Vowels Versus Consonants

The alphabet is made up of 26 letters, five of which are vowels: A, E, I, O, and U. The other 21 letters, such as B, C, D, F, T, and Z, are called consonants. Vowels are the only letters in the alphabet that can be said by opening your mouth and using sound. In other words, when saying consonants, airflow is restricted, while vowels are pronounced with the mouth open and air flowing freely.

Try this: Say the letter A and hold the sound for five seconds. Notice how nothing needs to move to make the sound. Now say the sound for the letter B (“buh”). Your lips come together to block air to make the sound.

Why Are Vowels Special?

Vowels act as key building blocks to most words, making it essential for children to fully understand the sounds each vowel makes and how those sounds can change. Learning the basics and nuances of vowels can deepen your child’s understanding of phonics (the relationship between letters and the sounds they make), phonemes (distinct units of sound in a language), decoding, and ultimately help to improve their literacy and spelling skills.

What are Vowels? Vowels are letters that correspond to speech sounds made when air flows freely through the mouth, without being obstructed by the tongue, lips, or throat.

Short Vowels Versus Long Vowels

Vowels can make two distinct sounds–a short vowel sound and a long vowel sound. The ability to identify when a word uses a short or long vowel sound takes practice and is a milestone in growing literacy skills.

What Are Short Vowels?

Just as their name suggests, short vowel sounds are quicker to say and represents shorter letter sounds. When a single vowel occurs between consonants, it is often the short vowel sound. Here are a few examples of words using short vowel sounds:

• “a” as in “apple”
• “e” as in “elephant”
• “i” as in “igloo”
• “o” as in “octopus”
• “u” as in “umbrella”

What Are Long Vowels?

Long vowels sound just like the name of the letter and are often taught after short vowels. They’re usually made with pairs of letters, such as ea, or with the vowel-consonant-e pattern as in the words rake. Here are a few examples of words using long vowel sounds:

• “a” as in “acorn”
• “e” as in “eagle”
• “i” as in “ice cream”
• “o” as in “zone”
• “u” as in “unicorn”

Short vowel sounds are typically taught before longer vowel sounds because long vowel sounds often require an understanding of more complex concepts, such as two letters together (oi or ea) making a sound or the impact a silent “e” can have on the letter sounds in a word.

How to Teach Short Vowels

Short vowel sounds are more straightforward and are used in simpler words that young children encounter frequently, making them a good place to start when introducing vowels. Before diving into vowel instruction, be sure your child can recognize the letters of the alphabet, which allows them to understand that the letters A, E, I, O, and U are vowels.

Here are a few tips to help guide your approach to teaching short vowel sounds to your child.

How to Teach Long Vowels

Transition to teaching long vowel sounds after your child demonstrates mastery of short vowel sounds and can handle more advanced vowel patterns, such as silent “e” or vowel teams, such as”ai” in rain.

There are four common patterns that contribute to long vowel sounds. Understanding these patterns can help parents teach long vowel sounds and can aid children in knowing when a long vowel sound is used in a word.

Four Common Patterns to Long Vowel Sounds

What About Y?

You may have heard the phrase, “a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y.” It’s important to teach your child about Y and how it can be both a consonant and a vowel depending on the word it’s used in.

If the word has no other vowel like (gym or my), or if it appears at the end of a word (candy), it can be a vowel. However, it’s considered a consonant when it’s the first letter of the word, as in yard or yank.

Vowel Teams

Along with short and long vowel sounds come more nuanced aspects of vowels, such as vowel teams. A vowel team is a combination of two or more letters that work together to make a single vowel sound. Vowel teams can be made up of vowel digraphs, diphthongs, or longer combinations of letters.

The Schwa Sound

The “schwa” sound is a vowel sound that occurs in unstressed syllables, where a vowel doesn’t make a long or short sound. It’s often described as a “lazy” vowel sound that sounds like a short “uh” or the short “u” sound but is softer and weaker. It’s also the most common vowel sound in the English language.

Words with the Schwa Sound:

• ‘o’ in bottom
• ‘a’ in banana
• ‘e’ in chicken
• ‘o’ in bacon
• ‘a’ in away

R-Controlled Vowels

R-controlled vowels, also known as “Bossy R,” refer to a vowel’s sound changing to an entirely new sound when that vowel is followed by the letter R. For example, the words four, mark, and chirp have r-controlled vowels. In other words, an R-controlled vowel occurs when a vowel is directly followed by the letter ‘r’ and loses its typical long or short vowel sound.

R-controlled Vowel Sounds

• /or/ sound: in words such as four, fort, store, core
• /er/ sound: in words such as bird, girl, pearl, treasure
• /ar/ sound: in words such as car, far, dark, arm

The ABCmouse Approach to Vowels

ABCmouse provides an interactive and engaging approach to learning, including vowels and their sounds. Many ABCmouse vowel activities focus on identifying vowels and distinguishing between short and long vowel sounds and vowel teams. This practice helps children grow their understanding of different vowel sounds in a way that feels like play.

An ABCmouse subscription includes hundreds of interactive books, educational games, puzzles, and more, many of which offer children a range of ways to practice vowel sounds to help develop their literacy skills.

• Word Search Games
• Vowel Sound Puzzles
• Cutout Puzzles
• Vowel Sound Games
• Read-Aloud Books

ABCmouse’s early childhood and elementary curriculum is backed by research and created by expert teachers with decades of experience in early literacy instruction. ABCmouse’s interactive reading games can help children learn the phonics fundamentals needed to become successful and confident readers, including short vowel sounds, long vowel sounds, and consonant sounds. Best of all, our fun reading games span the entire range of early reading. From the beginning of preschool through the end of second grade, ABCmouse can help your child learn and grow their understanding of vowel sounds.

Online Learning Tools

You don’t need specialized software to teach …., but using a tool like ABCmouse can make it a lot easier! Our app offers interactive and visually stimulating content that reinforces word recognition and reading skills through games and engaging activities.

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