Vowel Combinations

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Vowel Combinations

A vowel combination is a combination of two or three vowels, or of a vowel and at least one consonant, that is associated with one or more specific single sounds. For example, "ea" has the sounds long e /i:/ and long a /eɪ/; "ay" has the sound long a /eɪ/, and "igh" has the sound long i /ai/. These vowel combinations are sometimes called digraphs, diphthongs, trigraphs, and triphthongs.

Vowel combinations occur in three different forms in written English:

1- Vowels often appear in clusters within a single syllable. This is the most common form.
2- Vowels often appear in combination with a particular consonant or consonants which, together, represent a sound unit that is different from what you would expect if you didn't know the specific combination. For example, the "o" in old has the long o sound /oʊ/ , but if you didn't know that, you would think that the "o" in cold was short.
3- Another common combination in English is one or two vowels followed by "gh". The "gh" is usually silent. It is usually easier to decode the whole unit ("igh", "eigh") than to process the vowel and the "gh" separately.

"A" Vowel Combinations

ai / ay
Together, "ai" or "ay" make a long a sound (/eɪ/).

Group 1: long a sound (/eɪ/)
(a) "ai" /eɪ/ as in aim, rain, braid, paint, tail, twain, praise, stain, main
(b) "ay" /eɪ/ as in ray, say, stay, day, say, play, spray, tray

Other "a" vowel combinations:

Group 2: short a sound (/ɑ:/)
(a) "au" /ɑ:/ as in fault, gaunt, fraud, launch, pause, and sauce
(b) "aw" /ɑ:/ as in saw, paw, claw, dawn, and crawl
(c) "augh" /ɑ:/ as in caught, taught, daughter, naughty, haughty, and slaughter
(d) "alk" /ɑ:k/ as in talk, walk, chalk, stalk
(e) "all" /ɑ:l/ as in ball, tall, hall, small
(f) "ald" /ɑ:ld/ as in bald, scald, and alder
(g) "alt" /ɑ:lt/ as in halt, malt, salt
(h) "alm" /ɑ:m/ as in alms, calm, palm,psalm
(i) "wa" /wɑ:/ as in want, wash, swamp
(j) "ua" /wɑ:/ as in squash, squat

Group 3: short a sound (/æ/)
(a) "wa" /wæ/ as in wax, wag, swam
(b) "ua" /wæ/ as in quack

"E" Vowel Combinations

ee / ea
Together, "ee" or "ea" make a long e sound (/i:/). Sometimes, "ea" together makes a short e sound (/ɛ/) or a long a sound (/eɪ/) instead.

Group 1: long e sound (/i:/)
(a) "ee" /i:/ as in peek, see, queen, sleep, cheese, street, meet
(b) "ea" /i:/ as in eat, sea, each, leaf, peach, mean, team, ease, please, team

Group 2: short e sound (/ɛ/)
(a) "ea" /ɛ/ as in dead, head, spread, health, meant

Group 3: long a sound (/eɪ/)
(a) "ea" /eɪ/ as in break, great, steak, yea

Other "e" vowel combinations:

Group 4: long i sound (diphthong /aɪ/)
(a) "ei" /aɪ/ as in heist
(b) "ey" /aɪ/ as in eye, geyser
(c) "eigh" /aɪ/ as in height

Group 5: long a sound (/eɪ/)
(a) "ei" /eɪ/ as in veil, beige
(b) "ey" /eɪ/ as in they, whey
(c) "eigh" /eɪ/ as in eight, weigh

Group 6: long e sound (/i:/)
(a) "ei" /i:/ as in seize, receipt
(b) "ey" /i:/ as in key, money, valley
(c) "eo" /i:/ as in people

Group 7: complex oo sound (/u:/)
(a) "eu" /u:/ as in sleuth, deuce
(b) "ew" /u:/ as in few, new, shrewd

"I" Vowel Combinations

Group 1: long i (diphthong sound /aɪ/)
(a) "ie" /aɪ/ as in die, tie
(b) "ie" /aɪ/ as in quiet, science *
(c) "igh" /aɪ/ as in high, thigh, night, flight, wright
(d) "ign" /aɪ/ as in sign, align, assign, benign
(e) "ind" /aɪ/ as in bind, kind, mind, grind, behind

Group 2: long e sound (/i:/)
(a) "i" /i:/ as in ski
(b) "ie" /i:/ as in brief, field, grieve, piece
(c) "ie" /i:/ as in alien *

* Along with the long e and long i pronunciation, the "ie" spelling is occasionally pronounced as two adjacent vowel sounds.

"O" Vowel Combinations

Group 1: short o sound (/ɑ:/)
(a) "oll" /ɑ:ll/ as in doll, loll
(b) "ost" /ɑ:st/ as in cost, lost, frost

Group 2: complex aw (diphthong sound /aʊ/)
(a) "ou" /aʊ/ as in out, round, bounce
(b) "ow" /aʊ/ as in how, down, browse

Group 3: long o sound (/oʊ/)
(a) "oa" /oʊ/ as in oat, loam, groan, loathe, loaves
(b) "oe" /oʊ/ as in doe, hoe
(c) "ow" /oʊ/ as in own, glow, snow, owe
(d) "oul" /oʊl/ as in soul, poultry
(e) "old" /oʊld/ as in gold, scold, fold
(f) "olk" /oʊlk/ as in folk, yolk
(g) "oll" /oʊll/ as in roll, knoll, scroll
(h) "olt" /oʊlt/ as in bolt, volt
(i) "ost" /oʊst/ as in ghost, most, post

Group 4: complex oi (diphthong sound /oɪ/)
(a) "oi" /oɪ/ as in oil, coin, voice
(b) "oy" /oɪ/ as in boy, and ploy

Group 5: complex oo sound (/u:/)
(a) "oo" /u:/ as in boo, food, smooth, moose
(b) "ou" /u:/ as in you, soup, group, rouge

Group 6: complex oo sound (/ʊ/)
(a) "oo" /ʊ/ as in book, look, good, and stood

"U" Vowel Combinations

Group 1: complex oo sound (/u:/)
(a) "ue" /u:/ as in due, rue, sue, blue, clue, flue, glue, true
(c) "ui" /u:/ as in suit, fruit, cruise, juice, sluice

Group 2: long u sound (/ju/)
(a) "ue" /ju/ as in cue, hue

"Y" Vowel Combinations

Group 1: long e sound (/i:/)
(a) " cy" /-si:/ as in agency, fluency, efficiency
(b) "ity" /əti/ as in quality, ability, reality
(c) "logy" /ləʤi/ as in trilogy, apology, mythology
(d) "graphy" /grəfi/ as in photography, choreography, topography

Group 2: long i sound (/aɪ/)
(a) "fy" /aɪ/ as in notify, glorify
(b) "ky" /aɪ/ as in sky
(c) "ye" /aɪ/ as in dye, rye

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