Phonics and early reading
What are vowels and consonants?
Quick answer
The vowel letters are a, e, i, o and u (and sometimes y); all the other letters are consonants. Almost every English word needs a vowel sound.
In one sentence
Vowels are the letters a, e, i, o and u (and sometimes y); consonants are the other 21 letters of the alphabet.
Explained
Say the word map slowly: /m/ /a/ /p/. The middle sound comes out with your mouth open and your breath flowing freely. That is a vowel sound. The sounds at either end, /m/ and /p/, are made by closing or squeezing your lips, tongue or teeth. Those are consonant sounds.
In writing, the vowel letters are a, e, i, o and u. The letter y can do both jobs. At the start of yes it is a consonant, but in gym it makes an /i/ sound and in sky it makes an /igh/ sound, so it is working as a vowel.
Almost every English word has at least one vowel sound, because vowels are the "engine" of a syllable. Try saying ct or dg without a vowel. It cannot be done.
Each vowel letter has a short sound (a in cat, e in bed, i in pig, o in dog, u in sun) and can also spell a long sound that says its name (a in cake, i in bike, o in home).
ant
egg
igloo
octopus
umbrella
Examples
| Word | Vowels | Consonants |
|---|---|---|
| sun | u | s, n |
| frog | o | f, r, g |
| apple | a, e | p, p, l |
| play | a, y | p, l |
| rhythm | y | r, h, t, h, m |
Common mistakes
- Thinking every word needs a, e, i, o or u. My, sky and rhythm use y as their vowel.
- Counting letters instead of sounds. In rain, a and i together spell one long vowel sound.
- Forgetting that a or an depends on sound. We say an apple but a unicorn, because unicorn starts with a /y/ sound. More in determiners.
Quick quiz
Vowels and consonants
Check what you know with 4 quick questions.
Question 1 of 4
Which of these is a vowel letter?
Practise it
Try it
Fill in the missing vowels
For grown-ups
Related topics
Alphabet
The alphabet is the set of 26 letters we use to write English, from a to z, each with a name, a sound and a capital and lowercase shape.
Phonics
Phonics teaches children to read and spell by linking sounds (phonemes) with the letters that write them (graphemes), then blending and segmenting those sounds.
Syllables
A syllable is a beat in a word, built around one vowel sound. Cat has one syllable, rab-bit has two, el-e-phant has three.
Determiners
A determiner is a word that comes before a noun to show which one or how many, such as a, an, the, this, those, my, some, every or three.
Digraphs
A digraph is two letters that make one sound, like sh in ship, ch in chip, ck in duck or ai in rain.
Blending
Blending means saying the sounds in a written word one after another and pushing them together to hear the whole word, like /c/ /a/ /t/ → cat.