The vowels and consonants of the English language is the mother of the language. Without these letters, we will have no words, no sentences, no paragraphs, no novels, and no language will cease to exist. Thus, the emergence of these texts is crucial in order for us to learn and to master the language.
So, in this topic, we will get to explore what exactly are vowels and consonants and how these letters are formed and shift into magical words that we use on a daily basis.
What is a Vowel?
Way back on our basic education years, we are taught that vowels are the letters that do not belong to the category of a consonant. But as a matter of fact, vowels are more than just letters that are not part of the consonant.
A vowel is produced through an open figuration of our vocal tract. More specifically, a vowel is a sound that when paired with a consonant makes a syllable. More so, a vowel is any sound that a letter makes that is not a consonant sound.
Moreover, we all aware that vowels and consonants have its own letter groups. For vowels, there are five English vowels. These are a, e, I, o, and u.
Examples of words with vowels
Take note, vowel letters can be placed anywhere in the word. It can be placed in the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the word. There are no rules applied if we are talking about the placement of the vowels in the sentence.
Vowel “a”
Examples:
Apple, mat, banana, aardvark, mama, pat
Aardvarks love to eat ants but scared of it.
The cat sat on the mat because it is soft and fluffy.
An apple a day is good for your health, so eat more apples.
Vowel “e”
Examples:
Eggplant, beg, flee, set, every, pee
The bee flies over that flower because the nectar is so sweet.
She sees the fee as a burden to all because it’s too expensive.
Vowel “i”
Examples:
Ink, tip, ski, paparazzi, dill, insert
She skips drinking her pills because she does not like it.
The ink spilled on the tip of her clothes because of her clumsiness.
She bought dill and chilis for her pasta dish, as a result, she has delicious pasta.
Vowel “o”
Examples:
Over, horn, woo, ocean, cot, boo
The inflatable pool is full of hole, so it cannot be used.
The owl is a nocturnal fowl so it awake when the moon is up.
Vowel “u”
Examples:
Under, sun, flu, tofu, pun, unpack
Throwing puns is a fun thing.
Unpack all your tofus because we will cook it.
Vowel sounds
Diphthongs
A diphthong is a combination of two vowel sounds in one word. It deals more with the sound of the two vowels, not the letters. Hence, do not be confused with the principle that lies under diphthongs. To make things clearer, here are some examples of diphthongs.
[eɪ]
neighbor, bay, take
He says he will leave for her because of her sakes.
We love bay so much so we decided to transfer there.
I love their cake because it is tasty. So, please take it.
[oʊ]
boat, hope, go
The boat is about to sink because the engine is broken.
The goat loped his body on the rope because it is loose.
I hope that the race will go as planned; or else he will be so sad.
[ɔɪ]
boy, coin, joy
The boy got a new toy however he did not like it.
Her mom gave her 50 dollars, it brought her joy and decided to buy a new bag.
[aɪ]
bye, pie, might
He might bake a pie if he will not be busy tomorrow.
His tie is so tight that it can choke him anytime and die.
[aʊ]
how, about, brow
How did you draw your brow because of it so on point?
The crowd was wowed by his performance, so after he took a bow, everyone gave him a standing ovation.
What are consonants?
Vowels and consonants are two different sounds. In other words, a consonant is most often identified as a letter that is not a vowel. Consonants cover all of the letters in the English language and these letters are B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z.
Moreover, in creating words out of these letters take some ruling principles to follow just like forming a syllable.
Forming Syllables for vowels and consonants
A syllable is a unit of sound that creates meaning in language. Vowels alone do not make syllables. Instead, they pair with consonants to create what we know as syllables.
Syllables can have more than one letter. However, a syllable cannot have more than one sound.
Furthermore, syllables can have more than one vowel and more than one consonant. Still, a syllable cannot have more than one consonant or vowel sound.
Examples of syllables in words will help clarify this concept.
Examples:
- tree
- one syllable
- two consonants “t” and “r” “w” and two vowels “e” and “e”
- holy
- two syllables
- “ho”: one consonant “h” plus one vowel “o”
- “ly”: one consonant “l” plus one vowel “y”
- example
- three syllables
- “ex”: one vowel “e” plus one consonant “x”
- “am”: one vowel “a” plus one consonant “m”
- “ple”: two consonants “p” and “l” plus one vowel “e”
- lake
- one syllable two consonants “l” “k” plus one two vowels “a” and “e”
Clusters
A syllable is a unit of speech that is made up of a vowel-sound, a consonant-sound, or a combination of both. These units are called clusters, and there are two kinds: consonant clusters, and vowel clusters.
Vowel clusters are found in both simple and complex syllables. These are groups of vowels grouped together to form specific sounds (e.g. ee, ia, ou).
Examples:
- main
- pour
- queen
Consonant clusters, as mentioned earlier, are a group of consonants clustered together to form specific sounds (e.g. bl, st, shr).
Examples:
- black
- stuck
- shrink
Aside from being classified as either simple or complex syllables, syllables may also be divided into closed and open syllables. Closed syllables are syllables that contain a vowel enclosed by two consonants.
Example:
- gram-mar
- drow-sy
- flo-rist
Open syllables, on the other hand, are syllables that end with a vowel with a long sound.
Example:
- fa-vor
- cri-te-ri-a
- so-lo
Blends
Blends are a group of letters that are made to produce one sound. In simple and complex syllables, they often make their own syllable unit.
In addition, blends cover many words in the English language. these vowels and consonants made up some words. So, blends are divided into two types because of their large scale influence. The two types of blends are digraphs and trigraphs.
Digraphs deal with two blends while trigraphs deal with three blends.
Some common digraphs include the following:
bl
- adorable
- bible
- bleach
ch
- archer
- cheap
- enchant
dr
- cauldron
- kindred
- tendril
gr
- agree
- begrudge
- growl
sc
- describe
- discount
- mascot
th
- cloth
- froth
- healthy
wh
- awhile
- cartwheel
- whimsical
Some common trigraphs include the following:
sch
- eschew
- paschal
- scholar
shr
- ashram
- enshrine
- shriek
spl
- display
- misplace
- splendor
spr
- disprove
- spring
- sprinkle
squ
- arabesque
- grotesque
- squirm
str
- abstract
- bowstring
- strawberry
thr
- brethren
- threat
- urethra
In conclusion, the importance of vowels and consonants is like the oxygen or the sun’s ray, without it we will be blabbering senseless things and we will never understand each other.
Comment down your insight below. Also, you can read our other blogs, like Sentence Types: 6 Basic Patterns You Should Know.