Word list of long a words

What are long a words in the English language? The long a sound has eight varieties of spelling which can make it tricky. Here you’ll learn a little about long a, the eight ways in which you can spell long a words, and see some examples for each spelling.

What are Long A Words?

A long a is the sound pronounced the way the a is said. For example, the way you say the letter a at the beginning of the alphabet is the long sound for the letter a. So, any word that makes that sound is considered a long a word.

Ways to Spell Long A Words

There are eight ways to spell long a words:

• a – table
• a-e – plane
• ai – train
• ay – today
• ei – beige
• eigh – weight
• ea – break
• ey – hey

You may notice that most of these are in vowel teams, which means that they are working with another vowel to make the long a sound. There are some reasons, rules, and tricks to use to remember the differences.

• a-e: This style has an a and e with a consonant in between. The e is silent in these long words.
• ai: You will find this long a sound either in the beginning or in the middle of a base word. Most of these words also end with the letter n, but not all the time.
• ay: This long a style will be at the end of a base word.
• ei: This pattern is not very common and doesn’t come with any rules. You’ll see some examples below.
• eigh: You will find this sound pattern at the end of some long a words.
• ea: This long a pattern is the least common way to make the long a sound. You’ll see this vowel team in the middle of long a words.
• ey: There are only ten common words that are spelled with this style.

Learn more with long vowel words English.

List of Long A Words

Here is a list of long a words in each of the eight spelling patterns

a

• Acorn
• Paper
• Baby
• Crazy
• Lady
• Basic
• Maple
• Table
• Fatal
• Potato
• Tomato
• Naval
• Radio
• Shaky
• Bacon
• Halo

a-e

• Cane
• Cake
• Lake
• Same
• Case
• Wave
• Trade
• Flake
• Space
• Cage
• Base
• Came
• Stage
• Space
• Plane
• Shade
• Tame
• Wade

ai

• Train
• Rain
• Fail
• Nail
• Daily
• Afraid
• Raisin
• Grain
• Gain
• Faint
• Trail
• Aim
• Sail
• Maid
• Paid
• Sprain
• Wait
• Waist
• Daily

ay

• Day
• Play
• Tray
• Say
• Clay
• Stay
• Pray
• May
• Spray
• Gray
• Hay
• Pay
• Bay
• Tray
• Away
• Today
• Relay
• Stray
• Yay

ei

• Beige
• Their
• Deign
• Vein
• Reign
• Heir
• Rein
• Reindeer

eigh

• Eight
• Weight
• Weigh
• Sleigh
• Freight
• Neigh
• Neighbor

ea

• Tear
• Bear
• Wear
• Swear
• Pear
• Steak
• Break
• Great

ey

• Hey
• They
• Grey
• Prey
• Obey
• Convey
• Purvey
• Survey
• Whey
• Abeyance

With having eight different ways to produce the long a sound in a word, it may be easiest to learn each sound pattern one at a time to get comfortable and familiar with them. There are several fun games and resources available that can be found online to help you learn and differentiate between these eight long a word sound patterns. The most important thing to remember in identifying a long a word is that the sound will be the same as the name of the letter a.

Long A Words | Image

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Last Updated on February 26, 2023

The long a sound can be spelled several ways. The magic e or final e and the open syllable are the most common ways. In addition, the long a sound can be represented in 2 vowel teams (“ai” and “ay”). Of course, there will be exceptions or odd balls- the irregular vowel team (“ei”).

Five Ways to Spell the Long A Sound

1. Magic E (VCe or a_e)

The magic E rule states when a word contains the letter “e” at the end, it is usually silent and the preceding vowel says its name (long sound), e.g., cake and date.

2. Vowel Team – AI

The vowel team rule states when two vowels go walking the first does the talking and the second vowel is silent. The combination of both an “a” and an “i” (double vowels) results in the long a sound. There are many AI words, e.g., maid, brain and paint.

3. Vowel Team – AY

As noted above, when two vowels go walking the first does the talking. The combination of both an “a” and “y” can result in the long a sound. The AY words, e.g., day and say, are not as plentiful as the AI words.

4. Irregular Vowel Team – EI

The vowel team rule states when two vowels go walking the first does the talking and the second vowel is silent. Like most things in life, there are exceptions. The combination of the vowels “e” and “i” can result in the long a sound, e.g., eight, sleigh, neigh and weigh.

5. Open Syllable – Long A

An open syllable occurs when a vowel is at the end of the syllable (it is not closed by a consonant), e.g., A/pril and ha/zy.

Long A Words

The table below contains 169 long A words. The words are categorized into one of the five ways the long a sound can be spelled – Magic E Rule, Vowel Teams (2), Irregular Vowel Team and Open Syllable.

Long A Worksheets

We created 30 worksheets to assist a child in learning the various ways the long A sound can be spelled.

Source: Fry, E.B., Ph.D. & Kress, J.E., Ed.D. (2006). The Reading
Teacher’s Book of Lists 5th Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass

We have 26 alphabets in English Grammar out of which 5 are vowels (a,e,i,o,u) and rest 21 are consonants. Pronunciation of every vowel is different from the other which gives rise to different types of sounds wherever they are used.

Today we are going to discuss about vowel ‘a’ and learn different sounds it produces whenever it is used in a word.

One of the first encounters for a student is this concept of long and short vowel sounds, such as ‘a’. Short a, written phonetically as /æ/, makes the vowel sound of a, as in cap, tap, fat and bat.

Following ESL phonics extensive list introduces students to “short a” and “long a” sound words.

Carefully go through the words given in above table and try to pronounce them. You’ll observe a pattern that we don’t have to stress on the vowel ‘a’ therefore we hear a soft ‘a’ sound.

Notice all three-letter words and vowel ‘a’ which is used between two consonants, these types of words are called CVC words.

Now Let us move to the long ‘a’ vowel words section where you would have to stress the vowel ‘a’ to pronounce the words correctly.

Long ‘A’ Vowel Sound Words

The long /a/ sound is pronounced like the word ‘Alien’. It is quite similar to sound what you hear in words like “Acorn” or “Apron.”

There are four ways of spelling Long ‘a’ sounds:

1. Using Letter A: You can spell the long /a/ sound with just the letter a.

2. Using Split Digraph A _ E : These words spell the long /a/ sound using a split digraph a_e where a is in the middle of the word and an e at the end of the word.

3. AI and AY Words: The long /a/ sound is spelled with the letters ai and ay, at the end of some words.

4. Using EI Words: The long /a/ sound is spelled with the letters ei usually at the middle of the word.

Notice that whenever you pronounce these words you’ll hear a sharp ‘a’ sound that is why they are called Long ‘a’ vowel words.

We hope you have found this post useful for your child. Practice sounding out these words to help your child build his/her phonics skills. Use the following image for a quick revision. 

Keep exploring EnglishBix to find more resources related to Elementary Grades.

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