Long vowel sounds, or vowel sounds that “say their name,” are important in helping children become confident readers and spellers. That’s because understanding long vowel sounds is the key to decoding words and improving reading fluency and pronunciation.
In this article, we’ll explore a complete list of long vowel sounds, including common and not-so-common spellings. We’ll also share examples of words with long vowels, recommended books to help your child learn and practice long vowels at home, and essential teaching tips.
There’s a lot to cover in our guide to long vowel sounds, so let’s jump in!
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Vowels - A Quick Recap
If you’re anything like us, it’s been a while since you’ve talked or thought much about vowels! So, here’s a quick recap to refresh your memory.
There are two different types of speech sounds in the English language: vowel sounds and consonant sounds. Unlike consonant sounds, you make vowel sounds by allowing your breath to flow freely out of your mouth - without closing any part of your throat or mouth.
There are five main vowels in the English alphabet: A, E, I, O, and U. Every English word contains at least one vowel.
In some words, Y and W also act as vowels or, more specifically, semi-vowels. Y acts as a vowel whenever a word has no other vowel or when ‘y’ is at the end of a word or syllable. For example, ‘y’ acts as a vowel in the word “happy.” On the other hand, W acts as a vowel when it follows A, E, or O to create a vowel team. For example, ‘aw’ like in “saw”, ‘ew’ like in “new”, and ‘ow’ like in “owl”.
Vowels can make several sounds, including long sounds, short sounds, diphthongs, schwa sounds, and more. In this article, we’ll focus on long vowel sounds in American English.
What are long vowel sounds?
So, what are long vowels in English? Put simply, long vowels are vowel sounds that “sound like their letter name.” For instance, the long vowel A in the word “make” sounds the same as the letter ‘a’ in the alphabet. Because of this, long vowels are typically the easiest for non-native English speakers to distinguish and pronounce correctly.
MEMORY AID: Literacy specialists often help children remember how to recognize long vowel sounds with this simple memory aid: “Long vowels say their name.”
Some examples of long vowel sounds include:
Long A: paper (‘a’), pay (‘ay’), rain (‘ai’), they (‘ey’)
Long E: equal (‘e’), see (‘ee’), read (‘ea’), cookie (‘ie’)
Long I: lion (‘i’), kite (‘i-e’), try (‘y’), pie (‘ie’)
Long O: go (‘o’), toe (‘oe’), show (‘ow’), goat (‘oa’)
Long U: unicorn (‘u’), statue (‘ue’), few (‘ew’), soup (‘ou’), stew (‘ew’)
Short vs Long Vowel Sounds
In English, vowels make various sounds (the most common being the schwa sound), including long and short vowel sounds.
But what’s the difference between short and long vowel sounds?
Long vowel sounds are pronounced by saying the letter's name. On the other hand, short vowel sounds are pronounced by saying the sound the letter makes.
For example, long A sounds like its letter name - like the ‘a’ in “acorn.” In comparison, short A sounds like the sound that letter ‘a’ makes - like the ‘a’ in “cat.” In addition, as the name suggests, short vowels are shorter to say than long vowels.
Now, let’s look at a complete list of the long vowel sounds in English.
The Long Vowel Sounds List
There are six long vowel sounds in American English (because long U makes two distinct sounds).
While there aren’t too many long vowel sounds, there are numerous ways to spell each sound. For instance, sometimes long vowels are represented by two letters (called a vowel team) instead of one - like ‘ie’ in “pie.” Therefore, long vowels can be tricky for kids to learn!
Below, we’ll examine each vowel sound, including example words and various spellings.
Long A
The long A vowel sound occurs when the letter ‘a’ (or a combination of letters) says the letter A’s name.
Long A Words List
Some examples of words with long A vowel sounds include:
- ate
- cake
- came
- day
- game
- make
- name
- play
- rain
- same
- take
- way
Common Spelling Patterns for Long A
Long A can be spelled in eight different ways.
- ‘a’ by itself (when the letter A is in an open syllable) - “baby,” “April”
- ‘a-e’ (‘a’ + silent e or VCe pattern - a-consonant-e) - e.g., “fame,” “late”
- ‘ai’ (vowel team) - e.g., “aim,” “snail”
- ‘ay’ (vowel team) - “may,” “tray”
- ‘eigh’ - e.g., “sleigh,” “weight”
- ‘ea’ - e.g., “great,” “break”
- ‘ei’ - “vein,” “rein”
- ‘ey’ - “they,” “prey”
Long E
The long E vowel sound occurs when the letter ‘e’ (or another vowel or vowel team) says the letter E’s name.
Long E Words List
Some examples of high frequency words with long E vowel sounds include:
- be
- feel
- free
- he
- keep
- me
- need
- see
- she
- three
- very
- we
Common Spelling Patterns for Long E
There are nine ways to spell the long E sound, with seven common spelling patterns and two less common spellings.
- ‘ee’ (vowel team) - e.g., “bee,” “green”
- ‘ea’ (vowel team) - e.g., “eat,” “teach”
- ‘e’ by itself (when the letter E is in an open syllable) - e.g., “me,” “equal”
- ‘y’ (at the end of a word) - e.g., “sunny,” “puppy”
- ‘ie’ (vowel team) - e.g., “field,” “cookie”
- ‘e-e’ (‘e’ + silent e or VCe pattern - e-consonant-e) - e.g., “supreme,” “complete”
- ‘ei’ (vowel team) - “ceiling,” “receive”
- ‘ey’ (vowel team) - “key,” “valley”
- ‘i’ (‘i’ as ‘e’) - e.g., “champion,” “taxi”
Long I
The long I vowel sound occurs when the letter ‘i’ (or another combination of letters) says the letter I’s name.
Long I Words List
Some examples of words with long I vowel sounds include:
- by
- find
- I
- inside
- kind
- like
- my
- night
- ride
- right
- time
- why
Common Spelling Patterns for Long I
There are eight ways to spell the long I sound—six are common spelling patterns, while two are less frequent or rare.
- ‘i’ by itself (when the letter I is in an open syllable) - e.g., “lion,” “icon”
- ‘i-e’ (‘i’ + silent e or VCe pattern - i-consonant-e) - e.g., “like,” “smile”
- ‘igh’ - e.g., “night,” “bright”
- ‘y’ (at the end of a word) - e.g., “sky,” “by”
- ‘y-e’ (‘y’ + silent e or VCe pattern - y-consonant-e) - e.g., “type,” “style”
- ‘ie’ (vowel team) - e.g., “pie,” tried”
- ‘ei’ (vowel team) - “height,” “feisty”
- ‘ey’ - most words ending in ‘ey’ make the long E sound; however, the word “eye” is an exception where ‘ey’ makes a long I sound.
Long O
The long O vowel sound occurs when the letter ‘o’ (or another combination of letters) says “oh” - i.e., the letter O’s name.
Long O Words List
Some examples of words with long O vowel sounds include:
- both
- cold
- don't
- go
- home
- know
- no
- only
- open
- over
- so
- those
Common Spelling Patterns for Long O
Long O has a total of eight different spelling patterns, five being common patterns and two being rare.
- ‘o’ by itself (when the letter O is in an open syllable) - e.g., “go”, “open”
- ‘o-e’ (‘o’ + silent e or VCe pattern - o-consonant-e) - e.g., “rose,” “bone”
- ‘oa’ (vowel team) - e.g., “boat,” toast”
- ‘ow’ (vowel team) - e.g., “tow,” “throw”
- ‘oe’ (vowel team) - e.g., “toe,” “foe”
- ‘ough’ - e.g., “though,” “dough”
- ‘ew’ (this is rare and pronounced as a long O only in some dialects) - e.g., “sew”
- ‘eau’ (found in French origin words) - “bureau,” “plateau”
Long U Vowel Sounds
Unlike the long vowel sounds above, long U has two different sounds/pronunciations. The first sound long U makes is “yoo” (i.e., its name). The second sound is “oo.”
Long U Words List
Some examples of words with long U vowel sounds include:
“yoo” Words
- cute
- human
- music
- unicorn
- unique
- use
“oo” Words
- blue
- flute
- glue
- June
- prove
- stew
Common Spelling Patterns for Long U
Long U has a total of eleven different spelling patterns - five patterns for the “yoo” sound and six for the “oo” sound.
“yoo” Long U Spellings
- ‘u-e’ (‘u’ + silent e or VCe pattern - u-consonant-e) - e.g., “cute,” “huge”
- ‘ue’ (vowel team) - e.g., “cue,” “rescue”
- ‘u’ by itself (when the letter U is in an open syllable) - e.g., “unicorn,” “universe”
- ‘eu’ (vowel team) - “Europe,” “eucalyptus”
- ‘ew’ (more common in British English) - e.g., “curfew,” “nephew”
“oo” Long U Spellings
- ‘ew’ - e.g., “new,” “threw”
- ‘ui’ (vowel team) - e.g., “fruit,” “juice”
- ‘oo’ (vowel team) - e.g., “bloom,” “moon”
- ‘ou’ (vowel team) - e.g., “group,” “soup”
- ‘u-e’ (‘u’ + silent e or VCe pattern - u-consonant-e) - e.g., “tube,” “rule”
- ‘ue’ (vowel team) - e.g., “blue,” “true”
Long Vowel Rules
How do you know if a vowel is short or long? These long vowel sound rules make it simple.
There are four ways long vowel sounds are formed.
- If a vowel is at the end of a syllable, it will make its long sound. For example, the word “halo” has two syllables - ha-lo. Both the ‘a’ and the ‘o’ are at the end of a syllable; therefore, both vowels make a long sound.
- If a vowel comes before a silent e (i.e., vowel-consonant-e pattern), it will make its long sound. For example, in the word “hike,” the ‘i’ comes before a silent e; therefore, it says its long sound (i.e., it says its name).
- Typically, vowel teams make long vowel sounds. For example, in the word “float,” the ‘oa’ vowel team makes the long O sound.
- Commonly, the letters ‘i’ and ‘o’ make their long sounds when they come before two consonants. For example, in the word “kind,” the letter ‘i’ comes before two consonants (i.e., ‘nd’) and makes a long sound. Similarly, in the word “bold,” the letter ‘o’ comes before two consonants (i.e., ‘ld’), making a long sound.
By teaching your child these rules, you can help them more easily identify long vowel sounds in words.
Recommended Books with Long Vowel Sounds
Reading aloud with your child is one of the best ways to teach long vowels! To help you get started, here are some recommended stories that you can use to introduce long vowel sounds and for your young reader to use to practice at home.
Sound It Out: Long Vowels
By Wiley Blevins
Illustrated by Sean O’Neill
This fun book explores the long vowel sounds made by A, E, I, O, and U! Best of all, it includes engaging imagery that helps illustrate the words so your child can easily follow along.
Sound It Out: Long Vowels is available as a read along book for kids on the Booka reading app!
Your Brain
By Christina Earley
Illustrated By Anastasia Kleckner
This phonics book explores the long A vowel sound, focusing on the ‘ai’ spelling pattern. This story is excellent for teaching long vowel sounds at home because it includes suggested activities to do before, during, and after reading. It also contains a list of long A words to help with comprehension and memory.
Speed to the Reef
By Kim Thompson
Illustrated By Brett Curzon
This decodable reader explores the long E sound. It helps kids learn to discriminate between short E and long E and lets them explore words with the spelling pattern/vowel team ‘ee. ’
The Pie
By Christina Earley
Illustrated By Anastasia Kleckner
This phonics story explores the long I vowel sound, focusing on the ‘ie’ spelling pattern. The book also includes reading activities and a long I word list to help you teach this long vowel.
Snow
By Christina Earley
Illustrated By Anastasia Kleckner
This phonics book explores the long O vowel sound, focusing on the ‘ow’ spelling pattern. We love this story because it includes engaging illustrations, suggested pre-reading activities, and activities to do during and after reading.
This book is also available as a read aloud story on the Booka reading app!
Jewel Hunt
By Kim Thompson
Illustrated By Brett Curzon
This decodable book explores the long U sound. It helps kids learn to discriminate between short U and long U and lets them explore words with the spelling pattern ‘ew’ (a vowel team).
Jewel Hunt is also available as a read aloud story on the Booka reading app!
Looking for more fun stories to help your child practice long vowel sounds? Download Booka today and get access to our full library of phonics books that focus on long vowels!
Tips for Teaching Long Vowel Sounds
Below are some tips to help you teach your child long vowel sounds at home.
- Focus on one vowel at a time.
- Start by explicitly explaining long vowels to your child and comparing long vowel sounds to short vowel sounds.
- Teach your child the golden long vowel rule: “Long Vowels Say Their Name.”
- Teach the most common spelling patterns first.
- Read aloud with your child, emphasizing long vowel sounds as you read them.
- Make it fun! Use interactive activities and visual aids. For example:
- Play sound-sorting games.
- Create a sound wall.
- Highlight long vowel sounds in the sight words your child already knows. This will show them that they can already recognize some long vowels in English! As a result, it can help build reading confidence and enhance memory.
- Use online resources and apps like Booka to find fun and engaging reading materials.
- Be consistent. Help your child practice long vowel sounds every day, but keep daily lessons short (10 - 15 minutes).
- Be patient! Learning vowel sounds takes time - and lots of practice.
Teach Long Vowels with Booka!
Ready to start teaching long vowel sounds at home? Booka is here to help!
Download Booka today and explore our wide selection of engaging phonics books that focus on long vowels.