


Kids learn long vowels after they’ve mastered short vowel sounds, consonant digraphs and consonant blends. These words have vowel teams that make a long vowel sound: mail, sheep, soap. For example, in the word eat, as in Emus eat seeds, vowel team EA says long E. Vowel teams are two vowels that work together to make one sound. Short vowels do not say their letter name. Here are more words in which Silent E makes the previous vowel long: tape, shine, code. Here are some examples of minimal pairs for long and short vowel sounds: Other long vowel sounds are the e at the end pattern (or silent e) as in words like lake, bike and hope. They would include words with diphthongs as well. Click on the following vowel letters to hear their long and short sounds. Of course, you don’t want to make your vowel sounds so long when you speak, but when you’re practising, this is a useful trick. Whether a vowel has a long sound, a short sound, or remains silent, depends on its position in a word and the letters around it. If you can hold the short vowel sound, then you’re not pronouncing it correctly you’re probably making the long sound instead. A vowel letter can also have short sounds. When this happens, words are called minimal pairs. The categorisation of vowel sounds as long and short would not be the same. When a vowel sounds like its name, this is called a long sound. It requires children to understand that certain letter combinations can make a vowel short or long (such as 'pin' and 'pine') and that. The association between sounds and spellings can be a difficult concept to grasp at first. This article shows some common spellings for long and short vowels as well as some minimal pairs where words change from long to short vowels.Īn interesting thing about long and short vowels is that the pronunciation can be changed with the addition or subtraction of one letter. Long vowel sounds are among the first reading skills your child will be exposed to in a phonics-based learning program. Long and short vowels: 100+ words Espresso English Long vowel words. These are usually referred to as the long and short sound of a vowel. Long vowels are pronounced with an extended sound, while short vowels have a quicker sound. All vowels have at least two main sounds that they make depending on surrounding letters and sounds.
