3.1: Overview of Vowel Sounds

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Long and Short <e> and <a>

Examples

Say at and ate a few times. The sound the <a> spells in at is called short <a>. The sound the <a> spells in ate is called long <a>.

Say bet and beet a few times. The sound the <e> spells in bet is short <e>. The sound the <ee> spells in beet is long <e>.

Review

Listen carefully for the short <a>s and long <a>s in these words and sort the words into the two groups below:
\begin{align*}
& \text{magic} && \text{happy} && \text{came} && \text{someday}\\
& \text{favor} && \text{laugh} && \text{scratch} && \text{than}\\
& \text{name} && \text{place} && \text{same} && \text{last}\\
& \text{chance} && \text{apple} && \text{station} && \text{take}
\end{align*}

Words with...
short <a>		long <a>

Listen for the short <e>s and long <e>s in the following words. Then sort them into the two groups.
\begin{align*}
& \text{queen} && \text{best} && \text{question} && \text{believe}\\
& \text{help} && \text{yellow} && \text{these} && \text{then}\\
& \text{get} && \text{she} && \text{seat} && \text{leave}\\
& \text{three} && \text{teacher} && \text{rent} && \text{seven}
\end{align*}

Words with...
short <a>		long <a>

Show Answer

Words with...
short <a>		long <a>
magic	apple	favor	same
chance	scratch	name	station
happy	than	place	someday
laugh	last	came	take

Words with...
short <e>		long <e>
help	question	queen	these
get	rent	three	seat
best	then	she	believe
yellow	seven	teacher	leave

Explore More

Word Find. The Find below is shaped like the word LONG because all thirty words in it contain a long <a> or a long <e>:

\begin{align*}
& \text{always} && \text{late} && \text{same}\\
& \text{ate} && \text{leave} && \text{seat}\\
& \text{be} && \text{may} && \text{she}\\
& \text{between} && \text{meat} && \text{sheep}\\
& \text{came} && \text{name} && \text{sleep}\\
& \text{day} && \text{need} && \text{take}\\
& \text{eat} && \text{page} && \text{theme}\\
& \text{feet} && \text{peace} && \text{these}\\
& \text{gave} && \text{place} && \text{three}\\
& \text{he} && \text{queen} && \text{today}
\end{align*}

Show Answer