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Unit 1: The basic 'Building Bricks' of the English language
Page 7 of 16

Unit 1: The basic 'Building Bricks' of the English language

Unit StartPage 1: An introduction to vowels and consonantsCourse Test: An introduction to vowels and consonantsPage 3: An introduction to vowels and consonantsCourse Test: Y: When is it a vowel? When is it a consonant?Page 5: Y: When is it a vowel? When is it a consonant?Page 6: Ways of spelling consonant and vowel soundsCourse Test: Long and short vowel soundsPage 8: Long and short vowel soundsCourse Test: An introduction to syllablesPage 10: An introduction to syllablesCourse Test: Introduction to prefixes and suffixesPage 12: Introduction to prefixes and suffixesCourse Test: SuffixesPage 14: SuffixesCourse Test: Spelling terms testPage 16: Spelling terms testUnit End

Page 7 of 16

Vowel Sounds

Vowel sounds can be even trickier. This is because:

  1. The same vowel can be used to produce different sounds e.g. dog, gold.
  2. You can spell the same vowel sound in different ways e.g. road, arrow, bone.
  3. Two vowels can join together to create yet more sounds e.g. boy, house.

Long and short vowel sounds

It can be useful to know the difference between long and short vowel sounds.

Listen to the first sounds of these words.

 Hear the long sound of the letter a as in ape.
 long sound of the letter a as in ape
Hear the short sound of the letter a as in alligator. short sound of letter a

Both words begin with the letter /a/. You can hear the difference between the long /a/ in ape and the short in alligator.

When we say ape aloud, we can keep the first sound going for as long as we have breath. When we say alligator, however, our tongue cuts off the /a/ sound, making it short. Try it!

It’s the same for the other vowels.

Say these words aloud. Listen to the first sound carefully.

Long Vowels:

long vowel sounds - learning vowels
ape
long vowel sounds - learning vowels
evening
long vowel sounds - learning vowels
ice-cream
long vowel sounds - learning vowels
oval
long vowel sounds - learning vowels
unicorn


You will hear that you are saying the letter name of the vowel.

Short Vowels:

long vowel sounds - learning vowels
alligator
long vowel sounds - learning vowels
elephant
long vowel sounds - learning vowels
insect
long vowel sounds - learning vowels
octopus
long vowel sounds - learning vowels
umbrella

 

Listen to the first sound of each word.

Select long or short:
open long
short
under long
short
apple long
short
every long
short
equal long
short
icon long
short
office long
short
useful long
short
ink long
short
alien long
short

X
X ⬊ ⬉
Please turn your screen to landscape to play this game.
X

The Spellzone interactive course is intended to be used online and may not be printed.

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