Difference short vowel words long vowel words



Short vowel sounds: grass, limb, pond.
Long vowel sounds: air, doe, leaf, hide.

Vowel rules are taught in 2nd - 3rd Grade but not in 4th Grade - upper grades where knowing the rules is required to add ed, ing, able, also to change y to i at the end of a word. Below are the basics for any age:

The vowels are: a, e, i, o, u, y. Each vowel has a long sound and a short sound. 

Long vowels: a vowel is called long when it says its letter name in a word: snake, ride. Long y uses the long i sound: spy, by, my, try, why.

There are two rules for long vowels:

1) When two vowels go walking the 1st vowel does the talking: air, day / leaf, peach, ear / pie, trial / coat, toad / due, Tuesday. 

In English words, u always comes next after q; qu is a team saying kw. In the qu team u does not act as vowel: quiet, queasy, squeak, squeal.

2) When there is only one consonant between two vowels, the first vowel will be long, as in: lake, shape / mine, bite /  poke, nose, over, chose / huge  / style, nylon.  The 2nd vowel is most often silent but can be short: dial, chaos.

Short vowels have variable sounds, but do not say their letter name. Short y uses the short i sound: myth. There are two rules for short vowels:

1) When there is only one vowel in a word, the vowel is most often short: cat, match, walk / wet, left, next  / sip, will, drink / log, soft / hug, trunk / myth.

2) If there is more than one consonant between vowels, the 1st vowel will be short: panther, battle, father, basket /  better  / sister, whisper / mother,  brother  / hunger, suffer.

English is an ancient language with a few quirks. A word can have a short sound no matter the vowels, as in short vowel words: panic, feather, family.

The following words should have short vowels but instead have long vowels: paste, waste, taste, haste, tangle, strange, stranger, bind, blind, find, grind, kind, mind, wind, (wind, short i).

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