English Phonetics and Alphabet

Study Notes

Monophthong Vowels: Single, pure vowel sounds
- 5 short vowel sounds: /a/ (cat), /e/ (bet), /i/ (sit), /o/ (hot), /u/ (but)
- 5 long vowel sounds: /ā/ (cake), /ē/ (meet), /ī/ (kite), /ō/ (go), /ū/ (boot)
Diphthong Vowels: Combination of two vowel sounds pronounced in a single syllable
- 3 common diphthongs: /oi/ (boil), /ou/ (out), /au/ (law)

English Alphabet: Consists of 26 letters, 5 vowels (A, E, I, O, U), and 21 consonants
Letter Combinations:
- Digraphs: two letters representing a single sound (e.g., sh, ch, th)
- Trigraphs: three letters representing a single sound (e.g., tch)

Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence: Relationship between sounds (phonemes) and written letters (graphemes)
Syllable Division: Breaking down words into syllables to aid in spelling
- Vowel-Consonant-E (VCE) pattern: divide between vowel and consonant (e.g., pac-ific)
- Consonant-Le pattern: divide before consonant-le (e.g., whis-tle)
Common Spelling Patterns:
- Word families: -at, -an, -in, -un, -ot (e.g., cat, can, pin, fun, hot)
- Suffixes: -ed, -ing, -ly, -ment (e.g., walked, walking, friendly, government)

There are 2 types of vowel sounds: monophthong and diphthong
Monophthong Vowels: 5 short vowel sounds (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/) and 5 long vowel sounds (/ā/, /ē/, /ī/, /ō/, /ū/)
Diphthong Vowels: 3 common diphthongs (/oi/, /ou/, /au/)

English Alphabet consists of 26 letters
The 26 letters include 5 vowels (A, E, I, O, U) and 21 consonants
Letter Combinations: Digraphs (2 letters, 1 sound) and Trigraphs (3 letters, 1 sound)

Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence: The relationship between sounds and written letters
Syllable Division: Breaking down words into syllables to aid in spelling
Vowel-Consonant-E (VCE) pattern: Divide between vowel and consonant (e.g., pac-ific)
Consonant-Le pattern: Divide before consonant-le (e.g., whis-tle)
Common Spelling Patterns:
Word families: -at, -an, -in, -un, -ot (e.g., cat, can, pin, fun, hot)
Suffixes: -ed, -ing, -ly, -ment (e.g., walked, walking, friendly, government)

Monophthong vowels are single, pure vowel sounds
- /a/ is pronounced as in "cat"
- /e/ is pronounced as in "pet"
- /i/ is pronounced as in "hit"
- /o/ is pronounced as in "hot"
- /u/ is pronounced as in "put"
Diphthong vowels are combinations of two vowel sounds pronounced in a single syllable
- /ai/ is pronounced as in "buy"
- /au/ is pronounced as in "how"
- /oi/ is pronounced as in "boil"
- /ou/ is pronounced as in "out"
Short vowels are characterized by a brief, sharp sound
- /a/ is a short vowel sound, as in "cat"
- /e/ is a short vowel sound, as in "pet"
- /i/ is a short vowel sound, as in "hit"
- /o/ is a short vowel sound, as in "hot"
- /u/ is a short vowel sound, as in "put"
Long vowels are characterized by a longer, more open sound
- /a/ is a long vowel sound, as in "cake"
- /e/ is a long vowel sound, as in "me"
- /i/ is a long vowel sound, as in "mine"
- /o/ is a long vowel sound, as in "go"
- /u/ is a long vowel sound, as in "cute"

The English alphabet consists of 26 letters
Vowels in the English alphabet are A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y
Consonants are all letters except vowels
Uppercase (capital) letters are used for beginnings of sentences and proper nouns
Lowercase (small) letters are used for most writing

Phonics is the relationship between sounds and letters
Syllable division is the process of breaking down words into syllables to aid in spelling
- Examples of syllable division include un-break-able and in-ten-tion
Word families are groups of words with similar patterns or sounds
- Examples of word families include -at (cat, hat, sat) and -an (fan, man, pan)
Common spelling patterns are patterns of letters that appear together
- Examples of common spelling patterns include -sh, -ch, -th, and -gh