Sounds of Vowels (the number in blue below is on the chart which I sent to you)

In English speaking, a vowel is a speech sound made with your mouth open and your tongue in the middle of your mouth not touching your teeth, lips or other inside parts.

“E” long sounds IPA SYMBOL      i: (1.)

“E” long sounds 1. Beginnings – eat, eel, even, sheep, feel, beat, meet, evening,

“E” long sounds 2. Endings – bee, see, tree, very, silly, pretty, study

“E” long sounds 3. The queen fell into a deep sleep.

“E” long sounds 4. He wants to clean both his feet before he wants to study.

“I” short sounds IPA SYMBOL      ɪ (2)

“I” short sounds 1. Beginnings – in, is, it, enough, eraser, English

“I” short sounds 2. Middles – bin, sin, kin, sit, fit, kit, hit, trip

“I” short sounds 3. Endings – Millie, silly, jelly, busy

“I” short sounds 4. Kitty hit the ball in the middle of the bat.

“U” short sounds soft IPA SYMBOL      ʊ (3)

“U” short sounds soft 1. Book, look, could, should, good, put, foot, full, sugar, woman

 “U” short sounds soft 2. Put the good book on top of your foot.

“U” short sounds soft 3. Tom would eat a full cookie if he could.

 “U” short sounds soft 4. The woman cooks with so much sugar.

“U” long sounds IPA SYMBOL      u:  (4)

“U” long sounds 1. Do, you, zoo, soon, rude, blue, true, shoe, balloon, Sue, suit

“U” long sounds 2. Baby Sue will soon eat soup with a spoon.

“U” long sounds 3. It’s true, Luke is wearing only one blue shoe.

“U” long sounds 4. Can you see the moon at noon?

“E” short sounds IPA SYMBOL   e  (7)

“E” short sounds 1. Egg, end, enjoy, energy, bed, head, dress, elementary

“E” short sounds 2. When will Cedric be ready to spend some money?

“E” short sounds 3. Ben said, “Can you check if you have my pen?”

“E” short sounds 4. It’s already eleven and the baby hasn’t slept yet.

“Schwa” sounds IPA SYMBOL      ə  (8)

“Schwa” sounds 1. a, the, about, banana, busy, father, butter, teacher, atlas, computer, system

“Schwa” sounds 2. Can I have a carrot and a banana?

“Schwa” sounds 3. The company will supply a new software system for our computers.

“Schwa” sounds 4. My mother suggested that we clean our apartment.

“Ur” sounds IPA SYMBOL      ɜ:  (9)

“Ur” sounds 1. Beginnings – earn, learn, turn, earth, church, birth, worm, nurse

“Ur” sounds 2. Endings – superb, occur, prefer, return, research, prefer

“Ur” sounds 3. Vernon and George were at work very early.

“Ur” sounds 4. It’s Shirley’s turn to do some research.

“Or” sounds IPA SYMBOL      ɔ:  (10)

“Or” sounds 1. Beginnings – autumn, awesome, awful, ordinary, ornament

“Or” sounds 2. Middles and endings – saw, war, more, before, store, door, short, sport, extraordinary

“Or” sounds 3. Nora saw all the awful movies shown on pay TV.

“Or” sounds 4. Paul is the name of a famous warlord.

“A” short sounds IPA SYMBOL      æ  (14)

“A” short sounds 1. Beginnings – at, and, ant, actor, apple, animal

“A” short sounds 2. Middles – bad, sad, cat, glad, dad, stand, exam, marriage

“A” short sounds 3. My dad was mad but the cat was fat after eating a rat.

“A” short sounds 4. The actor wore a black hat and jacket at the exam.

“U” short sounds IPA SYMBOL      ʌ  (15)

“U” short sounds 1. Beginnings – us, up, under, ugly, udder, umbrella, other

“U” short sounds 2. Middles – another, sun, run, butter, some, none, does, stuck, love

“U” short sounds 3. My mother loves the early sun on a summer’s day.

“U” short sounds 4. The ugly duckling got stuck to the fence by some yucky gum.

“A” long sounds IPA SYMBOL      ɑ:  (16)

“A” long sounds 1. Beginnings – Are, arm, ark, art, Arnold, answer, armour, ardour

“A” long sounds 2. Middles and endings – car, star, start, father, hard, apartment

“A” long sounds 3. My father decided that the answer was to buy a new car.

“A” long sounds 4. After the party, an army of artists came out of the apartment.

“O” short sounds IPA SYMBOL      ɒ  (17)

“O” short sounds 1. Beginnings – on, often, October, otter, octopus, olive, olfactory

“O” short sounds 2. Middles – Robert, stop, top, drop, sock, frog, doll, dolphin

“O” short sounds 3. The dog and the otter stopped playing on the beach.

“O” short sounds 4. Tom got a lot of socks for his birthday on Monday.