Short sound vowels words

» What’s the difference between short and long vowels?

Learning the building blocks of words - sounds, their spellings, and word parts

18 Replies

Phonics teaching materials often talk about "short" and "long" vowels, as though the latter are just extended versions of the former.

The five vowels usually called "short" are:

• "a" as in "cat",
• "e" as in "red",
• "i" as in "sit",
• "o" as in "not",
• "u" as in "bus".

The five vowels usually called "long", and which children are told "say their (letter) name", are:

• "a" as in "paper",
• "e" as in "be",
• "i" as in "find",
• "o" as in "go",
• "u" as in "human".

But are we talking about sounds here, or particular spellings of these sounds?

If "short" vowels are sounds (regardless of spelling), then the following are short vowels too:

• "a" spelt as in "plait", "salmon", and "Fahrenheit",
• "e" spelt as in "bread", "said", "says", "any", "leopard", "heifer", "friend", and "bury",
• "i" spelt as in "gym", "pretty", "busy", "sieve", and "women",
• "o" spelt as in "want", "because", and "entree",
• "u" spelt as in "front", "young", "blood", and "does".

Following the same logic, the following are also "long" vowels:

• "a" spelt as in "make", "rain", "s ay", "they", "eight", "vein", "break", "fete", "cafe", "puree", "sundae", "gauge", "gaol", and "straight".
• "e" spelt as in "bee", "eat", "field", "these", "ski", "funny", "turkey", "protein", "marine", "paediatric", and "amoeba",
• "i" spelt as in "like", "by", "pie", "high", "type", "bye", "bonsai", "feisty", "height", "kayak", "eye", "iron", "t ae kwondo", and "naive".
• "o" spelt as in "home", "boat", "goes", "glow", "plateau", "mould", "mauve", "though", "folk", "brooch", "owe", "sew" and "Renault".
• "u" spelt as in "use", "few", "cue", "feud", "you", "beauty", "nuisance", "ewe", "vacuum".

Try saying "capped-caped", "dinner-diner", "bellow-below" (stressing both syllables in "below"), hopping-hoping and "cutter-cuter".

The spoken versions don't just differ by length, and the written words with "short" vowels are actually longer, due to their double letters.

The terms "short" and "long" are misleading and confusing. These vowels are not short and long versions of each other.

They're completely different vowels

If you stretch out an "a" as in cat, you don't get an "a" as in paper.

"A" as in "cat" is a low front pure vowel, and "a" as in paper is a diphthong (two vowels run together) which moves from low to high in the front of the mouth.

The same goes for the other "short-long" pairs. The long" vowel "e" as in "be" is a pure vowel, but "i" as in "find" and "o" as in "go" are both diphthongs.

The sound "u" as in "human" is actually a consonant-vowel combination ("y" as in "yes" plus "u" as in "hula"), which makes sense of the spelling of "you", but not most of its other spellings. Which part of the letter "u" in "human" is representing the "y" sound, and which part the "ooh"? For learning-spelling purposes it's counterproductive to slice it so finely. However, children will often hear the "y" and want to write it, and teachers need to know that it's not a figment of childish imaginations, there really is a "y" sound in "new" (unless you speak American English).

Why people think "short" vowels are short

The "short" vowel sounds cannot occur at the end of a syllable in English. They must be followed by a consonant.

In linguistics, they are called "checked" vowels. We actually have six of them, the other one being "u/oo" as in "put" or "good".

Since we only have five vowel letters, but we have 20 vowel sounds, we have to use syllable position and letter-combining to get a bit of clarity around which sounds we mean.

Often we use vowel combinations like ai, ee, ea, ie, oa, oo, oe and ue.

Often we use a vowel plus a letter Y, W, R or L, as in ay, ey, oy, aw, ew, ow, ar, er, ir, or, ur, and sometimes al (as in calm or walk) and ol (as in yolk).

The letters Y, W, R and L otherwise represent consonants that are quite open and vowel-like.

Well, actually, the letter Y by itself is almost always a vowel spelling (as in "by", "baby" and "gym"), but not at word beginnings, where people writing "X is for xylophone" type alphabet books tend to focus.

A doubled consonant letter (ff, ss, ll, zz etc) usually indicates that the vowel before it is a "short" vowel, i.e. it's not an open syllable, it ends with a consonant (as per the "capped-caped" etc example above).

What about the other vowels?

In the dialect I speak, there are twenty vowel sounds, not ten. The missing-in-action ones in the five-short-five-long classification are:

• "oo" as in "good", "put", "could", "wolf".
• "ooh" as in "moon", "flute", "chew", "soup", "hula", "blue", "fruit", "to", "lose", "shoe", "sleuth". This tends to get lumped in with "long u" as it shares some spellings and is one of the two sounds in the letter name U ("y" + "ooh").
• "ar" as in "car", "pass", "calm", "heart", "are", "baa", "aunt", "galah" and "clerk".
• "er" as in "her", "first", "nurse", "works", "early", "journal", "were", "masseur" and "myrtle".
• "aw" as in "for", "saw", "more", "all", "launch", "four", "warm", "door", "walk", "bought", "caught", "board", "dinosaur", "broad", "sure" and "awesome".
• "ou" as in "loud", "cow", "drought", "Maori", "sauerkraut" and "miaow".
• "oy" as in "boy" and "coin".
• "air" as in "care", "hair", "there", "bear", "parent", "aeroplane", "millionaire", "their", "prayer" and "mayor".
• "ear" as in "deer", "hear", "fierce", "here", "bacteria", "weird" and "souvenir".
• The unstressed vowel in words of more than one syllable, or unstressed grammatical words like "a" and "the", which can be spelt using any vowel spelling. Think of the last syllable in "butter", "actor", "collar", "sofa", "centre", "flour", "tapir", "murmur" and "picture". As long as children get a solid grounding in the other vowel spellings, they can then use this knowledge to tackle the unstressed vowel, and in their "spelling voice" say "buttER", "actOR", "collAR" etc. There is no need to teach the unstressed vowel as a separate Thing, like this (this is from a THRASS chart):

If the other 19 vowel sounds and their spellings are not all taught systematically and well, expect some students to have a lot of trouble spelling the unstressed vowel. It's what signwriters get wrong all the time.

Adults can use the terms "short vowel" and "long vowel" among ourselves if we like, but I don't think it's helpful to teach this misleading and confusing terminology to children.

Instead, we can just say the sounds ("the sound ay", "the sound oy" etc) and teach children all the main spelling patterns for each sound, systematically and explicitly, before the end of their third year of schooling. This will be extremely bad for my business, but hey, the people at school will be among the ones giving out pills in my nursing home. I want them literate.

« Reorganising high-frequency word lists

List of Short Vowel Words

• DESCRIPTION

  pig illustration with list of short vowel words examples

• SOURCE

  Bullet_Chained / iStock / Getty Images Plus / via Getty created by YourDictionary

• PERMISSION

  Used under Getty Images license

The English language provides a list of short vowel words that seem to be never ending. A short vowel word is any word that doesn't allow the vowel within it to generate that vowel's long vowel sound.

For example, the word "bug" is a short vowel word because there's no long "U" sound. A word doesn't necessarily have to have three letters to be a short vowel word, but it makes for the easiest example and three-lettered words make up the bulk of any list of short vowel words. Let's take a look.

Short Vowel Sounds in Words

Here's the reason why words with only three letters typically make the short vowel sound. Three letters usually don't allow for a second vowel to force the long vowel sound out. Exceptions include words like "bee" or "tea."

These words use a second vowel to force the long vowel sound from the first one, while other words like "ant" or "mat" use the placement of consonants to force a short vowel sound.

But, here's an important point to keep in mind. The words listed below are short vowel sounds, not short vowel spellings. That is, just because a word is short, doesn't mean it will automatically have a short vowel sound. And vowel as written doesn't always correspond with the sound it makes. Take the word "pretty." The E is sounded like a short I, and the Y is sounded like a long E. Phonetically, it sounds more like "prit-tee," not "pret-tai."

Likewise, we can't assume a long word will automatically have a long vowel sound. Let's look at the word "business." The U and E in "business" are also sounded like a short I, and the I is silent altogether. Phonetically speaking, we don't pronounce it "buss-eye-ness." It's more like "biz-niss." With that in mind, let's explore more short vowel words, sorted by letter.

Advertisement

Short "A" Words

The short A sound is what you hear in words like "bat" or "map." Here are some other great examples of words with the short A sound.

Short "E" Words

The short E sound is what you hear in words like "gem" or "hem. " Here are some other great examples of words with the short E sound.

Short "I" Words

Advertisement

The short I sound is what you hear in words like "dim" or "fib. " Here are some other great examples of words with the short I sound.

Short "O" Words

The short O sound is what you hear in words like "con" or "nod. " Here are some other great examples of words with the short O sound.

Short "U" Words

The short U sound is what you hear in words like "bus" or "hum. " Here are some other great examples of words with the short U sound.

List of Short Vowel Words Printable

Advertisement

Using Short Vowel Sounds

Though the above list of words with short vowels is incomplete, you can use it to understand the basic usage for the short vowel sounds. These short vowel sounds are often used in larger words as well. You might see them in words that also contain long vowel sounds, or even in two-lettered words, like "in," "it," and "at." Longer words, such as "magistrate" or "fascinate," use both short long vowel sounds.

Some words use the short vowel sound and the long vowel sound, depending on the tense of the word. Words like "read," for example, are pronounced as the long vowel sound when the tense is present. For example, "We are reading this list of short vowel words."

However, when the tense is changed from present to past tense, the long vowel sound is taken away and the short vowel sound is introduced in the same word. For example, "I read the list of short vowel words, and understand much better now."

Pronunciation Pros

If you're teaching short vowel sounds to little learners, practice makes perfect. If you're teaching ESL students, here are some tips and resources for teaching ESL pronunciation. And, when you're ready for the flip side of the coin? Take a look at these examples of long vowel words too. You might also want to explore when "y" is a vowel.

"Vowel sounds"

About the motivating force of the game motive, the crucial importance of the game for the general mental development of a preschool child once written in the psychological and pedagogical literature.

Now a lot of six-year-olds are enrolling in the first class, and after all, these are the “unfinished” preschoolers.

The easiest way for such schoolchildren to read and write lies through games of sounds and letters. After all, the letter is the translation of speech sounds into letters, and reading is translation of letters into sound speech. nine0003

The task of sound analysis of words will be solved children more willingly if given a play shape.

The main task of the pre-letter stage of education literacy - to make a word for the child, his sound shell is not only tangible, but also attractive, interesting.

The work of a speech therapist is aimed at help children with speech problems faster adapt to school. Their learning difficulties process are obvious. And the primary task is to keep in mind the development of learning skills and interest to the learning process itself. nine0003

I often use fairy tales in my work. If I have to compose a fairy tale, then it does not amount to me work - I compose. The main thing in my work is not to be boring and help the child cope with difficulties.

Oddly enough, but consonants and letters are children remember faster (especially bright-acoustic - M, L, R), but with vowels there is a problem.

The fact is that children confuse vowel sounds and letters, and hence the errors in writing and reading.

I decided to “revive” the vowels and give them individuality (visually and acoustically). nine0003

Six vowels - let it be a village (then iotated vowels will be added to them letters - I, Yu, E, E). There are many consonants more is a city.

But now we will talk only about vowel sounds.

For connecting motor speech and hearing analyzers with the development of general motor skills in used as a physical exercise phonetic rhythm. Motor exercises help develop auditory attention, clarify articulation and activate pronunciation skills. nine0003

Lesson objectives:

• develop children's phonemic hearing;
• clarify the articulation of vowels, teach evaluate your muscle sensations pronunciation of vowels - A, U, O, E, S, I, linking these sensations with the fact that they are hear;
• focus children's attention on the concept “VOYAL SOUNDS”;
• to form the skills of analysis and synthesis of syllables. nine0036

Lesson material:

• handout - customized mirrors for monitoring articulation apparatus, a set of figures (a circle, a smaller circle, oval, half circle, “smile”), strip of paper divided into three equal parts - concept scheme “WORD”, red squares;
• demonstration material - manual “VOVONS SOUNDS” see figure 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;
nine0035 subject pictures.

LESSON PROGRESS

1. Organizational moment.

The one who remembers the words will sit at the desk beginning with the sound “A”, “U”, “O”, “I”, “E”.

Know, there are absolutely no words for a vowel, Alas "Y".

2. Main body.

Speech therapist :

To be able to read well
Everything you need to know about sounds. nine0082 Start with vowels
Learn them all by five.
We will imagine that the sounds of the city, the village have
And let's start, of course, with vowels. They are exactly numbered six:
A, U, O, E, S, I.
Here in the wonderful village
Ringing, in pink tones
Girls in beautiful dresses
With bells in hand.
From morning to evening they sing,
Ringing, singing their voices
And they are all called vowels
It's impossible without them.

/ On the board - the manual "Vowels" - houses with girls in red dresses with bells in hands, on houses, geometric figures

Now we will go to the first house
"A" is in charge of it.
Mouth opens freely,
Singing songs loudly.

Children hold a mirror with one hand, look and pronounce the sound “A” smoothly and for a long time. nine0003

Cover the throat with the other hand in order to feel the vibration of the vocal cords.

Let's knock on the vowel “U”,
Mouth folded into a tube.

Children look in the mirror and sing - "U", hand on neck.

Here is an open window
We are greeted by the vowel "O".
Mouth opens like in a choir,
He also sings something.

Children look in the mirror and sing - "Oh", hand on neck. nine0003

"E" sings like an echo
Here, brothers, no laughing matter:
Mouth round like a dot,
Stretched into half a circle.

Children look in the mirror (control articulation and vibration of the throat).

Let's go to the vowel “Y” now
We will sing along with her.
Let's stretch the mouth like an oval,
That stumbled and fell.

Children look in the mirror (control articulation and vibration of the throat). nine0003

The vowel “I” is more cheerful than all
And a smile from ear to ear.

Children look in the mirror (control articulation and vibration of the throat).

3. Physical education.

Speech therapist: Let's sing the vowels sounds. Repeat after me.

Speech therapist shows children along with movement on exhale sounds.

(Starting position: standing feet together, hands bent at chest level, fists together. nine0003

A - spread your arms to the sides and down;

U - hands forward;

O - arms through the sides up;

E - palms outward - spread apart;

Y - sharply throw out hands with the index finger YOU-YOU-YOU, WE-WE-WE

Starting position for the sound "I" - standing feet together, arms bent at the elbows, elbows to the sides and slightly up, fists apart

I - index fingers up and climb socks, hands up). nine0003

4. Rule.

Speech therapist: What did you notice when looked in the mirror?

Children's answers: Mouth opened differently.

Speech therapist : Exactly. When we pronounce “VOVONS”, then the mouth opens every time differently.

Girls in red dresses
Mouth opens differently,
And that's why different
They make sounds. nine0003

Let's learn a rule that will help us distinguish vowels from consonants. (Rule pronounced in chorus behind a speech therapist)

The mouth is open - a large hand finger

Language is not obstructed - children show index finger

The neck sings (voices) - children show ring finger

5. Didactic games for reinforcement material.

5.1. Guess what sound I want pronounce. Guess and turn on the sound. nine0003

Guessing sounds from silent articulation.

(Invite the children to “guess” a sound to a neighbor in desk)

5.2. Exercise “Find the place of sound in word."

Speech therapist : I suggest looking for vowels sounds at the beginning, middle or end of words.

Words have a beginning - the first sound, an end - last sound, all other sounds are in middle. What sound do you want to look for?

For example, the children suggested the sound “O”. nine0003

The speech therapist pronounces words with the sound “O”, and the children on the diagram “WORD” mark it in red square.

(If the children wish, also continue the exercise with other vowel sounds. Can be complicated task by suggesting a word with two identical sounds. For example: KANGAROO - children find the sound “Y” in the middle and at the end)

5.3. Didactic game “What sound sang?”

Speech therapist : I suggest to play, vowels look for sounds in words. nine0003

The game is called “What sound did you sing?” You must learn the sound and show the figure.

For example: Mind - the children raise a small circle, which means "U".

(Invite the children to think of short words)

The game continues, but becomes more difficult. Now in words will “hide” two or three vowels sound.

There are words with only one syllable
You can’t find them in short: UM, MAC, UZH, BITCH . ..
They have only one vowel sound. nine0082 And the words TRA-VA and KOSH-KA
Will be a little more authentic
Vowel sounds in the word two
Well, there are also two syllables.
There are words with many sounds.
Sounds vowels count
Open your mouth wider.
You can walk syllables, tap, slam,
If you want to count your fingers, open your mouth - bend it.

(Children find vowel sounds in words and lay out the figures that designate them on the desk). For example: moon
snail, etc.

5.4. Outdoor game “Find your house”.

Children can choose a shape to represent one sound or another.

Children-leaders are selected, who have in their hands picture. Presenters show what is drawn on card and children with figures run to their "house".

For example: Excavator - everyone with a figure fits this leader.

Watermelon - with a figure they approach their house, etc.

5.5. Didactic game “Guess word".

Speech therapist : I will think of words. To guess a word, you need to put first sound. Guessing the words will help you pictures on the board: ... orange, ... tight, ... ndyuk, ... kskavator, etc. (orange, iron, turkey, excavator).

5.6. Didactic game “Live sounds” (AU, UA, IA).

6. Summing up.

Long and short vowels in English

Longitude is one of the characteristics of a vowel sound, which shows the relative duration of its sound compared to other sounds.

Longitude can be positional and phonemic. In the first case, the duration of the vowel depends on the position in the word and stress, while this characteristic does not affect the meaning. The phonemic length of a vowel has a semantic function, that is, depending on the length of the sound, the meaning of the word changes.

In Russian, the duration of vowel sounds does not affect the meaning of words and only changes depending on the stress. In English, vowels differ not only in positional but also in phonemic length. This means that long and short sounds, similar in other characteristics, represent different phonemes. Words that differ only in these phonemes have different meanings: ship - sheep , fit - feet , pull - pool . Therefore, it is so important to pronounce long and short sounds correctly.

In transcription, long vowels are indicated with a colon: [i:], [α:], [ɔ:], [u:], [ә:]. In some cases, long vowels in an unstressed position are reduced and become semi-long, which in transcription is indicated by one dot from above: [α ].

The long vowels listed above are opposed to short ones, forming the following pairs in English:

• [i:] - [ı]
• [uː] - [u]
• [ɔ:] - [ɒ]
• [α:] - [ʌ]
• [ә:] - [ə]

The pronunciation of long and short English vowels often causes difficulties for Russian learners of English, since in Russian vowels do not have phonemic longitude, and we are not used to distinguishing the length of a vowel sound by ear. We often do not hear the difference between long and short vowels when listening to English speech. It is still not clear how long you need to draw a sound when speaking, so very unnatural, or almost inaudible, or too long vowels are obtained. It is impossible to correctly pronounce short and long sounds so that a native speaker hears the difference, even if you diligently shorten short vowels and stretch out long ones. nine0003

Sometimes it seems that native speakers themselves do not know the difference between short and long sounds, they seem to pronounce them the same way - but they themselves understand each other. But it's not. Let's see what are the differences between long and short English vowels, how to learn to hear them and how to train their pronunciation.

It is logical to assume that if vowels are called long or short, they differ in sound length. This is the main difference between them, but not the only one. It is important to understand that long and short sounds have other differences, which consist in articulatory features. This means that the sounds are not just of different lengths, they are also different in sound. And most often it is these articulatory features that determine the length of the vowel sound: the duration of the sound depends on the position of the tongue and the tension of the vocal apparatus. nine0003

Long and short English vowels differ in such a characteristic as tension. Long vowels are tense, in English they are also called tense . When they are pronounced, the root of the tongue seems to be tense, under tension. The sound is pronounced, bright, rich, clear.

Short vowels are called lax – relaxed. The tongue in the region of the root is relaxed, the vowel sound is articulated quickly, easily, without additional effort, as if bursting. It turns out short, inconspicuous, faded and fuzzy. nine0003

Qualitative differences in sounds in different pairs of English vowels range from pronounced to almost imperceptible. It is easy to notice the difference between long and short sounds a: pay attention to how the words cart and cut are pronounced, they differ not only in duration, but also in sound. But the differences between long and short u are almost imperceptible: pool and pull sound very similar, only slightly different in length. The Scots generally pronounce them the same way, differing only in context. nine0003

In addition, the duration of the pronunciation of vowels is also affected by positional longitude - for example, stressed or unstressed position in a word. As a result, a short vowel sound in one word may sound longer than a long sound in another word.

Thus, it is not enough to rely only on the subjective duration of a vowel sound. All the features of short and long vowels described above must be taken into account when learning English. It remains to understand how to master the pronunciation of long and short sounds in practice. nine0003

The main mistake foreigners make when pronouncing long and short English sounds is focusing only on duration. But with this approach, it is intuitively incomprehensible where the boundary between a long and a short sound passes: you can’t measure the length of a sound with a stopwatch. When trying to artificially lengthen or shorten a vowel, the sounds are unnaturally short or drawn out. nine0003

To learn how to pronounce long and short English sounds, you need to forget about the usual terminology "long" and "short". Try not to think about the duration of the sound at all. To correctly pronounce long and short vowels, you need to focus on their articulation, and not on duration. If we correctly reproduce the pronunciation of the vowel, then the duration will turn out to be correct automatically. Remember that long vowels require more tension at the root of the tongue, while short ones are pronounced without additional effort, easily and without tension. nine0003

Pay attention to how native speakers pronounce vowels - don't watch how long they draw them out, but watch the pronunciation, the articulation, the quality of the sound. Repeat, imitate, practice. For practice, it is best to use video lessons or a conversation with a native speaker, since audio materials do not make it possible to see articulation.

It is best to train long and short sounds not separately, but as part of words. First, this way you will note the influence of positional longitude on the duration of the sound in specific examples. Secondly, just as words are best learned in context, sounds are also best learned in the environment. nine0003

Practice pronunciation of long and short vowels on pairs of words to notice the difference between sounds, for example:

• Sport – hot
• Arm-cut
• See-hit
• Food-put
• Fur – ago

When you learn how to pronounce long and short vowels correctly in English, it will become easy to distinguish between them in speech.

Learn more

• 
  The words dad
• 
  The homer program
• 
  Look up guided reading levels
• 
  How to spell fun
• 
  Sing wheels on the bus
• 
  Ideas to teach
• 
  More or less kindergarten activities
• 
  Snowy day read aloud
• 
  What is the meaning of sight words
• 
  Ten frame definition
• 
  What is kindergarten math