The ‘short’ sound is NOT like the
letter name.
The ‘long’ sound is like the letter
name, and may be a long vowel or
actually a diphthong.
Long ‘a’
diphthong
Sounds like the letter name
a
a-e
baby
Short ‘a’:
tape
/æ/
ay
ai
tray
snail
ant
a
/ɑ:/
a
banana
ar
Sounds like the other English letter ‘a’
car
/i:/
“Long ‘e’ ”
sounds like
the letter
name.
“Short ‘e’ ”
e
ea
me
beach
ee
ey
tree
key
y
pony
Forget-me-not
/e/
e
bed
ea
bread
There are two phonemes for ‘e’:
the sounds/ə/ and /e/
English “Short ‘e’ ” is the same as
one of the BM ‘e’ s.
/e/
e
bed
ea
bread
/i:/
e
me
ea
ee
ey
beach
tree
key
Forget-me-not
English “Long ‘e’ ” is the same as the BM ‘i’
y
pony
Long ‘i’:
diphthong
/ɑı/
Short ‘i’:
/ı/
Sounds like the letter name
i
i-e
igh
y
tiger
kite
light
fly
i
tin
e
rocket
Long ‘o’:
/əʊ/
diphthong
o
go
Short ‘o’:
/ɒ/
Sounds like the letter name
oa
o-e
ow
ew
boat
note
snow
sew
o
frog
wa
swan
/ɒ/
o
frog
wa
Sounds like English “Short ‘o’ ”
swan
Long ‘u’:
/u:/
Short ‘u’:
diphthong
Sounds like the letter name
moon
oo
/ʌ/
ew
u
screw
bus
ue
o
glue
glove
/ʊ/
oo
book
u
bull
In English, it’s another kind of “Short ‘u’ ”.
/ɔ:/
or
a
au
aw
oor
fork
ball
sauce
saw
door
It’s like a lengthened “Short ‘o’ ”
/eə/
/ɪə/
/ʊə/
air
hair
square
are
ear
ear
eer
deer
oor
our
ure
ur
moor
tourist
cure
jury
/ɑʊ/
/ɔı/
ow
oy
cow
toy
ou
oi
house
coin
This is similar to the second ‘e’ phoneme in BM.
In English it is found in stressed syllables
and words with one syllable.
/ɜ:/
er
fern
ir
shirt
or
worm
ur
fur
In an unstressed syllable the vowel sound
is often replaced by ‘schwa’. It is shorter
than the similar BM sound.
er
/ə/
ar
teacher
a
zebra
collar
e
garden
ure
or
doctor
i
fossil
measure
o
u
lion
circus