Words with Long Vowel and Short Vowel sounds by Xiaoling Feng
We know that in English every word has a least one vowel. Therefore, other words have two or more vowels. Through the organization of the vowels we are able to know if they are produced as short vowel sounds or long vowel sounds. Then, if we know the rule, it would be much easier for us pronouncing the words. In addition, we could pronounce the word in a correct way. Therefore, here are some rules that we can follow in order to distinguish if the words are pronounced with short vowel sounds or long vowel sounds. 1. Short vowel sounds: They are spelled with one vowel letter. /æ/, / ɛ /, /ɪ/, /ɑ/,
and /ʌ/ Examples: man /mæn/, bed /bɛd/, kiss /kɪs/, chop /tʃɑp/and cut /kʌt/.
2. Long vowels: /eɪ/, /i/, /ɑɪ/, /oʊ/, /ɑʊ/, /ɔɪ/ and /u/ a) They are spelled with two vowels together.
Examples: bay /beɪ/, teach /titʃ/, pie /paɪ/, throw /θroʊ/, house /haʊs/, coin /kɔɪn/ and blue /bluː/.
There is a saying in The United States for this rule: “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking”.
b) There is a consonant between the two vowels.
Examples: base /beɪs/, fine /faɪn/ and like /laɪk/
Note: When there are two consonants between the two vowels, the first vowel would be produced as a short vowel sound. Examples: master /ˈmæs.tɚ/ and letter /ˈlɛt.ɚ/
However, there are some exceptions - 15 % of English words do not follow the rules mentioned above. Some of them are: bread /brɛd/, sed /sed/ and does /dʌz/. They are spelled with two vowels together, but they are pronounced with a short vowel sound.