Vowel Pair Syllables
Double vowels are by far the most complex of the syllable types. Here, it is not so much a
question of coming up with a definition as noting how different vowel combinations are
pronounced. The first two lists you give your students all contain vowel combinations which
represent one sound.
Give your students the following list of words:
Group 1
boat see
pain day
Group 2
saw cause
draw pause
boil toe
Hint: . . Read the words in group 1
1. Ask you students how many vowel letters there are in each of these words.(2 because 'y'
in this case, functions as a vowel)
2. Then ask them how many vowel sounds they hear in each of these words. (1)
3. Point out to students that the 'oi' combination is a diphthong. Diphthongs are "gliding
vowels". In this case, after the /o/ sound is pronounced, the speaker glides into the /i/
sound. Diphthongs are considered a unit and not two separate sounds.
4. Say the word 'day' and ask the students what sound the letter 'y' makes. (If the letter 'y'
were a consonant, it would represent the sound /y/. Here, however, it functions as a
vowel.)
5. How many vowels are there in the words in both groups. (Note both 'w' and 'y' function as
vowels.)
6. Now read the words in group 1 again. Do you hear the first vowel or the second vowel?
7. Read the words in group 2. How many vowel sounds do you hear? (1 /au/) Ask students
how the /au/ sound is spelled. (aw/au) If students ask when to use which, tell them:
aw normally comes at the end of a word or before final 'l', 'n'. or 'k'(saw, dawn,
bawl, hawk) Before other consonants, aw becomes au.
*( Bishop, The ABCs and All Their Tricks, 1986.)
Remember to tell students that although 'au' is normally pronounced /au/, it has two common
exceptions: laugh, aunt.
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Tricky Vowel Pairs
The first two lists contain vowel combinations which represent only one sound. The last list of
words contains a set of different vowel combinations because they all represent more than one
sound.
When you introduce these vowel combinations will depend of your reading texts. Although, there
are generalizations which can be made as to how to pronounce these combinations or when to
use them, that is up to the individual teacher.
Oo = /oo/ as in spoon
/oo/ as in good
ei = /e/ as in ceiling
/a/ as in reindeer
/i/ as in eiderdown/their
Ea = /e/ as in read
/e/ as in treasure
/a/ as in break
ou = /ou/ house
/oo/ youth
/u/ couple
(cough)
ie = /e/ chief
/i/ tie
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ue = /oo/ glue
/u/ argue