Long Vowels

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Long Vowels

The long vowel sounds are not pronounced for longer time than short vowel sounds. The terms "long" and "short" are not describing the length of time a vowel sound is said. These archaic terms are still in popular use in American classrooms and online. They are used to simply give a name to a vowel sound so when the sound is discussed, the name and not the sound is used.

A long vowel sound is the same as its name. Some dictionaries use the diacritical mark for a long vowel and it is called a macron (¯), which is in the shape of a line above the vowel.

When a single vowel letter is in the end of a word (or syllable), it usually says its long sound (or its name), as in go and be. When two vowels go hand in hand in the same word (or syllable), the first vowel is usually long, and the second vowel is usually silent. e.g., bake makes the /aɪ/ sound (long a) and the "e" is silent; goal makes the /oʊ/ sound (long o) and the "a" is silent. However, there are many exceptions to this rule, such as with irregular vowels.

When there are two adjacent vowels in a word, the first one is long and the second one is silent. The first vowel is marked with a long line and second one is crossed out. Examples of this rule are in coat, ride, read.

There is both a long and short sound to “oo”. The long sound appears as in the words boo, food, smooth, and moose.

The following is a list of the 5 long vowel sounds in American English:

1- Long "a" (ā) sound /eɪ/ as in ape, snail, ache, explain, reindeer
2- Long "e" (ē) sound /i:/as in eat, agony, needle, pianist, and electricity
3- Long "i" (ī) sound /aɪ/ as in eye, cry, tightrope, tile, violin
4- Long "o" (ō) sound /oʊ/ as in oh, domino, ghost, pillow, stethoscope
5- Long "u" (ū) sound /ju/ as in you, few, use, cute

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