For learners of English, the ability to read is a great difficulty, since vowels in English are not pronounced the way they are written. For proper reading, you need to follow transcription. It shows how vowels are read in English.
History of the English alphabet
According to the official version, the English alphabet is 500 years older than the Russian one. Before the advent of Christians, the ancestors of modern English used runic writing. In the 9th century, Anglo-Saxons officially began to use the Old English Latin script, which consisted of 20 Latin letters, 2 runes and 2 modified Latin graphemes.
Until the XI century, there were attempts to streamline the English alphabet, but they were unsuccessful, because the Saxons, along with the new letter, used the old - runic.
Today, the English alphabet includes 26 characters:
- English vowels - 5 letters;
- English consonants - 21 letters.
It is worth noting that the letters Y and R stand apart, since, depending on the position in the word, they can indicate both consonant and vowel sound.
Why do I need to know the English alphabet?
Knowledge of not only spelling, but also pronunciation of letters is an important condition for learners of English. Why? The fact is that the spelling and pronunciation of English words do not coincide, since their writing does not obey any rules. Therefore, carriers often resort to the so-called spelling (from the word spell) - spelling. This difference of the English language is easy to understand when spelling the surname Smith (Smith), which, in addition to the popular spelling, can have such options:
- Smithe;
- Smythe
- Smyth
- Psmith.
The pronunciation of all surnames is the same.
The skill of spelling is necessary for all English-speaking people, so even from school the formation of the ability to quickly spell words begins. For example, in a geography lesson, a teacher, without asking students, gives them new place names. Any other teacher does likewise if a lesson is encountered in a lesson that is complex or unfamiliar to the students.
Therefore, when learning English, you need to pay due attention to the formation of spelling skills, which can not do without knowledge of the alphabet.
How are vowels pronounced in English?
English vowels, depending on the position in the word, can be short and long. This means that short ones are simply pronounced and are similar to Russian vowels, and the second need to be pronounced longer, almost to be sung or pronounced as if to find out where to put emphasis. When pronouncing, it is extremely important to observe this rule, since the meaning of the word depends on it. For example, in the word ship, the sound [and] is pronounced as in the word “willow”. In the word sheep, the phoneme [and] is pronounced lingeringly, as if it is necessary to stress it.
English vowels are divided into:
- short vowel sounds - mother (mother, mother), map (card), pencil (pencil), cup (cup), pot (bowler).
- long vowel sounds - father (father, dad), soon (soon, soon), dawn (dawn), bee (bee).
- diphthongs - 2 vowels in English that are pronounced as one phoneme - fuel (fuel), bow (bow), coat (coat), fine (good).
What are the rules for vowels?
English vowels, unlike consonants, obey a variety of reading rules:
- rules for closed and open syllables (z.s. and o.s.);
- vowel + r;
- vowel + r + vowel;
- combinations of vowels under stress.
Knowing these rules, you can develop the skill of almost error-free reading without knowledge of transcription. Consider the rules for reading 5 vowels and the letter Y with examples of words with the transcription of Russian letters.
| A | O | E | I | U | Y |
| o.s. | [hey] same | [oh] note | [and:] he | [ah] fine | [yu] cube | [ah] my |
| z.s. | [uh] rat | [o] hot | [e] red | [and] bit | [a] run | [and] myth |
| hl + r | [a:] car | [about:] sort | [e:] term | [uh:] tir | [uh:] fur | [uh:] Byrd |
| hl + r + hl | [ea] care | [about:] store | [ie] mere | [aye] fire | [yue] cure | [aye] tire |
Open is a syllable that ends in a vowel, even if it is dumb. Mute in the English language is the letter E, which is not read at the end of the word. In this case, the vowel is pronounced as it is called in the alphabet. Closed is a syllable that ends in a consonant.
- note ([laptop]) - note;
- nose ([nose]) - nose;
- rice ([rice]) - rice;
- type ([type]) - print;
- shy ([shay]) - embarrassing, modest;
- he ([hee]) - he;
- name ([name]) - name;
- same ([seym]) - the same;
- nine ([nain]) - nine;
- fume ([fume]) - smoke;
- cap ([cap]) - cap;
- pen ([pan]) - pen;
- lot ([lot]) - a lot;
- sit ([sit]) - sit, sit down;
- my ([may]) - mine, mine, mine, mine;
- nut ([nat]) - nut.
Vowel + r - The vowel is pronounced lingering.
- card ([: ]) - card;
- fork ([fo: k]) - fork;
- turn ([tö: n]) - turn, turn;
- girl ([gö: l]) - girl, girl;
- Byrd ([be: d]) is an English surname.
Vowel + r + vowel - the letter r is not pronounced, and vowels are pronounced together as one sound.
- rare ([rea]) - rare;
- pure ([pye]] - pure;
- here ([hie]) - here;
- fire ([faye]) - fire;
- store ([one hundred:]) - store;
- tire ([taye]) - the tire.
A separate group is made up of vowels in English, which are paired and called diphthongs. The diphthongs with examples are presented in the picture below.
In this article, we examined the basic rules for how vowels are read in English. The main thing when learning a language is practice, and in order to learn to read English well, you need to pay daily attention to developing reading and spelling skills.