Short vowel words: adding ed, ing, s



What fun!

Our ABCs have two categories of letters: vowels and consonants. The vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y. 

Consonants are all of the other letters: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, z.

Each vowel is called long when you hear its letter name in a word: snake, rain, ear, eel, pipe, pie, nose, float, rule, ruin, type. Long y says long i.

Ask your child to say the words above and look with you to see if each word uses one of these two long vowel rules: 

1) Only one consonant between two vowels.

2) Two vowels side-by-side, the 1st vowel says its name.

When two vowels go walking, the 1st vowel does the talking.

Short vowels do not say their letter name. Rules: 1) When there is only one vowel in a word, the vowel is usually short:  tap, let, slip, top, run, myth. Short y says the short i sound.

2) And, when there is more than one consonant between two vowels: father, better, little, bother, monster, clutter.

*Very important: our endings (called suffixes) either start with a vowel: ing, ed, er, en, able  or start with a consonant: s, ly, ful, ness, less, ment. 

Rule: add a consonant ending to any word: taps, tapes, bits, bites, biteful, gladly, gladness, hatless, careless.    But, it you add a vowel ending to a short vowel word like tap or bit - you must double the last letter to protect the short vowel from changing into a long vowel. (Because of the long vowel rule: only one consonant between two vowels means the 1st vowel says its name: tape, bite).

Look at the word tap.  The boy likes to tap on the table. Tap only has one vowel - a - and a does not say its letter name. The boy likes to tap on the table. 

Vowel endings ing and ed start with vowels. To add ing and ed to tap we must double the last letter - p - to protect the short a from changing into long a: tap > tapping > tapped. The boy is tapping on the table.

Look at bit: The bug bit the mouse. Is bit a short vowel word? Yes. So, lets double the last letter when we add the vowel ending en: The bug has bitten the mouse.

Knowing this these rules can make it easier for us to read some tricky words. Look:

The rabbit can hop fast. The rabbit was hopping as fast as it could to escape the fox. The rabbit hopped in and then out of a tiny hole in the fence. The fox was too big to hop through the hole.   

Below, ask your child to pick the correct word from the two choices. This will be fun:

The frog (hopped or hoped) as fast as it could to escape the snake. The frog was (hopping or hoping) to a tall bush. The snake was near. A fat cat saw the little frog. The cat (poped or popped) in front of the snake. The snake (stopped or stoped).The snake slid away.  

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