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A Handy Guide to Short Vowel Sounds

Short vowel sounds are the most common vowel sounds in the English language. Thankfully, these sounds are fairly easy to spell. Let’s dive in!

Because short vowel sounds are so prevalent in English, they are often the first vowel sounds that children learn. In All About Reading and All About Spelling, we always start with the short sounds when we teach the multiple sounds for vowels. For example, in All About Reading Level 1, Lesson 1, we teach that A says /ă/ as in apple.

all about reading phonogram card with the sound of a on it

It’s a great place to start. Once they learn the short sounds of the vowels and the consonant sounds, kids can decode hundreds of words! But just learning the simple spelling of the five short vowel sounds isn’t quite enough! You can help your child learn to read and spell even more words by teaching him four common ways to spell short vowel sounds.

Short Vowels Can Be Spelled in Four Ways

  1. The most common way: a single vowel in a closed syllable usually says a short sound.
    (In a closed syllable, a single vowel is followed by a consonant.)

    • In the word cat, A is followed by T and says /ă/.
    • In the word pet, E is followed by T and says /ĕ/.
    • In the word dish, I is followed by SH and says /ĭ/.
    • In the word mob, O is followed by B and says /ŏ/.
    • In the word tub, U is followed by B and says /ŭ/.
  2. Vowel teams can make short vowel sounds.
    (In a vowel team, two vowels work together to make one sound.)

    • EA can say /ĕ/ as in bread and sweat.
    • OU can say /ŭ/ as in touch and young.
  3. Single vowels can say the short sound of other vowels.

    • A after W can say /ŏ/ as in water and want.
    • Y in a closed syllable says /ĭ/ as in gym and myth.
    • O can say /ŭ/ as in love and oven.
  4. A vowel can make the short U or short I sound in an unaccented syllable.
    (A schwa is a muffled vowel sound heard in an unaccented syllable in many English words.)

    • A can say /ŭ/ as in about.
    • E can say /ĭ/ as in enemy.
    • I can say /ŭ/ as in family.
    • O can say /ŭ/ as in bottom.
    • U can say /ĭ/ as in minute.
    • Y can say /ŭ/ as in syringe.

    Please note: the sound a schwa makes in a particular word may vary by region.

Let’s Dive a Little Deeper

The chart below illustrates the most common ways to spell the short vowel sounds.

Click to Download our Printable Chart!

Although seeing the different spellings for short vowels on the chart above can be helpful for people who already know how to read and spell short vowel sounds, I recommend using the chart only for reference rather than as a learning tool. Teaching all these spellings at once would be overwhelming for a beginning student. Instead, teach them to students incrementally, one at a time.

Of course, as we all know, English has exceptions! In addition to the common spellings for the short vowel sounds, there are uncommon ways to spell them as well. Fortunately, these alternate spellings are few and far between.

  • Short A: plaid, laugh, calf
  • Short E: many, said, says, friend, leopard
  • Short I: pretty, busy, build, foreign sieve, women, mountain
  • Short O: all, thought, caught (all three words depend on regional dialect)
  • Short U: flood

Sample Lessons for Short Vowel Sounds

Are you interested in seeing how we teach the short vowel sounds in All About Reading? Here is a sampling for you to download and enjoy!

All About Reading Level 1 Lesson 14

Download All About Reading Level 1, Lesson 14

This lesson shows how we teach words with the short E sound represented by the letter E.

All About Reading Level 3 Lesson 41

Download All About Reading Level 3, Lesson 41

This lesson shows how we teach words with the short E sound represented by phonogram EA.

The Bottom Line for Teaching Short Vowel Sounds

When it comes to teaching short vowel sounds, here’s what you need to keep in mind:

  • There are four common ways to spell short vowel sounds.
  • Teach these common spellings to students incrementally, one at a time.
  • Keep it fun! Use a wide variety of interesting activities to help your student learn the four ways to form short vowel sounds.

All About Reading and All About Spelling walk you and your student through all the steps needed to help your student learn to read and spell. The programs are multisensory, motivating, and include everything you need. And if you ever need a hand, we’re here to help!

Looking for information on long vowels? Check out our Handy Guide to Long Vowel Sounds!

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Thankyou!

Robin

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You’re welcome!

Christie

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Such great information for those short vowel sounds. We will absolutely be referring to this many times on our homeschool journey.

Robin

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I’m glad this will be helpful, Christie!

Whitney

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My 4 year old son and I are tackling homeschooling together this year. He’s starting to read and I cannot thank you enough for your blog, it’s given me so many resources and has really built my confidence in teaching him. My 2 year old is starting to follow along too!

THANK YOU!

Robin

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You’re welcome, Whitney! It’s wonderful to hear that the resources are helping you.

Nicola

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Great short vowel material.

Robin

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Thank you, Nicola!

Maria Suarez

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Awesome program!!

Robin

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Thank you, Maria!

Amanda

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This printable chart is a great resource! Thank you!

Robin

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You’re welcome, Amanda!

April

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Having a chart my child can see is very helpful for visual learners! Thank you very much!

Carol

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Thank you for the printable chart!

Deborah Walker

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This will help my granddaughter with her reading. Thank you for the information. It’s very helpful!

MH

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Very helpful!

Rachel

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Great resources!

Sunshine

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This curriculum has changed the game for my daughter. She was going into 3rd grade and something still just wasn’t clicking for her. I decided to go through level 1 and we immediately found the few key foundational elements that we missed while teaching her how to read initially. I went from having a kid who said she hated reading to one who reads everything around her.

Robin

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This is so great to hear, Sunshine! Thank you!

Caitlin

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Very helpful breakdown!

Heather

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Great breakdown, thanks!

Talicia Jackson

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Thank you so much for the detailed explanation this helps me so much with working with my kids

Sushma

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Thanks for a detailed explanation

Sarah

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Thank you for sharing. We’re almost done with Level 1 and its a refresher for me as well!

Joan

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What a helpful article!

Robin

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Thank you, Joan! Glad it’s helpful.

Jessica

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Thank you for this post!!

Robin

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You’re welcome, Jessica!

Lauren

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Thank you for this

Robin

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You’re welcome, Lauren.

Marla

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Thank you for the fantastic information you provide. I’m excited to use it after the holidays!

Robin

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You’re so welcome, Marla!

Keller

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So thankful for blog posts such as these. So helpful & encouraging during our homeschool journey.

Robin

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Keller,
It’s great to hear this is helpful and encouraging for you! Thank you.

Emily T

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Thank you!

Robin

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You’re welcome, Emily!

Marion Juah

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Thanks so much for the note, it’s wonder learning about key words and sounds.

Robin

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You’re welcome, Marion.

Debbie

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Thank you for this lovely chart. Many of us in the Philadelphia area say “ay-g” so using egg for short e is problematic. I prefer “Ed.” Also, “water” sounds like “wooder” so short o doesn’t apply. The short a sound here varies, too. I tell students that we are using the “ fancy” way to say words like can, fan, etc. It is challenging to teach phonics!

Robin

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Debbie,
Wonderful work adjusting how you approach key words and sounds in response to your students’ regional accent! It’s so helpful in some regions.

While we use “egg” here in this article, we use “echo” in our curriculum. There is a large section of the US that says aig for egg.

Angela Dominguez-Newball

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Thanks for sharing these important sounds.

Robin

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You’re welcome, Angela!

Doris Myers

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Thank You!

Robin E.

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You’re welcome, Doris!

Deborah

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Wow, what a gift! Great visuals. My students love animals! You are very talented. Thank you so much for sharing!
Dawn Grim

Robin E.

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You’re welcome, Deborah. Thank you!

Saligney Abigail wayne

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I like this program

Robin E.

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Thank you, Saligney.

Lindsay

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Grateful for this program and how easy it is to help my kids learn how to read.