The letters A, E, I, O, and U are called vowels. The other letters in the alphabet are called consonants.

A, E, I, O, U. Oh, and sometimes Y. So, six? Actually, English has at least 14 different vowel sounds and, depending on the speaker and dialect, maybe more than 20.

ENGLISH

Refer back to the vowels written on the board and say, “Vowels are special letters because they make more than one sound. Each letter makes a long sound, which sounds like its name, and a short sound.”

A single vowel is at the end of a syllable. Two vowels work together to show one long vowel sound. Pronounce the long sound for the first vowel. Two vowels work together to show one long vowel sound, but they are separated by a consonant.

Difference Between Vowels and Consonants

• pressing your lips together (as for B)
• pressing your bottom lip against your teeth (as for F)
• pressing your tongue against the top of your mouth (as for L)

Consonant sounds make speech clear, crisp and intelligible, meaning they make your speech easier to understand. Consonants are easier to learn than vowels. In English there is not a single standard for pronouncing each vowel. The “a” letter can be pronounced as many as 6 different ways.

(Grammar rules for writers.) The real rule is this: You use the article “a” before words that start with a consonant sound and “an” before words that start with a vowel sound.

21 consonant

14 vowel

Because it’s descended from a language family where historical sound changes have increased the number of vowels: Historical long consonants have turned into short ones, but vowels were still affected (ex: “taper” – “tapper”) creating a split between tense (long) and lax (short) vowels.