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< English Sounds & Spelling

English Sounds & Spelling: English Sounds and Spelling (#5)

Dennis Oliver
English Sounds and Spelling #5:

Many languages have a sound that's similar to the English
/ ey / sound (the vowel sound in say and they). In languages
that use Roman (Latin) letters, this sound is usually a "pure"
vowel and is often shown by the letter e. In English, / ey / is
actually two sounds (a combination of "pure e" and "i") and
it has many common spellings:

spelling
 examples

ay
 bay, clay, day, gay, gray, hay, lay,
may, pay, play, pray, say, slay, spray,
stay, stray, sway, tray, way

ai
 bail, bait, braid, chain, daily, fail, frail,
gain, grain, hail, laid, lain, maid, mail,
maim, main, nail, paid, pail, pain, paint,
plain, quail, quaint, raid, rail, rain,
sail, slain, stain, strain, tail, train, trait,
vain, wail, waist, wait, attain, complain,
detain, entertain, explain, refrain

aC*e

ace, ache*, age, ate, bake, bale, bane, base,
came, cane, cape, cave, date, face, fade,
fake, fame, fate, faze, gale, game, gave,
gaze, glade, glaze, grace, grade, grate,
graze, hale, hate, haze, jade, kale, lace,
lake, lame, lane, late, made, male, mane,
mate, maze, name, pace, pale, pane, pate,
pave, phase, plane, quake, race, rate, rave,
sale, same, sane, save, scale, space, spade,
stake, stale, take, tale, tame, tape, vane,
wade, wane

* ch, here, acts as a single consonant (/ k /)

ey

grey*, hey, obey, prey, they

* also spelled gray

ei /
eigh
 rein, skein, veil, vein
deign, feign, reign
eight, freight, neigh, sleigh, weigh

* C = consonant

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Special Note:

Be careful! Many words have the same sound, but
different spellings and meanings--for example,

ate / eight; bail / bale; faze / phase; hail / hale;
lain / lane; made / maid; mail / male; main / mane;
pail / pale; pain / pane; plain / plane; pray / prey;
rain / reign / rein; sail / sale; slay / sleigh;
tail / tale; vane / vein; wait / weight; way / weigh
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