Vowels Y & W Made Easy:

A vowel is the sound in a spoken language were the vocal tract is open and there is no build up of air pressure between the vocal cords at the upper part of the larynx, i.e.; ah, oh, ee, ay, ow …. There are five true (they are only) vowels a,e,i,o,u, and then sometimes y & w. Y and W can be a vowel or a consonant depending upon where it is in the word. In English orthography some letters may represent a consonant in some circumstances, and a vowel in others.

Diphthongs-- two vowel sounds that slide together when you say them. Example: ey - ā, oy - oi, uy - ī , au - aw, ew - ū ,ou - ow, ow - ō. W is always a vowel sound following another vowel and not starting a new syllable like - bewail.

Rule of thumb for y:
As a consonant: The beginning of a word or beginning of a syllable – yard, beyond...
As a vowel:
Y as long ‘i’ sound at the end of single syllable words – by, cry, fly, my…..
Y as a long ‘e’ sound at the end of a double syllable words – baby, carry, funny, windy….
Y as a short ‘i’ sound the middle of a word as it vowel – gym, myth & hymn.
Y taking the place of the a‘i’, ay at the end of a word making the long a sound - play, tray….
Y taking the place of the e‘i’, ey at the end of a word changing the sound to long a - hey, they..
Y taking the place of the o‘i’, oy at the end of a word – boy, joy, toy….
Y taking the place of the u‘i’, uy at the end of a word once again sounds like a long i– buy, guy

Rule of thumb for w: in 'wow' (wou) w is both a consonant and a vowel
As a consonant: The beginning of a word or beginning of a syllable – wagon, always….
As a vowel: In the English language there is not a word with a single w as a vowel. It always has a partner before it.
As with the y it replaces the u at the end of words and replaces the u before an l or n.
W taking the place of the a‘u’, aw at the end of a word making the au sound - claw, paw….
W taking the place of the e‘u’, ew at the end of a word changing the sound to long u - new, crew, flew,…..
W taking the place of the o‘u’, ow at the end of a word sound like ou in ouch- how, now, brown, cow, owl…
W taking the place of the o‘u’, ow at the end of a word sounds like long o – blow, crow, bowl
Vowel itself is an interesting word in which the w is a vowel (vou-el) the ou sounds like in ouch.

I found two word where the 'W' comes before the partner vowel. (1) geo·duck also gwe·duc (gōō'ē-dŭk') n. A very large, edible clam of the Pacific coast of northwest North America, (2) two [too]

By: Pastor Cindy 23 November 2008

P.S. I pray that this will help someone. Hey leave a comment if you said the vowel song, "A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y & W. And tell me which state you learned it in. I am very interested in this.

Thank you!