English Vowel Sounds A vowel letter can represent different vowel sounds: 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.
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. Sounds [i:] Letters e, ee ea ie, ei i y e ea a ai, ay ei, ey ea a ar 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, 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; war, warm [o:] Notes been [i]; bread, deaf [e]; great, break [ei]; friend [e] machine, ski, liter, pizza [i:] meter [i:] sea, mean [i:]

[i] [e]

[ei]

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

[]

[a:]

BrE: last, class, dance, castle, half [ai] [au] [o] 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 u, o ou a, e o, i er, ur, ir or, ar 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 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, Also: stressed, []; unstressed, []. do, move [u:] how, owl [au] work, word [r] group, soup [u:] know, own [ou]

[o:]

[oi] [ou]

[yu:]

[u:]

guide, quite [ai]; build [i]

[u]

neutral sound []

[r]

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 [] (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.