vowel sounds
Unobstructed vocal tones
Vowel sounds are the speech sounds produced with an open vocal tract—a, e, i, o, u and their variations.
English has more vowel sounds than vowel letters, which is why spelling can be tricky: the "a" in cat, cake, and father represents three different sounds.
Vowel sounds form the core of syllables, carrying the voice while consonants shape it.
- schwaNeutral unstressed vowel
- laxnessInsufficient strictness or care
- diphthongComplex vowel gliding between positions
- tensenessState of being stiff
- long vowelsVowels pronounced as names
short vowels · allophone · nasalization · roundedness · mouth shape · open mouth · stress pattern · speech therapy · singing voice · lips · pronunciation · throat · prosody · short · tongue · breath · humming · accent
- Pronunciationphonetic spelling, pronunciation key, pronunciation keys, syllable stress, word stress
- speech soundsdiphthong, nasal, monophthong, vocal folds, vocal tract
- language learningvocabulary lists, lessons, acquisition, basic vocabulary, grammar books
- vowelsa, e, u, y, vowels
- Danishdefinite articles, indefinite articles, verb conjugation, passive voice, word order
- NorwegianOslo, Bergen, krone, verb conjugation, definite articles
phonetic category
vowel soundsconsonants
Letters that aren't vowels
stops · plosives · fricatives · clicks · sibilants