English Vowel Sounds

A vowel letter can represent different vowel sounds: hat [ht], hate [heit],
all [o:l], art [a:rt], any ['eni].
( : hat [ht],
hate [heit], all [o:l], art [a:rt], any ['eni].)
The same vowel sound is often represented by different vowel letters in
writing: [ei] they, weigh, may, cake, steak, rain.
(
: [ei] they, weigh, may, cake, steak, rain.)
Open and closed syllables

( )
Open syllable: Kate [keit], Pete [pi:t], note [nout], site [sait], cute [kyu:t].
Closed syllable: cat [kt], pet [pet], not [not], sit [sit], cut (the neutral
sound []).
Vowels and vowel combinations

The vowels A, E, I, O, U, Y alone, in combination with one another or with R,

W represent different vowel sounds. The chart below lists the vowel sounds
according to the American variant of pronunciation.
( A, E, I, O, U, Y ,
R, W .
.)
Sounds

Letters

Examples

Notes

[i:]

e, ee
ea
ie, ei

be, eve, see, meet, sleep,

meal, read, leave, sea, team,
field, believe, receive

been [i];
bread, deaf [e];
great, break
[ei];
friend [e]

[i]

i
y

it, kiss, tip, pick, dinner,

system, busy, pity, sunny

machine, ski,
liter, pizza [i:]

[e]

e
ea

let, tell, press, send, end,

bread, dead, weather, leather

meter [i:]
sea, mean [i:]

a
ai, ay
ei, ey
ea

late, make, race, able,

stable,
aim, wait, play, say, day,
eight, weight, they, hey,
break, great, steak

cat, apple, land, travel, mad;

AmE: last, class, dance,
castle, half

[a:]

ar
a

army, car, party, garden,

park,
father, calm, palm, drama;
BrE: last, class, dance,
castle, half

[ai]

i, ie
y, uy

ice, find, smile, tie, lie, die,

my, style, apply, buy, guy

[au]

ou
ow

out, about, house, mouse,

now, brown, cow, owl,
powder

[o]

not, rock, model, bottle, copy

[o:]

or
o
aw, au
ought
al, wa-

more, order, cord, port,

long, gone, cost, coffee,
law, saw, pause, because,
bought, thought, caught,
hall, always, water, war, want

[oi]

oi, oy

oil, voice, noise, boy, toy

[ou]

o
oa, ow

go, note, open, old, most,

road, boat, low, own, bowl

[yu:]

u
ew
eu
ue, ui

use, duty, music, cute, huge,

tune,
few, dew, mew, new,
euphemism, feud, neutral,
hue, cue, due, sue, suit

[ei]

[]

[u:]

u
o, oo
ew
ue, ui
ou

rude, Lucy, June,

do, move, room, tool,
crew, chew, flew, jewel,
blue, true, fruit, juice,
group, through, route;
AmE: duty, new, sue, student

said, says [e];

height, eye [ai]

war, warm [o:]

group, soup
[u:]
know, own [ou]

work, word [r]

do, move [u:]

how, owl [au]

guide, quite
[ai];
build [i]

[u]

oo
u
ou

look, book, foot, good,

put, push, pull, full, sugar,
would, could, should

neutral sound
[]

u, o
ou
a, e
o, i

gun, cut, son, money, love,

tough, enough, rough,
about, brutal, taken, violent,
memory, reason, family

[r]

er, ur, ir
or, ar
ear

serve, herb, burn, hurt, girl,

sir,
work, word, doctor, dollar,
heard, earn, earnest, earth

Also:
stressed, [];
unstressed, [].

heart, hearth
[a:]

Note 1: The letter Y

The letter Y can function as a vowel or as a consonant. As a vowel, Y has the
vowel sounds [i], [ai]. As a consonant, Y has the consonant sound [y] (i.e., a
semivowel sound), usually at the beginning of the word and only in the
syllable before a vowel.
[i]: any, city, carry, funny, mystery, synonym;
[ai]: my, cry, rely, signify, nylon, type;
[y]: yard, year, yes, yet, yield, you.
1: Y
Y . ,
Y [i], [ai]. , Y
[y] (.. ),
.
[i]: any, city, carry, funny, mystery, synonym;
[ai]: my, cry, rely, signify, nylon, type;
[y]: yard, year, yes, yet, yield, you.
Note 2: Diphthongs
A diphthong is one indivisible vowel sound that consists of two parts. The
first part is the main strong component (the nucleus); the second part is
short and weak (the glide). A diphthong is always stressed on its first
component: [au], [ou]. A diphthong forms one syllable. American linguists
usually list five diphthongs: [ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou].
2:
,
. ();
().
: [au], [ou]. .
: [ei], [ai],
[au], [oi], [ou].

Note 3: The sound [o]

The sound [o] is short in British English. In the same words in American
English, the sound [o] is a long sound colored as [a:]. This sound is often
listed as [a:] in American materials for ESL students. In some words, there
are two variants of pronunciation in AmE: [o:] or [o].
[o]: lot, rock, rob, bother, bottle, college, comment, document, modern,
popular, respond, John, Tom;
[o:] or [o]: gone, coffee, office, borrow, orange, sorry, loss, lost, want,
wash, water.
3: [o]
[o] .
, [o] , [a:].
[a:]
ESL. AmE:
[o:] [o].
[o]: lot, rock, rob, bother, bottle, college, comment, document, modern,
popular, respond, John, Tom;
[o:] [o]: gone, coffee, office, borrow, orange, sorry, loss, lost, want,
wash, water.
Note 4: The neutral sound
Transcription symbols for the neutral sound are [] (caret) in stressed
syllables (fun, son) and [] (schwa) in unstressed syllables (about, lesson).
In American ESL materials, the neutral sound is often shown as [] (schwa)
in both stressed and unstressed syllables.
4:
: [] (caret)
(fun, son) [] (schwa) (about, lesson).
ESL []
(schwa) , .
Read more about vowel letters and sounds in Spelling Patterns for Vowels in
the section Writing.