More Facts – Vowel Facts

Facts About Vowels

All single vowels have more than one sound: they all make a long sound, a short sound and a schwa sound. For example: baby = “?,” apple = “?,” bandage = “?”

Short vowels are indicated with a breve – ?

60% of English words have short vowel sounds

A vowel followed by a consonant (closed syllable) is usually short = VC. Examples: at, dog, bid, sat, mat, plat, slug
??Exceptions: a vowel followed by the letters r, l, w, or y is NOT short. Curb Call Cow Delay

Magic E – the Magic E pattern is VCE. E at the end of the word usually makes the vowel sound long. Examples: make, these, line, lone, mute

Silent E – an E which comes at the end of a word but does not make the preceding vowel long. Reasons for silent E:
? Keeps a c or g soft: dance, courage, rage
? You cannot end words with a v: active
? You cannot end words with a u: value
? There is not a reason! House

Long Vowels:
? The long sound of a vowel is the same as its name (except for y)
? The letters y and i can both sound like short i: gym, his
? The letters y and i can also sound like long i: cry, hydrant, item, driver
? The letter y can also sound like long e: handy, baby, fantasy, monopoly
? The long vowel pattern is CV (consonant-vowel)
? The vowel sound is long in an open syllable: by, sta ble, cu pid, mo tor

Schwa vowels “?”:
? In indistinct vowel sound found in unaccented syllables
? Sounds like “uh”
? Spelled with all vowel letters: Donald, Warren, Benjamin, Timothy, Marcus, Analysis

Vowel Teams – Vowel sounds formed by two or more letters within the same syllable
? Examples: ee = “?” = see
ea = “?” = bread
oy = “oi” = boy
igh = “?” = might
eight = “?” = eight

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