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 each other 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 e, ee ea ie, ei i y e ea a Examples be, eve, see, meet, sleep, meal, read, leave, sea, team, field, believe, receive it, kiss, tip, pick, dinner, system, busy, pity, sunny let, tell, press, send, end, bread, dead, weather, leather late, make, race, able, stable, Notes been [i]; bread, deaf [e]; great, break [ei]; friend [e] machine, ski, liter, pizza [i:] meter [i:] sea, mean [i:]

[i:]

[i] [e] [ei]

ai, ay ei, ey ea [] a

aim, wait, play, say, day, eight, weight, they, hey, break, great, steak cat, apple, land, travel, mad; AmE: last, class, dance, castle, half army, car, party, garden, park, father, calm, palm, drama; BrE: last, class, dance, castle, half ice, find, smile, tie, lie, die, my, style, apply, buy, guy out, about, house, mouse, now, brown, cow, owl, powder not, rock, model, bottle, copy more, order, cord, port, long, gone, cost, coffee, law, saw, pause, because, bought, thought, caught, hall, always, water, war, want oil, voice, noise, boy, toy go, note, open, old, most, road, boat, low, own, bowl use, duty, music, cute, huge, tune, few, dew, mew, new, euphemism, feud, neutral, hue, cue, due, sue, suit rude, Lucy, June, do, move, room, tool, crew, chew, flew, jewel, blue, true, fruit, juice, group, through, route; AmE: duty, new, sue, student look, book, foot, good, put, push, pull, full, sugar, would, could, should

said, says [e]; height, eye [ai]

[a:]

ar a i, ie y, uy ou ow o or o aw, au ought al, waoi, oy o oa, ow u ew eu ue, ui u o, oo ew ue, ui ou oo u ou

war, warm [o:]

[ai] [au] [o]

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

work, word [r]

[o:]

[oi] [ou]

do, move [u:] how, owl [au]

[yu:]

[u:]

guide, quite [ai]; build [i]

[u]

neutral sound []

u, o ou a, e o, i er, ur, ir or, ar ear

gun, cut, son, money, love, tough, enough, rough, about, brutal, taken, violent, memory, reason, family serve, herb, burn, hurt, girl, sir, work, word, doctor, dollar, heard, earn, earnest, earth heart, hearth [a:]

[r]