What are Vowels and Consonants? (An Easy Step-By-Step Introduction to the English Language)

The American-English language can be difficult to learn, but knowing which letters are vowels and which are consonants shouldn’t be. In this post you’ll find an overview of vowels and consonants for you to teach your children or to learn for yourself!

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Some people find teaching their child to read to be the biggest hurdle in homeschooling. I must be weird because I actually enjoy teaching my children their letters, the different speech sounds they make, which are vowels vs which are consonants, reading to my children, and watching them learn to read on their own. Since I enjoy this process, I felt like I should put together a post to help those who don’t find this so enjoyable. Creating an environment of learning is an important part of schooling at home.

Introduction to the English Alphabet

Fun fact: the word “alphabet” comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: “Alpha” and “Beta”! American English, which is spoken in the United States of America, is made up of 26 letters. The 26 Letters of the Alphabet are A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z. The 26 letters of the English alphabet are then split into two groups: vowels and consonants. 5 of the letters in the English Alphabet are vowels. The remaining 21 letters are consonants. The two letters “A” and “I” also constitute words. Those 26 letters make 44 different sounds in English! 24 of those are consonant sounds and 20 are vowel sounds!

English letters are based on the Latin script, which is the basic set of letters common to the various alphabets originating from the classical Latin alphabet.

One of my favorite ways to teach the letters is to use flash cards (these ones are such a useful tool!) and letter tracing (these ones are FREE to download for personal use).

Vowels

According to Dictionary.com, the definition of a vowel is “a speech sound produced without occluding, diverting, or obstructing the air flow from the lungs”. In fact, the Latin word for Vowel is vocalis meaning vocal.

In the English language, vowel letters are A, E, I, O, and U and sometimes Y. The 5 vowels have a total of 20 sounds! The international phonetic alphabet (a set of symbols) helps us tell these sounds apart, but that is something your child will learn through their language arts program as they grow. An example of the different vowel sounds is with the letter /a/ , the phenome [ɑ̃] as in man although it has a similar sound, it really has more of a nasal sound versus /a/ as in apple. So for now, I’ll break these sounds down for you.

The 20 vowel sounds are split into 7 short vowel sounds, 5 long vowel sounds, and then 8 diphthongs. And then we have another item called a vowel digraph that is when 2 vowels are placed together to create one sound. An example of this would be /oo/ as in book, look, and took. In all English words, there are at least one vowel. That is why the letters w and y are given the honorable mention as vowel-like consonants in the vowel category because it impersonates a vowel in some words like the letter y in the words why, by, sky and cry.

Vowels video

Although there are more than just two sounds each vowel makes, we teach two main sounds first because this is where it sometimes gets confusing. The two main categories of vowel sounds are sometimes called pure vowel sounds and they broken down into Short Vowel Sounds and Long Vowel Sounds.

Short Vowel Sounds

When introducing vowel sounds to children, we use basic speech sounds first like the short vowel sounds. As pictured above, these are A says “ah” as in Apple, E says “eh” as in Egg, I says “ih” as in Igloo, O says “aw” as in Octopus and, U “uh” as in Umbrella.

Short Vowel Sounds Video

Long Vowel Sounds

Once your child has learned their short letter sounds, you get to teach the sounds of the long vowels. The easiest way to teach this is long vowel sounds say their name! A says “aye” as in Cape, E says “Eee” as in Week, I says “eye” as in Ice, O says “oh” as is Ocean, and U says “you” as in use. Let’s just say that the sounds are easier to teach than their spellings.

Long A Sounds can be spelled 8 different ways: a – as in lady, a_e – as in late, ai – as in pain, ay – as in say, ei – as in reindeer, eigh – as in eight, ea – as in break, and ey – as in grey.

Long E Sounds can also be spelled in 8 different spelling patterns: e – as in me, e_e – as in gene, ee – as in street, ea – as in feast, ei – as in receipt, ie – as in thief, ey – as in monkey, and y – as in sunny.

Long I Sounds can be spelled in 6 different spelling patterns: i – as in tiny, i_e – as in ice, ie – as in lie, igh – as in might, y – as in cry, and y_e as in style.

Long O Sounds can be spelled 5 different ways: o – as in no, o_e – as in tone, oe – as in doe, oa – as in coat, and ow – as in blow.

Long U Sounds can be spelled 6 different ways: u – as in unit, u_e – as in cube, ue – as in rescue, eu – as in feud, ew – as in pew and iew – as in preview.

Long Vowel Sounds Video

Diphthongs

Diphthong’s are a sound formed by the combination of two English vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves toward another (as in coin, loud, and side). There are 8 common diphthongs used in English: aw, au, ew, oo, oi, oy, ow, and ou. Here are some examples of each common diphthong.

Commonly used diphthongs with examples

aw – straw, claw, law, thaw, haw, saw, draw, crawl

au – haul, fault, vault, pauper, author, cause, pause, applesauce

ew – brew, chew, blew, cashew, stew, few, dew, drew

oo – food, room, soon, zoo, taboo, kazoo, bamboo, shampoo

oi – boil, broil, coil, coin, point, spoil, noise, oil

oy – boy, coy, joy, soy, toy, decoy, enjoy, oyster

ow – bow, cow, how, down, plow, growl, brown, flower

ou – out, ouch, loud, house, found, round, cloud

Consonants

Once you have mastered the vowels, you are left with the rest of the alphabet. These letters are known as consonants. A consonant is opposite of the vowel in that consonant sounds are made by “occluding with or without releasing (p, b; t, d; k, g), diverting (m, n, ng), or obstructing (f, v; s, z, etc.) the flow of air from the lungs” (Dictionary.com). Therefore, the consonant letters are B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, and Z.

When teaching consonants, you find there aren’t as many different sounds so we only teach their main sound when first learning the letter sounds. The 21 consonants making the 24 consonant sounds are split between 15 voiced sounds and 9 voiceless sounds. It’s important to note that for every voiceless sound there is a similar voiced sound. There are also voiceless stops and voiced stops, which are something your child will learn at a later time. You might be thinking what is a voiceless stop? Voiceless stops are aspirated at the beginning of a word, and at the beginning of a stressed syllable. Voiceless stops are unaspirated at the beginning of an unstressed syllable. They’re also unaspirated in any other position, like at the end of a syllable or the end of a word. For example, in English, the sounds [p], [t], and [k] are voiceless stops (also called plosives). The sounds [b], [d], and [g] are voiced stops.

Consonants Video

What are CVC Words?

Once your child is able to master their letters and the sounds that they make, they go on to learn about different words like CVC words (words that have a consonant then a vowel and consonant) and CVCC words (words that start with a consonant, then have a vowel and consonant, and then end with another consonant). This is the fun part where your child starts putting those sounds together to form words! These are simple words like C-A-T, where C is the first consonant, A is the vowel, and T is the last consonant. Below is a list of CVC words by short vowel sounds grouped by word families. A word family is simply words that end the same way, they rhyme, like -at, c-at, and b-at.

SHORT A CVC WORDS

–AT WORDS

bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, vat

–AP WORDS

cap, gap, lap, map, nap, rap, sap, tap, yap, zap

– AN WORDS

ban, can, Dan, fan, Jan, man, pan, ran, tan, van

–AD WORDS

bad, cad, dad, fad, had, lad, mad, pad, rad, sad, tad

–AM WORDS

bam, Cam, dam, ham, jam, Pam, ram, Sam, yam

–AG WORDS

bag, gag, lag, nap, rag, sag, tag, wag, zag

-AX WORDS

fax, lax, max, tax, wax

OTHER SHORT A CVC WORDS

yak, gas, gal, pal

Word Families -at, -am, -an, -ad Video

SHORT E CVC WORDS

–EN WORDS

Ben, den, hen, Jen, Ken, men, pen, ten, yen

–ET WORDS

bet, get, jet, let, met, net, pet, set, vet, wet, yet

–ED WORDS

bed, fed, Jed, led, med, Ned, red, Ted, wed

–EG WORDS

beg, keg, leg, Meg, peg

OTHER SHORT E CVC WORDS

yes, web, Deb, gem, hem, pep, yep

Short E CVC Words Video

SHORT I CVC WORD LISTS

–IT WORDS

bit, fit, sit, hit, kit, lit, pit, sit, wit

–IP WORDS,

dip, hip, lip, nip, kip, rip, sip, tip, zip

–IN WORDS

bin, kin, fin, din, sin, pin, tin, win

–IG WORDS

big, dig, fig, jig, pig, rig, wig, zig, gig

–ID WORDS

mid, bid, lid, kid, hid, did, rid

–IB WORDS

bib, fib, rib, nib

–IM WORDS

him, dim, sim, rim, Jim, Kim, Tim

OTHER SHORT I WORDS

this, mix, six, fix

Short I CVC Words Video

SHORT O CVC WORDS

–OT WORDS

bot, cot, dot, got, hot, jot, lot, not, pot, rot, tot

–OP WORDS

bop, cop, hop, lop, mop, pop, sop, top

–OB WORDS

lob, cob, Bob, rob, mob, sob, job, gob

–OG WORDS

bog, cog, dog, fog, hog, jog, log

–OX WORDS

box, lox, fox, pox

–OD WORDS

bod, cod, God, mod, nod, rod, sod, pod

OTHER SHORT O WORDS

con, mom, Tom, Ron

Short o CVC Words Video

SHORT U CVC WORDS

–UT WORDS

but, cut, nut, hut, rut, gut, jut

–UG WORDS

bug, rug, dug, jug, hug, tug, lug, mug, pug

–UB WORDS

cub, dub, hub, nub, pub, rub, sub, tub

–UN WORDS

bun, fun, gun, nun, pun, sun, run

–UD WORDS

bud, cud, dud, mud

–UM WORDS

bum, gum, hum, mum, sum

OTHER SHORT U WORDS

pup, cup, bus

Short U CVC Words Video

You may also be interested in the following posts:

• The Best Letter B Tracing Activity Set for Preschoolers
• The Best Letter C Tracing Activity Set for Preschoolers
• 3 Best Free Tracing Letter D Worksheets
• 3 Best Free Tracing Letter E Worksheets