American English Vowel Sounds

Pronouncing American English vowels can be tricky because written English does not have letter-sound correspondence, which is to say that one letter does not represent one sound.  This is particularly true for the letters which represent vowels, namely A, E, I, O and U.  Below you will find a guide to the spelled vowels and the sounds they can represent.  For an overview sorted by sounds with recordings of each vowel sound, read more here.

Letter

A


A

A


A


A



E


E


E



I


I

I




O


O


O

O


O



U


U



U

IPA
symbol

/eɪ/


/æ/

/ɔ/


/a/


/ʌ, ə/



/i/


/ɛ/


/ʌ, ə/



/ɪ/


/aɪ/


/ʌ, ə/



/o/


/aʊ/


/oɪ/

/u/


/ʌ, ə/



/u/


/ʊ/



/ʌ, ə/

SMART vowel name

vowel ay


vowel a

vowel aw


vowel ah


vowel schwa



vowel ee


vowel eh


vowel schwa



vowel ɪ


diphthong aɪ


vowel schwa



vowel o


diphthong ow


diphthong oy

vowel oo


vowel schwa



vowel oo


vowel U



vowel schwa

spelling

a, ai, eigh, aigh, ay, ea, ey

a

a, aw, au, augh, ough

o, a,


a, e, i, o, u, vowel combinations

ee, e, ea, y, ey, ie,i, ei

e, ea, ie, ai, a

a, e, i, o, u, vowel combinations


i, e, o, u, ui,


i, igh, y, eye, ie

a, e, i, o, u vowel combinations


o, oe, ow, ough, eau, ew

ow, ou


oy, oi

oo, ue, u, oe, ought, ui, o, ou

a, e, i, o, u, vowel combinations

oo, ue, u, oe, ought, ui, o, ou

oo, u, ou


a, e, i, o, u, most other vowel combinations

sample words

agent, able, ate, aim, name, same, wait, eight, straight, may, break, they

after, at, answer, and, apple, that, sat, nap, bad

awe, awesome, awning, author, audit, ball, straw, taut, taught, bought

father, water, hot, not


about, across, again, ability Canada - company - organize - relative, extra, pizza, agenda


see, me, seat, baby, key, brief, ski, receive


met, bed, went, men, get, ten, when,  bread, friend, said, again, many

agency - camera - concentrate - enemy, quiet, secret


is, if, it, with, him,  below, delete, women, business, build

I, ice, iPod, bite, nice, might, type, eye, pie


participate, indicate, family - Philippines - policy


no, toe, low, although, beau, sew


ow, now, how, wow, out, about, count, amount, house, around, found

toy, boy, annoy, employ, coin, choice, avoid, voice, noise
spoon, mood, boot, shoe, through, fruit, who, group

blood, customer - ignorant - introduce



blue, flute, through, fruit, suit, route, group


bush, look, good, could, would



us, up, under, much, such, truck, circumstance - measurement - Portugal