English Vowel Sounds Chart

Although there are only 5 vowel letters in English, there are actually 15 unique vowel sounds. This chart shows all those vowel sounds according to their standard North American pronunciation. See also: Consonant Sounds Chart

	North American Dictionary Symbol	International Phonetic Alphabet	Example word with main spelling	Example word(s) with alternate spellings
Short a	a	æ	hat
Long a	ā	ei	hate	rain, say, steak, they, eight, vein, straight
Short e	e	ɛ	pet	bread, said
Long e	ē	i:	Pete	meet, meat, chief, he, key, sunny
Short i	i	ɪ	kit	myth
Long i	ī	ɑi	kite	lied, wild, night, height, fly
Short o	o	ɑ	hop	fraud, law, talk, father, fought, taught
Long o	ō	ou	hope	toe, boat, most, grow, though, soul
Short u	u	u	cut	touch, some, about
Long u	ū	ɪu:	cute	cue, pupil, few
Short oo	oo	ʊ	book	would, bush
Long oo	ōō	u:	boot	blue, new, suit, flute, soup, shoe, do, through
oy	oy	oi	boy	boil
ow	ow	ɑu	cow	out, drought
ir	ir	ɹ	bird	turn, work, syrup, dollar, faster, learn

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North American Dictionary Symbol

International Phonetic Alphabet

Example word with main spelling

Example word(s) with alternate spellings

Short a

Long a

Short e

Long e

Short i

Long i

Short o

Long o

Short u

Long u

Short oo

Long oo

oy

ow

ir

North American
Dictionary Symbol

International
Phonetic Alphabet

Example word
with main spelling

Example word(s)
with alternate spellings