Common Examples: Short and Long Vowels

A: short A: long A: short A: long

back bake can cane

snack snake plan plain/plane

fad fade tap tape

mad made/maid at ate

Sam same cat Kate

E: short E: long E: short E: long

bed bead bet beat/beet

Ben bean met mete/meat/meet

men mean pet Pete

ten teen set seat

I: short I: long I: short I: long

lick like fin fine

hid hide shin shine

slid slide bit bite

dim dime lit light/lite

Tim time sit sight/site

O: short O: long O: short O: long

rob robe cot coat

hop hope not note

mop mope rot rote/wrote

U: short U: long U: short U: long

cute
cub cube cut
flute
tub tube flutter
mute
hug huge mutter
Dipthongs
A dipthong is the term for a vowel sound that is created by two vowels working together.
There is only one sound, but two vowels are used to make the sound. Some describe the
sound as a "gliding" from one of the vowels to the other without separating the sound.
Examples of Dipthongs:
The "oy" sound can be made with the following vowel pairs: oy, oi.
Toy
Boy
Joy
Coin
Void
Soil
The "ow" sound can be made with the following vowel pairs: ow, ou
Cow
Now
Brown
Found
Cloud
Mound
The "a" sound made with ai:
Rain
Pain
Raise
Brain
Train
Complain

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]: baby, hurry, lyrics, mystery;

[ai]: by, try, rely, nylon, type;

[y]: yacht, yard, year, yes, yet, yield, you, young, Yukon.

Note 2: The letter W

The letter W represents the vowel sound [u:] in the diphthongs [au] and [ou]: now, how, owl, brown; low, own, bowl.
The -s/es ending of nouns and verbs

After a voiceless consonant: [s]

After a voiced consonant or vowel: [z]
After the letters s, z, x, ch, tch, ge, dge, sh: [iz]

[s] [z] [iz]

tapes [teips], streets ribs [ribz], kids [kidz], legs pieces ['pi:siz], roses
[stri:ts], parks [legz], leaves [li:vz], clothes ['rouziz], prizes ['praiziz],
[pa:rks], chiefs [klouðz], girls, games, cars, boxes ['boksiz], coaches
[chi:fs], myths boys, pies [paiz], cows [kauz], ['kouchiz], bridges ['brijiz],
[miθs] cities ['sitiz] dishes ['dishiz]
(he) robs [robz], reads [ri:dz],
(he) kisses ['kisiz], loses
(he) grips [grips], digs [digz], saves [seivz], falls,
['lu:ziz], relaxes, catches,
writes [raits], takes plans, swims, offers, plays,
judges, manages, flashes,
[teiks], sniffs [snifs] cries, goes [gouz], copies
washes, rouges
['kopiz]
Pip's [pips], Kate's Abe's [eibz], Fred's [fredz], Chris's ['krisiz], Tess's
[keits], Mike's Meg's [megz], Olive's ['olivz], ['tesiz], Rose's ['rouziz], Liz's
[maiks], Jeff's [jefs], Ben's [benz], Molly's ['moliz], ['liziz], Rex's ['reksiz],
Seth's [seθs] Anna's George's ['jo:rjiz]

The -ed ending of verbs

After a voiceless consonant: [t]

After a voiced consonant or vowel: [d]
After the letters t, d: [id]

[t] [d] [id]

stopped [stopt], liked robbed [robd], saved [seivd], wanted ['wontid], hated
[laikt], coughed [ko:ft], seized [si:zd], called [ko:ld], ['heitid], counted
crossed [cro:st], released planned, occurred, bathed ['kauntid], started, needed
[ri'li:st], reached [ri:cht], [beiðd], managed, played, [ni:did], loaded ['loudid],
washed [wosht] tried, studied folded, added
Letters Sounds Examples
baby, best, buy, bring, blind, absent, about, number, labor,
b [b]
robber, tub
[s] center, cellar, cigarette, cinema, agency, notice;
c
[k] cake, come, cucumber, clean, cry, scratch, act, panic
d [d] day, dear, die, door, duty, admire, hidden, lady, kind, ride, ended
f [f] fast, female, five, forest, fund, fry, flight, often, deaf, cuff
game, gap, get, go, gun, great, global, giggle, ago, begin, dog,
[g]
egg;
g [j]
general, gin, giant, agent, suggest, Egypt, energy, huge, manage;
[zh]
mirage, garage, beige, rouge
[h] hair, help, history, home, hotel, hunt, behind, inherit;
h
[-] hour, honor, honest, heir, vehicle, Sarah
j [j] jam, Jane, jet, jelly, Jim, jingle, joke, John, June, just
k [k] Kate, kind, kill, kilogram, sky, blanket, break, take, look
l [l] late, let, live, alone, close, slim, please, old, nicely, table, file, all
make, men, mind, mother, must, my, common, summer, name,
m [m]
form, team
napkin, never, night, no, nuclear, funny, student, kindness, ton,
n [n]
sun
p [p] paper, person, pick, pour, public, repair, apple, keep, top, crisp
[kw] quality, question, quite, quote, equal, require;
q (qu)
[k] unique, technique, antique, grotesque
rain, red, rise, brief, grow, scream, truck, arrive, hurry, turn,
r [r]
more, car
[s] send, simple, song, system, street, lost, kiss, release;
s
[z] cause, present, reason, realism, advise, always, is, was
t [t] task, tell, time, tone, tune, hotel, attentive, student, boat, rest
v [v] vast, vein, vivid, voice, even, review, invest, give, move, active
wall, war, way, west, wind, word, would, swear, swim, twenty,
w [w]
twist
[ks] exercise, exchange, expect, ex-wife, axis, fix, relax;
x [gz] exam, exact, executive, exert, exist, exit, exult;
[z] Xenon, Xerox, xenophobia, xylophone
[z] zero, zoo, horizon, puzzle, crazy, organize, quiz, jazz;
z
[ts] pizza, Mozart, Nazi, waltz
Consonant combinations

Letters Sounds Examples

[ks] accent, accept, access, eccentric, accident;
cc
[k] accommodate, account, accuse, occur, acclaim
ch chain, check, chief, choose, teacher, much, church;
[ch]
tch kitchen, catch, match, watch, pitch, stretch
character, chemical, Chris, archive, mechanic,
ch (Latin, Greek) [k]
technical, ache;
ch (French) [sh]
champagne, charlatan, chef, chic, machine, cache
ck [k] black, pack, deck, kick, pick, cracker, pocket, rocket
dge [j] bridge, edge, judge, knowledge, budget, badger
[g] ghost, ghastly, Ghana, ghetto;
gh [f] cough, enough, rough, tough, laugh;
[-] though, through, weigh, neighbor, bought, daughter
[g] guard, guess, guest, guide, guitar, dialogue;
gu
[gw] language, linguistics, Guatemala, Nicaragua
[ŋ] king, sing, singer, singing, bang, long, wrong, tongue;
ng
[ŋ]+[g] finger, anger, angry, longer, longest, single
ph [f] phone, photograph, phrase, phenomenon, biography
[kw] quality, question, quite, quote, equal, require;
qu
[k] unique, technique, antique, grotesque
[s] science, scissors, scene, scent, scythe;
sc
[sk] scan, scandal, scare, score, Scotch, scuba
[sk] school, scholar, scheme, schedule;
sch
[sh] schnauzer, schedule
sh [sh] share, she, shine, shoe, fish, cash, push, punish
thank, thick, think, thought, thunder, author, breath,
[θ] bath;
th
[ð] this, that, then, though, father, brother, breathe,
bathe
what, when, where, which, while, why, whale, wheel,
[w]
wh white;
[h]
who, whom, whose, whole
[ks] exhibition;
xh [ks]+[h] exhumation, exhume, exhale;
[g]+[z] exhaust, exhibit, exhilarate, exhort, exhume, exhale
With silent
Sounds Examples
letters
bt, pt [t] doubt, debt, subtle; receipt, pterodactyl
 knee, knife, know; gnome, sign, foreign; pneumonia,
kn, gn, pn [n]
pneumatic
mb, lm [m] lamb, climb, bomb, comb, tomb; calm, palm, salmon
ps [s] psalm, pseudonym, psychologist, psychiatrist
rh [r] rhapsody, rhetoric, rheumatism, rhythm, rhyme
wr [r] wrap, wreck, wrestle, wrinkle, wrist, write, wrong
Letters in the
Sounds Examples
suffix
nation, patient, special, vicious, pension, Asia,
ti, ci, si, su [sh]
sensual, pressure
si, su [zh] vision, fusion, Asia, usual, visual, measure, pleasure