Vowel letters A, E, I, O, U

Indonesian students generally find difficulties in learning English pronunciation

through written materials. This is because they are accustomed to the reading every
letter in Indonesian words; Indonesian is a phonetic language. By contrast, in English
there is no correspondence between the letters and the sounds they represent.

Consonant
No Pronounced Example
Letters
When preceded and followed by consonant letters in words such as:
back, crack, lack, sack, bad, head, lad, mad, sad, band, hand, sand,
ban, can, jam, flash.
æ
When taking the initial position in words such as:
Absence, absent, abstract, accent, access, action, active, actor, actual,
anger, angry, ankle, anxious, accident.
When followed by –r such as: are, bar, car, far, charge, large, arm,
farm, shark, card, hard, mark
a:
When followed by sk, ss, st such as:
Ask, bask, mask, task, Class, glass, pass, Cast, last, mast
When followed by ll or lk such as:
All, ball, call, fall, hall, small, tall, wall, Chalk, talk, walk Note: also in
wash
ɔ:
When followed by –u plus consonant letters
1 A Audience, auger, august, author, autumn, cough , taught, authority,
auxiliary
When taking initial positions
ə About, account, across, adopt, awake, away, accept, address, attempt,
attend, advance, alarm, according, attention, accompany,
In some words
e
any, anybody, anyone, anything, anyway, anywhere
When followed by a consonant letter plus –e
Ale, bale, dale, hale, sale, pale, whale, scale, tale, Blame, came, fame,
frame, game, lame, name, same, Bake, cake, lake, make, sake, shake,
ei take, Date, hate, late, state, made
When followed by-i plus consonant letter
Aim, claim, chain, gain, grain, lain, main, rain, fail, jail, mail, nail, aid,
Note: said is pronounced /sed/

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 When followed by –y
Day, lay, may, gay, pay, play, pray, say, spray, stay, way
eə In words ending in –are or –air
Care, bare, rare, share, compare, prepare, declare, air, hair, stair
When spelt double –ee- and preceded and or followed by consonant
letters
Bee, fee, knee, see, tree, speech, bleed, feed, feel, heel, need, speed,
cheek, seem, deep, street, sweet
/i/
When followed by –a
Sea, tea, each beach, reach, teach, read, speak, weak, clean, mean,
2 E eat, beat, cheat
Note: break, great /breik/ /greit/
Dead, head, health, heavy, jealous, measure, weather, treasure,
/e/
threaten, weapon
/eə/ in some words such as: Bear, pear, wear, tear
/ iə / Dear, ear, gear, near, year, here,
When followed by –i plus consonant letters
such as: brick, lick, pick, sick, tick, trick, Rich, which, bill, chill, dill, fill,
/i/ kill, kill, mill, nil, pill, spill, still, thrill, till, will, Chin, din, fin, kin, pin, sin,
thin, tin, win, limp, slim, Dip, chip, clip, grip, rip, sip, slip, trip ,Kiss,
miss, fish, dish, finish, Bit , bitch, itch, pitch,
When followed by a consonant letter plus –e
ice lice, mice, nice, price, rice, bride, hide, side, slide, wide, bike, like,
file, smile, pile, while, lime, time, arise, revise, bite kite, white
When followed by –e
Die, lie, tie
When followed by –nd
/ai/ Blind, find , hind, kind, mind, wind, (*note that the word wind as a
3 I noun is pronounced /wind/
When followed by –ld
Child, mild, wild
When followed by –gh or –ght
High, sight, thigh, bright, fight, flight, knight, light might, night, plight,
right, sight, slight, (*note the letters -gh are silent)
`When followed by –ef, -est, or -eld
i:
Brief, chief, grief, thief, belief , priest
When followed by –re or –et
/ aia / Dire, fire, hire, admire, retire, diet
(*note the word quiet is pronounced /kwaɪət/
When followed by –r and / or plus consonant letters
/ З: /
Bird, dirt, girl, shirt, skirt, third, dirty, thirsty, thirteen, thirty
When preceded and followed by consonant letters
4 O /ɒ/
Block, flock, knock, mock, mop, top, got hot, dot,

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 Too, zoo, proof, roof, cool, fool, pool, tool, soon,
/u:/ When followed by –ve
move, prove, improve, (*note love is pronounced /lʌv/)
Good, hood, stood, wood, book, cook, look, took, foot, could, should,
/u/
would,
When followed by –y or –I plus a consonant
/ ɔi /
Choice, voice, boil, oil, soil, coin, noise, boy, joy, toy, annoy, enjoy
When in word final positions preceded by a consonant letter
Go, no, so, ago
When followed by –a plus a consonant letter
Coach, road, coal, foam, soap, boat, coat,
When followed by –w
/ əƱ /
bow, blow, crow, low, show, slow, snow, throw, flown
When followed by –st or -ll
Ghost, most, post, roll, scroll
When followed by a consonant letter plus -e
code, spoke, woke, role, home, bone, stone, hope, note, rose, chose
/ Ʊə/ Boor, moor, poor
Loud, aloud, sound, house, mouse, mouth, shout, south, cow, down,
/ əƱ /
how, now, town
When followed by –r
Lord, born, corn, porn, horse, short.
When followed by –ar or –oor
/ ɔ: /
board, soar, floor
When followed by –ught
Bought, brought, thought, sought
Touch, tough, blood, flood, come, some, done, none, son, month, love,
/Λ/
worry.
/ auə / Flour, hour, bowel, flower, shower, tower
When occurring in the first unstressed syllable
/ ə/ collect, command, compete, complain, complete, connect, produce,
promote, provide
/u/ Bull, full, butcher, pull, push
/Λ/ bug, shrug, drum, sum, fun, gun, run, sun, lunch
When followed by –r
/ З: /
5 U Church, burn, turn, nurse, hurt, surface
/ ai/ buy , guy
/ Ʊə/ Cure, pure, sure
/ ju: / union, unit, usual, unique, uniform, university

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Exercises
1. Write 2 words in which letter A is pronounced:
a. /æ/ :........................ e. /ei/ :........................
b. /a: / :........................ f. /ɔ: / :........................
c. /ə/ :........................ g. /ɔ:/ :........................
d. /e/ :........................

2. Write 3 words in which letter E is pronounced:

a. /e/ :........................ c. /eə/ :........................
b. /i/ :........................ d. / iə / :........................

3. Write 3 words in which letter I is pronounced:

a. /i/ :........................ d. /aia/ :.........................

b. /i:/ :........................ e. / З:/ :.........................

c. /ai/ :.........................

4. Write 3 words in which letter O is pronounced:

a. / ɒ / :......................... f. / Ʊə/ :.........................
b. /u:/ :......................... g. / ɔ: / :.........................
c. /u/ :......................... h. / Λ / :.........................
d. / ɔi / :......................... i. / auə / : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
e. / əƱ / : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . j. / ə/ :.........................

5. Write 3 words in which letter U is pronounced:

a. /u/ :.........................
b. / Λ / :.........................
c. / З: / :.........................
d. / ai/ :.........................
e. / Ʊə/ :.........................
f. / ju: / : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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