LEARN ENGLISH / English Grammar - Level 02 - Lesson 02 : Vowels and Consonants

 

English Grammar

Vowels and Consonants

 English has 26 letters: 5 vowels (A, E, I, O, U) and 21 consonants. Every word needs at least one vowel sound.

1. The Big Idea

English has 26 letters. They split into two groups:

• 5 vowels: A, E, I, O, U
• 21 consonants: all the other letters (B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z)

Vowels are the "music" of a word, and consonants give it shape. Say "cat": your mouth is open for a (vowel) and blocked or touched for c and t (consonants).

2. What Is a Vowel?

A vowel sound is made with your mouth open. Air flows out freely, and nothing blocks it. Try it: say a, e, i, o, u. Your mouth stays open each time, and only its shape changes.

Short and long vowel sounds

Each vowel has a short sound and a long sound. The long sound is the same as the letter's name.

Letter	Short sound	Examples	Long sound	Examples
A	/æ/	cat, hat, map	/eɪ/	cake, name, late
E	/e/	bed, pen, red	/iː/	be, see, these
I	/ɪ/	sit, big, fish	/aɪ/	like, time, bike
O	/ɒ/	hot, dog, box	/oʊ/	home, nose, go
U	/ʌ/	cup, bus, sun	/juː/	cute, use, huge

The "Magic E" rule

A silent e at the end of a word usually makes the vowel before it long.

Short	Long (with magic e)
cap	cape
kit	kite
hop	hope
cub	cube

3. What Is a Consonant?

A consonant sound is made when your mouth, tongue, teeth or lips block or squeeze the air. Try it:

• b: your lips close
• t: your tongue touches the roof of your mouth
• f: your top teeth touch your lower lip
• s: air squeezes through your teeth

Voiced and voiceless consonants

Put your fingers on your throat. Voiced consonants make it vibrate (b, d, g, v, z, m, n, l, r). Voiceless consonants do not (p, t, k, f, s). Many consonants come in pairs that use the same mouth shape:

Voiceless	Voiced
p (pen)	b (ben)
t (tie)	d (die)
k (back)	g (bag)
f (fan)	v (van)
s (sip)	z (zip)

4. Special Letters: Y and W

• Y is a consonant at the start of a word: yes, yellow. It acts like a vowel in the middle or at the end: gym, my, happy.
• W is a consonant: water, window. It is sometimes part of a vowel sound: cow, now.

5. Letters vs. Sounds

This is the point most beginners miss. English has only 5 vowel letters, but about 20 vowel sounds. It has 21 consonant letters and about 24 consonant sounds. So one letter can make different sounds, and one sound can be written with different letters:

• C: cat (/k/) and city (/s/)
• G: go (/g/) and giant (/dʒ/)
• A: cat, cake, father, water
• The sound /k/ can be spelled c (cat), k (kite) or ck (back)

Always learn words by their sound, not only by their letters.

6. Why This Matters for Grammar

a or an? The choice depends on the sound, not just the letter.

• a before a consonant sound: a book, a car, a university (starts with the /j/ sound)
• an before a vowel sound: an apple, an egg, an hour (the h is silent)

Syllables. Every syllable has one vowel sound: cat = 1 syllable, ba-nan-a = 3, com-pu-ter = 3.

Spelling rules. Double the consonant before an ending: run → running, big → bigger, stop → stopped. Add -es after x, ch and sh: box → boxes, watch → watches.

7. Tips for Arabic Speakers

• Arabic has 3 short vowels and 3 long ones. English has many more, so listen carefully.
• Short i vs. long ee: sit is not seat, and ship is not sheep.
• P and B: Arabic has no /p/ sound. Press your lips together and release a puff of air: pen, not ben.
• V and F: For /v/, touch your top teeth to your lower lip and use your voice: van, not fan.
• Consonant clusters: English can put 2–3 consonants together, as in street and spring. Don't add an extra vowel. Say "street", not "isstreet".

8. Practice

Exercise 1: Vowel or consonant? Write V or C for each letter: B, E, M, O, T, U, R, A

Exercise 2: Count the vowels. How many vowel letters are in each word?

1.  banana

2.  school

3.  strength

4.  education

Exercise 3: a or an?

1.  ___ orange

2.  ___ dog

3.  ___ umbrella

4.  ___ university

5.  ___ hour

Exercise 4: Short or long vowel? Which word in each pair has the long vowel?

1.  hop / hope

2.  kit / kite

3.  cap / cape

Answers

• Exercise 1: B-C, E-V, M-C, O-V, T-C, U-V, R-C, A-V
• Exercise 2: 1. banana = 3 · 2. school = 2 · 3. strength = 1 · 4. education = 5
• Exercise 3: 1. an orange · 2. a dog · 3. an umbrella · 4. a university · 5. an hour
• Exercise 4: hope, kite, cape (the magic e makes the vowel long)