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What is a vowel? Vowels are the letters a, e, i, o, and u; plus sometimes w and y. The other letters of the English alphabet are called consonants. Every word requires a vowel but not a consonant. Where is a vowel located? A vowel may appear at the beginning of a word (ant), in the middle position (sun), or in the final position (be). The sound of a single vowel depends on the position within the word. If the vowel is in the initial or middle position, the vowel sound is short. If the single vowel is in the final position, it uses its long sound.
What is a vowel team? When two vowels appear side-by-side, they team up to create a different sound. The helper for long a is a silent i (aid, maid). The long e uses ea and ee (eat, bean, eel, peek). You cannot hear the difference; you must remember by sight. The long o teams with an a (oat, boat). When a vowel team ends a word, the second vowel is usually a silent e (toe, pie, fee, due, Mae).
What is a separated vowel team? When a consonant separates the vowel team, the second vowel will be an e (Dane, Pete, Mike, mole, cube). Occasionally words contain a side-by-side vowel team with an additional silent e at the end (weave, Maine).
How strong is that final silent e? The final silent e only has the strength to jump back over one consonant sound. If two consonant sounds separate the two vowels, they are no longer considered a team. The initial vowel remains short sounding (pulse, fence).
What is a modified vowel? If an r follows a vowel, it changes/modifies its sound. It no longer has a short sound (arm, fern, firm, form, spur). The er, ir, and ur have a similar sound. You must remember the correct spelling.
Oh Oh - A spelling problem? The long sounding u (rule) can be spelled with two o's (food). The long u also sounds as y + oo (cue). The long oo sound can also be spelled with an ou combination (soup). In addition this sound is spelled with ew (dew). This introduces w as a vowel helper. Sorry, that's not all: oo has a short sound also (book).
Aw-shucks! Four ways to spell the aw sound (saw, haul, salt, bought). Notice w is teaming with a vowel again. The consonant l also teams with a vowel.
Ow! Stub your toe? Again we see w teaming with a vowel (owl). The majority of the time the sound is spelled ou (out).
Is it oi or oy? The spelling for this sound is oi (oil) unless the sound is in the final position (boy). Notice the consonant y is teaming with a vowel.
So is y a consonant or vowel? The y acts as a consonant in the initial position (yard). It is a vowel when there is no other vowel in the word (my) or when teaming with other vowels (toy, hay). The y especially helps side-by-side teams in the final position of words. Instead of bai, we use bay.
Frustrated with single examples? My book Where IS That Vowel? is filled with five thousand examples.