Multisensory Reading Clinic

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The Fifteen Vowels of the English LanguAge

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We have five vowel letters in the English alphabet ( a, o, u, i, e) but English actually has 15 vowel sounds (phonemes)!

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But what is a vowel? Vowels are open unobstructed speech sounds produced with vibration of the vocal cords (ie., voiced). They are shaped by the position of the tongue and lips with no significant blockage of airflow.

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Vowels are the heart of every syllable and every syllable must contains at least one vowel. There are  no words in English without a vowel and each vowel can be spelled in many different ways, and each spelling pattern carries its own meaning or usage in words. For example, the long vowel /ā/ has ten ways to identify it as follows: male, mail, may, great, eight, baby, vein, they, waste, and change. Below are the phonic symbols with some examples of ways to spell and identify them.

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