This speaking lesson focusses on skills related to
- English pronunciation
- long and short vowel sounds
- diphthongs
- schwa for unstressed syllables
Even though there are only five vowels, A, E, I, O, U, the pronunciation and combination of these letters can form between 14 and 20 different phonemes, or sounds, in English words, depending on the region English is spoken.
This lesson focusses on 4 categories of English vowel sounds :
- Long vowel sounds: there are five vowel sounds in which the vowel sounds like its name
- Short vowel sounds: there are at least five other possible sounds for vowels that are shorter, and different from the way the letter sounds
- Dipthongs: also known as 'gliding vowels' are formed from a combination of two vowel sounds in the same syllable
- Schwa: the most common English vowel sound, formed to replace vowels sounds in unstressed syllables
1. Long Vowel Sounds
There are five long vowel sounds corresponding to the five vowels
| Vowel | Examples | |
| 1 | a | ape; lake; gate |
| 2 | e | see; dream; feet |
| 3 | i | bite; fight; kite |
| 4 | o | row; potato; loan |
| 5 | u | united; ufo; ukulele |
2. Short Vowel Sounds
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