звук [i:], а где краткий звук [i], когда они передаются буквой E в корне или в префиксе. Для более легкого запоминания целесообразно сделать сравнительный список таких слов, расположенных в двух колонках.
Примечание: Конечная одиночная буква E, которая обычно является немой в английских словах, произносится как [i], или как более короткий вариант звука [i:], в словах «apostrophe, catastrophe, psyche».
Буква Y
Звук [i] передаётся буквой Y в корне: symbol, lyrics, myriad, hymn, hypnosis, pyramid, sympathy, synchronize, crystal, system, typical, tyranny, mystery, myth, rhythm, antonym, synonym, pseudonym, acronym.
Звук [i] передаётся буквой Y в суффиксе: lady, family, Daddy, duty, whisky, carry, hurry, funny, happy, busy, dirty, many, very, lovely, nicely, hardly, Larry, Billy, Mary.
Буквосочетания IE, EY
Звук [i] передаётся буквосочетанием IE в суффиксе: Annie, Carrie, Katie, auntie.
Звук [i] передаётся буквосочетаниями IE, EY в суффиксе: honey, hockey, journey, money, monkey, whiskey, Sydney, Casey, Rodney.
Примечание: Согласно многим словарям, буква Y в суффиксе (lady, busy) и буквосочетания IE, EY в суффиксе (Annie, honey) произносятся как более короткий вариант долгого звука [i:].
3. ЗВУК [e]
Примеры написания: end, well, bread, heavy, many.
Буква E
Звук [e] передаётся буквой E в закрытом слоге корня: bet, set, well, guest, seldom, empty, every, berry, regular, accept, connect, inspector, impress, address, architect, project, enter, entrance, entire.
Звук [e] передаётся буквой E в префиксах «em, en»: embalm, embark, embody, embrace, employ, enable, enlarge, engage, enjoy, environment.
Примечание: Префиксы «em, en» могут также произноситься [im], [in], особенно в BrE; в некоторых случаях, существуют два слова, например, «ensure, insure; enquire, inquire».
Буквосочетание EA
Есть много слов (но всё же ограниченное количество), в которых звук [e] передаётся буквосочетанием EA.
Выучите их наизусть: bread, dead, head, header, lead (свинец), read (читал), spread, thread, dread, tread, instead; already, ready, steady, meadow; sweat, sweater, threat, threaten; breath, death, health, stealth, wealth; weather, leather, feather; measure, pleasure, treasure, treasury, pleasant, peasant, pheasant; dealt, meant, cleanse, jealous, realm; heaven, heavy, endeavor, deaf; breakfast, breast, treachery, weapon.
Редкое написание для звука [e]: any, many, friend, said, says, bury.
4. ЗВУК [ei]
Примеры написания: age, lake, nation, wait, play, they, eight.
Буква A
Звук [ei] передаётся буквой A в открытом слоге корня: Kate, ate, late, take, race, name, save, ache, table, cradle, change, strange, paste, taste, waste.
Звук [ei] передаётся буквой A в корне в начальном слоге, который нелегко распознать как открытый слог, и иногда в закрытом слоге, обычно под ударением: bacon, baby, lazy, angel, danger, stranger, chamber, April, paper, basin, basis, Asia, pastry, nation, patriot, fatal, naval, facial, racial, vacant, ancient, patient, radio.
Звук [ei] передаётся буквой A в глагольном суффиксе «ate»: decorate, educate, create, celebrate, concentrate, separate, dictate, investigate, originate.
Буквосочетания AI, EI
Звук [ei] передаётся буквосочетанием AI, обычно перед согласной буквой в корне: aim, aid, sail, tail, main, vain, rain, raise, faint, paint, saint, strait, straight, remain, complain, disdain, explain, restrain.
Звук [ei] передаётся буквосочетанием EI, обычно перед согласной буквой в корне: rein, veil, vein, feign, reign, deign, sleigh, weigh, weight, eight, freight, neighbor.
Примечание: Буквосочетание EI произносится [ai] в словах «height, sleight, either». (См. 7. ЗВУК [ai].)
Буквосочетания AY, EY
Звук [ei] передаётся буквосочетанием AY, обычно в конечном положении в корне: day, gray, may, say, way, hay, play, pray, stay, stray, essay, relay, delay; betrayal, player, essayist, saying. Но: daily, gaily (также, gayly).
Звук [ei] передаётся буквосочетанием EY, обычно в конечном положении в корне: they, grey, prey, hey, whey, survey, obey, convey, conveyance, surveyor.
Примечание: В некоторых словах иностранного происхождения сочетания EI, EY произносятся как [ai]: Einstein, Fahrenheit, geyser, Meyer.
Примечание: Обратите внимание на написание этих слов: mayor, major.
Буквосочетание EA
В следующих словах, звук [ei] передаётся буквосочетанием EA: break, great, steak.
Слова французского происхождения
В некоторых английских словах французского происхождения конечный звук [ei] представлен на письме буквами E, EE, ET: cafe, attache, pate, resume, fiance, fiancee, divorcee, matinee, entree; ballet, beret, buffet, bouquet, fillet, gourmet.
Примечание: Обычно ставится французский знак ударения на конечной букве E (cafe) и на первой букве E в EE (matinee) в вышеуказанных словах, но некоторые из таких слов могут писаться без знака ударения (например, divorcee, matinee, entree) в AmE.
Есть некоторые английские слова с окончанием EE, которое произносится [i:]: employee, trainee, refugee. Большое количество английских слов имеют окончание ET (произносится [it]): bullet, wallet, skillet, packet, picket, pocket, rocket.
5. ЗВУК [æ] как в CAT
Примеры написания: bad, sat, bank, stand, family, accident, apple.
Буква A в закрытом слоге
В американском английском буква A под ударением в закрытом слоге корня обычно произносится [æ]: ask, task, fast, last, contrast, master, disaster, castle, answer, act, pack, actor, factory, add, mad, staff, after, half, class, glass, grass, jazz, chance, dance, can’t, land, handle, command, talent, example, happy, happen, travel, fashion, bath, matter, Manhattan.
В британском английском буква A во многих из этих слов произносится [a:], например, в словах «class, dance, answer, master, castle, fast, disaster, after, half, bath».
Звук [ei], представленный на письме буквой A, изменяется на звук [æ] в некоторых производных словах: Nature [ei] – natural [æ]; nation [ei] – national [æ]; sane [ei] – sanity [æ]; vain – vanity.
Редкое написание для [æ] (AmE): aunt, laugh.
6. ЗВУК [a:]
Примеры написания: army, regard, father, calm, bravo, mirage.
Буквосочетание AR
Звук [a:] передаётся буквосочетанием AR в корне, обычно под ударением: arm, art, car, card, yard, part, charge, large, margin, argue, guard, regard, garden, pardon, market.
Буква A
Буква A передаёт звук [a:] в нескольких английских словах в американском английском: father, Pa, Papa, Ma, Mama; calm, palm, balm, alms, psalm. (Буква L в этих словах немая.)
Буква A передаёт звук [a:] в некоторых словах иностранного происхождения: drama, Panama, saga, cantata, sonata, spa, bravo, aria, lama; mirage, garage, espionage, sabotage, massage, facade.
Примечание: В некоторых словах французского происхождения, звук [a:] передаётся начальным буквосочетанием «en»: entree, ensemble.
Редкое написание для [a:]: sergeant, heart; (BrE) aunt, laugh, draught.
Звуки [æ] и [a:] в AmE и BrE
В британском английском буква A обычно произносится [æ] как в CAT под ударением в закрытом слоге корня, но буква A обычно произносится [a:] перед согласными f, ff, ph, sk, sp, ss, st, th, nce, nd и некоторыми другими.
В американском английском буква A под ударением в закрытом слоге корня обычно произносится [æ] как в CAT во всех случаях.
Примеры слов с AmE [æ] или BrE [a:]: staff, after, draft, half, ask, task, grasp, grass, glass, class, fast, last, castle, master, disaster, bath, path, example, chance, dance, answer, can’t, demand, command.
7. ЗВУК [ai]
Примеры написания: nice, surprise, minus, private, type, reply, dynamic, find, light, tie.
Буква I
Звук [ai] передаётся буквой I в открытом слоге корня: ice, nice, ride, life, file, smile, line, pipe, quite, wise, hi, polite, surprise, prize, combine, arrive.
Звук [ai] передаётся буквой I, под ударением или без ударения, в корне в слоге, который нелегко распознать как открытый слог: idea, identical, idol, isolation, item, science, society, client, crisis, climate, minus, private, library, finance, horizon, dial, vital, vitamin.
Звук [ai] передаётся буквой I и буквой Y в глагольных суффиксах «ize» (ise), «yze» (yse) и «fy»: organize, modernize, analyze, analyse, satisfy, modify, signify.
Звук [ai] передаётся буквой I в некоторых префиксах: diagram, dialect, digest, digress, bicycle, biannual, biography.
Буква Y
Звук [ai] передаётся буквой Y в некоторых английских словах, обычно в конечном положении в корне: by, my, cry, dry, fly, fry, ply, pry, sky, sly, try.
Звук [ai] передаётся буквой Y во многих словах греческого и латинского происхождения: style, type, hype, rhyme; deny, rely, apply, reply; cycle, cyclone, dynamic, dynamite, hybrid, hyphen, nylon, hyperactive, hypodermic, psychopath, psychiatrist.
Примечание: Конечная Y в словах типа «cry, fly, try, satisfy» в определённых случаях изменяется на I перед суффиксами или окончаниями: cries, flier, flyer, tried, trial, trying, satisfied, satisfying. (Посмотрите материалы на прибавление суффиксов и окончаний в разделе Writing.)
Другие варианты написания для звука [ai]
Звук [ai] представлен некоторыми другими вариантами написания в ограниченном количестве слов.
Буква I перед LD, ND и перед некоторыми другими сочетаниями согласных: child, mild, wild, climb, find, kind, mind, blind; rifle, trifle, title, idle, Bible.
Буква I перед GH, GHT, GN: high, sigh, thigh; fight, light, night, right, slight; sign, align, benign, malign.
Буквосочетания IE, YE, EI, EY, UY: die, tie, lie, pie, vie, dye, lye, rye, bye; height, sleight, either, neither; eye, geyser, buy, guy.
Латинское окончание мн. числа I: alumni, fungi, stimuli, alkali, alibi. (Существительные с латинскими окончаниями мн. числа даны в материале «Irregular Plural Nouns» в разделе Writing.)
Примечание: Звук [ai], представленный буквой I, может изменяться на [i] в некоторых производных: signature, malignant, biblical.
Примечание: Буквосочетание EI в словах «either, neither» произносится [i:] или [ai] в AmE.
8. ЗВУК [au]
Примеры написания: how, brown, out, noun.
Буквосочетания OW, OU
Звук [au] передаётся буквосочетанием OW в любом положении в слове: now, how, cow, row, bow, brow, allow, plow, crowd, owl, fowl, howl, prowl, down, gown, town, clown, brown, drown, crown, browse, browser, powder, power, flower, tower, allowing, allowance.
Звук [au] передаётся буквосочетанием OU, обычно перед согласной буквой в корне: out, about, doubt, couch, cloud, loud, proud, foul, noun, announce, bounce, ounce, pound, found, ground, hound, around, sound, surround, count, account, amount, mountain, house, mouse, louse, blouse, mouth, south, scout, shout, bough, plough, drought.
Трудно решить, где произнести звук [ou], а где звук [au], когда они представлены сочетанием OW. Например: own – owl; bowl – brown; mow – pow. Кроме того, есть несколько омонимов, которые пишутся одинаково, но произносятся по-разному: row [rou] и [rau]; bow [bou] и [bau]; sow [sou] и [sau]. Желательно сделать сравнительный список таких слов.
Также может быть трудно решить, где писать OW, а где писать OU. Например: fowl – foul; browse – blouse; crowd – cloud; powder – pound. Будет полезно иметь сравнительный список таких слов.
9. ЗВУК [o:]
Примеры написания: more, order, law, call, cause, caught, bought, course, war, water.
Модели написания для звука [o:]
Буквосочетания OR, ORE: cord, Ford, form, born, corn, torn, short, sport, torch, porch, orange, order, orient, normal, mortal, storm, story, glory, forum, forty, morning; bore, more, before, shore, sore, store, tore, explore, ignore.
Буквосочетание AW: law, draw, drawer, saw, thaw, crawl, shawl, hawk, dawn, lawn, awful, awkward.
Буквосочетания ALL, AL: all, ball, call, fall, hall, wall, appall, alter, always, already, walk, talk, chalk, false, salt, halt.
Буквосочетание AU: cause, pause, applause, sauce, audio, audience, fraud, August, auto, author, Paul, fault, haunt, launch, laundry.
Буквосочетание AUGHT: caught, taught, daughter, slaughter, haughty, naughty.
Буквосочетание OUGHT: bought, brought, fought, ought, sought, thought; cough.
Буквосочетания OUR, OAR, OOR: course, court, four, mourn, pour, source, your; board, hoarse, hoard, roar, soar, broad; door, floor.
Буквосочетания WAR, WA: war, warm, ward, warden, warn, warning, award, reward; water, want, wand, wash, wasp, watch, swamp, swan.
Буквосочетание QUAR: quart, quarter, headquarters, quartz, quarrel, quarantine.
Буква O как [o:] в AmE: long, wrong, song, boss, lost, cost, dog, gone, coffee.
Примечание: В AmE, буква O в словах типа «long, cost, dog» может произноситься как [o:] или как [o]. В BrE, буква O в таких словах обычно имеет звук [o].
Есть несколько вариантов написания для звука [o:], которые также используются для некоторых других звуков. Например: door [o:] – poor [u]; pour [o:] – tour [u]; cost [o:] – post [ou]. Тем не менее, модели написания для звука [o:] вполне узнаваемые и должны легко запоминаться.
10. ЗВУК [o]
Примеры написания: not, stop, rob, body, sorry, model, conference, want, watch, wash.
Модели написания для звука [o]
Буква O: got, hot, not, stop, rob, odd, off, clock, coffee, gone, bomb, bond, soft, often, body, hobby, dollar, doctor, document, occupy, college, compliment, conference, model, monitor, option, promise, prompt, follow, borrow, sorrow, tomorrow, sorry, orange.
Буквосочетание WA: want, watch, wash, what, swamp, swallow, swan.
Буквосочетание QUA: quality, qualify, quantity, quarrel, quarantine.
Редкое написание для [o]: cough, knowledge, yacht.
Звук [o] в BrE и AmE
Интересно отметить, что в американском английском нет такого звука, как британский краткий звук [o]. Вместо него, звук, который звучит как гибрид долгих звуков [o:] и [a:], произносится в американском английском там, где в британском английском краткий звук [o].
Этот гибридный американский звук обычно указывается в американских словарях как [o], но может указываться как [a:]. Например, в американских словарях могут быть следующие варианты транскрипции для слова «want»: [wont] or [wo:nt]; [wo:nt] or [wa:nt].
Тот же гибридный звук [o], или [o:] окрашенный как [a:], может произноситься в AmE в словах типа «water, ought, daughter», в которых долгое [o:] считается нормой. Однако долгое [o:] всегда остается [o:] в ударном слоге перед [r]: more [mo:r], lord [lo:rd], normal, port.
Примеры слов с BrE [o] или AmE гибридным [o]: got, not, hot, stop, rob, odd, off, dog, log, clock, coffee, cough, gone, long, song, cost, loss, boss, bomb, bond, soft, often, body, hobby, dollar, doctor, document, occupy, college, compliment, conference, model, monitor, option, promise, prompt, follow, borrow, sorrow, tomorrow, sorry, orange, quality, quantity, want, wash, watch, what, swamp, swallow, swan.
Этот своеобразный гибридный звук [o], звук [r], который произносится во всех положениях, и звук [æ] в словах типа «class, ask, castle, fast, demand, dance» придают американскому английскому его характерный акцент.
11. ЗВУК [oi]
Примеры написания: boil, noise, toy, loyal.
Буквосочетания OI, OY
Звук [oi] представлен на письме буквосочетанием OI, обычно перед согласной буквой в корне: oil, ointment, boil, foil, spoil, toil, coin, join, voice, void, avoid, point, appoint, noise, poison, hoist, moist, exploit, loiter, embroidery.
Звук [oi] представлен на письме буквосочетанием OY в любом положении в слове: boy, joy, ploy, soy, toy, annoy, destroy, employ, corduroy, oyster, loyal, royal, voyage, boyish, joyful.
12. ЗВУК [ou]
Примеры написания: home, post, bonus, hero, know, road.
Буква O
Звук [ou] передаётся буквой O в открытом слоге корня: home, role, cone, stone, hope, note, close, remote, suppose, homeless, lonely, hopeful.
Звук [ou] передаётся буквой O в корне в слоге, который нелегко распознать как открытый слог: open, obey, omit, omen, opal, ocean, potent, polar, solar, motor, rotor, modal, total, moment, rodent, soldier, bonus, focus, notice, social, donate, donut, vogue, rogue. Примечание: В словах «obey, omit», буквы «ob, o» – латинские префиксы.
Звук [ou] передаётся буквой O в закрытом слоге корня, обычно перед LD, LT, LL и перед некоторыми другими сочетаниями согласных: old, bold, cold, hold, sold, bolt, colt, roll, poll, toll, control, folk, yolk, most, post, host, ghost, gross, both, comb, don’t, won’t.
Звук [ou] передаётся буквой O в префиксе «co» и в некоторых случаях в префиксе «pro»: coeducation, coworker, coexist, coordinate, pronoun, prohibit, prohibition.
Примечание: Во многих словах, буква O в префиксе «pro» передаёт звук [ə] (propose, pronounce, protect, provide, production, profession).
Буква O в конечном положении
Звук [ou] передаётся буквой O в конечном положении в слове: go, no, so, also, cargo, echo, hero, zero, piano, potato, tomato, mosquito, radio, studio, Mexico, Idaho, motto, logo, veto.
Примечание:: Конечная буква O может передавать звук [u:] как в «do, two, who, to, into» и звуки [u:] или [ə] в неударном положении как в «to, into».
Буквосочетания OW, OA
Звук [ou] представлен на письме буквосочетанием OW в любом положении в слове: know, low, show, row, tow, owe, grow, throw, blow, flow; bowl, own, blown, flown, grown, shown, thrown, growth; follow, hollow, borrow, narrow, window, yellow; owing, growing, follower, lower, yellowish.
Звук [ou] представлен на письме буквосочетанием OA, обычно перед согласной буквой в корне: oat, oak, coal, goal, load, road, boat, coat, soak, toast, roast, coast, boast, coach, approach, cockroach.
Буквосочетания OE, OUGH, OU
Звук [ou] представлен на письме буквосочетаниями OE, OUGH, OU в ограниченном количестве слов: toe, roe, doe, foe, woe; though, although, dough; soul, shoulder, poultry, boulder, mold / mould.
Поскольку буква O может передавать разные гласные звуки, например, [ou], [o:], [o], [ə], а также может образовывать ряд буквосочетаний с другими гласными, будет очень полезно изучать её произношение, расположив группы слов в колонках на одной странице согласно звуку, который буква O передаёт.
13. ЗВУКИ [u:] и [yu:]
Примеры написания: use, rude, food, do, few, blue, group.
Модели написания для звука [u:]
Буква U и буквосочетания EW, EU, UE, UI передают звук [u:] после согласных букв R, L, J, CH. Гласная O и буквосочетания OO, OU передают звук [u:].
Буква U as [u:]: rude, crude, rule, rumor, brutal, prune; Lucy, Luke, lumen, flute; judicial, June, junior, Julia, judo; chute, parachute.
Буква O as [u:]: do, two, who, whom, whose, lose, move, prove, improve, tomb, womb.
Буквосочетание OO as [u:]: food, mood, room, broom, moon, cartoon, cool, pool, school, scoop, tooth, boots, poodle, ooze, choose, soothe, shoot, too, zoo, bamboo, taboo, kangaroo, shampoo, tattoo.
Буквосочетание OU as [u:]: group, soup, loupe, cougar, coupon, mousse, route, routine, wound, souvenir, through, rouge.
Буквосочетание OE as [u:]: shoe, canoe.
Буквосочетание EW as [u:]: jewel, Jew, flew, blew, chew, crew, screw.
Буквосочетание UE as [u:]: true, blue, clue, glue.
Буквосочетание UI as [u:]: juice, fruit, bruise, cruise, recruit, sluice.
Модели написания для звука [yu:]
Буква U и буквосочетания EW, EU, UE, UI передают звук [yu:] после других согласных букв (кроме R, L, J, CH). Буква U произносится [yu:], когда она начинает слово.
Буква U as [yu:]: use, usual, union, unit, unite, unique, universe, universal, university, urine, utility, utensil, ubiquitous.
Буква U as [yu:]: fume, funeral, fuse, refuse, fuel; cube, cute, vacuum; music, museum, amuse, community, immune, mute; pupil, human, humor, huge, Hugh.
Буква U as [yu:]: duty, due, produce, tulip, tune, student; nude, nuclear, numeral, menu; super, Susan, consumer.
Буквосочетание EW as [yu:]: few, nephew, view, dew, new, mew, pew, stew.
Буквосочетание EU as [yu:]: eucalyptus, euphemism, feud, neurotic, neutral.
Буквосочетания UE, UI as [yu:]: hue, cue, due, sue, pursue, suit.
После Y всегда [yu:]: yule, yuletide, Yukon; youth, yew.
Редкое написание для [yu:]: beauty.
Примечание: В американском английском звук [u:], а не [yu:], обычно произносится после согласных D, T, N, S, хотя оба варианта считаются нормой. Примеры: duty [‘du:ti], dew [du:], due [du:], dual; tune [tu:n], tulip [‘tu:lip], stew [stu:], student; new [nu:], nude [nu:d], nuclear; suit [su:t], sue [su:], pursue, super.
14. ЗВУК [u]
Примеры написания: book, good, pull, sugar, could.
Модели написания для краткого звука [u]
Буквосочетание OO: book, cook, look, hook, shook, took, good, stood, wood, hood, childhood, foot, wool, broom, rookie.
Буква U: put, push, pull, bush, bull, bullet, full, pudding, sugar, cushion, butcher.
Буква O: wolf, woman.
Буквосочетание OU: could, should, would.
Довольно трудно решить, где произнести долгий звук [u:], а где краткий звук [u], когда они представлены буквосочетанием OO (и буквой U, хотя и в меньшей степени). Целесообразно вести сравнительный список таких слов. В некоторых случаях есть два варианта произношения: room – [ru:m], [rum]; roof – [ru:f], [ruf]; hoop – [hu:p], [hup]; soot – [sut], [su:t].
15. ЗВУК [ər] как в SIR
Примеры написания: verb, turn, first, learn, work, journey, dollar.
В американском английском, звук [ər] передаётся сочетаниями гласных с буквой R в корне, префиксе или суффиксе, под ударением или без ударения. Звук [r] произносится во всех положениях в слове в AmE. Все гласные буквы могут образовывать такие сочетания. Сочетание AR передаёт звук [ər] только в безударном положении, обычно в суффиксе.
Модели написания для звука [ər]
Буквосочетание ER: her, herb, serve, verb, verse, were, certain, person, concern, emergency, energy, perceive, percent, prefer, teacher, mister, buyer, finger, better, powder.
Буквосочетание UR: urge, fur, burn, turn, curse, purse, purr, hurry, current, occur, curtain, furnish, turkey, purpose, pursue, disturb, pleasure, lecture, pressure.
Буквосочетание IR: sir, fir, girl, bird, stir, shirt, skirt, third, whirl, circle, circus, dirty, thirsty.
Буквосочетание EAR: learn, heard, search, early, earn, earth, pearl, yearn, rehearse.
Буквосочетание OR: word, work, worm, world, worry, worse, worth; attorney, forgive, forget, doctor, visitor, favor, effort, comfort.
Буквосочетание OUR: courage, courtesy, journey, journal, glamour.
Буквосочетание AR: dollar, collar, grammar, sugar, solar, vulgar, anarchy, monarchy, beggar, coward, hazard.
Буквосочетание YR: martyr, satyr, zephyr.
Буквосочетание EUR: amateur, connoisseur, chauffeur.
Будет легче запомнить модели написания слов со звуком [ər], если вы расположите такие слова в колонках согласно их написанию.
Примечание: В словах выше (и в других похожих словах), звук [ər] в американском английском обычно соответствует звуку [ə:] в ударных слогах и звуку [ə] в неударных слогах в британском английском.
Примечание: В британском английском, первый гласный звук в словах «hurry, current, courage, worry» – [ʌ], а не [ə:].
16. НЕЙТРАЛЬНЫЙ ЗВУК как в BUT
Примеры написания: about, son, much, rough, golden, possible.
Нейтральный звук [ə] – самый распространённый гласный звук английского языка. Он встречается в начальном, среднем или конечном положении в корне, префиксе и суффиксе, под ударением или без ударения. Обычно, символы транскрипции для нейтрального звука – [ʌ] (caret) в ударных слогах и [ə] (schwa) в безударных слогах. В американских материалах ESL нейтральный звук часто даётся как [ə] (schwa) и в ударных слогах, и в безударных слогах. Нейтральный звук представлен несколькими моделями написания.
Модели написания для нейтрального звука
Буква A: about, around, asleep, Italy, ornament, likable, central, resistance, assistant, cinema, opera, soda.
Буква O: son, mother, money, other, front, done, some, love, observe, oppress, protect, provide, decorate, memory, history, freedom, lesson.
Буква U: but, sun, much, lucky, ugly, sudden, number, punish, publish, consult, submit, success, suggest, unhappy, understand, industry, difficult, minus, helpful, skillful.
Буква E: tolerate, operate, academy, gallery, system, golden, kitten, different, movement.
Буква I: terrible, possible, family.
Буквосочетание OU: rough, tough, country, cousin, couple, double, trouble, touch, flourish, nourish, young, famous, dangerous.
Буквосочетание OO: blood, flood.
Нейтральный звук – один из самых трудных гласных звуков, говоря о произношении и правописании. В разговорной речи безударные краткие гласные часто произносятся как нейтральный звук, а в некоторых случаях нейтральный звук выпадает. В некоторых других случаях нейтральный звук может появляться в слоге между двумя согласными, где для него нет гласной буквы на письме, например, в «table, apple, idle, riddle, prism». Это усиливает необходимость изучать произношение английских слов вместе с их написанием.
We all know that the English vowels are A, E, I, O, and U, but it might be hard to understand exactly why this concept is so important.
So what exactly makes a letter a vowel?
The short answer is that vowels are speech sounds that you can pronounce without restricting the flow of air from the lungs.
This article will explain how vowels work and why they’re so important.
What Is a Vowel?
Vowel Definition
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a vowel is a speech sound made with your mouth open and your tongue in the middle of your mouth, not touching your teeth or lips.
Vowel Meaning
A vowel is a speech sound made without a significant constriction of the flow of air from the lungs.
Every vowel sound is made by shaping the mouth in a specific way without blocking the airflow. You can create unique sounds by placing your tongue in various different positions (front, central, or back) and at various heights (high, mid, or low). You can also change the shape of your lips (rounded, neutral, or spread).
One way to help understand this concept is by opening your mouth and saying “ahh.” Now try changing the shape of your mouth without blocking the flow of air. If you stretch your mouth wider into a spread shape, you make more of an “e” sound. If you round your lips, you make more of an “o” sound. When you change the position of your tongue, those sounds change as well. Congratulations—you’re making different vowels!
As soon as you restrict or close your airflow, you start making a consonant. For example, if you bring your lips together you create a consonant such as “b” or “p.” If you touch your tongue to the top of your mouth, you create a consonant such as “k” or “g.” If you put your tongue between your teeth, you make a sound like “th.”
Blocking the airflow is the difference between a vowel and a consonant.
Vowel Letters
The English language includes six vowel letters: A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y.
The letter Y is only sometimes a vowel because it can be pronounced as a consonant (such as in the words “yellow,” “yam,” and “kayak”) and sometimes as a vowel (such as in the words “sky,” “thyme,” and “lovely”).
It’s a consonant when it involves blocking the airflow out of your mouth, and it’s a vowel when it doesn’t.
Here are some examples of vowel letters in common English words:
- Unit: the vowel letters are “u” and “i”
- Chocolate: the vowel letters are “o,” “o,” “a,” and “e”
- Rainy: the vowel letters are “a,” “i,” and “y”
Vowel Sounds
Even though we only have five vowel letters in English (A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y), we actually have a lot more than five vowel sounds.
Each vowel letter can be used to express more than one sound. For example, the letter “a” can be pronounced like the “a” in “rate” or like the “a” in “rat.”
Furthermore, we can represent vowels by combining the five vowel letters in different ways. Sometimes we combine two vowels together to make a specific sound, such as “ai” and “au.” Other times, we combine a vowel with a consonant, such as “ah” and “an.”
Here are some examples of vowel sounds in English words. Notice how they’re different from the vowel letters themselves.
- Unit: the vowel sounds are created by “u” and “i”
- Chocolate: the vowel sounds are created by “o”, “o”, and “a.” The “e” at the end is silent
- Rainy: the vowel sounds are created by “ai” and “y”
Why Are Vowels so Important in English?
Vowels are a crucial part of our language. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to speak or sing.
They’re also important for learning how to read and write English. Every beginner reader needs to learn vowels in order to sound out written words, since each syllable contains a vowel sound.
Let’s look more closely at the reasons why vowels are so important.
You Need Vowels to Cry, Laugh, and Sing
The human mouth is designed to include vowels in our speech sounds. We create vowel sounds even when we laugh or cry, regardless of the native language we speak.
We also need vowels to sing. Try singing a consonant sound like “k” or “t” or “b.”
You’ll quickly find that it’s impossible to sing a consonant without using a vowel. For example, you can sing the sound “kay” or the sound “tee,” but that’s because you’re singing the vowel sounds “ay” and “ee.” The consonants “k” and “t” only last for a moment.
If you pay attention to professional singers you’ll notice that they often draw out the vowel sounds, ending on consonants only at the very end. Unless you’re humming, you need to use vowels to sustain a sound for a long time.
Every Word and Syllable Needs a Vowel
Every syllable in the English language contains a vowel sound.
If you want to figure out how many syllables there are in a word, an easy method is to count the number of vowel sounds there are.
For example, say the word “tomato.” It has three syllables: to-ma-to. Here, the vowel sounds are “o,” “a,” and “o.”
Or say the word “counted.” It has two syllables: coun-ted. Here, the vowel sounds are “ou” and “e.”
You can have words and syllables without consonants, such as “I” or “oh”, but you can’t have a word without vowels. In a way, vowels are the heart of language—they’re the most basic component of the way we speak.
You Need Vowels to Create Assonance
Assonance is a literary device that involves the repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words. This device creates rhythm and helps writing to flow in a more musical way.
For example, consider this famous line from William Blake’s “Tyger”: “Tyger, Tyger burning bright in the forest of the night.” Here, the long “i” sound is repeated over and over. You hear it in “tyger,” “bright,” and “night.”
Another example is from the movie My Fair Lady: “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.” Here, the long “a” sound is repeated over and over in “rain,” “Spain,” “stays,” “mainly,” and “plain.”
If you’re writing or reading poetry, you should pay attention to vowel sounds. You can make your poem more musical by using similar sounds in interesting patterns.
Origins of the Word Vowel
The word “vowel” originates from the Latin word “vox,” which means “voice.”
In contrast, the word “consonant” originates from the Latin words for “with sound”: con (“with”) and sonare (“to sound”).
The Difference Between Short & Long Vowels
There are two types of vowel sounds: long vowels and short vowels.
The names of vowels are long vowel sounds. Think of the way you pronounce the letters A, E, I, O, and U when you’re singing the alphabet song. These are long vowels.
Here are some examples of long vowels in words:
- The “e” in “lead”
- The “a” in “mail”
- The “o” in “pole”
Whenever a vowel isn’t pronounced the way its name sounds, that means it’s a short vowel sound.
Here are some examples of short vowels in words:
- The “e” in “led”
- The “a” in “ball”
- The “o” in “pop”
It’s important to understand the difference between long and short vowels when you’re reading so you can pronounce the words correctly.
Long vowel sounds are often created by ending the word with a silent “e.” For example, the “a” in “hate” is a long vowel, while the “a” in “hat” is not.
Other times, long vowel sounds can be created by placing two vowels next to each other. For example, the “e” in “beat” is a long vowel, while the “e” in “bet” is not.
When a vowel appears by itself, it’s often pronounced as a short vowel, though this isn’t always the case. Practicing reading and pronouncing various English words is the best way to gain an intuitive understanding of how to pronounce each vowel.
Do Vowels Exist in Other Languages?
Every language has vowels, though some languages have more than others. For example, Japanese has only five vowel sounds, while Danish has 32.
Which words do you think have the strangest vowel pronunciations? Let us know in the comments.
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So you’ve been playing Wordle for a while, and getting better every day. But you want an edge over your friends and others, a potential ‘best word’ or a list of best words to start with.
Well, look no further, we have a list of five-letter words with the most vowels, to help you improve your score on Wordle. So, sit down, open that browser and let’s get into the best words you can guess on Wordle.
Related: How to Play Past Wordle Games in 3 Ways on Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone
The Mathematics of Wordle Vowels
All conversations in Wordle discussion spaces seem to echo one sentence– I always start with a word with more than one vowel in it. This is a topic that deserves to be put under the microscope for a detailed study.
Wordgame noob or veteran, it doesn’t matter — generally, people would come up with words that contain at least one vowel while playing. In Wordle, there is an added tendency to repeat the vowels, because words like “COLOR”, “ALOFT” or “BLOOM” have a propensity to easily slither their way out of our brain and onto the screen.
However, Wordle strategists don’t stress about incorporating vowel-rich words because of their frequency in appearance. Rather, it is recommended as a calculated move to optimize the second (and consecutive moves) with the best first word.
And strategically, vowel-packed words make some of the best first words. This is owing to the general rule of the English language and specifically designed conditions laid out by the creator. In English, there are a number of words without vowels. The list narrows down further when five-letter words are considered separately. Josh Wardle, the creator of Wordle, has further condensed the scope of vowel-free words by mercifully banishing rare words from the list of 2,135 eligible words. That only leaves you with very few vowel-free words like crypt or gypsy.
That said, the mathematics of Vowel-stuffing your first guess (and maybe the second one, too) is all about facilitating the process of elimination. When you start your Wordle with a word like ADIEU, you have submitted four out of the five vowels for colored feedback from the game. The odds of at least one of the said vowels retuning with yellow or green feedback is higher than you receiving positive feedback for another vowel-packed word like QUEUE.
The rationale is simple: ADIEU is more than just a vowel-packed word, it is also comprised only of unique letters. In contrast, the word QUEUE only brings three unique letters to the table and significantly diminishes the chances of receiving positive feedback.
The trick is to start with vowels which are almost inevitably present in all eligible words and to incorporate as much variety to the letters.
Related: How to Play Wordle Like a Pro!
- ADIEU
- AUDIO
- AULOI
- AUREI
- LOUIE
- MIAOU
- OUIJA
- OURIE
- URAEI
Five-letter words with four unique vowels offer an almost guaranteed lock on at least one of the vowels.
Related: How to Play Wordle on iPhone or Android as an App
Wordle 221 4/6
Pro tip always start with OUIJA. Most of the vowels are done#Wordle221
⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩— Tom Dalziel (@ManlyPelican) January 26, 2022
Related: Wordle Game Rules Explained
Wordle: 5-Letter Words With Three Vowels
Since the list of five-letter words with three vowels is fairly long, we’ve kept it to 30 words that you can use to clear three vowels in one word. Some of the words below have 4 vowels but you will notice that they have only three unique vowels, thus, out under the 3-vowels list.
3-Vowel Words without repeating a vowel:
- ABUSE
- ALONE
- ARGUE
- ARISE
- HOUSE
- JUICE
- MEDIA
- MOVIE
- NAIVE
- OCEAN
- PIANO
- QUAIL
- QUIET
- QUITE
- RADIO
- RAISE
- SAUCE
- UNION
- VIDEO
Related: Is Wordle on iPhone or Android?
3-Vowel Words with repeating vowels:
- AECIA
- AIOLI
- AQUAE
- AREAE
- AURAE
- LOOIE
- OIDIA
- OORIE
- ZOEAE
Related: 8 Best ‘Wordle Helper’ Websites and Tips
Is Vowel-Stuffing Necessary?
Even though vowels-stuffing is calculated to produce a favorable outcome, adding more vowels need not necessarily be the only strategy to make headway right from the early stage of the challenge. This is because the Wordle solution list has swiped left on uncommon words from the list– this includes proper nouns like LOUIE or borrowed words like ADIEU. Such words are accepted as guesses and facilitate the process of elimination, yet going for words that have an even letter distribution (with both vowels and consonants) might take you closer to the hidden word faster.
everyone who plays wordle focuses on the vowels first but the consonants really are the best clues. im using that wheel of fortune strategy babeeeey pic.twitter.com/UtvYcv7Zzd
— dingleberry 🦑 (@ingledont) January 24, 2022
The key is to weed through some charts and letter distribution data to analyze which letters (apart from vowels) make the most appearance in the eligible words. As luck would have it, several smart Wordlers have already studied the letter distribution. Leeching off of their findings, we can conclude that some letters do have a higher appearance frequency, like the letters C, R, N, L, and T. Find out more about common letters from our detailed article on the topic.
Related: Average Wordle Score and Stats Explained
List of Wordle Words with a Fair Distribution of Vowels and Common Letters
If you choose first words as a decisive move to expose the relevance of the letters in the game, elimination and guessing could be made concomitantly by way of deploying common letters into the mix. This takes a tremendous load off your guess to lock on vowels and also opens room to welcome or banish common letters.
If you observe the screenshot above of a past Wordle, you can see how the variety in letters has helped to strike-off many common letters and vowels from the set of relevant letters. If the word used was ADIEU instead of ABOUT there would be the obvious advantage of revealing the correct vowel, but the player might have required more guesses to figure out the useable consonants. The moves may also be affected by the positions of the letters that received positive feedback.
To get more insight into Wordle strategies, read the related article below.
Related: How to Get Started with Wordle and Ace It?
Some first-words with fair letter distribution to consider:
- ARISE
- PALER
- ROAST
- RATIO
- TRAIL
- GOURD
- PEARS
- EARLY
- STEAM
- POETS
Related: How to Play Old Wordles
Wordle Cheat with Vowel-Packed Solution Words
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! The following are words with three unique vowels that are actually in the Wordle list of eligible words. May contain words from older Wordles and very likely includes words that might come up as the hidden word any one of these upcoming days! This is a fun cheat to try your luck at nailing the challenge in one shot! Read at your own discretion!
- ABUSE
- CAMEO
- EASEL
- FUGUE
- GUIDE
- HAUTE
- IMBUE
- KOALA
- LIEGE
- MAUVE
- OCEAN
- PATIO
- QUAIL
- RADIO
- SAUTE
- TIARA
- UTILE
- VENUE
- WAIVE
Armed with these words, you’ll have the upper hand in your daily Wordle challenge. So, get started now!
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Vowels and consonants are two types of letters in the English alphabet. A vowel sound is created when air flows smoothly, without interruption, through the throat and mouth. Different vowel sounds are produced as a speaker changes the shape and placement of articulators (parts of the throat and mouth).
In contrast, consonant sounds happen when the flow of air is obstructed or interrupted. If this sounds confusing, try making the “p” sound and the “k” sound. You will notice that in creating the sound you have manipulated your mouth and tongue to briefly interrupt airflow from your throat. Consonant sounds have a distinct beginning and end, while vowel sounds flow.
The pronunciation of each vowel is determined by the position of the vowel in a syllable, and by the letters that follow it. Vowel sounds can be short, long, or silent.
Short Vowels
If a word contains only one vowel, and that vowel appears in the middle of the word, the vowel is usually pronounced as a short vowel. This is especially true if the word is very short. Examples of short vowels in one-syllable words include the following:
- At
- Bat
- Mat
- Bet
- Wet
- Led
- Red
- Hit
- Fix
- Rob
- Lot
- Cup
- But
This rule can also apply to one-syllable words that are a bit longer:
- Rant
- Chant
- Slept
- Fled
- Chip
- Strip
- Flop
- Chug
When a short word with one vowel ends in s, l, or f, the end consonant is doubled, as in:
- Bill
- Sell
- Miss
- Pass
- Jiff
- Cuff
If there are two vowels in a word, but the first vowel is followed by a double consonant, the vowel’s sound is short, such as:
- Matter
- Cannon
- Ribbon
- Wobble
- Bunny
If there are two vowels in a word and the vowels are separated by two or more letters, the first vowels is usually short, for example:
- Lantern
- Basket
- Ticket
- Bucket
Long Vowels
The long vowel sound is the same as the name of the vowel itself. Follow these rules:
- Long A sound is AY as in cake.
- Long E sound is EE an in sheet.
- Long I sound is AHY as in like.
- Long O sound is OH as in bone.
- Long U sound is YOO as in human or OO as in crude.
Long vowel sounds are often created when two vowels appear side by side in a syllable. When vowels work as a team to make a long vowel sound, the second vowel is silent. Examples are:
- Rain
- Seize
- Boat
- Toad
- Heap
A double “e” also makes the long vowel sound:
- Keep
- Feel
- Meek
The vowel “i” often makes a long sound in a one-syllable word if the vowel is followed by two consonants:
- Blight
- High
- Mind
- Wild
- Pint
This rule does not apply when the “i” is followed by the consonants th, ch, or sh, as in:
- Fish
- Wish
- Rich
- With
A long vowel sound is created when a vowel is followed by a consonant and a silent “e” in a syllable, as in:
- Stripe
- Stake
- Concede
- Bite
- Size
- Rode
- Cute
The long “u” sound can sound like yoo or oo, such as:
- Cute
- Flute
- Lute
- Prune
- Fume
- Perfume
Most often, the letter “o” will be pronounced as a long vowel sound when it appears in a one-syllable word and is followed by two consonants, as in these examples:
- Most
- Post
- Roll
- Fold
- Sold
A few exceptions occur when the “o” appears in a single syllable word that ends in th or sh:
- Posh
- Gosh
- Moth
Weird Vowel Sounds
Sometimes, combinations of vowels and consonants (like Y and W) create unique sounds. The letters oi can make an OY sound when they appear in the middle of a syllable:
- Boil
- Coin
- Oink
The same sound is made with the letters “oy” when they appear at the end of a syllable:
- Ahoy
- Boy
- Annoy
- Soy
Similarly, the letters “ou” make a distinct sound when they appear in the middle of a syllable:
- Couch
- Rout
- Pout
- About
- Aloud
The same sound can be made by the letters «ow» when they appear at the end of a syllable:
- Allow
- Plow
- Endow
The long “o” sound is also created by the letters “ow” when they appear at the end of a syllable:
- Row
- Blow
- Slow
- Below
The letters «ay» make the long “a” sound:
- Stay
- Play
- Quay
The letter Y can make a long “i” sound if it appears at the end of a one-syllable word:
- Shy
- Ply
- Try
- Fly
The letters ie can make a long “e” sound (except after c):
- Belief
- Thief
- Fiend
The letters ei can make the long “e” sound when they follow a “c”:
- Receive
- Deceive
- Receipt
The letter “y” can make a long e sound if it appears at the end of a word and it follows one or more consonants:
- Bony
- Holy
- Rosy
- Sassy
- Fiery
- Toasty
- Mostly