Editing Phonics (section)

===Vowel phonics patterns===

* '''[[Short vowels]]''' are the five single letter vowels, ''a'', ''e'', ''i'', ''o'', and ''u'', when they produce the sounds {{IPAc-en|æ}} as in ''cat'', {{IPAc-en|ɛ}} as in ''bet'', {{IPAc-en|ɪ}} as in ''sit'', {{IPAc-en|ɒ}} as in ''hot'', and {{IPAc-en|ʌ}} as in ''cup''. The term "short vowel" is historical, and meant that at one time (in [[Middle English]]) these vowels were pronounced for a particularly short period of time; currently, it means just that they are not [[diphthong]]s like the long vowels.
* '''[[Long vowels]]''' have the same sound as the names of the vowels, such as {{IPAc-en|eɪ}} in ''bay'', {{IPAc-en|iː}} in ''bee'', {{IPAc-en|aɪ}} in ''mine'', {{IPAc-en|oʊ}} in ''no'', and {{IPAc-en|j|uː}} in ''use''. The way that educators use the term "long vowels" differs from the way in which linguists use this term. Careful educators use the term "long vowel letters" or "long vowels", not "long vowel sounds", since four of the five long vowels (long vowel letters) in fact represent combinations of sounds (a, i, o, and u, that is {{IPAc-en|eɪ}} in ''bay'', {{IPAc-en|aɪ}} in ''mine'', {{IPAc-en|oʊ}} in ''no'', and {{IPAc-en|j|uː}} in ''use'') and only one consists of a single vowel sound that is long ({{IPAc-en|iː}} in ''bee''), which is how linguists use the term. In classrooms, long vowels are taught as having "the same sounds as the names of the letters". Teachers teach the children that a long vowel "says its name".
* '''[[Schwa]]''' is the third sound that most of the single vowel spellings can represent. It is the indistinct sound of many a vowel in an unstressed syllable, and is represented by the linguistic symbol {{IPAc-en|ə}}; it is the sound of the ''o'' in ''lesson'', of the ''a'' in ''sofa''. Although it is the most common vowel sound in spoken English, schwa is not always taught to elementary school students because some find it difficult to understand. However, some educators make the argument that schwa should be included in primary reading programs because of its vital importance in the correct pronunciation of English words.
* [[Closed syllable]]s are syllables in which a single vowel letter is followed by a consonant. In the word ''button'', both syllables are closed syllables (but<sup>.</sup>ton) because they contain single vowels followed by consonants. Therefore, the letter ''u'' represents the short sound {{IPAc-en|ʌ}}. (The ''o'' in the second syllable makes the {{IPAc-en|ə}} sound because it is an unstressed syllable.)
* [[Open syllable]]s are syllables in which a vowel appears at the end of the syllable. The vowel will say its long sound. In the word ''basin'', ''ba'' is an open syllable and therefore says {{IPAc-en|b|eɪ}}.
* '''[[Diphthongs]]''' are linguistic elements that fuse two adjacent vowel sounds. English has four common diphthongs. The commonly recognized diphthongs are {{IPAc-en|aʊ}} as in ''cow'' and {{IPAc-en|ɔɪ}} as in ''boil''. Three of the long vowels are also in fact combinations of two vowel sounds, in other words diphthongs: {{IPAc-en|aɪ}} as in "I" or ''mine'', {{IPAc-en|oʊ}} as in ''no'', and {{IPAc-en|eɪ}} as in ''bay'', which partly accounts for the reason they are considered "long".
* '''Vowel [[digraph (orthography)|digraphs]]''' are those spelling patterns wherein two letters are used to represent a vowel sound. The ''ai'' in ''sail'' is a vowel digraph. Because the first letter in a vowel digraph sometimes says its long vowel sound, as in ''sail'', some phonics programs once taught that "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." This convention has been almost universally discarded owing to the many non-examples, such as the ''au'' spelling of the {{IPAc-en|ɔː}} sound and the ''oo'' spelling of the {{IPAc-en|uː}} and {{IPAc-en|ʊ}} sounds, neither of which follow this pattern.
* '''Vowel-consonant-E''' spellings are those wherein a single vowel letter, followed by a consonant and the letter ''e'' makes the long vowel sound. The tendency is often referred to as "the silent E" or "the magic E" with examples such as ''bake'', ''theme'', ''hike'', ''cone'', and ''cute''. (The ''ee'' spelling, as in ''meet'' is sometimes, but inconsistently, considered part of this pattern.)
* '''R-controlled''' syllables include those wherein a vowel followed by an ''r'' has a different sound from its regular pattern. For example, a word like ''car'' should have the pattern of a "closed syllable" because it has one vowel and ends in a consonant. However, the ''a'' in ''car'' does not have its regular "short" sound ({{IPAc-en|æ}} as in ''cat'') because it is controlled by the ''r''. The ''r'' changes the sound of the vowel that precedes it. Other examples include: park, horn, her, bird, and burn.
* The '''Consonant-le''' syllable is a final syllable, located at the end of the base/root word. It contains a consonant, followed by the letters ''le''. The ''e'' is silent and is present because it was pronounced in earlier English and the spelling is historical. Examples are: candle, stable and apple.