Category Archives: Long vowels

English Vowels. Two Sounds for Long-U? Who Knew?

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Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Here is audio for some of the examples in my article on this topic on Medium.

Long-U2 /uw/

  • Long-U2 is used after consonants that are made with the front part of the tongue.
  • For English, these consonants are: T / D / S / Z / L / R / TH / SH / CH / J.
    Some examples are: tube / duty / clue / suit / rule / enthused / June.
  • Sometimes this vowel sound has other spelling patterns:
    >> “EW”, “EU”: dew / chew / blew / flew / deuce / sleuth
    >> “OO”: choose / soon / zoom / shoot / loose / mood / cool

Long-U1 /yuw/

  • Long-U1 is used for all other contexts. That means after any consonant sound that is NOT made with the front part of the tongue.
  • For English, those consonants are: P / B / F / V / M / C (K) / G / H.
    Some examples are: pupil / bugle / fuel / music / cube / argue / huge.
  • In addition, “other contexts” also includes when Long-U is the first letter of a word.
    For example: use / union / unit.
  • Some alternative spellings are:
    >> “EW”, “IEW”, “EU”: few / mew / view / feud / eulogy / eucalyptus

NOTE—

Words with “N” are not predictable, so they need to be learned individually. When you see a new word that has “N” before Long-U, just remember to check how to say it.

  • Some that always use Long-U1 are: annual / continue / genuine / granule / innuendo / January / manual / manufacture / menu / minuet / monument / venue. These all sound odd if they are pronounced with Long-U2.
  • Some examples with Long-U2 are: avenue / manure / nuance / nude / nucleus / numeric / new / news. (Some of these can also be pronounced with Long-U1, but that makes them sound more old-style.)

Try It!  

Using the patterns explained above, you now can figure out how the Long-U should be pronounced in these words, even if some of the words are unfamiliar for you. (You can find the answers are at the bottom of this post.)

astute
deputy
duplex
elude
fusion		humic
intrude
jute
mule
nebula		ocular
sumac
urine
zucchini  

Exciting news!

There is a supplementary lesson on this topic with more information and practice activities on my Patreon page! You can join my English pronunciation learning community on Patreon! Patreon tiers range from $2 to $100 USD per month and support the creation of a comprehensive English pronunciation learning platform!! Come and learn, get help, and interact — I hope to see you there!

ANSWERS to “Try It!”

Long-U1Long-U2
deputy / fusion
humic / mule
nebula / ocular / urine		astute / duplex
elude / intrude
jute / sumac / zucchini

Sell or Sale? Practice Exercises! Long-A and Short-e

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This is a follow up to my post “Sell or Sale?” There is also an extended version article on this topic on Medium, plus a longer version of these Practice Exercises on my Patreon page!!

Photo by Adam Kring on Unsplash

Listening and speaking practice with word pairs.

Practice 1.  Listen and imitate both words below.

Practice 2.  Listen and guess: You will hear just one of the words – which one do you hear?
(The answers are at the bottom, below the image)

1. based/baste — best
2. braid – bread
3. fail — fell
4. gate — get
5. jail — gel
6. late — let  		7.  lace — less
8.  main/mane — men
9.  pain — pen
10. raced — rest
11. rake — wreck
12. raid/rayed — red		13. taste — test
14. take – tech
15. wait — wet
16. wane — when
17. waste/waist — west
18. whale/wail — well

ANSWERS for Practice 2

1. based/baste
2. bread
3. fail
4. gate
5. gel
6. late		7.  less
8.  men
9.  pain
10. rest
11. wreck
12. raid/rayed		13. taste
14. tech
15. wait
16. wane
17. waste/waist
18. well

Vowel Sequences 3

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In Vowel Sequences part 1 and part 2, we learned that a vowel sequence is two vowels next to each other which belong to separate syllables and both of the vowels need to have their own sound.

Vowel sequences can be tricky to pronounce clearly, unless you know the secret trick of using the end part of the first vowel as a separator for the two sounds and as a bridge for your tongue.

Many linguists call the end part of the long vowels an “off-glide”. The off-glide for Long-A, Long-E, and Long-I is a /y/ sound, and the off-glide for Long-O and Long-U is a /w/ sound.

If you find it difficult to use the off-glide between two vowels, it might help to look at some examples of words that have a visible [y] or [w] between vowels. For your tongue, the process of pronouncing vowel sequences is similar to saying these kinds of words: layer / saying / growing / vowel

So, imagine a [y] between the vowel sequences in these words: chaos / being / ion
And imagine a [w] between the vowel sequences in these words: proactive / January

Vowel sequences between words

Once you know how to correctly pronounce vowel sequences, you can use the same strategy to speak more clearly when there are two words that have adjacent vowels.

Examples:

  • A vowel sequence happens in the phrase “see it”. So use the /y/ part of the vowel of the first word as the bridge to the next word, so that it sounds like {see-yit}. If you do not use the /y/ part between them, then it could sound more like the word “seat” instead of “see it”.
  • In the phrase “go out”, use the /w/ part of the first vowel as the bridge, and say {go-wout}.

Listen for the /y/ or /w/ off-glide between the vowels as I say these phrases and sentences:

  • the answer: What was the answer?
  • we all: Do we all want the same color?
  • three oranges: There are three oranges left.
  • go on: Let’s go on the bridge.
  • blue icon: Click the blue icon.
  • who ate: Who ate my sandwich?

Learning to say vowel sequences well can make your English sound much nicer and easier to understand.

Vowel Sequences 2

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Vowel sequences are two vowels next to each other in a word, that belong to separate syllables, and each one makes its own sound. In Vowel Sequences 1, we learned that the first vowel of a sequence uses its Long-vowel sound, and we need to use the ending part of the first vowel to help establish a boundary between the two vowel sounds.

Examples:

science — The first vowel is Long-I (/ay/), so we need to use the /y/ part of that vowel as a link to the second vowel, so that it sounds like {sci-yence}.

coerces — The first vowel is Long-O (/ow/), so we use the /w/ part as the link to the second vowel, and it sounds like {co-wer-ces}.

Using the /y/ or /w/ part of the first vowel has two main advantages:

  1. It creates a boundary between the two vowels, so that the two syllables can be clearly heard.
  2. The vowel sequence is much easier to pronounce because the /y/ or /w/ is like a bridge for your tongue.

By the way, don’t be afraid to exaggerate the “bridge” a little bit!

In these words, the first vowel of the sequence is a Long-A, Long-E, or Long-I sound, so the bridge sound is /y/:
area / aorta / client / idea / diet / giant / medium / museum / period / piano

(They sound like: {A-re-ya}, {a-YOR-ta}, {CLI-yent}, {i-DE-ya}, {DI-yet}, {GI-yant}, {ME-di-yum}, {mu-SE-yum}, {PE-ri-yod}, {pi-YA-no}. The capitalized letters show the stressed syllable.)

In these words, the first vowel of the sequence is Long-O or Long-U, so the bridge sound is /w/:
cooperate / doing / fluid / fuel / oasis / ruin / situation / usual

(They sound like: {co-WO-per-ate}, {DO-wing}, {FLU-wid}, {o-WA-sis}, {RU-win}, {si-tu-WA-tion}, {U-su-wal}.)

Finally, here is an extra tricky word: “bioethics”. It has a sequence of three vowels! The first vowel is Long-I, so the /y/ part is used, and the second vowel is Long-O, so the /w/ part is used, and the word sounds like {bi-yo-WE-thics}.

Vowel Sequences 1

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When you find a new word that has two vowels next to each other, you need to check whether the two vowels make just one vowel sound together (a vowel pair), or whether they make two separate sounds (a vowel sequence).

Vowel Pair: This is when two vowels are together in a word, and together they make just one vowel sound and they belong to the same syllable. For example, in the words “rain” or “head”. (see more examples in Vowel Pairs)

Vowel Sequence: This is when two vowels are next to each other in a word, and they make two separate sounds, and belong to different syllables, as in the words “diet” or “eon”.

Vowel sequences can be tricky to pronounce, and there are many students of English who have trouble saying them clearly.

Sometimes, there are words that can be confused, if the vowel sequence is not clear. Here are some common examples:

science: The [i] and the [e] both need to be clear, otherwise this word is often confused with “signs”.
coerces: If the [o] and the [er] are not both clearly pronounced, this can be confused with “courses”.
create: This could sound like “crate”.
quiet: This could sound like “quite”.

Even when there is not a similar sounding word, an unclear vowel sequence could make the word unclear. Here is a funny example: I once had a student who told me that when she first arrived in the U.S., she went to the store to buy deodorant, but she couldn’t buy any, because she couldn’t pronounce the word “deodorant” right, and nobody at the store understood what she wanted. She told me this story the day we were learning about vowel sequences, because suddenly she realized that her trouble with pronouncing “deodorant” was mostly about not knowing that the “eo” sequence needed to be two different vowel sounds.

So then, how do native-speakers of English pronounce vowel sequences clearly? Here is the secret…

FIRST: The first thing to know is that in a vowel sequence, the first vowel almost always has a Long-vowel sound.

SECOND: The secret key is to use the end part of the first vowel. This is where the IPA symbols are useful. When we look at the IPA symbols for the Long-vowels, and look at the 2nd part of each one, we can see a little pattern…

These have a /y/ sound at the end:
Long-A (/ay/)
Long-E (/iy/)
Long-I (/ay/)

These have a /w/ sound at the end:
Long-O (/ow/)
Long-U (/yuw/ or /uw/)

The little /y/ and /w/ parts at the end of the Long-vowels are the secret tool that you need to use to clearly pronounce vowel sequences.

The way to use them is by making them a little bit stronger than usual, so that they make a little bridge between the two vowels of the sequence.

Let’s try this with a few words:

science: The first vowel is Long-I, so the /y/ part should be pronounced a little more strongly, so that it sounds like {sci-yence}.
coerces: The first vowel of the sequence is Long-O, so the /w/ part needs to be used, to make it sound like {co-werces}.
create: Emphasize the /y/ part of the Long-E, to make it sound like {cre-yate}
quiet: Use the /y/ ending of the Long-I to separate the two vowels, like {qui-yet}

Now you know how to more clearly say a word such as “deodorant”!

We will see more examples in Vowel Sequences 2.

Long-vowel IPA symbols

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Knowing the Long-vowel sounds and Short-vowel sounds of English can help you be better at pronouncing new words and deciphering spelling patterns, but it also helps to be aware of the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols for the vowels. Some people learn IPA symbols when they first begin to learn English, but others have never seen these symbols before. Either way, it can be useful to refer to them for some aspects of English pronunciation.

One of the main differences between Long and Short-vowels is that Long-vowels have two parts to their sound and Short-vowels have one part. In the Long-vowel IPA symbols below you can see the two parts for each Long-vowel.

LongV IPA

Here are two situations where it is helpful to take a look at the IPA symbols of Long-vowels.

1. Vowel sequences

A vowel sequence is when there are 2 vowels next to each other, and they both have a sound, and they belong to different syllables, as in the words “idea” (3 syllables), or “fluid” (2 syllables). (NOTE: This is different from vowel pairs that belong to the same syllable and make only one sound.)

In order to pronounce both of the vowels in a sequence clearly, so that they can both be heard clearly, we need to make special use of the second part of the first vowel. Let’s see how that works with the words “idea” and “fluid”.

Idea — In this word the first vowel of the sequence is a Long-E, and the IPA symbol (/iy/) shows a “y” at the end. The trick is to use that “y” part to separate the two vowels. This is done by pronouncing it a little bit stronger than usual. This makes the word sound like it could be spelled as “ideya”.

Fluid — In this word the first vowel is a Long-U. The IPA symbol (/uw/) shows a “w” at the end. This “w” is emphasized, to make a separation between the [u] and the [i], and it sounds like “fluwid”.

2. Consonant morphing

The consonants “T”, “D”, “C”, “S”, and “Z” sometimes change their sound. Here are some examples:

“virtue” — the “T” sounds like “CH”
“educate” — the “D” sounds like “J”
“sugar” — the “S” sounds like “SH”
“social” — the “C” sounds like “SH”

This kind of consonant change can happen when the consonant is followed by a high-front vowel sound — this is seen as either a “y” or “i” in IPA symbols. In words like these, there is (or once was) either a Long-I-2 /iy/ or a Long-U-1 /yuw/ right after the morphing consonant. The consonant combines with the high-front part of the vowel sound and changes.

In some of these words, the original vowel sound is lost. For example, in “social” the [i] is lost when it combines with the [c] (the [a] remains as schwa). However, in “educate” the [d] gets changed but the Long-U can still be heard.

SO, overall, it is most helpful to know the vowel system in terms of Long and Short-vowels, because many pronunciation patterns make use of them, but also keep your eye on the IPA symbols for extra clues.

Overview of Vowels

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Do you know the total number of different vowel sounds in English?

Beginners often think the answer is “five”, because there are five vowel letters in the alphabet. Of course, anyone familiar with this blog already knows that each vowel letter has at least one Long-vowel and one Short-vowel sound. So is it ten vowels total? Nope! The answer is… fifteen different vowel sounds!

The English vowel system is complex, and almost every learner of English has trouble with at least a few of the vowels. The vowel system is the most difficult part of figuring out how to pronounce new words. So, mastering the vowel system can make a huge improvement in the way you sound in English, and it can help you be better at figuring out how to say new words.

All of the vowel sounds have been explained in other posts, so here is the complete list.
(not on audio)

#1 Long-A
#2 Short-a-1
#3 Short-a-2 and Short-o
See: The Sounds of A

#4 Long-E and Long-I-2
#5 Short-e
See: The Sounds of E

#6 Long-I
  — Long-I-2 (Old-style Long-I) — same as Long-E
#7 Short-i
See: The Sounds of I

#8 Long-O
  — Short-o — same as Short-a-2
  — Short-o-2 (Alternate Short-o) — same as Short-u
See: The Sounds of O

#9 Long-U-1
#10 Long-U-2 and Long-OO
#11 Short-u and Schwa
See: The Sounds of U and The Sound of Schwa

  — Long-OO — same as Long-U-2
#12 Short-oo
See: Long-OO and Short-oo? What’s that?

#13 Vowel /aw/
#14 Vowel /oy/
See: Two Other Vowels

#15 R-vowel
See: The Power of R

Two Other Vowels

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There are two vowel sounds that are similar to Long-vowels because they have two parts. However, these two vowels do not have an alphabet letter to represent them, so I use the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols for these two sounds. They are:

Vowel /aw/

This is the sound in words such as: house / out / now / flower. This sound is usually spelled with the letters “OU” or “OW”, BUT be careful…

  • not every word with “OU” has this sound. The vowel pair “OU” has many different pronunciations (this is explained in OU – Oh no!).
  • not every word with “OW” has this sound. Some words with “OW” have a Long-O sound, such as “slow” or “own”.

Vowel /oy/

This sound is in words such as: boy / oyster / oil / choice. This vowel is spelled with either “OI” or “OY”.

These two vowels are not usually difficult for students to pronounce. In fact, I have never seen a situation where someone has had difficulty communicating clearly in English due to errors with these two vowels.

There is just one thing to keep in mind about pronouncing them. Since these vowels — as well as the regular Long-vowels — have two parts, the tongue needs to be active. So, to pronounce them well, the tongue needs to move or slide, in order to pronounce both parts, and to sound clear and natural.

Long-OO

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There is no letter “OO” in the English alphabet, but Long-OO and Short-oo are part of the vowel system.

Short-oo

Short-oo is a unique vowel sound that is not represented by any other vowel letter. This vowel is explained in “Short-oo? What’s that?”

Long-OO

Long-OO does not have its own sound. It uses the Long-U-2 sound. Long-OO is really more of a “helper” to Long-U — it’s an alternate way to spell the Long-U-2 sound. Long-OO takes the place of the letter “U” in words that need a Long-U-2 instead of Long-U-1. (see Long-U: 1 or 2?). Here are some examples,

fool  — If we spelled this word with a “U”, the “F” would trigger a Long-U-1, and the word would end up sounding like the word “fuel”. So, in order to have a Long-U-2 sound in “fool”, the “OO” is used instead of a “U”.

boot — If this word had a “U” it would be “bute” — because a “B” also requires Long-U-1. So again, the “OO” helps out to keep a Long-U-2 sound.

coo — This word would sound like “cue”, if it had a “U” instead of “OO”.

Spelling Patterns

Long-OO and Short-oo also sometimes follow spelling patterns used by the other vowels. For example, the spelling rule in which an [-e] at the end of a word indicates a long vowel, can also be seen in some words with “OO”:

  • If you see an [-e] at the end of a word with “OO” you know for sure that it is Long-OO, as in the words “soothe”,  “goose” and “snooze”.
  • However, if you see a word that does not have an [-e] at the end, it could have either sound. Some have Long-OO, such as “food”, “school” and  “moon”. Some have Short-oo, such as “hook”, “wool” and “good”.

So that’s the scoop on Long-OO.

Long-U: 1 or 2?

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The vowel “U” is a bit unique because it has two Long-vowel sounds. The two sounds are very similar, but they are used in different situations. So, how do you know which one to choose?

It all depends on which letter comes just before the Long-U.

Long-U-2 (/uw/)

Long-U-2 is used after sounds that are made with the front part of the tongue. This includes: T / D / L / N / S / R / TH / J. Here are some examples: tune / duty / elude / nuclear / suit / rule / enthused / June.

Long-U-1 (/yuw/)

Long-U-1 is used after any sounds that are not made with the front part of the tongue. This includes: P / B / F / M / K / G / H / “none”. Some examples are: pupil / bugle / fuse / music / cube / argue / huge / use.

Exceptions

In English there are always exceptions, and in this case the exceptions happen with some Long-U-2 words.

  • Some words with a “T” or “N” can also be pronounced with Long-U-1. Some examples — pronounced both ways — are: tune / tube / avenue / news. Now, the second way (with Long-U-1) sounds more old-fashioned, like the way some elderly people speak. So, following the rule keeps it more simple for you. But be aware that you may hear some people say a few words the other way, so don’t let it confuse you.
  • There is a handful of words with “L” and “N” that always go against the rule, and use Long-U-1. You should memorize these ones: volume / value / evaluate / menu / January / monument.

Does it really matter which one you use?

It can. Especially when you accidentally use Long-U-2 in place of Long-U-1.

  • There are some words that can be confused. For example, if you want to say the word “use” but you pronounce it with Long-U-2 instead of Long-U-1, then you will end up saying the word “ooze”. Likewise, “hue” would sound like “who”.
  • Even if there is not a word that could be confused, using the wrong sound could make you unclear. For example, if you try to say a word such as “huge” or “pupil” with the wrong sound, others may not understand what you are talking about.
  • With bigger words, other people will probably still understand you. So if you try to say “regular”, “computer” or “document” with Long-U-2 (instead of Long-U-1), it will sound like a mistake, but most of the time others will know what word you are trying to say.

Another phenomenon

There is a group of words that have a sound change when a “T” or “D” comes before a Long-U-1. For example, in a word like “actual”, the “T” gets combined with the “Y” part of Long-U-1 (/yuw/) and turns into a “CH” sound. Likewise, in “graduate” the “D” combines with the “Y” and makes a “J” sound. There are quite a few words like this, such as: statue / costume / situation / punctuate / virtual / individual / schedule.

However, this is a phenomenon that does not only happen with Long-U. These words are part of a bigger pattern, and will be the topic of a different post.