The alphabet
The alphabet in English has 26 letters, 5 vowels and 21 consonants.
Vowels:
There are 5 vowels in English. They are:
Aa Ee Ii Oo Uu
[ei] [i:] [ai] [ u]
e [ju:]
Vowels may have different sounds. They can be short or long:
Examples of short vowel sounds are:
(consonant - vowel - consonant)
bus pot cap bug tap
9
hen kit mat fox six
Examples of long vowel sounds are:
(consonant - vowel - consonant - vowel)
bike cape case kite fire
cute gate
9
nine game mate
Comparison:
Examples between short and long sounds are:
cap cape can cane
pin pine kit kite
cut cute mat mate
tap tape man mane
Exercise:
Read the next words aloud
1. five 2. mate 3. pin 4. six 5. vase
6. cat 7. line 8. bake 9. fire 10. cap
11. hot 12. rose 13. time 14. mine 15. tip
16. lime 17. win 18. wine 19. new 20. pine
The alphabet
Exercise:
Spell the following words:
1. e - x - c - e - l - l - e - n - t
2. i - n - t - e - l - l - i - g - e - n - t
3. c - o - m - p - u - t - e - r
4. i - n - t - e - r - n - a - t - i - o - n - a - l
5. a - l - p - h - a - b - e - t
6. i - m - p - o - r - t - a - n - t
7. p - r - i - n - c - i - p - a - l
8. e - l - e - p - h - a - n - t
9. a - l - t - e - r - n - a - t - i - v - e
1 0. q - u - a - l - i - f - i - c - a - t - i - o - n
11 . u - m - b - r - e - l - l - a
1 2. p - a - r - t - i - c - i - p - a - t - i - o - n
1 3. e - d - u - c - a - t - i - o - n
1 4. d - i - f - f - e - r - e - n - c - e
1 5. y - e - l - l - o - w - n - e - s - s
1 6. w - o - n - d - e - r - f - u - l
1 7. p - r - o - n - u - n - c - i - a - t - i - o - n
1 8. c - h - e - m - i - c - a - l - s
1 9. m - a - r - v - e - l - l - o - u - s
2 0. k - a - n - g - a - r - o - o
