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When Two Vowels

Go Walking
by Marie Rippel

Catchy rhymes can be a fun and easy way to

remember some of those pesky phonics

rules. Have you heard of this one?

When two vowels go walking, the first one

does the talking.

It’s a cute rhyme that’s easily remembered,

and most teachers simply take it for granted

that it is true, especially if their phonics

program includes the rule as fact. And for

the sake of convenience, it would be

wonderful if this rule were true—teaching

reading and spelling would be much simpler.

But this “rule” is actually false 60% of the

time.

When Two Vowels Go Walki…

When Two Vowels Go

Walking . . . Not!
To

test

the

rule, I

took

the

1,000

most

common words and analyzed them by

applying the rule to each one. I discovered

that, contrary to the rule’s claim, only 43% of

the words actually followed the rule, and a

stunning 57% of the words did not! When I

analyzed the top 2,000 words, the

percentage shifted even further—only 36%

of the words followed the rule, and 64% did

not. So much for this oft-repeated phrase!

This is not to say that the rule is entirely

invalid. There are many cases in which two

vowels “go walking,” including ai, au, ea, ee,

ei, ie, oa, eo, oi, oo, ou, and ui. And when a

pair of vowels appears in a word, it is often

the first vowel that “does that talking,” as

represented in words like green, sea, hair,

coat, clean, rain, and peach.

However—and this is the important part—

these same vowel teams also exist in many

words that don’t follow the “when two

vowels go walking” rule, including good,

about, earth, bear, noise, author, and friend.

Instead of relying on the incorrect guidance

of this (fake) rule, teach your students the

sounds of the letter combinations (called

phonograms). Your student will learn

important and fundamental concepts, such

as ai says /ā/, au says /aw/, oa says /ō/, and

oi says /oy/. This knowledge will give your

students some real tools to work with—and

there will be nothing to unlearn later!

Were you ever taught that “when two vowels

go walking, the first does the talking?”

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Post Comment

Rosalie
September 14, 2023 at 8:33 am

Where is my comment?

Reply

Robin Customer Service

September 14, 2023 at 12:20

pm

Rosalie,

I’m sorry you didn’t see your com-

ment right away. Sometimes it takes

a bit of time for the system to show

new comments.

Reply

Suzanne
August 8, 2023 at 8:52 pm

But I immediately thought of the word

“said” and the long a phonogram rule

above does not work. So many compli-

cations!

Reply

Robin Customer Service

August 10, 2023 at 9:56 am

Suzanne,

Well, the word “said” is a true rule-

breaker. AI is not expected to say

that sound. For me, words like soup

and soil come up.

Reply

Jan Lynn Erie

July 18, 2023 at 4:33 pm

Great

Reply

Julianah Ona Daropale

July 2, 2023 at 7:36 am

I think the rule is limited to kindergarten,

because when you use the rule of when

two vowels go walking, the first does the

talking the children easily grasp the con-

cept since the words sounded more like

a rhyme. However it is also important to

teach them the phonogam.

Reply

Robin Customer Service

July 3, 2023 at 11:57 am

Thank you, Julianah. However, many

children become confused when a

rule they were previous taught is

then later shown to be not a rule. It

is often best to simply teach phono-

grams only from the beginning. Chil-

dren understand and master them

easily.

Reply

Sapphire
June 24, 2023 at 5:43 pm

This is like the “I before E except after

C” and then you realise just how many

words fall out of this concept as you

grow. Learning the rhyme majorly made

it difficult for me to remember what

words fell outside of it. If not taught that,

I probably wouldn’t have the trouble of

constantly undoing what I was taught for

so many years, I try to avoid the rhymes

with my children, don’t want to cause

any confusion.

Reply

Robin Customer Service

June 26, 2023 at 10:35 am

Yes, great points, Sapphire.

All About Spelling actually teaches a

modified I Before E rule that is highly

reliable. We add, “If the sound is /ē/,

it’s I before E except after C.” This

eliminates all the long A, long I, and

short E exceptions (like weigh,

feisty, and foreign). Then All About

Spelling teaches the 10 common

exceptions in two easy to remember

silly sentences.

Reply

ramya
June 3, 2023 at 12:47 am

very useful tip

Reply

Robin Customer Service

June 5, 2023 at 11:09 am

Thank you, Ramya!

Reply

Oletha
June 2, 2023 at 7:45 am

Learned this rule in the 8th grade In

Catholic school, that was in the 60’s so I

looked it up because I was pronouncing

“Weis” as “Weese” using that rule. So

glad I looked it up!

Reply

Mashani
May 21, 2023 at 12:28 am

I am also teaching this method.. I am

following jolly phonics training

Reply

Robin Customer Service

May 22, 2023 at 10:44 am

Wonderful, Mashani!

Reply

Dorothy
May 18, 2023 at 3:12 pm

I did but I also learned that there are ex-

ceptions to the rules

Reply

Higi
May 10, 2023 at 2:45 pm

I believe it is a good tool for very early

beginning spellers. Just be sure to say

there ARE many exceptions.

Reply

Sophie
May 7, 2023 at 11:53 pm

I had no idea this rule even existed :)

Glad to learn why it doesn’t work

though.

Reply

Robin Customer Service

May 8, 2023 at 10:18 am

Glad to help you learn something,

Sophie!

Reply

Maria G
April 30, 2023 at 10:35 pm

This is so interesting! There’s so many

grammar rules that I wasn’t taught well

or aren’t the often, and I struggle with

beginning to teach them to my kids!

Reply

Robin Customer Service

May 1, 2023 at 9:12 pm

Maria,

That is where All About Reading and

All About Spelling will be so useful

for you with their “No Gaps” Ap-

proach to Reading and Spelling. Our

programs teach only the reliable

rules of English and are designed to

be Easy to Teach with no prior expe-

rience or training.

Reply

Rosalie
September 14, 2023 at
8:29 am

In reading there are no rules.

Just practice makes perfect!

When a child opens a book it’s a

beautiful adventure. And when

you clog it up with all of the

rules then it stops the possible

and creates the impossible. That

is the exact reason children give

up on a single word. Trying to

figure out what the ready rules

are. How did Abraham Lincoln

learn to read and write with ab-

solutely nothing but a stick with

some ash on it and a slat. Then

when he was formally trained to

read he already had the desire

because of simple beautiful

magic that comes into play

when Our minds our hands and

our eyes reach for the stars and

reading writing and arithmetic

comes alive. No power on earth

can stop the imagination. Except

a basket of rules set on. Child’s

heart that will teach your not

smart enough to figure it out.

Words are like patterns they

form in our minds and when

practiced and practice makes

perfect. So a child feels the

small word turning into a bigger

picture. Not a blank wall of con-

fusion. After a child masters the

simple task of reading then fir

what reason I’m not sure, rules

can be read and tests can be

taken because a child is reading.

Robin Customer Service

September 14, 2023 at

12:26 pm

Thank you for your thoughts,

Rosalie.

However, extensive educational

research going back for more

than a century has found that

there are many very reliable and

helpful rules in English. Sadly,

currently in the United States,

more children struggle with

reading than succeed with it (as

measured by the NAEP 2022

report on reading proficiency).

Our approach incorporates the

findings of the National Reading

Panel (2000) (Teaching children

to read: An evidence-based as-

sessment of the scientific re-

search literature on reading and

its implications for reading in-

struction. Washington, DC: Na-

tional Institute of Child Health

and Human Development.)

Irma A. Garcia
March 8, 2023 at 3:03 pm

I found the rule “when two vowels go

walking” on the internet, however it

didn’t say anything about two vowels

walking.

Reply

Thaadhi
March 4, 2023 at 9:51 pm

Can I use “aa” to write a name. Ex:

“Thaadhi “.

In my mother language we have sepa-

rate letters for “Tha” & “Thaa ” sound.

Reply

Robin Customer Service