Short vs. Long Vowels

Short vs. Long Vowels
The easiest way to remember the difference between short and long vowels is by remembering the rule about long vowels, specifically. If a word with a certain vowel in it says the name of the vowel, then that vowel is making a “long” sound. By “name” we mean, the name of the actual letter. When we look at “a” we pronounce it /ā/, or “ayy.” This is the first letter of the alphabet, and when looking at the isolated letter, we’ll refer to it by its name: the way we say it when we begin to recite the alphabet. This is known as a long vowel sound, because it says the “name” of the letter. The same goes for the other vowels.

A short vowel sound is a vowel sound that does not follow this rule. When reading a word that uses a short vowel sound, will say the sound that the letter can make that is not its actual name. So in the case of “A,” the word “main” might have a long “A” sound because we pronounce the “A” as /ā/, whereas the word “man” has a short vowel sound.
Let’s get started with those examples.

A a
Short: /æ/ Long: /eɪ/

Short: “fat” Long: “fāte”

E e
Short: /ɛ/ Long: /iː/

Short: “wet” Long: “whēat”

I i
Short: /ɛ/ Long: /iː/

Short: “win” Long: “wīne”

O o
Short: /ɒ/ Long: /oʊ/

Short: “bot” Long: “bōat”

U u
Short: /ʌ/ Long: /juː/

Short: “cup” Long: “cūbe”