Pronouncing Vowel sounds

English Vowel Sounds

A vowel letter can represent different vowel sounds: hat [hæt], 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.

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.

Sounds Letters Examples Notes

been [i];
e, ee be, eve, see, meet, sleep,
bread, deaf [e];
[i:] ea meal, read, leave, sea, team,
great, break [ei];
ie, ei field, believe, receive
friend [e]
i it, kiss, tip, pick, dinner, machine, ski,
[i]
y system, busy, pity, sunny liter, pizza [i:]
e let, tell, press, send, end, meter [i:]
[e]
ea bread, dead, weather, leather sea, mean [i:]
a late, make, race, able, stable,
ai, ay aim, wait, play, say, day,
[ei] said, says [e];
ei, ey eight, weight, they, hey,
height, eye [ai]
ea break, great, steak
cat, apple, land, travel, mad;
[æ] a
AmE: last, class, dance, castle, half
army, car, party, garden, park, war, warm [o:]
ar
[a:] father, calm, palm, drama;
a
BrE: last, class, dance, castle, half
i, ie ice, find, smile, tie, lie, die,
[ai]
y, uy my, style, apply, buy, guy
ou out, about, house, mouse, group, soup [u:]
[au]
ow now, brown, cow, owl, powder know, own [ou]
[o] o not, rock, model, bottle, copy
or more, order, cord, port,
work, word [ər]
o long, gone, cost, coffee,
[o:] aw, au law, saw, pause, because,
ought bought, thought, caught,
al, wa- hall, always, water, war, want
[oi] oi, oy oil, voice, noise, boy, toy
o go, note, open, old, most, do, move [u:]
[ou]
oa, ow road, boat, low, own, bowl how, owl [au]
u use, duty, music, cute, huge, tune,
ew few, dew, mew, new,
[yu:]
eu euphemism, feud, neutral,
ue, ui hue, cue, due, sue, suit
 u rude, Lucy, June,
o, oo do, move, room, tool,
ew crew, chew, flew, jewel,
[u:]
ue, ui blue, true, fruit, juice, guide, quite [ai];
ou group, through, route; build [i]
AmE: duty, new, sue, student
oo look, book, foot, good,
[u] u put, push, pull, full, sugar,
ou would, could, should
u, o gun, cut, son, money, love,
ou tough, enough, rough,
neutral sound [ə]
a, e about, brutal, taken, violent,
o, i memory, reason, family
er, ur, ir serve, herb, burn, hurt, girl, sir,
[ər] or, ar work, word, doctor, dollar,
heart, hearth [a:]
ear heard, earn, earnest, earth

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.

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].

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.

Note 4: The neutral sound

Transcription symbols for the neutral sound are [ʌ] (caret) in stressed syllables (fun, son) and [ə] (schwa)
in unstressed syllables (about, lesson). In American ESL materials, the neutral sound is often shown as [ə]
(schwa) in both stressed and unstressed syllables.
How to Study English Vowels. Method 1: From Sound to Spelling
This method proceeds from vowel sounds and shows typical spelling variants for them. Two lists of
spelling examples are given below: one for the sound [i:], the other for the sound [i]. Expand the chart
on vowel combinations given in English Vowel Sounds providing more examples of words for vowel
sounds.

SOUND [i:]
Spelling examples: me, equal, Japanese, remake, see, sea, piece, seize, police.
The sound [i:] is represented in writing by the following letters and letter combinations.

Letter E
Under stress, in the root:
me, be, he, she, we, eve, these, scheme, theme, scene, obscene, Pete, delete, compete, complete,
obsolete, Crete, concrete, discrete, extreme, supreme, Steve, intervene, precede, recede;
equal, even, evening, evil, decent, recent, region, meter, Peter, secret, media, demon, detail, female,
legal, genius, senior, convenient, frequent, veto, premium, previous.

Under stress, in the suffix:

Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Maltese, Burmese, manganese.

Stressed or unstressed, in the prefix:

remake, retell, rewrite, prehistoric, prewar, premarital, premature, prepaid.

Combination EE
Under stress, in the root:
see, flee, free, agree, degree, knee, feel, peel, seed, feed, proceed, succeed, exceed, seen, keen, teen,
seek, peek, seem, screen, deep, creep, sleep, fleet, meet, greet, sleeve.

Under stress, in the suffix:

trainee, refugee, referee, addressee.

Combination EA
Under stress, in the root:
sea, flea, tea, peace, beach, teach, lead, read, beak, peak, leak, freak, deal, meal, reveal, seal, steal,
beam, cream, scream, team, bean, lean, clean, heap, leap, reap, please, release, increase, tease, meat,
beat, heat, beneath, breathe, creature, leave.

Combination IE
Under stress, in the root:
piece, niece, field, shield, yield, achieve, believe, grieve, relieve, retrieve, belief, grief, relief, brief, chief,
thief, fiend, siege, shriek, priest.

Combination EI
Under stress, in the root:
seize, receive, receipt, deceive, conceive, conceit, perceive, ceiling, leisure, Leigh.

Letter I
In words of foreign origin:
police, gasoline, machine, magazine, marine, routine, vaccine, sardine, prestige, regime, reprise, elite,
naive, pizza, ski, liter, fatigue, intrigue, antique, physique, unique, technique.
Also the sound [i:]: key, people, Aesop, Oedipus.

SOUND [i]
Spelling examples: it, kiss, justice, enough, English, remove, rocket, symbol, antonym, lady, Annie,
honey.
The sound [i] is represented in writing by the following letters and letter combinations.
Letter I
Under stress or unstressed, in the root, prefix, suffix or ending:
it, bit, fit, sit, miss, kiss, tip, lip, rip, pick, kick, sick, pin, sin, dinner, bring, sing, king, list, wrist, fill, kill, hill,
trim, river, habit, unit, consist, ignore, inform, infinity, justice, classic, public, terrible, English, swimming.

Letter E
Under stress or unstressed, in the root, prefix, suffix or ending:
enough, effect, eleven, electric, emotion, English, despair, pretty, depart, remove, repair, repeat, reply,
preliminary, prepare, security, illness, madness, actress, timeless, bullet, rocket, fixes, bridges, added,
counted.

Letter Y
Under stress or unstressed, in the root:
symbol, Lybia, lyrics, myriad, hymn, nymph, pygmy, pyramid, Sydney, sympathy, synthesis, synchronize,
crystal, system, typical, tyranny, mystery, myth, rhythm, antonym, synonym, pseudonym, acronym.

Unstressed, in the suffix:

lady, family, history, city, duty, Harry, carry, marry, hurry, worry, lovely, sunny, funny, happy, busy, dirty,
pretty, any, many, very, nicely, hardly, Larry, Billy, Mary, Terry, Abby.

Combination IE
Unstressed, in the suffix:
Annie, Carrie, Katie, Abbie, Elsie, auntie, girlie, dearie, sweetie.

Combination EY
Unstressed, in the suffix:
honey, chimney, hockey, journey, money, monkey, pulley, trolley, valley, Sydney, Odyssey, Casey,
Abbey.

Combination EA
Under stress, in the root:
[i:]: sea, tea, flea, peace, beach, teach, lead, read, beak, peak, leak, freak, deal, meal, reveal, seal, steal,
beam, cream, scream, team, bean, lean, clean, heap, leap, reap, please, release, increase, tease, meat,
beat, heat, beneath, breathe, creature, leave.
Under stress, in the root:
[e]: bread, dead, head, header, lead, read, spread, thread, dread, tread, ready, instead, sweat, sweater,
threat, threaten, breath, death, deaf, health, stealth, wealth, weather, leather, feather, treacherous,
treasure, measure, pleasure, pleasant, jealous, dealt, meant, cleanse, weapon, heaven, heavy, breakfast,
breast.
[ei]: break, great, steak.
Combination OW
Usually under stress, in the root:
[au]: now, how, cow, row, bow, brow, allow, crowd, powder, owl, fowl, howl, down, gown, town, clown,
brown, drown, crown, browse, browser, towel, bowel, vowel, flower, power, tower, coward, Howard.
Under stress, in the root:
[ou]: know, low, show, row, bow, mow, owe, tow, crow, grow, throw, blow, flow, slow, bowl, own,
blown, flown, grown, shown, thrown, growth.
Unstressed, in the root:
[ou]: follow, hollow, borrow, narrow, window, yellow.

Combination OU
Usually under stress, in the root:
[au]: out, about, doubt, couch, cloud, loud, proud, foul, noun, ounce, bounce, announce, found, pound,
ground, hound, round, sound, surround, count, amount, mountain, house, mouse, louse, blouse, mouth,
south, scout, shout, our, hour, flour, sour, bough, plough, drought.
Usually under stress, in the root:
[u:]: group, soup, route, boulevard, cougar, coupon, loupe, mousse, routine, souvenir, through, wound,
you, youth.
[u]: could, should, would.
Under stress or unstressed, in the root or suffix:
neutral sound [ə]: enough, rough, tough, country, cousin, couple, double, trouble, touch, flourish,
nourish, young, borough, thorough, Plymouth, famous, venomous, glamorous.
Under stress, in the root:
[o:]: cough, bought, brought, fought, ought, sought, thought, course, court, four, pour, source, your.
[ou]: boulder, mould / mold, shoulder, soul, dough, though.
Taken from : http://usefulenglish.ru/phonetics/listening-for-vowels