A vowels examples

See Also

What is a diphthong?The top 10 spelling rulesThe top 20 misspelled wordsHow to improve your English spellingWhat is a schwa vowel?What is assonance?What is consonance?Using "an" or "a" with consonantsDrag-and-drop test on the types of syllableGlossary of grammatical terms

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What is a Vowel? Definition, Examples of English Vowels

Vowel definition: A vowel is a sound produced with a comparatively open configuration of the vocal tract. In everyday language, a vowel is a letter (sound) of the English alphabet that is not a consonant.

What is a Vowel?

A vowel is most often identified as a letter that is not a consonant. More specifically, a vowel is a sound that when paired with a consonant makes a syllable.

A vowel is any sound that a letter makes that is not a consonant sound.

What are the vowels? There are five English vowels,

• A, E, I, O, U.

Sometimes, Y can also function as a vowel, but it is not considered a vowel in and of itself.

Examples in Words:

• cat
  • “a” is a vowel in this word
• street
  • “e” and “e” are vowels in this word
• late
  • “a” and “e” are vowels in this word

Vowels and Consonants

Vowels and consonants are two different sounds. A consonant is most often identified as a letter that is not a vowel.

English consonants are: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y (sometimes), Z.

Consonants and vowels do not make syllables on their own. A vowel paired with a consonant makes a syllable.

Example of consonants in words:

• bin
  • “b” and “n” are the consonants in this word
• stool
  • “s,” “t,” and “l” are the consonants in this word
• chair
  • “c,” “h,” and “r” are the consonants in this word

Forming Syllables

A syllable is a unit of sound that creates meaning in language. Vowels alone do not make syllables. Instead, they pair with consonants to create what we know as syllables.

Syllables can have more than one letter. However, a syllable cannot have more than one sound.

Furthermore, syllables can have more than one vowel and more than one consonant. Still, a syllable cannot have more than one consonant or vowel sound.

Examples of syllables in words will help clarify this concept.

Examples:

• tree
  • one syllable
  • two consonants “t” and “r” “w” and two vowels “e” and “e”
• holy
  • two syllables
  • “ho”: one consonant “h” plus one vowel “o”
  • “ly”: one consonant “l” plus one vowel “y”
• example
  • three syllables
  • “ex”: one vowel “e” plus one consonant “x”
  • “am”: one vowel “a” plus one consonant “m”
  • “ple” : two consonants “p” and “l” plus one vowel “e”
• lake
  • one syllable
  • two consonants “l” “k” plus one two vowels “a” and “e”

Literary Devices That Use Vowels

The sound that vowels make is used to create a literary device called assonance. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words.

Assonance is often used in poetry when writers use sound to create meaning.

It is important to note that assonance is not rhyme.

Example of Assonance:

• the green tree bleeds its honeyed sap
• the repetition of the long “e” sound in the words “green,” “tree,” and “bleeds” creates assonance

The following is an example of assonance from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Bells”

Hear the sledges with the bells—

Silver bells!

What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

In these lines, Poe use the short “e” sound to create assonance. Here is another look at the lines with the terms that create assonance underlined.

Hear the sledges with the bells—

Silver bells!

What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

Poe uses the words of this poem to reinforce the sound of the bells. He selects words specifically to sound as though the poem itself is making bell-like noises.

The assonance reinforces the melody of the bells themselves.

Consequently, writers should only use assonance when they understand its purpose. Like any literary device, assonance should connect to meaning and be used with intention.

Summary: What are Vowels?

Define vowel: the definition of vowel is a speech sound produced without blocking the breath channel; anything that is not a consonant.

In summary, a vowel is:

• not a consonant
• A, E, I, O, U, (and sometimes Y)
• paired with a consonant to make a syllable
• used to create the literary device assonance

Contents

• 1 What is a Vowel?
• 2 Vowels and Consonants
• 3 Forming Syllables
• 4 Literary Devices That Use Vowels
• 5 Summary: What are Vowels?

Vowel sounds and letters. How many are there in Russian?

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The correct pronunciation of words is one of the components of beautiful and literate speech. To achieve this, you will first have to study the sounds themselves. In this article, we will figure out together what vowel sounds are, how many vowels are in the alphabet of the Russian language, and what sounds they can represent.

What are vowels and sounds

Vowel sounds are those sounds that we freely convey with our voice. Hence their name comes from: voice means "voice". When pronouncing, air exits through the mouth and does not create noise, and the position of the tongue and lips determines which vowel sound we will pronounce.

There are much fewer vowels in Russian than consonants. There are 6 of them in total: [a], [o], [i], [s], [y] and [e]. To understand whether a vowel sound is in front of you or not, try to sing it. For example:

• a-a-a ,

• y-y-y

• ss .

If it works, then the sound is a vowel. You can't do that with consonants.

There are more vowels than sounds - there are 10 of them: a, i, u, u, o, e, e, e, i, s . This difference is due to the fact that some of these letters can represent two sounds and are pronounced using a combination of a vowel and a consonant [y']. For example, in word spruce the letter e expresses two sounds - [y'] and [e]. Let's look at the table all the vowel sounds and the letters that represent them.

Demo lesson in Russian

Take the test at the introductory lesson and find out what topics separate you from the "five" in Russian.

How vowel sounds are related to syllables

Vowel sounds form syllables - sound segments of words that we pronounce with one breath. One syllable can be either a vowel with one or more consonants, or a vowel alone. There is even a rule by which syllables can be counted: how many vowels in a word - so many syllables.

For example, in the word journey there are 5 vowels: [u], [i], [e], [i] and [e]. This means that it has 5 syllables: p-te-she-stvi-e .

Test yourself!

Count the number of syllables in the words: try on, tanner, well-groomed, care, prefix, capital, wet, invitation, orange .

Vowel sounds and stress

Now let's see what groups vowel sounds are divided into. Sometimes their pronunciation depends on whether the stress falls on them, that is, whether we single them out with our voice. So vowel sounds are divided into stressed and unstressed. Here are some examples:

Stress in Russian can fall on any of the existing vowel sounds. However, only 4 of them can be unstressed - these are [a], [i], [y] and [s]. In this position, we pronounce sounds weaker than under stress, because of which they can change qualities and sound differently.

Interestingly, the vowels [o] and [e] can only be stressed. There are only a couple of exceptions to this rule: for example, in words cocoa and canoe sounds [o] and [e] in an unstressed position.

How unstressed vowels are related to consonants

How an unstressed vowel sounds depends on the consonant that precedes it. Or rather, from its hardness or softness. If it is a hard consonant, it can be followed by unstressed vowels [y], [a] and [s]. When we talk about a soft consonant, it is followed by unstressed vowels [y] and [and].

Test yourself

It's time to find out if you now understand well what vowel sounds are in Russian. To do this, we have prepared tasks for self-examination.

Task 1

List all the vowels in these words:

• squeal,

• fair,

• rejoice,

• doll,

• distant,

• buddy,

• voting,

• mirror,

• story,

• OK,

• captivate.

Task 2

Name 5 words each in which the sounds [a], [i], [y] and [s] would be stressed.

Task 3

Name 5 words in which an unstressed vowel would come after a hard consonant, and 5 more words where it would follow a soft consonant.

Task 4

Count the number of syllables in the words below (don't forget to use the rule you learned at the beginning of the article!):

• weightless,

• sunrise,

• adventure,

• painter,

• perpetuate,

• pleasant,

• image,

• category,

• exciting,

• melting,

• snowflake.

The rules of phonetics help us to speak correctly, so it is important to master the topic of vowels well and avoid gaps in knowledge. If even after reading the article you still have questions on the topic, you can figure them out in the Russian language course at Skysmart. In online lessons, the teacher will help the student work out the theory and consolidate the result on non-boring tasks. So the student will be able to improve the quality of knowledge, and fall in love with the subject.

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vowels and vowels of the Russian language - Scheme, table

Content:
• Voer letters and sounds
• shock
• iotic 9000 9000 • ioeded In Russian there are 10 vowels, 6 vowels. Vowels: a, i, e, e, o, u, s, e, u, i. Vowel sounds: [a], [o], [y], [e], [i], [s]. In the school curriculum, vowel sounds are indicated in the diagrams in red. In elementary grades, they explain: vowels are called so because they “voice”, they are pronounced “voiced”, while consonants got such a name because they “agree” with vowels.

Stressed and unstressed vowels

Vowel sounds are:

• shock: juice [o] - ice ['o], forest ['e] - mayor [e], drill [u] - hatch ['u],
• unstressed: in about yes [a], from y dak [y], l e juice [i].

It is correct to say "stressed syllable" and "unstressed syllable". Instead of "stress falls on a vowel" say "stress falls on a syllable with a vowel." However, in the literature there are formulations "stressed vowel" and "unstressed vowel".

Stressed vowels are in a strong position, they are pronounced with more force and intonation. Unstressed vowels are in a weak position, they are pronounced with less force and may be subject to change.

Note. The designation of the letter e in a weak position differs in different school programs. Above we showed the sound [and], in other school programs the designation [e] is found, in the institute program - [e ^and ] (e with an overtone and).

In Russian there are compound words with primary and secondary stress. In them, with a strong intonation, we highlight the main stress, with a weak intonation - a secondary one. For example, in the word foam blocks, the main stress falls on the syllable with the letter o, the secondary stress on the syllable with the letter e. In phonetic analysis, the vowel with the main stress is stressed, the vowel with the secondary stress is unstressed. For example: tricuspid, three-year-old.

Iotated vowels

The letters i, u, e, ё are called iotated and mean two sounds in the following positions of the word:

1. at the beginning of the word: tree [y'olka], Yana [y'ana], raccoon [y'inot];
2. after a vowel: hare [zay'its], button accordion [bay'an];
3. after ь or ъ: streams [ruch'y'i], rise [fall'om].

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