{"id":2144,"date":"2012-10-13T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2012-10-13T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=2144"},"modified":"2014-10-16T02:28:40","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T06:28:40","slug":"vowel-sounds-is-the-letter-y-a-vowel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/vowel-sounds-is-the-letter-y-a-vowel\/","title":{"rendered":"Vowel sounds: Is the letter y a vowel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you ask an elementary school child who speaks English to tell you the vowels they will likely say “a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.”\u00a0 This is what I was taught about vowels as a child, it is what I have taught my ESL students, and it is still what children who are learning English as their native language are taught in school.\u00a0 But how can ‘y’ sometimes be a vowel and sometimes not?<\/p>\n

The simplest explanation I can give to this question requires an understanding of the difference between a consonant and a vowel.\u00a0 First of all, vowels are produced from the vocal cords (in the throat) with minimal shaping of the air in the mouth while it is expelled with a breath.\u00a0 Thus making a vowel requires shaping air into sound.\u00a0 Consonant sounds are created through the obstruction or channeling of the air by the lips, teeth, tongue, throat, or nasal passage as it is expelled in a breath.\u00a0 Thus making a consonant requires stopping air in some way as it moves out of the mouth.<\/p>\n

The single letter ‘y’ represents many different sounds (like many letters in English) and therefore sometimes it represents a sound that is a vowel sound (unobstructed air) and sometimes it represents a sound that is a consonant (obstructed air).\u00a0 That is why the letter \u2018y\u2019 sometimes acts as a vowel and sometimes acts as a consonant.\u00a0 Technically it is not a vowel, there are only five vowels in English, but like I said, sometimes the letter \u201cacts like\u201d a vowel. The vowels we have already reviewed in this series (a, e, i, o, u) are exclusively and only vowels and never make consonant sounds, but the letter ‘y’ is different, which is why we are looking at it here today.<\/p>\n

Here are some examples to help clarify what I explained above.<\/p>\n

the letter \u2018y\u2019 when it makes a vowel sound<\/strong>
\nmy<\/strong>th<\/em> (short i sound)
\nhy<\/strong>mn<\/em> (short i sound)
\nrhy<\/strong>thm<\/em> (short i sound)
\nmy<\/strong><\/em>stery<\/strong><\/em> (short i then long e sound)
\nmy<\/strong><\/em> (long i sound)
\ncy<\/strong>cle<\/em> (long i sound)
\nbaby<\/strong><\/em> (long e sound)
\nhairy<\/strong><\/em> (long e sound)
\nsky<\/strong><\/em> (long i sound)<\/p>\n

the letter \u2018y\u2019 when it makes a consonant sound<\/strong> (this occurs only when \u2018y\u2019 appears at the start of a syllable where there is another vowel)
\ny<\/strong>am<\/em>
\n y<\/strong>et<\/em>
\n y<\/strong>ellow<\/em>
\n y<\/strong>es<\/em>
\n y<\/strong>ell<\/em>
\n y<\/strong>ellow<\/em>
\n y<\/strong>ogurt<\/em><\/p>\n

Special notes:
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The letter ‘y’ is more often used as a vowel than a consonant
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0When the letter \u2018y\u2019 is used as a vowel it is often interchangeable with the various sounds of the letters ‘i’ and ‘e’<\/p>\n

To conclude this look at the vowel sounds in English, here is link to a webpage where you can hear the short and long vowels sounds for the letters a, e, i, o, u.
\nLink:\u00a0 http:\/\/rbeaudoin333.homestead.com\/files\/short_vowels\/vowelsounds_1.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

If you ask an elementary school child who speaks English to tell you the vowels they will likely say “a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.”\u00a0 This is what I was taught about vowels as a child, it is what I have taught my ESL students, and it is still what children who are…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":2145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[135139],"tags":[219053,219052,7278,219022,3056],"class_list":["post-2144","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-language","tag-is-y-a-vowel","tag-the-letter-y","tag-vowel","tag-vowel-sounds","tag-vowels"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2144"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4460,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions\/4460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}