Spelling the long vowel sound /ā/: a-e, ai, ei, ay

/ā/as in ape

How to spell the long /ā/ sound:

1) In some words of more than one syllable you just need the letter a,
for example:

acorn

apron

alien

agent

basic

basin

data

fatal

(more on this in the next Unit - Syllables: Vowel and Consonant Patterns)

2) Sometimes you need to add another letter, for example:


a-e as in snake	ai as in train	ay as in pray	ei as in reindeer
Add e on the end. Many words use a-e to spell the long /ā/ sound. Some examples:	The next most common way is to use ai. Some examples:	Use ay on the end of a word. Some examples:	Only a few words use ei. (See Unit 21 for more on these words) Some examples:
ale ate* grade made* trade bake brake* shake* stake* male* sale* vale* game flame frame mane* plane* tape grape scrape chase gate* grate* plate skate paste taste waste* brave shave blaze graze amaze escape inflate translate migrate vibrate behave calculate emigrate estimate hesitate ...and many more	aid aim paid fail mail* sail* tail* snail claim main* pain* chain plain* stain strain vain* wait* gait* paint faint waist* again afraid entail explain complain contain detail obtain maintain remain ...and many more	day Sunday Monday etc. hay lay may pay ray say way* clay play pray* fray tray slay* stay sway spray stray away always betray dismay display decay delay essay portray relay grey (US gray) prey* they obey convey survey	reins* vein* veil* sheik* (also sheikh) reign* neigh weigh* sleigh* eight* freight weight*
Notes: 1) Words marked * are homophones. Please see page 6. 2) Words ending in -ace are in Unit 20.