Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Higher Education and

Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Salahaddin University – Hawler College of Languages Vowels A lecture for the first year English Dept. students Prepared by: Kafi R. Ahmed M. A. – Entire English

Pure Vowels (Simple Vowels) Short: /ɪ, e, ʊ, æ, ə, ɒ, ʌ/ Long: /a: , ɪ: , ɜ: , u: , ɔ: /

/ɪ/ / ɪ / is made from the following letters: (i) Such as: big, gift, fit, dim, ministry, ill, etc. (C+y) Such as: tiny, body, funny, ready, happy, etc. (u) Such as: busy, minute, lettuce, guilty, built, etc (e) Such as: believe, deceive, release, engage, enough, blanket, ticket, poet, refuse, pocket, etc. (ei) Such as: foreign, forfeit, cuneiform. (es) = /ɪz/, Such as: watches, , fixes, wages, freezes, etc. (ed) = /ɪd/, Such as: wanted, added, waited, wicked.

/ ɪ: / is made from the following letters: (e) Such as: he, she, me, be, evil, legal, metre, recent, detail. (re-) Such as: re-write, re-read, re-play, etc. (ee) Such as: meet, tree, sweep, see, flee, eel, etc. (ea) Such as: meat, beat, tea, bean, eat, sea, weak, mean, seat, leave, peace, etc. (c+ei) Such as: receive, deceive, ceiling, seize. (ie) Such as: field, , chief, niece, achieve, believe, shield etc. (i-e) Such as: machine, police, magazine. (e-e) Such as: complete, evening, extreme, compete.

/e/ is made from the following letters: (e) Such as: bet, set, wet, red, ten, men, ever, seven, etc. (ea) Such as: head, dead, bread, treasure, breath, wealth, already, death, deaf, health, ready, sweat. (ei, ie) Such as: friend, friendly, leisure. (a) Such as: any, many, ate, says. This sound can be found in the following words, Such as: said, guest, against.

/æ/ is made from the following letters: (a) Such as: bat, cat, sad, ant, rat, and, man, hand, apple, imagine, bank, thank, tank, plan, anger, pack, dad, etc.

/a: / is made from the following letters: (ar) Such as: arm, cart, far, hard, party, heart, park, etc. (er) Such as: clerk, sergeant, (as, af) Such as: ask, past, last, basket, class, glass, after, plaster, staff, etc. (au) Such as: aunt, laugh, draught. (al) Such as: palm, calf, half. (an) Such as: chance, dance, plant, shan’t, can’t. (a) Such as: bath, path, father, banana, drama, papa, etc.

/ʊ/ is made from the following letters: (u) Such as: push, pull, full, butcher, bush, sugar, put, useful etc. (oo) Such as: book, took, look, shook, foot, wood, wool, good, soot, stood, etc. (o) Such as: woman, wolf. (ou) Such as: would, should, could.

/u: / is made from the following letters: (u-e) Such as: huge, conclude, refuse, rude, lute, include, mule, amuse, rule, etc. (ue) Such as: fuel, clue, true, blue, due, value, queue, etc. (ui) Such as: fruit, suicide, suitable, suitcase, ruin, etc. (o) Such as: do, whom, whose, two, tomb, move, prove, lose, shoes, etc. (oo) Such as: fool, food, cool, moon, mood, root, shoot, pool, spoon, etc. (ou) Such as: you, soup, group, through, etc. (ew) Such as: few, new, screw, dew, chew, flew, grew, blew, drew, etc.

/ɒ/ is made from the following letters: (o) Such as: pot, hot, not, lot, shot, song, wrong, long, off, promise, doctor, stop, fond, etc. (a) Such as: was, watch, what, wash, want, wallet, warrant, , swan, etc. (au) Such as: because, sausage, cauliflower, Austria, Australia, etc. (qua) Such as: quality, quantity, quarrel, qualify, etc. (ock) Such as: lock, block, clock, pocket, rock, knock, etc. • It can be found in the following words, such as: sorry, lorry, cough

/ ɔ: / /ɔ: / is made from the following letters: (or) Such as: or, nor, door, sort, short, more, before, storm, (ou) Such as: sought, brought, fought, bought, source, course, your, pour, etc. (au) Such as: launder, auction, daughter, taught, clause, pause, fault, audience, authority, autonomy, automatic, autumn, etc. (ar) Such as: war, warm, reward, water, toward, quarter, etc. (oa) Such as: board, coarse (aw) Such as: saw, jaw, awful, draw, law, awkward, etc. (al, all) Such as: salt, chalk, talk, walk, also, already, almost, always, all, ball, call, tall, stall, etc.

/ʌ/ is made from the following letters: (u) Such as: but, fun, begun, cut, dumb, dust, rug, cluster, up, under. (o) Such as: son, won, done, money, honey, monkey, some, once, company, among, onion, love, above, London, cover, Monday, stomach, does, tongue, oven. (oo) Such as: blood, flood. (ou) Such as: country, couple, double, courage, cousin, tough, rough, enough, young, touch, trouble.

/ə/ is made from the following letters: (a) Such as: about, along, among, above, across, ago, accept, abroad, avoid, alone, ahead, asleep. (er, ar, or) Such as: teacher, baker, cellar, beggar, scholar, particular, actor, doctor, sailor, motor, visitor. (an, on, en) Such as: England, pardon, lesson, cotton, husband, woman, common, written, human, often. (re, al, el) Such as: metre, centre, theatre, adventure, picture, casual, national, regional, neutral, central, barrel. (o) Such as: conduct, conclusion, confuse, contain, connect, continue, command, complain, compose, combine, compassion, complete, police, potato, tomato

(able, ous) Such as: agreeable, manageable, comfortable, admirable, courageous, generous, dangerous, (ent, ant) Such as: silent, patient, different, attendant, reluctant, important.

/ɜ: / is made from the following letters: (er) Such as: person, certain, perfect, her, were. (ir) Such as: circle, firm, sir, girl, bird, thirsty. (or) Such as: word, world, worm, worse, work, worth, (ur) Such as: purpose, purse, curse, burn, turn, hurt, urge, murder, turtle. (ear) Such as: earn, heard, search, early, earth, learn, research. (our) Such as: journey, courtesy, journal.

Diphthongs There are eight diphthongs in English Sounds. /eɪ, əʊ, ʊə, aɪ, aʊ, ɪə, eə, ɔɪ/

/ əʊ / is made from the following cases: (o-e) Such as: tone, phone, home, bone, hope, stone, rose, note, smoke, rope, hole, clothes, postage, alone, lonely. (o) Such as: go, no, oh, old, open, told, fold, gold, cold, ghost, most, folk, both, local, moment, won’t, don’t, post. (oa) Such as: boat, goat, road, coat, goal, load, moan, loan (oe) Such as: toe, poem, poetry. (ow) Such as: low, slow, yellow, snow, grow, flow, blow, show, window, tomorrow, bow (n. )

/ aʊ / is made from the following cases: (ow) Such as: how, now, brown, cow, down, bow (v. ), crown, crowd, flower (ou) Such as: out, shout, found, sound, round, cloud, house, thousand, flour, trousers, loud, proud, mounted, bound.

/ eɪ / is made from the following cases: (ay) Such as: pay, say, way, day, hay, stay, betray, delay… (ey) Such as: they, prey, grey, obey… (ei) Such as: eight, weight, neighbour, reign, rein, vein…. (ea) Such as: break, great, create. (ai) Such as: aim, main, rain, mail, jail, daily, faith… (a-e) Such as: date, make, take, lake, wake, tame, shame, ache, hate, male, sale, name, cave, came, made… (a) Such as: able, potato, tomato, change, patient, April, capable, angel, (ation) Such as: location, invitation, salvation, civilization. .

/ aɪ / is made from the following cases: (y) Such as: shy, try, fly, sky, buy, bye, why, deny, classify, satisfy, my, cycle, myself, fly, rhyme…. (i) Such as: mind, kind, wild, blind, find, tiny, tidy, I, idea, (i-e) Such as: mine, drive, shine, white, write, hide, time… (ign) Such as: sign, resign, design, …. (igh) Such as: light, fight, right, flight, night, sight, high, … (io) Such as: lion, prior, violent, violate, violin, riot… (ie) Such as: die, tie, diet, lie, science, society…. (ei) Such as: height, either, neither, . . (ia) Such as: diagram, trial, triangle, dialect, diary, reliable. . .

/ ɔɪ / is made from the following cases: (oi) Such as: oil, boil, coil, noise, voice, ointment, toil, soil, coin, toilet, poison, point, moist, oink… (oy) Such as: boy, toy, annoy, enjoy, destroy, royal, voyage, employment, boycott, boyfriend, loyal, oyster…

/ ɪə / is made from the following cases: (ear) Such as: ear, dear, fear, hear, beard, appear, near, clear, idea, shear, tear (n. ) (ere) Such as: here, mere, we’re… (eer) Such as: peer, beer, deer, engineer…. (ie) Such as: experience, premier, fierce, happier…. (io) Such as: million, union, opinion…. Some words like: museum, stadium…

/ eə / is made from the following cases: (ear) Such as: bear, wear, swear, tear (v. ) (are) Such as: bare, dare, care, beware, stare… (air) Such as: air, pair, fair, chair, stair, dairy, fairy, (ere) Such as: there, where…. (a) Such as: vary, Mary, parent, various, prayer Words like: heir, their…

/ ʊə / /ʊə/ is made from the following cases: (ure) Such as: pure, cure, endure, you’re… (oo) Such as: poor, moor… (ua) Such as: actually, February, January, gradually, usually, individually… Words like: tour, doer

What is a consonant cluster? A consonant cluster is a group or sequence of consonants that appear together in a syllable without a vowel between them.